Venustum

Report back from recent community mobilization against the Proud Boys in defense of a church drag event in Portage, Michigan.

The day begin with cool Michigan sunshine. The type of day that comes around maybe twice a year when it is not swamp-ass hot or bitter cold. The kind of day that reminds you that it is, in fact, worth living in the upper Midwest. We tell ourselves this all the time. It is morel and trout season. It’s farmers markets, garden centers, and flower nurseries. The time of year you stop and talk with the people you, at best, gave only a passing wave to as you jumped into your freezing car only a few short weeks and months prior.

This also happens to be the time of year that the LGBTQ+ folks celebrate existence, the community that they nurture, and those who nurture them back. Except this year, it’s extra embattled because GOP fucknuts decided to put an even bigger target on the backs of gender non-conformists. Because of this, a few days ago, word started circulating throughout the community that the non-profit hosted family friendly drag event at a church the following Saturday, the 20th was receiving messages on social media from Proud Boys saying they would protest the event. Great. Those goobers again.

All told, only 10 of them showed while our side numbered about 40-50. Police were on the scene from the jump. So, too, was West Michigan’s iteration of a nationally syndicated ”local” news station, but they kept their distance. There was un-Christlike music in the parking lot, hugs, quick clacking of tactical mittens, flags, umbrellas, water, snacks, chanting, sharing terse words with the opposition, a far-Right YouTuber with his very cool selfie stick, and younger choads with full body Bud Light costumes. If you’re not up on the latest far-Right outrage over Bud Light partnering with a trans influencer and Kid Rock having a mantrum, go here.

An elderly church couple entering the venue were overheard, saying, “You see those flags!? Those are the anarchists and they’re here to help us!” An opposition sign said “Satan loves transgenders” or some such thing. To which, our side had folks embracing Satan and praising Them on high and promising unspeakable sexual acts with the dark lord. To which the church pastor took exception. And I found very. Very. Funny. We’re not without our tensions and contradictions.

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The kang is a traditional heated platform, 2 metres or more long, used for general living, working, entertaining and sleeping in the northern part of China, where the winter climate is cold. It is made of bricks or other forms of fired clay and more recently of concrete in some locations.

Its interior cavity, leading to an often-convoluted flue system, channels the hot exhaust from a firewood/coal fireplace, usually the cooking fire from an adjacent room that serves as a kitchen, sometimes from a stove set below floor level. This allows a longer contact time between the exhaust (which still contains much heat from the combustion source) and (indirectly) the inside of the room, hence more heat transfer/recycling back into the room, effectively making it a ducted heating system similar to the Roman hypocaust. A separate stove may be used to control the amount of smoke circulating through the kang, maintaining comfort in warmer weather. Typically, a kang occupies one-third to one half of the floor space, and is used for sleeping at night and for other activities during the day. A kang which covers the entire floor is called a dikang. The heated bed and the heated floor are technically similar, but each developed in conjunction with a distinctive way of life, either sitting on the floor or sitting on furniture.

Like the European cocklestove, a massive block of masonry is used to retain heat. While it might take several hours of heating to reach the desired surface temperature, a properly designed bed raised to sufficient temperature should remain warm throughout the night without the need to maintain a fire.

Here is a link to a video demonstration of the kang itself and how it works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yI8Rf8DlNo

The one in the video is more representative of what a modern one looks like

Megathreads and spaces to hang out:

• ❤️ Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube
• 💖 Come talk in the New Monthly queer thread
• 💛 Read about a current topic in the news
• ⭐️ October Movie Nominations ⭐️

reminders:

• 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
• 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes struggle sessions over upbears
• 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
• 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can go here nerd
• 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog

Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):

Aid:

• 💙‎Comprehensive list of resources for those in need of an abortion -- reddit link
• 💙Resources for Palestine

Theory:

• ❤️Foundations of Leninism
• ❤️Anarchism and Other Essays
• ❤️Mega upload with theory for many tendencies

https://nitter.lacontrevoie.fr/ipandacom/status/1659838874666029056#m

老闆，一份鮮竹筍打包，熊家要去最浪漫的“高空餐廳”幹飯了！ （鬧鬧）

#PandaPic #ChengduPandaBase

For more panda information, please check out: en.ipanda.com

On Friday May 12th, in the Inland Empire, (southern California, for those unfamiliar), local Proud Boys escalated their tactics significantly. The last several months they have been doing banner drops about once a month at freeway overpasses and have been thwarted by a rapid response network of local antifascists who quickly remove the banners. The banners usually feature transphobic messages, attacks against local community groups, and other messages of hate. The banners always feature stencils of Proud Boy logos. The banner drops seem to correspond with events they intend to participate in or harass, like school board meetings, fascist rallies, and drag queen story times.

On May 12th they attempted to lay a trap. They put a banner up on a billboard slightly off the beaten path near an abandoned house, visible from a freeway in Colton, CA. They have done this once before, but this time they had lookouts and several members masked up and hiding near the banner waiting for antifascists to come and remove it.

Antifascists ran up and removed the banner once the lookout, IDed as local Proud Boy Louie Flores waiting in a white Hyundai Tucson license plate 8XRR563, left in his car to do a lap. Shortly after the antifascists drove off with the banner, multiple black clad, presumably Proud Boys, emerged from hiding behind the billboard, possibly in the abandoned house or surrounding brush. They were seen getting into Louie’s car when he returned and then drove off.

On Friday May 12th, in the Inland Empire, (southern California, for those unfamiliar), local Proud Boys escalated their tactics significantly. The last several months they have been doing banner drops about once a month at freeway overpasses and have been thwarted by a rapid response network of local antifascists who quickly remove the banners. The banners usually feature transphobic messages, attacks against local community groups, and other messages of hate. The banners always feature stencils of Proud Boy logos. The banner drops seem to correspond with events they intend to participate in or harass, like school board meetings, fascist rallies, and drag queen story times.

On May 12th they attempted to lay a trap. They put a banner up on a billboard slightly off the beaten path near an abandoned house, visible from a freeway in Colton, CA. They have done this once before, but this time they had lookouts and several members masked up and hiding near the banner waiting for antifascists to come and remove it.

Antifascists ran up and removed the banner once the lookout, IDed as local Proud Boy Louie Flores waiting in a white Hyundai Tucson license plate 8XRR563, left in his car to do a lap. Shortly after the antifascists drove off with the banner, multiple black clad, presumably Proud Boys, emerged from hiding behind the billboard, possibly in the abandoned house or surrounding brush. They were seen getting into Louie’s car when he returned and then drove off.

It is unclear what they planned to do, or why they did not take action. It is possible that their lookout abandoning his post briefly once he’d been spotted meant they were not alerted about people approaching to remove the banner. It is possible that they were expecting a local antifascist mom who bullies them on TikTok to be the person who removed the banner, and when different people arrived, they abandoned their plan.

What is certain is that this is an escalation from their usual patterns, and someone could have been surrounded and seriously hurt had the situation happened differently. Luckily in addition to the brave folks who ran up the hill to grab the banner, several other antifascists were also present nearby watching and filming. The decision to wait for backup before moving on the banner was a smart one, and no one from the antifascist crew was confronted or attacked.

Two additional banners were also dropped at nearby freeway overpasses and were removed without incident.

This is a reminder to use the buddy system, carry deterrents like pepper spray, and work together when taking risky actions.

Solidarity forever.

Self defense is no offence

:agony-mescaline: :agony-mescaline: :agony-mescaline: :agony-mescaline: :agony-mescaline: :agony-mescaline: :agony-mescaline: :agony-mescaline: :agony-mescaline: :agony-mescaline: :agony-mescaline: :agony-mescaline: :agony-mescaline: :agony-mescaline:

The Weekly Worker is the paper of the Communist Party of Great Britain. (not the transphobic homophobic one, that is CPGB-ML this a different one)

cw disgusting article, I've seen a lot of bad articles, this very much so might be the worst

https://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1442/blame-the-system-itself/

On 14th July this year, New Zealand intends to commemorate Maori New Year while simultaneously observing its most recent public holiday for the second occasion, following its statutory recognition last year.

On Thursday, at the Dark Sky Sanctuary situated in Lake Tekapo of New Zealand's South Island, festivities preceding Matariki began with the inauguration of a booklet containing karakia (Maori prayer) designated for each of the nine stars of Matariki.

Matariki represents a significant event in the New Zealand calendar, in which the commencement of the Maori New Year is recognized through the reemergence of the Matariki constellation of stars in the evening skies.

According to the Minister of Maori Crown Relations, Kelvin Davis, the booklet will be widely disseminated to schools and communities throughout the country, in order to assist individuals with their respective preparations for commemorating Matariki, thereby serving as a valuable resource.

Matariki was marked for the first time as an official public holiday last year.

"It was a beautiful moment to see how the nation took joy in celebrating and embracing Matariki last year," Davis said.

According to the data, a minimum of 87 percent of the New Zealand population has acquired a certain level of comprehension regarding the purpose and significance of Matariki, David said.

Enjoy the baby panda content and do not make the obvious :volcel-judge: comment, I will do it for you as the title is like 1 to 1 :agony-minion:

BTW, eating the Beginning of Summer rice can prevent summer heat.Come on, do what the pandas are doing!

https://nitter.lacontrevoie.fr/ipandacom/status/1654637096727113728#m

May 3 (UPI) -- Local officials in New South Wales, Australia, are asking residents to keep a respectful distance from a rare animal spotted in the area: an albino echidna.

The Bathurst Regional Council said in a Facebook post that a council employee snapped photos of the ghostly white echidna while out walking Tuesday.

The echidna, named Raffie by locals, is albino, meaning its entire body lacks pigment.

"If you see Raffie out, please feel free to take a couple of snaps but do not approach, touch, or try and contain him. It is important to leave wildlife alone, as you could risk them losing their scent trail or leaving young unattended in the burrow," the council wrote.

Resident Geoff Hadley said he helped Raffie cross a road recently.

"I've seen hundreds of echidnas but I've never, ever seen a white one -- it was just crazy," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

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Thomas advertised her rally online hoping to draw in attendees from the public. She received virtual recruitment help from Known Heretic, or Amy E. Sousa, a TERF YouTuber, and the Gender Mapper, Alix Aharon, a hate monger who documents and makes public doxx lists of gender clinics. These lists are often utilized by the far-right. Thomas received on-the-ground help from a team of east coast TERFs.

Unfortunately for Thomas her propaganda push was unsuccessful and the only people who attended in support of the rally were her team of TERF’s slated to speak and their boyfriends and husbands.

Thomas and her group arrived at 11:45am at the capital building and began to set up around the erected police barriers and launched their live feed via Amy Sousa on YouTube. Almost immediately upon setting up and beginning their speeches the TERFs were drowned out by queer antifascists.

Queer antifascists and other collaborators led the initial disruption actions, preventing the TERFs from being able to broadcast their hate by using megaphones, music, and air horns.

The contingent of Rutgers union strikers, fresh off directing their own protest against the University, showed up on the scene en masse shortly after to offer their support. The large group of Rutgers Union strikers used their megaphones and numbers to completely stop the rally for a period of time causing confusion amongst the TERFs. Thomas and her goons couldn’t seem to process solidarity in action. She and several other TERFs, including an enraged Brittany Ortiz, then took turns yelling at the crowd about their transphobia.

...