During the 2020 holiday season, we watched a Christmas movie each day from Thanksgiving to Christmas Day. At the peak of the pandemic, we literally had nothing better to do. Elke chose from old favorites and Netflix recommendations, and while we did start a movie every day, we didn’t finish them all. Some were simply too cringeworthy and cheap to get through. Others were bad, but at least well-made, like Happiest Season with Kristen Stewart, which tackled a real, sensible situation in a very ham-fisted way. On Saturday, we kicked off the season with Champagne Problems, which follows the common trope of a woman and a man attracted to each other but caught up in conflict on the business side. It turned out to be unexpectedly sweet, with likable characters and stunning locations.

#002265 – 11 de Agosto de 2025

Mais de metade da água na terra é mais antiga do que o sol.

I'm a perfectionist, and not in a good way. It harms me much more than it helps me.

I was trying to come up with a phrase that I might be able to repeat to myself as a reminder that progress beats perfection and that small steps in the right direction really do matter. I came up with this:

Hope for perfect. Aim for great. Celebrate good.

Consider saying this to yourself any time perfectionism gets in the way of your happiness, whether the source of your frustration is your diet or your wedding. Nothing is ever perfect, and I've come to appreciate that any goal taken to the extreme becomes truly neurotic and harmful. Hope for perfect. Aim for great. Celebrate good.

#PersonalDevelopment #Wellbeing

A visionary stands at the crossroads of innovation, contemplating the expansive network that may redefine the future of technology.

I have been a loyal Microsoft Windows customer since I've owned a PC and MS-DOS was a thing. I went to the events they had for major OS releases with my Dad. We both went to see the exciting things that happened when they used to stream them at movie theaters. I was there for the launch of Windows 95.

But it is my opinion that Microsoft has totally lost its way with regards to the consumer and Windows.

Yes, this is a rant, and I believe it may be too late for Microsoft and Windows with consumers. I know I am not a very techie person, but I believe that Windows is getting too messy in a lot of areas like advertisements everywhere, sloppy code, updates that seem like beta versions, telemetry, privacy concerns, and just all around not caring.

I follow Paul Thurrott[1] and Dave Plummer from Dave's Garage YouTube channel[2], and they both have different takes on what should happen to get Windows back on top. I can see both points and agree with both points. But I also agree with Paul Thurrott that Microsoft will not bend unless there is a clear reason to.

So what is keeping me on Windows? If it weren't for the games I have, and I do mean lots of games, I would probably be on a different platform. Other than that, I do use it for work and I like the easy installation of programs and it looks good.

This is where it gets interesting. I am getting more and more into Linux and have been thinking about MacOS lately (yikes, I know. I have an iPad and don't really care for the OS on that or for Apple). Thanks to Windows' missteps and bad practices and taking advantage of the consumer (though Apple excels in this area), Linux is catching up and there may be a solution for my gaming.

Google could step in here, but they are making a lot of bone-headed moves too and are getting where they only want to chase Enterprise/Business. Everyone always underestimates the consumer, and the consumer is already leery of Google because they kill off most of their products just as consumers are right in the middle of falling in love with them and have major privacy concerns. Google is the Hoover vacuum cleaner of the internet. Their old motto of “Don't be evil” is being replaced. They are like the opposite of the character from the Despicable Me movies, going from good to evil instead of evil to good.

This brings us back to Microsoft. Microsoft kills off a lot too, not to the frequency of Google, but still a lot. I'll give Apple some credit: they generally support their products longer, even if they're not massive successes.

Microsoft may derive most of their revenue from the Enterprise/business side, but consumers will always keep you in the black if you have a good product. You just might not be a trillion dollar company in the process, but you'll be profitable.

So I'm learning Linux and waiting for it to become even more consumer friendly through distributions like ZorinOS and CasaOS, or maybe going the direction like Omarchy. I'm continuing to self-host and use AI to build custom applications via Python. I'm hoping SteamOS gets that missing piece so developers support it and we consumers can finally break free from these trillion dollar companies. My goal is to be down to one cloud service provider in five years. The only reason I have multiple now is family obligations, since my parents are in their 70s and I manage everything for them digitally. But whenever I can, I'm moving off these platforms.

That's where I'm heading. I don't know if Microsoft will ever earn my loyalty back. Google won't either. Apple has never had my trust and I still distrust their whole ecosystem, though I'm a realist and do use some of their services.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuH0BiWeG3U&t=2176s ↩
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTpA5jt1g60 ↩

#technology #opinion #personal

I am a witness to natures glorious exhibition.

There was a celebration— Crowds of families,

and the quick woodland folk darting through the leaves as if summoned by the season’s grandeur.

This morning, the people have gone But the chorus of life is not dimmed.

The trees everywhere are heavy with gold coins trembling in morning’s slow breath.

A river, wide and easy glass ribbon gliding by at the speed of calm.

The flotilla of ten thousand Golden canoes swirl and idle

As they drift on their journey To the future unknown.

And it is all too much for this poet— So I die here on the bank—

For an hour, Or two.

Hello hello not only am i writing poetry, also I’m in the spirit of winter! The white blanket on the city !!

Dirtied!!

Treacherous snow!!

But yet at the same time it reflects the light from the sky to make it brighter overall

And here I sit brooding and contemplating.

Feeling pretty ok!!

Seizing the day you know…

For example I have been doing laundry, and I curse the gods that I can no longer smell the clean laundry and the fabric softener which sometimes open up a gateway to a happier state of mind.

But there are those worse off.

Like the elephant man!

Or the guy from Mask (1984) He wrote this poem too!! — In that movie with Cher, was it Cher? — That the sun shining on his face is both good and bad…

That was a touching movie?!

It really struck a chord it did.

Somehow I really like Cher too, the suggestive lyrics on ”Dark Lady” makes the goose bumps for real!

And to think even there’s a plot twist in there.

That’s pretty impressive for a song text.

And the smell, 👃 the strange perfume.

I also like drag me to hell by Sam Rami. I think it was.

Speaking of which, drag you to hell is a grade one, I’m listening to it now. By Vinnie Paz.

I like the beat.

I like this perfume song by Britney Spears too, it’s clever. I think it’s written by Sia

She has such a beautiful voice!!

And she sometimes gives money to the compelled of the Australian survivor.

Sometimes they eat KFC

But they can fry those chickens out of my sight

Industrial chicken farms are where the gateway to hell will one day open, for all of the casual evils

DriveThruRPG is running a massive site-wide sale for Black Friday. I spent three days making a list of adventures, bestiaries, and supplements that I am happy to recommend and that are going for a good discount. I tried to stay away from super-popular recommendations, and focus instead on forgotten and overlooked publications I found useful.

Adventures are broken into three brackets: levels 1–4, levels 4–9, and levels 9 and higher. Bestiaries and supplements are a separate list. For the latter I focused on sandbox and world-building material. For little fun, each list has an assigned die that you can roll to determine what to look into first. :)

As always, spend responsibly!

Low-level adventures (levels 1–4) — 1d12

1. Gatehouse on Cormac’s Crag (4–6 adventurers of levels 1–3)
2. Advanced Adventures #22: Stonepick Crossing (6–10 adventurers of levels 1–3)
3. The Oneiric Hinterlands (4–6 adventurers of levels 1–6)
4. Advanced Adventures #1: The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom (6–8 adventurers of levels 2–4)
5. Advanced Adventures #27: Bitteroot Briar (4–8 adventurers of levels 2–4)
6. Bonepicker's Tower (4–8 adventurers of levels 2–4)
7. The Lost City of Barakus (4–8 adventurers of levels 2–6)
8. Bottomless Pit of Zorth (4–8 adventurers of levels 3–5)
9. Advanced Adventures #17: The Frozen Wave Satsuma (6–8 adventurers of levels 3–5)
10. Peril in Olden Wood (4–6 adventurers of levels 3–5)
11. Original Adventures Reincarnated #9: Caverns of Thracia (includes reprint of the original; 6–10 adventurers of levels 2–6)
12. The Halls of Arden Vul Complete (4–8 adventurers of levels 1–12)

Mid-level adventures (levels 4–9) — 1d12

1. The Tomb of Abysthor (6–10 adventurers of levels 2–8)
2. Advanced Adventures #31: The Lost Lair of Drecallis (4–8 adventurers levels 4–7)
3. Advanced Adventures #21: The Obsidian Sands of Syncrates (6–10 adventurers of levels 4–7)
4. Advanced Adventures #12: The Barrow Mound of Gravemoor (4–6 adventurers of levels 5–7)
5. A Shadow Over the Greatwood (4–8 adventurers of levels 5–7)
6. Advanced Adventures #46: The Dismal Glade of the Spider Goddess (6–10 adventurers of levels 5–7)
7. Advanced Adventures #41: The Forgotten Grottoes of the Sea Lords (6–10 adventurers of levels 6–8)
8. S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (6–8 adventurers of levels 6–8)
9. The Black Monastery (5–7 adventurers of levels 7–10)
10. Original Adventures Reincarnated #7: Dark Tower (3 books, first reprints the original; 6–10 adventurers of levels 7–11)
11. WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun (4–8 adventurers of levels 8–10)
12. Dawn of the Overmind (4–6 adventurers of levels 8–10)

High-level adventures (levels 9 and above) — 1d10

1. Tomb of the Twice-Crowned King (6–10 adventurers of levels 8–10)
2. EX2 The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror (5–8 adventurers of levels 9–12)
3. G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief (9 adventurers of level 9 or higher)
4. G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl (9 adventurers of level 9 or higher)
5. G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King (9 adventurers of level 9 or higher)
6. D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth (7–9 adventurers of level 10 or higher)
7. D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa (at least 6 adventurers of level 9 or higher)
8. D3 Vault of the Drow (6–9 adventurers of of level 10 or higher)
9. Cyclopean Deeps Volume and Volume II (4–8 adventurers of levels 10–12)
10. S1 Tomb of Horrors (6–8 adventurers of levels 10–14)

Bestiaries — 1d8

1. All the Worlds' Monsters Vol. 1, Vol. 2 and Vol. 3. One of the earliest published bestiaries. Has that true vintage typewriter look and nonsensical monsters.
2. Book of Lost Beasts. A collection of AD&D 1e monsters to supplement the Monster Manual, Fiend Folio, and Monster Manual II.
3. Dwellers in Dark Places. Awesome collection of more than 300 original OSRIC monsters.
4. Malevolent & Benign and Malevolent & Benign II. Collects all monsters published in the Expeditions Retreat Press OSRIC modules. Each book contains 150 monsters, so 300 new monsters in total.
5. Monstrosities. Nearly 500 monsters. Each monster comes with an example encounter/nano-adventure. Includes tables with monsters by challenge level, guidance on creating new monsters, tables of monsters by terrain, and tables of random encounters (3d6, so normal distribution curve).
6. Tome of Horrors Complete. More than 700 monsters (no duplicates from Monstrosities). Again, each comes with a small encounter. Includes mundane animals as well. See Swords & Wizardry bestiary analysis here.
7. Hacklopedia of Beasts. Detailed bestiary with a lot of reusable details like size comparison charts, combat tactics, habitat & society, ecology, and yield.
8. The Monster Overhaul. Inteded to be a generic monster manual for a generic OSR system. Includes a little bit over 200 monsters, many with associated random tables.

Supplements — 1d6

1. How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox. Practical step-by step guide on how to create your own sandbox. Written by Robert Conley, a Wilderlands legend. (Watch out for his Majestic Fantasy Realms as well, forthcoming.)
2. Tomes by Mythmere Games Tome of Adventure Design, Tome of Worldbuilding, and The Nomicon. A great set of books to create infinite worlds and adventures.
3. Book of Lost Tables. Includes 348 random tables for generating random wilderness terrain, random wilderness encounters, random dungeon terrain, random dungeon encounters, random urban terrain, random urban encounters, character parties, and more. Very much in the styled of AD&D 1e tables.
4. Seven Years Of Fantasy Weather Volume 1: Medieval England, Volume 2: The Iceland of the Sagas, and Volume 3: Indea. Awesome series of weather supplements covering, as it says on the tin, seven years.
5. Realms of Crawling Chaos and Swords of Cthulhu. Two great source-books to add Cthulhu mythos to your D&D game.
6. HârnManor and Medieval Manager. Detailed procedures and guidance on creating and managing a manor, including simulating economy. The latter includes conversion to gp for ease of use.

Even more recommendations

Here are previous sales recommendations: 2024, 2023, 2022. Don't hesitate to reach out should you have a great recommendation yourself.

#BlackFriday2025 #Sale #OSR #SW #OSRIC #OSE

The black dog is resting on my shoulder.

And me with my wonky eye

And my long hair

And the raven sized dog on my shoulder

Burdened by wisdom

Just like Odin

#poetry

During today's lunch, I challenged myself to not use my phone until I was done eating. This used to be easy for me, but I've since let old habits creep in. I counted at least 6 times, that my hand unconsciously drifted to my jeans pocket trying to take my phone out. I was successful though at stopping myself every time. I was able to finish lunch without needing to use my phone to distract or entertain myself.

What's the point of this exercise? For me, the point is I got to rest my eyes. I work on computers all day. Spending lunch time looking at my phone will not rest my eyes. Looking at something far away in the distance does.

A bonus I got from doing this, is that I had time to think. Without my phone in front of me while eating, I thought about starting an online journal once again.

Why?

I dunno. It's something that's been nagging at me for awhile now. Every once in awhile, I get this itch to journal online.

Another thing nagging at me is this fear of losing the ability to creatively write entirely on my own, without the use of AI. I want to be able to write something at a moment's notice. I want to be able to write down something that I just thought about mere seconds ago — and explain it in my own words, in my own sentences, whether they are grammatically correct or not. I want to be able to do all that and not use AI in the process.

With the advent of AI tools, I feel that this is a skill that I will soon lose if I don't practice. And one way to practice is to blog or write journals online.

And so that's how this post ended up here.

#Journal #DigitalMinimalism #Writing

On Saturday I picked up a few LPs at the most reliable of my record-buying haunts. The best of them was The Comedy (1962) by The Modern Jazz Quartet, a colourful suite of tunes inspired by the Italian commedia dell'arte. It's a record (Fig. 4) that showcases the quartet's European influences. While enjoyable, it's a little light on the soulfulness that underpins their best work. It's interesting to contrast this record with its moodier follow-up, Lonely Woman, issued later the same year.

Acquired alongside it was a record exemplifying a very different aspect of comedy: The Sick Humor of Lenny Bruce. Originally released in 1959, my copy (Fig. 5) is from a 1987 re-issue (the same year Bruce's name came up in the lyrics of a certain song I then loved). I've read a fair amount about him over the years, but had never heard any of Bruce's comedy until now. I can't say it made me laugh, but it probably would have done had I been a young man in '59: I could see the appeal of it, at least. My sense of humour, I fear, has been eroded over time. I'm less often amused than I once was.

---

1987 was also the year The Green Flame was published. This is a dual-language anthology of Italian poetry (originals on the left, English translations facing them) that I finished reading on Friday. It was edited and presumably translated by Alessandro Gentili and Catherine O'Brien. Even though the word 'contemporary' appears in its subtitle, most of the poems in it are from the early-to-mid-20th Century. It includes authors I was already somewhat familiar with (such as Montale, Pavese, Ungaretti, Pasolini & Spaziani) along with others I knew only by name (Marinetti, Quasimodo, Sereni, Zanzotto) and still more I didn't know at all (notably Saba & Luzi).

My copy had been freely annotated in pencil by a previous owner. This was evidently someone fluent in Italian who was well able to take a critical view of the translators' work. Several translated words or phrases are glossed with clarifications or even crossed out and 'corrected'. As a monoglot I'm obliged to take the work of translators on trust, so it was interesting here for me to see a more knowledgeable reader's engagement with their renderings. There were some instances where the pencilled-in alternatives struck me as clearly preferable to the printed text, whereas most of the time I was unable to judge whether the 'edited' wording was any better than the original. In any event, it's a good anthology that has filled a gap on my poetry shelves.

---

When I'm working I like to have a large, thick, ruled notebook to scribble in. If I can’t make notes I struggle to think straight. With my employers being much too cheap to supply decent stationery, I buy my own. My choice for the past decade has been the Collins Ideal 6448, a casebound A4 book with 384 ruled pages. When I went to order a new one recently I was disconcerted to find them out of stock – which I hope is only a temporary state of affairs. As an alternative I bought myself the next best thing I could find: a Ryman A4 'Bumper' notebook. This has fewer pages (352) and thinner paper (70gsm rather than 80) than the 'Ideal', but it does have the advantage of being about half the price. I started writing in my new Ryman book on Monday, and think it will do the job well enough.

Thank you for changing. Thank you for working to become happier (for the lack of a better word) and calmer.

I, too, want to work on becoming happier (for the lack of better word) and calmer. But it´s really not that easy.. It happens, from time to time (actually quite often), that my mind takes a minor unpleasant event and spins it out into a far bigger story of what's wrong, what could end up even more wrong, and how solutions to that might be even more wrong, leading into a total dead lock of oh shit.

The other day, I was watching an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where Raymond buys a special, expensive, rare, fad collectible card for his daughter. You may know the episode, Hackidu. It's a good one. Paul Reubens, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman, steals the show.

The point is, it made me very emotional, thinking of all the nice toys my parents bought me as a kid, including many that were fads, expensive, difficult to obtain, or simply extremely thoughtful. I grew up in the 90s, and so this list includes things like Beanie Babies, Tamagotchis, baseball cards, video games, educational games, books, scooters, backpacks featuring TV shows I liked, and much more than I can honestly remember.

I'm very grateful for that. I hate to say, “it's the thought that counts,” as though I didn't enjoy the toys themselves, but truthfully, the thought and love they put into those choices is very meaningful to me.

I feel a bit strange being so emotional over physical things, especially when I dislike consumerism, but it was the thoughts that matter most. They show their love through gifts, to a large extent, and I am very touched.

#Miscellaneous

As a student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, you expect the student association to safeguard your interests: fees collected should be spent transparently, equitably and in ways that enhance student life. Instead, in the past three months rumours and emerging evidence suggest the KSA board, lead by Ishant (Goel) Goyal, President and VP University Affairs Paramvir Singh, VP Finance and Operations Manmeet Kaur under the oversight of Executive Director Timothii Ragavan, may have veered far from that standard. This is not about minor budgeting mishaps; this is about institutional accountability, governance and whether student funds are being used in ways that reflect their stated purpose.

What we’ve heard

Silver coins for a “44th anniversary”

The board authorized the purchase of ten silver coins, each weighing under 10 grams, celebrating the KSA’s “44th anniversary”. These coins feature Sikh and other religious symbols and, by reports, were purchased at approximately CAD $70 per coin. By comparison, the spot price of silver in Canada today is approximately CAD $2.33 per gram.

If the coins truly weigh 10g each, then the raw metal cost would be around CAD $23.30 per coin (10 g × $2.33/gram). If under 10 g, the cost would be lower. That means paying CAD $70 is about three times the metal‐value alone.

On its face: if the rationale was a simple commemorative coin for the KSA’s 44th anniversary, the symbolism fails for two reasons: the coins don’t clearly tie to the “44th anniversary” motif (they instead appear more aligned with Diwali and religious representation), and the cost premium appears excessive given the metal value.

Hanging Basket Chairs

You may have seen these hanging basket chairs on campuses. We have heard allegations that the cost of these were approximately CAD $1,950 each (total ~CAD $20,000). But current wholesale listings on major procurement platforms for the same model are in the $300-600 range.

What justified the association spending $2,000 per unit on these chairs?

Overpriced nut baskets and dresses distributed to students

For Diwali celebrations, large expenditures on “nut baskets” and dresses which were given to students was alleged. Details (quantities, vendor quotes) remain vague; however, the pattern of gifting combined with high unit cost raises valid questions about procurement, tendering and justification. Who were the vendors who were contracted for this? Why is this not being disclosed to students and campus reporters?

$250 plants that look like Ikea palms in Rona pots

A further allegation: that the association spent CAD $250 each on plants that appear to be repotted Ikea palms placed into CAD $28 pots sourced from Rona. If true, this suggests markup and perhaps a lack of competitive sourcing.

Nearly $10,000 on Diwali decorations across campuses

The board allegedly spent nearly $10,000 on Diwali decorations just for the installation across campuses. The decorations themselves were purchased separately by the association, adding even more cost on top of the installation fee. Students effectively paid twice: first for the decor, then for the labour to put it up. This is yet another opaque expense pushed through by a board and Finance VP who appear to exercise little scrutiny over vendor pricing, procurement practices or whether spending aligns with the association’s mandate.

Why this Matters

Our student fees are not a slush fund for luxury items, overpriced decor, or vendor contracts that nobody outside the board has ever seen. They are paid with the expectation of responsible stewardship and transparency.

The examples above point to a pattern:

• High-cost purchases without clear student benefit
• No competitive procurement process
• No public vendor information
• No accountability from the Finance VP Manmeet Kaur or Executive Director Timothii Ragavan
• A culture of secrecy rather than service

But questionable spending is only half the picture. The governance failures behind it are just as serious.

A Board That Barely Shows Up

The Runner’s recent reporting highlights an equally alarming issue: the board’s growing inability to even run its own meetings.

At the Nov. 21 council meeting, the KSA failed to vote on three key election-regulation changes, not because of disagreement, but because councillors simply didn’t show up.

Zero councillors attended in person, despite the room being booked specifically to avoid connectivity issues.

Attendance dropped from ten online participants to seven, below the quorum of eight.

This marks the third meeting where critical governance items were delayed due to lack of quorum.

Councilors receive an honorarium of $125 per meeting, yet many appear to:

• log in silently
• sit muted,
• write a line or two in chat (mainly to vote yae or nae)
• and disappear before the meeting concludes.

These honoraria are meant to defray any commuting costs so that these meetings are held in person. They are not just an extra source of income for clicking on a meeting invite and sitting quietly in chat.

Meanwhile, these same elected officials oversee procurement, student-club funding, election rules, and the millions in student fees flowing through the association each year.

If the people responsible for oversight aren’t present, oversight doesn’t happen. And when oversight doesn’t happen, waste, mismanagement, and unchecked spending become predictable outcomes.

KPU Students Deserve Better

Good governance is not complicated. It requires councillors who:

• attend meetings in person,
• participate meaningfully,
• stay for the full agenda,
• and uphold their responsibility to the students who elected them.

Good procurement is also not complicated. It requires competitive pricing, transparent reporting, proper documentation, and accountability to the student body.

Right now, the KSA appears to be falling short on both fronts.

SIGN THE PETITION FOR A FORENSIC AUDIT

For years, students have paid millions in mandatory fees with little transparency, accountability, or oversight. Yet these funds continue to be misspent while students across Kwantlen campuses receive uneven and inconsistent services.

It’s time to demand better.

We the KPU students need to organize, speak out, and call for a FULL, INDEPENDENT, FORENSIC AUDIT of the KSA.

Please share the following link with every body you know: sign and share the petition for accountability and reform: https://c.org/FzsKZB7gMZ

We also call on the Province of British Columbia to amend and strengthen the B.C. Societies Act to ensure student-funded organizations can never again operate without transparent, democratic governance.

Enough is enough.

GO HOOSIERS!

Today we have two IU basketball games to follow. First up will be the Lady Hoosiers as the IU Women's Basketball Team travels to meet the Florida Gulf Coast Lady Eagles. This game is scheduled to Tipoff at Noon, my local time.

Later today the IU Men's Basketball Team will be hosting the Kansas State Wildcats. This game is scheduled to start at 19:00, my local time.

I have conflicting obligations that may prevent my following both of these games in their entirety, but I'll listen to each of them as much I can.

GO HOOSIERS!

And so the adventure continues.

A Fault Line Investigation — Published by The Beacon Press
Published: November 25, 2025
https://thebeaconpress.org/the-muslim-brotherhood-in-2025-designated-terrorists-previously-usaid-funded

Executive Breath

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, has for seven decades been simultaneously:

• Banned as a terrorist organization by Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Russia
  
• Treated as a legitimate political actor by the U.S. State Department and EU
  
• Receiving U.S. taxpayer funds through USAID “civil-society” grants (average $35–50 million/year 2018–2025)
  

On November 24, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to evaluate designating certain Brotherhood chapters as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).

The Official U.S. Position (Pre-November 24, 2025)

The State Department has historically viewed the Brotherhood as a “non-violent Islamist political movement” despite its Hamas ties and October 7, 2023, rocket support from the Lebanese chapter (State Dept Country Reports on Terrorism 2024). USAID granted $35–50 million annually to MB-linked NGOs (e.g., Islamic Relief Worldwide, $10M in 2023) for “democracy promotion” (GAO 2025).

The Money Trail (U.S. Taxpayer Funds)

Since 2011, U.S. aid to MB-affiliated groups totals $300 million+:

• 2011–2015: $100M to Egyptian MB offshoots for “election monitoring” (USAID 2015 audit)
  
• 2016–2020: $80M to U.S.-based MB legacy groups (CAIR, ISNA) for “civil rights” (OpenSecrets 2025)
  
• 2021–2025: $120M to international MB NGOs (e.g., $15M to Jordanian chapter, USAID 2024)
  

The Qatar-Turkey Axis (Open Patrons)

Qatar hosts MB leaders and funds MB media (Al Jazeera, $500M/year). Turkey's AKP (Erdogan) aligns with MB ideology, providing $100M+ in aid to MB-linked Syrian groups (RAND 2024).

The Arab Ban List (Evidence Dossiers)

• Egypt (2013): Banned as terrorist post-coup; evidence of MB-Hamas arms smuggling (Egyptian court ruling 2013)
  
• UAE (2014): Federal Law No. 7; MB as “radical group” with 1,000+ arrests (UAE Ministry of Interior 2014)
  
• Saudi Arabia (2014): Royal decree; MB “extremist” for inciting violence (Saudi Gazette 2014)
  

The 1991 Explanatory Memorandum: Key Snippets (Seized 2004, Entered as Evidence 2008)

The “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America” (Mohamed Akram, 1991) outlines the MB’s U.S. strategy as a “Civilization-Jihadist Process”:

“The process of settlement is a ‘Civilization-Jihadist Process’ with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

“It is a Muslim’s destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes…”

Attachment lists 29 U.S. groups as “our organizations and the organizations of our friends,” including ISNA, NAIT, ICNA, MSA — many now CAIR affiliates (Holy Land Foundation trial exhibits, DOJ 2008).

2025 Status: Trump’s Executive Order (November 24)

President Trump signed an executive order directing Rubio and Bessent (consulting AG Pam Bondi and DNI Tulsi Gabbard) to submit a 30-day report on designating MB chapters in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt as FTOs/SDGTs under 8 U.S.C. § 1189 and EO 13224. Action due within 45 days if appropriate — asset freezes, travel bans, criminal support penalties. Justification: MB’s Hamas ties and post-October 7 rocket attacks (White House Fact Sheet, November 24, 2025).

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Sources (Full Attribution — Pillar 3: Truth Only)

1. Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Begins Process to Designate Certain Muslim Brotherhood Chapters… – White House, Nov 24, 2025
   
2. Designation of Certain Muslim Brotherhood Chapters as Foreign Terrorist Organizations… – White House Executive Order, Nov 24, 2025
   
3. An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America – Investigative Project on Terrorism (English translation), 1991
   
4. Holy Land Foundation Trial Exhibits – DOJ 2008 (declassified)
   
5. UAE Federal Law No. 7/2014 – UAE Ministry of Interior
   
6. Egyptian Court Ruling 2013 – Egyptian Judiciary

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Action Demand (Pillar 7)

Demand MB funding transparency – contact USAID: “Audit all grants to MB-linked NGOs since 2011.”
→ USAID Contact

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Whenever someone (thinking currently of Zohran Mamdani, but insert anyone’s name here) advocates having the government do something to acutally help people, you typically get two responses.

One is from the corporate centrists, who say, “well, of course we’d like to do something like that, but it’s just not realistic.”

The other, from the right, derides the whole idea as “people wanting free stuff.”

Let’s start with the centrists, shall we? This is the kind of Bill Clinton politics that has infected the Democratic party at all levels. And it’s a con. Because of course what’s realistic is simply what you’re willing to fight for.

Let’s take single payer healthcare, for example. They’ve told us for decades that free at point of service health care like so many other countries have is not realistic. This has proven true in that no one has been willing to fight for it. So of course it’s not realistic. The absolute best face you can put on this is that it’s a colossally incompetent negotiating tactic, where you give in to your opponent before you even talk to them. The more accurate face, I believe, is that it’s a calculated dodge—you call something you don’t want to do unrealistic. Then you don’t have to get into “Actually I get huge donations from Aetna and United Healthcare, so I don’t want to fight for a health care system that works.”

History is littered with examples of things that were considered unrealistic until they happened. Like the USA becoming an independent country! Like France beheading the king! Like Apartheid ending without massive bloodshed! Big, revolutionary changes can happen as long as people are willing to fight for them. Duh.

And now let’s go on to free stuff, shall we? Regular readers, know that I, a non-rich person, went to school with a lot of rich people.

And you know who gets a TON of free stuff? Rich people.

For example, rich people get a free college education. I don’t mean they get full scholarships or anything—I just mean that they don’t pay a dime for college.

Because their parents pay.

“Ah, but that’s not free!” you might say, but I submit that you are wrong. If you, a legal adult, get to attend college without paying for it, that’s free. The fact that your parents paid for it doesn’t make it any less free to you. Did you earn that money? Or was it given to you by your parents? What does free mean?

So when people deride people “wanting free stuff,” they should really include rich people. A house and a college education are, for most people, the biggest investments of their lifetimes. And rich people get one or both of them for free.

This isn’t derided in the media—indeed, saving up so you can give your children hundreds of thousands of dollars they did nothing to earn is portrayed as a thing that good, responsbile parents do for their children. I’m not going to get into that—I just want to point out that there are a LOT of people out there gathering lifelong benefits from stuff they got for free.

You cannot argue that an 18-year-old who gets a free education from their parents has earned it. They haven’t. Sure, maybe they worked hard in high school (though at least in the places I went to school, the wealthiest kids were not the ones who worked the hardest), but so do a lot of people who don’t get a free college education.

Given how many people get a free college education and aren’t vilified for it, we have to conclude that the right’s ostensible opposition to people getting things they haven’t paid for from wages they’ve earned is not sincere. I mean, yes, the right is sincere only about power and domination, but they’ve done such a good job indoctrinating us into the idea that you have to earn everything you get in life that most of us can’t even see the glaring exception that’s all around us.

So neither the “realism” nor the “free stuff” arguments make any logical or moral sense. Maybe there are sound arguments to be made against free transportation, free college, free health care. If so, I’d be interested in hearing them. But, so far, I haven’t.