Earth Ripper

Totally get it ánd also echoing the comment above. I have been with guys who routinely have had casual sex for years and are actually not particularly great at anything/are somehow impressed by me and my low experience ass. It's jarring but gets more comfortable after a while.

Seaspiracy.

Weird, I thought it was clear Adidas did not mean to reference the Munich events at all. I would be surprised if Bella would sue them just for that.

lol based on the comments here you'd think Avril is always selling out stadiums but she can't even fill a smaller sized indoor venue on her regular tours. When you paid for a festival ticket, though, she's a fun, nostalgic act to take in on the way. People get more curious in that setting because it's low commitment. She should just do festivals from now on. Glastonbury is not the crowd for SZA. They like their big basic artists on the main stage with a sliver of alternative on the side. It was just dumb to have her up as a headliner.

It is in the text but here it is: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-07-07/ty-article-magazine/.premium/idf-ordered-hannibal-directive-on-october-7-to-prevent-hamas-taking-soldiers-captive/00000190-89a2-d776-a3b1-fdbe45520000 It was not copy pasted. I summarized it myself because it is behind a paywall.

Definitely Wide Awake but that's it.

Chemtrails and Lust for Life are both underrated, I feel.

I don't agree but I'm not really mad at it. They were both brilliant and I do play Father Figure more than any Tracy song

It would've been if he hadn't been up against Tracy Chapman who really deserved it

That is true. But it still doesn't make sense to categorize her as anything else? I mean, we could theoretically start collectively comparing her to other folk/singer-songwriter figures but I think the unspoken joke of the situation is that Taylor fans would be turned off by that even more than the pop star comparisons lol. It's just not her real arena and her fans seem to know that. I've never seen Taylor fandom bleed into appreciating and supporting other folk/singer-songwriters for instance. They don't care about that wider context, really, they just care about her and that is the quintessential trademark of a pop star.

Taylor is a popular music star who makes mainstream, unchallenging, formulaic music and pours a palatable singer-songwriter sauce over it before commercially exploiting her fanbase to a degree unparallelled in modern history. Just because she's a mediocre dancer doesn't mean she doesn't fit the category of a pop star lol

Actually, because of this procedure, the lines are now blurred and it is now impossible, even for the army, to properly assess which soldiers and which civilians were killed by Hamas and which by the IDF. This is obviously relevant not just for Israelis (esp those whose family members and friends may have been killed) but for the world at large, as October 7th and its casualties are constantly mentioned in the context of the Gaza war... Also, this is the first time that the IDF has invoked this practice in the context of civilian abductions. As Haaretz reported earlier, this could be illegal. As Israeli professor Asa Kasher has pointed out, this is also part of a toxic culture within the Israeli army that glorifies nationalist self-sacrifice. Enough reasons to talk about it then, I'd say.

"Goth-Punk" Taylor wins though. Gaga's career progression is essentially "artsy weirdo taking over the world by storm" -> "singer and actress who we all kinda moved on from" despite all the mini genre bends that no one will remember or truly value. Taylor's steady rise to apocalyptic levels of success, respect, acclaim,... is on another level as boring as it is.

Haaretz, Israel's most respected newspaper, has confirmed what has long been suspected: on October 7th, the Israeli army ordered the infamous "Hannibal Directive", not once but multiple times. What is the Hannibal Directive? It is a highly controversial procedure created by the Israeli army to prevent the kidnapping of soldiers. In practice, it means the army forces may attack and even kill fellow soldiers and, most controversially, civilians (Israeli or foreign) if army forces are captured or at risk of capture by the enemy. The procedure has been cloaked in secrecy, making it controversial within Israeli society and beyond, particularly because the Directive could be invoked by even local commanders rather than superior officers. Though officially revoked in 2016 due to public pressure, Haaretz has verified documents and communications that prove the Israeli army explicitly reintroduced the practice and its terminology, not once but as a widespread general strategy during the Hamas attack on October 7th, indicating that the army was consciously aware that many civilian lives, including those kidnapped, were at severe risk of being killed by its own forces. The decisions to invoke the procedure seem to have been part of a general internal chaos in the overwhelmed army, as it faced the unexpected scale of the attack. Perhaps most surprisingly, Haaretz's investigation includes confirmation of the army's decision to attack its own army bases, one of them a divisional headquarters, as they were infiltrated by Hamas terrorists. A military source cited by the newspaper claims this decision would "haunt senior commanders all their lives", as they were aware of the likelihood of Israeli soldiers being killed in the process. As for civilian casualties, the investigation confirms that at 10:32 AM, the army was ordered to fire mortars towards the Gaza border in an effort to stop the vehicles carrying kidnapped soldiers and civilians from crossing it. Haaretz adds that this decision was particularly controversial within the Israeli military itself, as, at this point, there was no clear picture of where soldiers and civilians were located along the border, "some of these (...) in open areas or in woods along the border, trying to hide from the terrorists". Yet, even when a more complete picture of these locations and of the number of kidnapped civilians emerged, orders given at 11.22 AM and 2.00 PM doubled down on the decision, ordering the army to "stop" any vehicle attempting to cross the border by any means necessary. "The instruction (...) was meant to turn the area around the border fence into a killing zone", as put by one of the military sources. The investigation also mentions previous confirmation that the Hannibal Directive was invoked on the ground, such as in the village of Be'eri, where Division 99 controversially fired a tank at a house held by Hamas, knowingly killing civilian hostages (13 out of 14) inside it. Haaretz additionally confirms that as late as 9.33 PM, the army was ordered to open fire "at anyone approaching the border area, without any restrictions". Until now, the IDF has refused to confirm whether the Hannibal Directive was used. A spokesman for the IDF states that the army is conducting its own internal investigations and will publish its findings "with transparency". He adds that the goal of the investigations is to "learn and to draw lessons which could be used in continuing the battle".

Mine Again indeed.

One of my first ever favorite albums

Speak Now lol. These clever evil geniuses. I wish people like Taylor wouldn't just say something but also include statements about how they are actively pressured, perhaps threatened, to stay silent. It's time we have that conversation.

A significant amount of people is experiencing a tidal wave of disillusionment, that's for sure. And it extends far beyond stan culture. This isn't "a war". This is the self-annihilation of Western values, and people are genuinely gobsmacked that not everyone is talking about it. The lack of representation and feeling of isolation is making people feel even more helpless and alone, which is why the accusations regarding what these people should be ideally doing is completely unfair and hypocritical. You can't blame people for not knowing what to do when they witness a live-streamed genocide while everyone else just continues on with their lives. And for all the assholes in here pretending Gaza isn't a subject in the sports world: inform yourselves before making such a dumb statement.

She absolutely did. https://www.instagram.com/p/CzHDsD1x8s9/

Because she and her team are manipulating results with absurdly excessive tactics even by pop star standards.

Stanning Cate never lets you down

"The United States should read the situation and drop this case now." Yes, please.

This is so friggin welcome. Israeli propagandists won't be able to use their embarrassing "there is no formal prosecution yet, you can't say Israel is targeting civilians!!" bs, nor will they be able to accuse the ICC of defending Hamas, as Hamas leaders are also on the chopping block lol (as they should). They'll find another way to deflect but it's still a big win. My hope is that this will motivate countries to take a bolder stand against the Israeli government, to speed up sanctions and boycott plans, and to fast track recognizing Palestine. The tone set by Karim here is powerfully clear: all civilians deserve protection, and, right now, Palestinian civilians are an urgent priority due to ongoing crimes. This tone should carry over into all public discussions of this genocide and October 7th.

As pointed out by some here, what is missing from this "lesser of two evils" discussion is the general political effect on the public. Does voting for Biden as the lesser evil include an after-effect of public and media complacency? Then it's worth at least considering that this evens out the scale of evil. The plan can't just be "vote for the lesser evil". That plan, to be viable, needs to include a powerful strategy and willingness to combat the corrupt two party system during Biden's continued presidency also. And we never ever hear anything about that plan. The time where your vote represented your political sensibility is truly ******* over. The focus should be wayyy more on what you'll do after you've voted. And that's where most people immediately lose interest. That's a problem. And it completely smashes the moral superiority game of the pro-Biden fam to embarrassing bits. Their "moral vote" is as superficial and careless as the people they pretend to oppose.