"Sekhmet killing its pilot" is actually a statistical error. The average Sekhmet kills 0 friendlies. Sekhmet Georg, who cascaded in a cave & kills over 10,000 each year, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
Meow meow
Little Gummygoo version 🐊💚💛
woe, divine intervention upon ye
There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.
I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.
As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.
The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.
The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.
As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.
I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.
The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.
I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.
I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.
All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.
I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.
My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.
If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:
It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.
Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.
Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.
Sources:
• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text
• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)
``"Dearest Kavaliere:
I have been requested by the Karrakin Unified Mining Company to contact you for assistance in resolving a matter. The Karrakin Unified Mining Company has recently concluded a large number of contracts for paracausal exploration in the Dawnline Shore region. The contracts have immediately produced moneys equaling Manna 40,000,000. The Karrakin Unified Mining Company is desirous of paracausal exploration in other parts of the interest, however, because of certain regulations of the Karrakin Government, it is unable to move these funds to another region.
You assistance is requested as a non-Karrakin citizen to assist the Karrakin Unified Mining Company, and also the House of Stones, in moving these funds out of House Stones. If the funds can be transferred to your name, in your Union Core account, then you can forward the funds as directed by the Karrakin Unified Mining Company. In exchange for your accommodating services, the Karrakin Unified Mining Company would agree to allow you to retain captured Balor exosuits and weapon from Khayradin skirmish salvaging operation.
However, to be a legitimate transferee of these moneys according to UEB law, you must presently be a depositor of at least Manna100,000 in a Karrakin bank which is regulated by the UEB.
If it will be possible for you to assist us, we would be most grateful. We suggest that you meet with us in person in Khayradin, and that during your visit I introduce you to the representatives of the Karrakin Unified Mining Company, as well as with certain officials of the House of Stones.
Please call me at your earliest convenience at (lord-baron-alex.omid) . Time is of the essence in this matter; very quickly the Karrakin Government will realize that theHouse of Stones is maintaining this amount on deposit, and attempt to levy certain depository taxes on it.
Yours truly,
Lord Baron Stone Alexander"``
Hello!
I'll be sure to accept any transfer requests. As soon as you send me the exact galactic coordinate's you're transmitting this message from. Eat shit Rock-fucker.
Signed: [REDACTED]
major traffic incident
I thought I should restore an old post that was erased along with my old account
Deltarune: EVERAFTER - a little funny idea that came into my head.
The Dark Worlds here are based on various fairty tales instead of contents in their rooms.
For example, the kingdom of Ralsei takes the "Little Red Riding Hood" as it's core, which is why the heroes of legend acquire new unique outfits.
thing i noticed
so the ips-n blackbeard has that bulky torso and those evil shoulder vents
you know the ones.
so basically, what i noticed is that, despite being the mech with The Big Greatsword, as far as i can tell the blackbeard completely lacks the range of motion required to perform complex swordfighting maneuvers (especially ones with a heavy blade such as the nanocarbon sword (although i'm not John Swordfighting so don't quote me on that))
so it's probably less used like a sword and more like a sharp tire iron or perhaps a lawnmower blade that you gave a wildly-swinging maniac. which. i mean it, is the blackbeard.
Deltarune: EVERAFTER
When the heroes left the yellow brick road, they did not expect to find themselves in an open field of wheat, much less to meet anyone there...
JERVEST is an "innocent" scarecrow that has been tied to its stick for many years.
Once upon a time, the Wizard of Oz himself gave him “mind,” but when the Jervest began to share his “innocent wisdom” with the people, the Wizard was struck by envy and doomed the scarecrow to eternal imprisonment.
But helping him, the heroes have no idea what's really on his twisted mind