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escargot sounds like trendy bike bags for ebikes

boss bike, leave as is and spend on a ticket to europe imo

perfect bike, perfect price

now this is a bike, very nice

christina lambs investigation is the exact sort of reporting we need around this, agreed. independant journalists raising the voice of witness's and 1st hand accounts is crucial, she's great at what she does.

her report was particularly haunting to read.

the reports about sexual violence around the 7th attacks are haunting, i hope we get a thorough investigation of these claims, much like all claims of sexual assault that have surfaced from israeli and palestinian citizens. when discussing sexual assault. especially in this context, it's helpful to have a broard and structural view of sexual assault and how it is often percieved, used and ignored. as it is, so emotive and traumatic, it often is not discussed. which only leads to the causes and triggers remaining an endemic, tabboo subject, only benefitting perpatrators, not victims. we should also be able to discuss these things without assuming it's deminishing something else.

anyone denying the existance of sexual assault in an event like this, in a conflict zone like this is grotesque. it's simply a matter of historical precident that sexual assault is a tool used directly or indirectly due to the dehuminising nature of conflict in all thearters, be it hamas launching an attack on israel or america in iraq. women all over the globe are often the targets of violence for many a force or invasion.

i think it's increasingly depressing that due to the israeli states history of being unreliable in conveying the motives, reasoning, extent, of violence targetted at them, be it sept 7 or prior, people are skeptical of believing if not the event, but the shape of the event. the attacks were horrific enough, but multiple cases have arose of massaged, or falsified evidence to provide further legitimisasion of their collective punishment bombing campaign. it doesn't help that much of what is coming from the state wrt to these new revelations is making those skeptical feel validated, be it due to israels destruction of evidence, seemingly blaming NGO's for not acting quick enough when they've been either shelled by israel, discredited, refused access or told they're in league with hamas, their womens minister who is not only a notorious racist, but historically uses sexual assaults as a method to be racist. the timing of this messaging release also raises eyebrows, yet again it's a government using their atrocity and citizens trauma as a deck of power cards they can deploy when they need coverage for their genocide in palestine.

these are a state manifestation of issues that prevent the prosecution, and persuit of justice for people sexually assaulted on a personal, day to day level, they're not unique to israel. nor does it mean the 1st party testomonies should be doubted, even with the states actions.

it also is amongst a frame work of palestinians reporting sexual assault and abuse not only in captivity following the 7th attacks, but prior in unconvicted detention. attacks which are often ignored internationally and due to the legal system and representation for palestinians, the very structure of apartheid they live under, are unable to be drawn out into the light. much like it comes to the deaths of palestinians and israelis, one is talked about as if it is our neighbour or family member, as it should, the other is talked about as if it's a statistic or an accident, in passive voice. intentionally ofcourse. no clearer does that come through than in these reports

i also think the way sexual assualt is used in propaganda is worth mentioning here, to many it's seen as a fate worse than death. both for its traumatic impact on a person, but also due to sexist and patrarchal views of the use of a womans body and our inability to seek justice for it. for this reason it has often been used to build consent for atrocities against people. a famous example of hillary clinton talking at legnth about mass rape in libiya to justify their war yet the UN, when left to investigate found no such evidence to support the claim. in this thread we already have the inevitable competition of what's worse, a dead woman or a seuxally assaulted one. this sort of propaganda is also especially effective when presented at a majority white audience, especially when the opposition is middle-eastern. because of these reasons, it's incredibly effective at providing cover, or building consent for equally, or more, violent crimes at a state level, such as the bombing, murder and displacement of innocent women, children and men. which are equally deplorable to the actions reported, every singly incident of it.

again, this is not to say the claims are not true, we have no indipendant investigation but we know, as outlined, it is present in conflict zones and their are witness reports which deserve to be treated with respect, it is to say that the reason it is presented to us, now, how it is presented, why it is presented, is for a specific point.

as a woman it's so painful to see sexual assault and reports of it so readily used and only talked about as a partisan issue. to see these reports is painful, to see western journalists indifference and the lack of access to justice palestinians have when reporting seuxal assault is painful, to see these traumatic, barbaric assaults of israeli's not get a thorough investigation because the exscuse to accelerate the destruction of gaza is too tempting, is painful. as a woman you're not only aware of the gravity of sexual assault, the impact it has, but also the gravity that so often it is ignored, that so often if you are believed comes from if believing you is useful or not to a man, the police, the state, who you are. then the justice you recieve is dependant on how these things benefit insittutions at large. events like this are no different.

So Labour might be keeping quiet for now, and that's a totally valid argument for the next election given the polling data. But if they don't meaningfully change after the election, continuing to abandon these people's basic needs, it's going to be one hell of a ride in the next decade.

(Even looking at some of the polls there are more 'Don't knows' than Conservative votes, although I don't know if that's a normal figure)

have been holding the line for some time that labour is really pushing for a low election turnout, or at least, not one where it might rally a suprise demographic swing/turnout. their messaging is consistently targeted at the stable voter but, maybe more importantly, they've dropped any pretence of usual nice fluff on the social liberalism which is usually more to get people out if it's raining.

i would say a lot of the PLP in power atm felt quite validated in their belief that transformative policy wins votes, not seats, after the 2017/2019 election, that building a "new electoral map" is not something that delivers them victory and holds them with policies and a mandate base they do not feel comfortable around. that any increase in voters for them will be matched by an increase for those on the other side. instead they're targetting red wall, swings and non disenfranchised/ amply represented groups allows them to double down on the disillusionment of conservative/ """economy"""/ sensible/ loose women liberal voters, wining the eye catching swing of seats and material power.

smart politics one could argue, it's looking like the tories will be put in a hard reset, great to see. it does make them beholden to those voters however; to their parties jobs, who, as we bemoan, are not scared of self immolation. i err on the side of what we see is what we get when it comes to their social and economic offerings. which may be good for many currently, especially those in lucrative private sectors that one might use david graebers words to describe. however, it's hard not to see that the platform continues to not adress underlying issues for many more marginalised, public sector or care work focused roles. i would also argue that the platform will also struggle to undo any of the decline of standard of living for many by keeping a lot of the structures causing it (wealth extraction, wealth disparity, vulture capitalism, skepticism of industrial spending and development as infrastructure fails, hesitancy for strateigic government planning for an aging population and the shrinking of asset accessibility to many under 40's) if they stick to their "fiscal rules".

these latter issues, much like you suggest, create a breeding ground for a legitimisation of far right parties to swoop in on populist mandates, or shift the social and economic overton window of more liberal ones. much as we've been living in the fall out from for the last 15 years, much as we see here with labour on imigration and economic policy in 2007, and present day. hard to overlook these factors unless you're ideologically attached to the starmer project past getting the tories out.

it will often feel impossible to rationalise why the tories seem to unify and labour seems to self immolate if the conversation continues to be free of material interests and class interests.

much with this example of the innocuous line about maggie, the line itself, to many is nothing, a throw away comment to help in the courting of more voters come next GE. it might even be a positive thing which makes them think of their own families prosperity in the time. to others it's a painful reminder of a woman who installed section 28, punished numerous working class families up and down the country in union busting and saw the grewatest destruction of social housing stock in our lifetime. it's why news papers like the tory rags select them out of what is otherwise a boring, nothing of a speech which does not rock the boat (country bad, stop small boats, migration bad, i will stop migration, handwaving about fixing this all, tone designed to appeal to your da').

people who respond this way occupy the same party thanks to our 2 party system, the measures needed to satisfy their material and class interests requeire different solutions and can often compete with each other. often the party feels like it has to choose between them to become electable. the tories do not have this issue, for they are organising around a base which is tighter in beliefs, one of "make my number get bigger, preserve the value of my current number". this will outweight any identiarian or morale concern one might have.

of course however, to many people labour is a 3rd option almost, it's a "stop the tories option", they feel neither incentivised by their offering or disparaged by it, especially in the face of the destructive tory premiership of the last decade. and it's commendable, this is their material hardline. if they wish to understand why some people might find not even this enough, maybe introspection into some of the hardlines the labour party have crossed which leaves them able to vote for them even in the face of this:

their actions around palestine in the shadow of the chilcott report
their actions around trans rights, thus lgbt rights, as their health minister and leader continues to say, quite frankly alarming statements
their attachment to 3rd way economics without criticism
their seeming inability to speak to people under 35, renters, and non asset owners
their close relationship with privatisation in key social areas
their inability to build a morale message for migration and seeming comfort to lean into tory set attack lines on refugess and migration from war torn areas of the globe

the immidiate response is to say "but the tories will be worse!" that they will, but people who are put off voting for labour know this, what they struggle with is knowing their only voice in this democracy is their vote, much like those felt with brexit or jeremy corbyns stances on antisemitism, the only thing they can do is withhold it. if they use it, without getting their voice heard then they simply validate their silencing, they disenfranchise themselves.

the question we should ask is why can the labour party not address these demands meaningfully, what assurances are there for these voters if they do vote trusting he will, in some cases, 180 on his public statements? the lesser evil chastise will only get people so far, but if we're truly interested in anyone but tories, these are conversations going to be had on the doorstep. especially in some cases, these are conversations if not had now, will manifest as interest groups not providing the organisational support they rely on in a GE, or even organise against them. an issue the tories will not be happening.

the inability to ask "why should people vote for us other than all other options are worse" has tripped up many a center left democratic party, many a time

excellent bike

🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

what a sweet heart, a loving memorial <3

an adorable, and im sure well loved kitty

wait wait wait

you're telling me, you can just "adapt" something i already own, seems mad, don't believe you, clearly lies

headbadge paint on this is ace

excellent bike, all the bike one needs visually and functionally

mega , lovely bike

tt...t .....test of some nice photos @spotter took

DSCF0212.jpg by Jack Dix Davies, on Flickr

DSCF0207.jpg by Jack Dix Davies, on Flickr

DSCF0226.jpg by Jack Dix Davies, on Flickr

DSCF0231.jpg by Jack Dix Davies, on Flickr

DSCF0234.jpg by Jack Dix Davies, on Flickr

sweet it worked!!!!! thank you so much @spotter !!!!

Gorpcore well and truly has a strangle hold on north London bike culture it seems

Lovely afternoon even with the grey skies, thank you everyone who came

@ibob shredding the pump track was a sight to see

Spamming pics lately but I’m just enjoying it Soo muchhhhh

Finished off the five heavy intercessors I had built up and primed, realllly happy with them

Completes this stint of a custom chapter idea I had, great to see it come from a late night idea to painted models

Wild point wise this is about a quarter of a 2000pt army??? Shit took like… 100 hours , unreal

Painted this fun one today, or rather based it

As someone who has painted a handful of minis and is relatively new, ymmv

I think the jump from Amazon brushes to say, £4 single brush, was noticeable and worth it in how it keeps a point and cleans up, more than enough for my skill level.

I’d say, from friends reviews and a large consumption of media that this scales with the £15 posh brushes. They’re nice, clean up nice and hold lovely points.

But I think what’s important to keep in mind is your brush care. If you don’t have the muscle memory to clean brushes, use different ones for metallics, change water regularly, switch between them for different tasks, keep a nice one for edge highlighting etc. you will be shocked how fast you throw £15 away

personally, I won’t be buying the luxury ones until I feel I can not destroy them through forgetfulness , and maybe find the limits of the brushes I have now.

But you might be a much better cleaner and painter

the trend of western media using the term "women and teenage boys" to describe children. women and girls and boys being released, by israel, many of whom were themselves taken hostages by the idf post oct 7th, for unknown, undisclosed reasons or little to no reason. is appaling. especially when in the same breath they find themselves, rightfully, using children for israeli hostages.

one might think, what if they're 19, maybe this is the classic overly punctual tone of legacy media

Most of the Palestinian prisoners listed as eligible for release are male teenagers aged 16 to 18 – children under the United Nations definition – although a handful are as young as 14. Some 33 are women, according to a CNN count.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/22/middleeast/palestinian-prisoners-potential-release-intl-cmd/index.html#:~:text=Most%20of%20the%20Palestinian%20prisoners,according%20to%20a%20CNN%20count.

it's such, blatent racism and islampahobia in the crudest sense. during a conflict rife with dehuminisation and racial stereotyping the fact, legacy media including the bbc are so freely using this editorial line is - quite frankly damning. not only does this reflect on their reporting of the current situation, but also previous handling and analysis of incidents involving black and brown people, over policing domestically, and previous conflicts internationally.

the expectency that every male in a conflict zone, regardless of age, is to be assumed "a man of fighting age" and thus disposable is so deeply racist to a point it's comical. when we combine this with what we know of black and brown children being viewed as far older than what they are by racial profiling, thus being percieved as a danger because of this, to justify the over policing domestically and abroard? it's comical. these men are husbands, fathers, educators, medics, sportsman, entertainers, lovers, they're not disposable and to be assigned to extrajudicial killing by fact of being a man in a warzone.

while this is to be expected by many who are attuned to this liberal racism, who expect it. i find it hard to believe even the most good faith listener who's skeptical to assume malice when it can be caution or idiocy can turn away from this concious editorial line.

personally fills me with such dread and despair, the only thing one can do is add it to the pile of notes they leave on a bike forum to reflect on in the future. to be even more unshaken the next time some jumped up little cunt tries to tell me it's complicated or not concious, even worse, justified and explainable.

brum roads are so crazy, never seen anything like it and i've lived in manchester!

riding home on those rainy nights with little streetlight and you'd just fall into the grand city road canyon

i've been exposed yet again for my outdated industry perspective and presumptuous attitude!!

tacky, but like, in a paninari way