First off, please excuse any formatting errors. I’m posting from my phone.
I have a few different questions that I’m hoping some Canadian OTs might be able to help me answer.
For some context, I have a BSc in OT from a UK university, and I’m working toward relocating to Canada in the next 2-3 years. I want to specialise in mental health because it’s the practice area I’m most interested in, and it’s also the best setting to work in for me because of my physical health. I can’t carry heavy things or engage in very strenuous physical activities, and physical health settings typically require an ability to perform load-bearing activities occasionally e.g. practising transfers, among other things.
At the moment, I’m trying to decide between pursuing a Masters's Degree in Counselling Psychology or Mental Health Counselling, and switching my professional focus completely. Or looking for an appropriate graduate program that will give me the credentials I need to use Psychotherapy in my OT practice.
This is where I need your help, so I’ll list my most pressing questions below.

1. What practice settings are typically available to mental health OTs in Canada?
   
2. I’ve heard that OTs in Canada can get certified to use psychotherapy/counselling techniques. Is this true? And if yes, what certifications are required?
   
3. Are there any other Mental Health Masters's degrees that would be more beneficial for me than the options I mentioned above? Provided I want to continue working as an OT in mental health?
   
   1. Is there a demand for more mental health OTs in the country? Or are counsellors/psychotherapists more in demand?

Thank you so much to everyone who is able to make time to respond. I know everyone’s lives are full and busy, so I really appreciate any feedback.

Query:
Dear […],
[Personalization]
Late at night on August 17th, 1989, three terrible things happened in the small town of Garrison. An infant was stolen from its crib, never to be seen again, a forest fire sparked just a mile down the road, and the first in a series of grisly murders rocked the town. All had one thing in common: they were perpetrated by what those in the town call the Shadow Man.
Or so the story goes.
Amateur podcaster Finn Mitchell has been obsessed with this bit of folklore since his best friend Omari Mason shared it with him. Now, they’re both out in the secluded town of Garrison, surrounded by the forests and hills of West Virginia on the hunt to find out if it’s true. As they dig into the Shadow Man encounters, they struggle to get anyone to even talk to them, let alone offer insight into the tragic events. Undeterred, they continue even as anonymous phone calls, not-so-veiled threats, and a fresh murder all pull their attention in different directions. It seems the legend wasn’t such a deeply buried memory after all, and figuring out the truth behind it will be the only thing that can save the town from further torment.
Strange Trails is a 99,000 word standalone speculative mystery with series potential. Like a mix between the story of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series and the atmosphere and social tones of Lovecraft Country, it covers real world issues people in small town America might face today. This is part of an #OwnVoices submission, with Omari Mason being a gay man, as am I. Strange Trails is based on an audio drama I wrote that currently has over 100,000 listens and charted in the Top 15 Fiction Podcasts on Spotify. I’ve included […] for your consideration. Thank you for your time.
​
300 words:
Finn Mitchell took a deep breath and leaned forward into his microphone, speaking in a low voice. "Late at night on August 17th, 1989, three terrible things happened in the small town of Garrison. An infant was stolen from its crib, never to be seen again, a forest fire sparked just a mile down the road, and the first in a series of grisly murders rocked the town. All had one thing in common: they were perpetrated by what those in the town call the Shadow Man." He let that linger for a moment before continuing. "Lost among the forests and hills of West Virginia, Garrison hides away a dark history almost no one outside of the town has heard. Until now.
"Welcome to Strange Trails. I'm your host, Finn Mitchell, and over the next few episodes I'm going to bring you along on my investigation into just who the Shadow Man is and what is going on in Garrison." Finn pulled away from the microphone on his desk, stopping the recording. That was take three; the first time he’d made it through the introduction of his podcast without choking on spit.
A few months back he’d had an idea which had quickly expanded in his mind, consuming him until he had to do something about it. This small town, he was convinced, was finally what he’d been searching for.
"How was that?" he asked, looking over his shoulder. He removed his glasses, massaging his right eye with the side of his hand.
One of the two motel beds creaked as his friend Omari Mason turned on his side to face Finn. “Sounded the same as the other two times to me," he said absently, using his phone camera to adjust a rogue coil of hair back into place.

Hi all, 28yo here (7 YoE total, 2.5y current job)
In November 2022 I was placed on a PIP.
When my manager took over last year (May), it became apparent right from the off that he took a general disliking to me but played the friendly "mates" card. He gave me a lack of guidance from the beginning, never set real agendas with tasks and I was often left to sit twiddling my thumbs. Fast forward to November 2022 and I was placed on a PIP after being told my performance is sub-par for X, Y and Z reasons (one justified, the other four more a case of poor guidance/lack of management) without any prior conversation that this may happen and "here's what we should do and you need to do" before you go on it. None of that.
I'm now six months into the "informal" PIP, which I never actually signed anything for. I disputed some claims initially and a revised plan was worked out, but I knew from the off it was unrealistic. Have been performing well/delivering but like the comments in this thread, don't expect it to have a positive outcome. They are framing it like "we want this to be a success" but I don't buy it. The trust has gone.
One key thing to note is I am planning to resign shortly. My relationship has soured with my manager and the company and, having suffered the loss of my Mum last year, among other personal difficulties, I have decided to pursue interests outside of work for a period of time. Does anyone have an understanding of the likely outcome of resigning during a PIP? There are a number of hurdles the company needs to go through before dismissing me (second review, final warning etc).
In an ideal world I would resign and they would pay my notice (PILON), but I am aware there is a possibility of them making me work it. Which is fine, former is preferable though. I am a bit overwhelmed with all the HR and legal advice online - any guidance / real life experience would be super appreciated.

It's been awhile since I played this so this post is quite delayed, but I'm here now with my deeper dive into setting the Golden Vault adventures in Wildemount.
Anthology Conversion (original post)
I'll be covering the following sections — Location, Lore, Experience, Future, and Resources — for the 1st-level adventure, The Murkmire Malevolence.
​

“You’ve got to steal the Murkmire Stone and bring it back so I can save the city!”

Location

I like the Varkenbluff Museum of Natural History being in a big city — it makes sense for them to then have the resources available to magic-ward the building in the various ways we see in the adventure. A smaller city could have such a museum, but a large or small town definitely not.
For examples of such cities, I recommend Rexxentrum, Zadash, Nicodranas, Port Damali, Rosohna, or Uthodurn.
My personal preference, as well as where I set this the two times I ran it, is Rexxentrum. I just like how having it in the Empire opens up the possibility of tying Cerberus Assembly stuff into it, including Dr. Dannell's involvement and the museum's arcane traps and workings.

Lore

With that in mind, this section isn't necessary, but if you're looking to give some flavor to the adventure to make it feel more immersed in the world, as opposed to just a drop-in module, then there's a lot to work with.
Dr. Cassee Dannell, first of all, could be an archaeologist who works for the Soltryce Academy, Hall of Erudition, or the Marble Tomes Conservatory, both being arcane universities. I would say the Cobalt Soul Archives don't work in this case since they're not as much an arcane-focused organization.
Curator Alda Arkin could just be a freelance fence working independently, but she could also be a Myriad fence, using the museum as her cover.
If you're not using the Golden Vault as your group's patron, mages who're interested in the Murkmire Stone — such as Doolan Tversky, Yussa Errenis, Vess deRogna, or Essek Thelyss — could either be hiring the party to grab the stone for them or could be the ones funding the stone's safekeeping for the gala... and then perhaps Alda sneaks it away after the gala to be delivered directly to them. Who knows!

Experience

I ran this adventure twice with two different groups. It was pretty straightforward, hence why this post is on the shorter end compared to my other conversion posts. A lot of the additions I made were simply flavor ones, having the PCs know certain NPCs already or being familiar with the museum using the given hooks or expanding on an NPC's written personality to include a brief backstory that helped make them feel less one-dimensional (especially for an adventure that has so many named NPCs).
The two groups I ran were for a oneshot with 5 players and for an anthology series side campaign with 2 players. Both were set in Rexxentrum with the same NPCs quirks and backstories.
The oneshot group was first, so I learned from all of my mistakes with them. Party was warlock, monk, Draconic sorcerer, artificer, and rogue.
I had had their meeting with Dannell in the morning, as the book said, but since the gala was at night, they took that as an opportunity to go around the museum during business hours (the Gemstone Wing was, of course, closed and cordoned off). That let them get the layout of the museum before the gala, as opposed to having to attend the gala and plan at the same time.
Hilariously, the warlock kept trying to get in with the guards as a new hire but wouldn't back down even when the guards told her that Alda hired guards directly herself, so there was no such "job posting" asking for new hires. This almost busted their recon period since Alda got suspicious when one of the guards came to her office saying that the warlock was claiming to be a family friend, too, but eventually Alda got busy and ignored this after telling the guards to shoo the warlock off.
The party left themselves an escape rope hanging from the skylight (the rogue had climbed the building from the outside during the recon portion) and then hid in the bathrooms or the supply closets after the gala.
I accidentally skipped over the part where the animatronic doesn't attack anyone and just jumps downstairs to wreak havoc. Sureth died in this oneshot because she was standing 5 feet away from the animatronic when the artificer activated it from the other side then quickly backed up. The animatronic crit on her, but she got revived at the end of the story by the Golden Vault cleaning things up.
The warlock also was knocked unconscious because (since I hadn't sent the animatronic downstairs and the party was in hiding watching Maryam and the guards fight it) she fled downstairs to create a distraction, and the guards down there knocked her out. She was arrested but I had their Golden Vault handler come by and talk her free.
On the bright side, the artificer did end up in a relationship with Dr. Dannell, who he came into the adventure having an established crush on, so that was cute.
In the wrap-up, we established that the party convinced Dannell to quit her association with the Soltryce Academy and go do research and similar work for the Golden Vault. The museum was shut down for investigation by the Cerberus Assembly and the Crown, and its future of ever being open again was put into question because of the havoc that'd been caused by the animatronic killing Sureth.
In terms of runtime, that group did 6 hours with 1 hour debrief, 3 hours prep, and 2 hours heist/combat.
The anthology group was second and only had two players, so I extra scaled everything down (removed half HP from everything). Part was Clockwork Soul sorcerer and rogue.
Same thing happened with the "early meeting" and "late gala" prep time — they wanted to go in during business hours to recon because there was still a whole day to kill. I've been recommended that, perhaps, the DM should skip from the meeting to the gala immediately, but I think that players might still say "hey, we had all of those hours to kill, we could've been doing recon then, too". In that case, maybe it'd be for the best that Dannell meets with them shortly before the gala so that there's no time to really do separate recon.
The sorcerer and rogue pretended to be on a date, and since this is an anthology connected to my campaign, we had a lot more stuff to work with. (The players were controlling NPCs-turned-PC-sheets that they've met before and are allies with in the campaign; the anthology is basically "what were these characters doing while y'all were not with them?") My favorite part being that they were both nobles, so I played off the idea that everyone knew them... which then made them have to work around the fact that people knew their faces so they couldn't be too suspicious since it'd be too easy to catch and identify them.
The rogue was the eldest child of Watchmaster Brunda Gleshin (and the black sheep of their family), so I had them know Maryam as a former Watch captain who'd retired to take on private museum security (it pays better than law enforcement). There was a lot of snarky back and forth between the rogue and Maryam because of that once they had gone up to scope out the second floor. This was my favorite interaction:

Micha: We'll leave you alone, but nice to see that you've taken up this... position.
Maryam: Mhm.
Micha: I'm sure my mother is very proud of you.
Maryam: Can't say the same for you.

They also set the skylight up for later, mingle at the gala (Watchmaster Gleshin is there, much to the rogue's chagrin), and then make their leave. But they don't actually leave and go in through the basement, fight the mimic, go into the records room and Alda's office and kill Marigold. Then they leave again and head up to the attic to wait for the museum's closing.
They'd previously tried to talk up some guards to see who they could maybe flip during the heist... but then when it comes time for them to come out of hiding, both of them discover that the guards have all changed positions so now the guard set-up they'd lifted is useless.
(This was fully because they chose to come in early and Maryam saw the rogue walking around during normal business hours, so she went and tipped off Alda right before the gala. I thought it was a nice touch since the rogue was acting real cocky and it further emphasized their bad reputation for being a troublemaker around town, that any Crownsguard who knew them would automatically think they're up to something.)
At the end of the day, both heists were successful, although the oneshot group definitely had more chaos going on, likely due to the number of players and the fact that I'd missed the line about the animatronic not causing real people damage. The oneshot group swapped the stone for the replica while the anthology players swapped the stone for a sack of ten pounds of adventuring gear... because it was "more fun". When I pointed out that that meant they'd probably know that the sorcerer and rogue did it since they were the only adventurers casing the museum earlier in the day, the rogue replied, "Yeah. We want them to know! They can't catch us. With what proof?"
I also found that Cassee was popular to flirt with. I mean, she's a dorky archaeologist, so I guess that was written in the stars already. In the oneshot group, as aforementioned, the artificer ended up dating her, but in the anthology group, the rogue tried to flirt with her and ask her out for dinner... but she declined because they were way too boisterous and high energy for her. (In comparison, the artificer from the other group was also shy and quiet like her, so she appreciated that... and his starting hook was knowing Dannell through academics, so there was that.)

Future

There's already future hooks discussed in this adventure, so I won't repeat those. However, I think because of the huge amount of named NPCs in this adventure, there's a lot of opportunities to reuse them later on, especially if you're running the adventures as connected like I am for my anthology group. Could be a nice callback.
The museum guards, if the museum is shut down, could reappear as guards in a later adventure, showing that they had to find somewhere else to work.
Alda Arkin, if her fencing was never discovered, could rise up to do bigger work and be involved with a later heist, such as Masterpiece Imbroglio.
Even Dr. Dannell herself could reappear in a later adventure that has to do with arcane magic or weird creatures (perhaps Markos Delphi has correspondence with her about eldritch horrors?).
I'm currently playing with the idea that Franceena, who the anthology rogue gave the business card of their dueling academy they run to, could have gone and taken those dueling lessons and become stronger over time, reappearing in a mid tier adventure (Vidorant's Vault?) as part of a rival crew. I haven't implemented it yet since I'm also considering using the Thieves' Gallery from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves as a rival crew, but who knows! It's fun to think about, regardless.
As a side note, I also love that Dr. Horthnar Stonecrusher shares a name with Torgja Stonecrusher of the prewritten rival crew. It could be that it's just a happenstance of having the same name, especially since they're both dwarves... but I think it could also be fun if they're related — maybe he's her father and he mentions at the gala how his daughter has run off with some 'petty thieves'? And then she appears later as part of the rival crew!
In addition, I didn't get to implement this because I thought of it after I'd run both games, but I had the idea of dropping foreshadowing objects in the displays to hint at later Golden Vault adventures (similar to the museum episode of Black Mirror, iykyk). These obviously can't all be the MacGuffins of the adventures because those MacGuffins have to be somewhere, but maybe they could be allusions to characters the players will encounter or locations they'll go to.

• a casino chip from Afterlife for Stygian Gambit
• a plaque about the Celestial Codex or the actual book itself (donated by Vasil and later stolen by Markos after the events of this adventure because so many of the guards quit and he was able to sneak in easier) for Reach for the Stars
• tools that were used to build Revel's End, a painting of Revel's End, or the needles/original tech that was later used to make Prisoner 13's magic tattoos for Prisoner 13
• a bunch of automatons or clockwork trinkets for Tockworth's Clockworks
• a replica of the Constantori's Portrait for Masterpiece Imbroglio
• an exhibit of things donated by Froderic Dartwild before his death for Axe from the Grave
• an exhibit of a master thief whose identity is unknown and their many exploits, including stealing the ruby diadem of the Goldenbeard family for Vidorant's Vault
• a mural about Xeluan and his friends' heroic deeds for Shard of the Accursed
• an art installation of glasswork from Ghalasine for Heart of Ashes
• a model automated train replica of the Concordant Express that educates viewers on how the Outer Planes work OR plaques talking about all of the cases Ignatius Inkblot has solved for Affair on the Concordant Express
• a plaque talking about a Shard Solitaire, the many rumored variants of it, and how Varkenbluff has tried to acquire one from a famous adventurer, Zorhanna Adulare, but she hasn't been willing to part with it for Party at Paliset Hall
• and finally an exhibit/plaque/mural about the efreeti tyrant Vrakir, his long reign of terror destroying cities, and his unknown whereabouts now for Fire and Darkness

Resources

No third-party supplements were used in either of my runs of this adventure.
My Playlists: Gala / Heist / Combat

Conclusion

My rating for this adventure doesn't change from my original conversion post of the book.
​

8/10 - simple, effective, and meets all of the three pillars. The anthologies usually don't miss with the 1st-level adventures. I docked points simply because the flavor and setting was a bit predictable, but it makes sense to start an anthology with a classic museum heist.

​
Overall, it's still very fun, and both groups loved it when I ran it for how 'classic heist' it feels. It's got a lot of potential for future hooks
Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading, and happy gaming!

This is not going to be that scary like other stories you can read here, but when it happened to me it was really really frightening. Also I apologize because it might be a little long.
So this happened a few weeks ago in the countryside at my neighbours (and friends) waterpark.
It was the second day that it opened in the season and there was only one pool in use. Like I said before, it was our neighbour's place. When we arrived (my friend with her parents and my parents and me) me and my friend (I'm going to call her Anna from now on, it's not her real name) went in the pool while our parents were at the buffet having lunch. Before I continue, I would like to mention that we are both girls and minors.
I remember seeing a group of people, about 3 or 4 guys and 2 smaller girls. I think they were siblings, but the point is, there were no adults with them. They all played and had fun together, and I remember looking at them and thinking: 'ohh it's so nice seeing the older brothers playing and having fun with their little sisters and everyone looks so happy!' (seeing love among people always makes me emotional).
As time passed, Anna and I got hungry so we went to the buffet where our families were. When we got there, we saw that same group one or two tables away from us. I was standing there, Anna sitting, and I saw them staring at us. Again, I didn't think much of it.
After lunch only Anna and her mother were in the pool. The next things didn't happen to me, and at that time I didn't realise it was happening, Anna's mother told us later. She heard the guys from that group telling one to go up to Anna. That guy was in some way mentally disabled. I really don't want to offend anyone by saying that, I don't think that a disabled person would be less than any other person. It was not their choice but it is the people's choice to bully them or think differently about them which is just so so so dumb. Anyway the other boys encouraged him to go up to Anna. She didn't notice any of this happening, and by accident, she went to her mother right before he would have gone up to her. Then they heard the encouraging guys say 'come back, her mother is here'.
Later when we were all in the pool, I kept noticing that they were always looking at us and that one guy following us everywhere. My mother went out of the pool, I was with Anna and her mom when the he came up to me and said hi. Of course, i said hello because there is nothing wrong with this. But I have severe social anxiety and I wasn't feeling very comfortable. He was staring at me so strangely... Anna saw this too and she started to feel uncomfortable too. Her mother told us what had happened before then the three of us decided to go to my dad who was not very far from us.
The guy came closer, he even followed us when there were two adults there with us. By this point we were feeling really uncomfortable so we decided to get out of the pool, my mother was outside anyway. So nothing bad could happen right? Wrong. As we were getting out of the pool, we heard the guy come after us while he shouted: 'wait for me' and 'don't leave me'. We could see my mom so we went that way. Anna started panicking, so she decided to run. And because of her, I started to run too. After it happened, of course I know that it was a bad thing to do but at that time I was so creeped out, I couldn't think normally. I took off my slippers, because i couldn't run in them. When we got to my mother, i didn't have time to explain what's happening, because I really had to go to the bathroom. I gave her my slippers and run through this grass field that unfortunately had smaller branches and rocks lying there. I wasn't wearing my glasses, so I couldn't even see what i stepped on while being chased by a shouting guy. When I got to the women's bathroom (what was completely empty), I felt so relieved. I slipped a few times because wet, muddy foot and shiny bathroom floor are not the greatest combo 😅. I went in one of the stalles. Everything was quiet. Then I started hearing this heavy breathing coming from the doors way. I knew it couldn't be a woman, because it was in such a deep voice. Like a guy who's tired from a run. Of course after the past events a thought it was him. At that moment I was thinking: 'this is it'. I knew that if he stood in the door, there would be no way for me to get out of there. I haven't felt that scared before. When I could no longer hear the heavy breathing, I slowly got out of the stall. When I went out, I could see him going in the man's restroom's way and my mother yelling at him. Apparently he wanted to get into the women's bathroom. Later my father spoke to him and after that he stopped following us (but when he passed by or when they left he was looking at us).
I don't blame him, I think it wasn't his fault, but the other boys' who encouraged him to go up to us. I'm quite sure they were just pulling a prank on him by telling him that we looked like we'd be interested in him. And honestly I don't think anything that bad would have happened if he got to us, but like I said, i have severe social anxiety and I'm a little paranoid too so the things that were happening made me feel very uncomfortable and scared.

From CNN:

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie kicked off his second presidential campaign on Tuesday with a lacerating indictment of former President Donald Trump, calling his ally-turned-rival a “lonely, self-consumed mirror hog” who, by force of personality alone, represents a threat to the republic.
At a town hall event in New Hampshire, Christie – who endorsed Trump after dropping out of the 2016 primary and then became a close adviser to the former president ahead of the 2020 election – described his past support as an error and urged Republicans to join him in rejecting the GOP front-runner.
“Beware of the leader in this country, who you have handed leadership to, who has never made a mistake, who has never done anything wrong, who when something goes wrong it’s always someone else’s fault. And who has never lost,” Christie said of Trump.
“I can’t guarantee you success, but I can guarantee you that at the end of it, you will have no doubt in your mind who I am and what I stand for and whether I deserve it,” he said. “That’s why I came back to New Hampshire to tell all of you that I intend to seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2024.”...
Christie’s announcement on Tuesday, which followed his filing with the Federal Election Commission earlier in the day, came a day after fellow GOP moderate Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire, opted against running and less than 24 hours before former Vice President Mike Pence officially enters the race. Like in 2016, Christie is seeking to appeal to more traditionally conservative, establishment-friendly Republicans – and hope that he can emerge as a foil to Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a rapidly growing field.
Also similar to that first run: Christie is part of a crowded field that, if history is any guide, could pave the way for a nominee currently running with less than majority support among Republicans. Along with Trump and DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott have all launched bids. Pence, who has already filed paperwork to run, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum are expected to join the crowd on Wednesday.
Christie on Tuesday touted his ability to be a pugilist while also making a case for compromise – something he called out DeSantis, a former Freedom Caucus member in the US House who now enjoys unified GOP control of the state legislature, for never succeeding at or even attempting.
He also chided DeSantis and Trump over their murky positions on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and, in what sounded like a jab at DeSantis’ and other primary candidates’ attacks on “woke ideology,” said the field included a bunch of “pretenders” who are “talking about issues that are so small that sometimes it’s hard to even understand them.”
That group, Christie added, treated Trump like the “Harry Potter” villain Voldemort, whose name the books’ protagonists are banned from speaking.
“The person I am talking about who’s obsessed with the mirror, who never admits a mistake, who never admits a fault and who always find someone else and something else to blame for whatever goes wrong, but finds every reason for anything that goes right – is Donald Trump,” Christie said.
As CNN has previously reported, Christie believes he is best-positioned to take on Trump in the primary while also appealing to independents in a potential general election showdown with President Joe Biden. He begins his bid with the support of a new super PAC, called “Tell It Like It Is,” formed by allies in anticipation of his campaign.
Christie offered a less edgy take on Biden, accusing the president of “dividing” voters but also recalling their decades-old relationship. Being “timid,” “quiet” and “not speaking to us regularly” were, as Christie told it, Biden’s foremost sins. Along with his age.
“He’s a nice man. He’s out of his depth because he’s not the guy he used to be,” Christie said. “Father Time always wins.”
Christie’s flirtation with presidential politics began in 2011, when he considered running in a primary to take on then-President Barack Obama a year later. He demurred, then saw his standing with Republicans sag ahead of 2016. His 2016 campaign was short-lived and most memorable for Christie’s mocking evisceration of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in a February debate.
He helmed Trump’s transition team – though his work was eventually trashed and Christie himself sidelined days after the election – and later on became a close adviser to the former president. He was floated as a potential appointment to a number of administration jobs, though none ever materialized. He even participated in mock debates with Trump in 2020. (Christie has said he believes he contracted Covid-19 from Trump, who did not disclose a positive test result, during one of those sessions.)
Following Trump’s defeat and subsequent attempt to overturn the 2020 election, Christie turned on him and sought to establish himself as one of Trump’s chief Republican critics.
“We keep losing and losing and losing,” Christie said at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership conference late last year. “The reason we’re losing is because Donald Trump has put himself before everybody else.”
He also has said that Trump “incited” the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol “in an effort to intimidate Mike Pence and the Congress into doing exactly what he said in his own words last week: overturn the election.”
In an interview with Axios this year, he vowed never to support Trump again.
“I can’t help him,” Christie said. “No way.”
Asked by an audience member on Tuesday whether he had a plan to win over “Trump voters,” Christie disputed the characterization – and insisted that Republicans should not view people who had previously voted for Trump as an impenetrable group.
“There is no such thing as ‘Trump voters.’ He doesn’t own them. He didn’t take title to them. They’re not one of his buildings. They’re not one of his casinos in New Jersey. They’re not that wreck he’s got in Las Vegas,” Christie said. “I voted for him twice. Am I a Trump voter? Hell no, man.”

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Slot machines - how they work and tips to win

Slot machines are one of the most popular casino games, and for good reason. They’re easy to play, require no skill or strategy, and offer the possibility of hitting a huge jackpot with just one spin. But how do slot machines actually work?
At its most basic level, a slot machine is a random number generator. When you press the button or pull the lever, the machine generates a random number that corresponds to a particular combination of symbols on the reels. If the symbols line up in the correct combination, you win.
There are a few tips and tricks that can help you increase your chances of winning at slot machines. First, it’s important to choose a machine with a high payout percentage. Look for machines that have a payout percentage of 95% or higher. It’s also a good idea to bet the maximum amount on each spin, as this increases your chances of hitting a big jackpot.

Blackjack - rules and strategies

Blackjack is a classic casino game that has been around for centuries. The basic rules are simple – the goal is to have a hand that is closer to 21 than the dealer’s hand, without going over 21. But there are many strategies that can be used to increase your chances of winning.
One of the most important things to keep in mind when playing blackjack is to always assume that the dealer’s face-down card is a 10. This means that if the dealer is showing a 6, for example, you should assume that their face-down card is a 10, giving them a total of 16. This can help you make better decisions about when to hit or stand.
Another important strategy is to always split aces and 8s. This gives you two opportunities to get a hand of 21, and also helps to minimize your losses. It’s also a good idea to stand on a hand of 17 or higher, as the chances of going over 21 are high.

Roulette - types, bets, and tactics

Roulette is a classic casino game that is based purely on luck. The game consists of a spinning wheel with numbered slots, and a ball that is dropped onto the wheel. The goal is to place a bet on where the ball will land.
There are two main types of roulette – American and European. The American version has an extra double zero slot, which increases the house edge. It’s always a better idea to play the European version if it’s available.
There are many different types of bets that can be placed in roulette, including straight bets, split bets, and corner bets. It’s important to understand the odds of each type of bet before placing your chips.

Baccarat - gameplay and winning tips

Baccarat is a popular casino game that is often associated with high rollers and VIPs. The game is simple – the goal is to have a hand that is closest to 9. But there are many different strategies that can be used to increase your chances of winning.
One of the most important things to keep in mind when playing baccarat is to always bet on the banker. The banker bet has a lower house edge than the player bet, which means that you’re more likely to win.
Another important strategy is to keep track of the shoe. Baccarat uses a shoe of cards that is shuffled before each hand. By keeping track of which cards have been dealt, you can make better decisions about when to place your bets.

Poker - variations and skills required

Poker is a game of skill that requires strategy, patience, and a bit of luck. There are many different variations of poker, including Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and Seven Card Stud.
One of the most important skills in poker is the ability to read your opponents. This means paying attention to their body language, betting patterns, and facial expressions to determine what kind of hand they have.
Another important strategy is to know when to fold. Many players make the mistake of holding onto a bad hand for too long, hoping that they’ll get lucky on the next card. But in the long run, this is a losing strategy.

Craps - how to play and win

Craps is a fast-paced casino game that is popular among both beginners and experienced players. The game consists of a pair of dice and a table with various betting options.
One of the most important things to keep in mind when playing craps is to always bet on the pass line. This gives you the best odds of winning, as the house edge is only 1.41%.
Another important strategy is to take advantage of the free odds bet. This is a bet that can be placed after the point has been established, and has no house edge.

Other popular casino games - keno, bingo, and more

In addition to the classic casino games, there are many other popular games that can be found at casinos around the world. These include games like keno, bingo, and scratch cards.
Keno is a lottery-style game that is similar to bingo. The game consists of a board with numbers from 1 to 80, and players must choose up to 10 numbers. A random number generator then selects the winning numbers.
Bingo is another popular game that is based on luck. The game consists of a board with numbers, and players must mark off the numbers as they are called out.

Beginner's guide to casino etiquette

When playing at a casino, it’s important to follow certain rules of etiquette to ensure that everyone has an enjoyable experience. This includes things like not touching other players’ chips, not smoking at the table, and not using your cellphone while playing.
It’s also important to be respectful to the dealers and other players. Remember that everyone is there to have fun, and it’s important to be courteous and friendly.

Online casino games vs. land-based casino games

With the rise of online casinos, many players are now choosing to play their favorite games from the comfort of their own homes. But how do online casino games compare to land-based casino games?
One of the biggest differences is the atmosphere. Land-based casinos offer a unique and exciting experience that can’t be replicated online. But online casinos are convenient and offer a wider variety of games.
It’s also important to consider the safety and security of online casinos. Make sure to choose a reputable online casino that is licensed and regulated.

Responsible gambling practices

Gambling can be a fun and exciting activity, but it’s important to gamble responsibly. This means setting a budget and sticking to it, never borrowing money to gamble, and never chasing your losses.
It’s also important to know when to take a break. If you feel like you’re losing control, it’s important to step away from the game and seek help if necessary.

Conclusion

We hope that this guide has been helpful in uncovering the most popular casino games and providing tips and strategies to increase your chances of winning. Remember to always gamble responsibly, and have fun!

FEAR GOD, FEAR NOTHING ELSE

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18
The Apostle John repeatedly teaches that loving God (other scripture writers refer to it as “fearing” God) is the antidote to fear. Fear is a tactic of Satan which all believers must face. Those under severe persecution often face this challenge early.
Behbaha, an Iranian secret believer from Muslim background (MBB), shares that her aunt went to a house church and she accompanied her. But she was afraid. She knew that the government controlled the church and that scared her.
“At that time I worked in a job that was state controlled. Every time they gave us questionnaires we should fill out, one of the questions is about religion. Of course you have to fill in; ‘Muslim,’ but I could not do that anymore…”
In the house church she attended with her aunt she learned about the Bible and what Jesus taught in a very practical way. Taking a discipleship training course was a great blessing for Behbaha. She says, “I was able to understand the Bible, I saw the good Lord of the Bible, saw His love—and that changed my life.” After six years of searching she gave her life to Jesus.
The good thing is that her family does not have any problems with her changing and going to church. “Neighbors are the problem”, she states. “The government tells on radio and TV that if you know a person who is not dedicated to the government or to Islam you should go to the police and tell them when you suspect someone of being a Christian.”
After she became a Christian she left her job. “Much too dangerous,” she comments. “I am not able anymore to fill out that form [because of the religion question]. Now I am working part time with some small companies, who are not working with these forms asking about faith.” She does not know if she is observed by the secret police, because of her former job. Behbaha is not aware of being watched. “But I have to be careful, they are able to kill me,” she says with conviction. “Sometimes people are killed; sometimes they have to leave the country. Maybe, if they catch me, I will be killed, but this week of training took away my fear.”
The first three discipleship courses were via internet. The fourth she did in a safe location. Behbaha concludes, “The course on location is very good. The interaction among each other, seeing the teacher face to face, meant that I did not fall asleep, like often happens in church. This is very good.”
After taking the training seminar she wants to teach the course to others—especially church people. Behbaha also wants to pass on the training to her family and friends. “I want to share and show love. My dream after this training is to have house groups with my family members, friends and colleagues to teach them. But…your life should be a good testimony to everyone and Jesus must increase in your life. I am working on that.”
RESPONSE: Today I will focus on fearing God so that I will not fear anything or anyone else.
PRAYER: Pray new believers around the world involved in discipleship training will learn not to fear.

Merv’s dull clamour reaches always her first when she arrives, followed closely by the smell; the air dark with the press of tired bodies and smoke and camels. Nisa is grateful that money has no smell else the town would be unbearable.
As always the central market is a deafening forum of voices, every trader trying to argue their way to prosperity. A heaving throng of faces and languages and manner of dress, but all still people just like her. Citizens of nowhere but the roads, of only the spaces between cities.
Among them all, a man catches her eye. The red dust of the road is still caught in his dark hair, his manners conscious and practised, his clothing incongruous even here.
He and Nisa make their trades in fractured sentences with words borrowed from a language neither of them speaks with any fluency. Two strangers both so far from home. Purple dye and red lacquer, gold cloth and bronze mirrors, statues of gods she recognises exchanged for gods she doesn’t. Goods that have been already passed along a relay of dozens of hands passed on once more.
Nisa cannot quite say what it is about him. Perhaps it’s his patience, or that he doesn’t try to cheat her out of a fair deal like so many others. Perhaps it’s the way his expression lifts when his eyes meet hers. Or the way he returns her smile. Or that she allows his hands to linger too long on hers.
They linger after their business is complete, both lacking the words to articulate what lay between them. There is colour in his cheeks. Nisa’s heart is galloping in her chest.
***
It is months before she returns to Merv, arriving heavy with a cargo of gold, wine, raw glass and tempered expectations.
Nisa had thought of him often during her journey there and back again when she had nothing but time as her companion. What might be. The small, warm spark of possibility climbing up into a blaze then settling into low, glowing embers and then down to smouldering ashes.
It had been nothing, she convinces herself. Only a passing politeness and no more. He will have forgotten her in an instant, and she will never see him again. Small mercies.
And yet he is there once more. His face calls out to her from the shifting masses like a beacon, his eyes alight with his recognition of her.
And the sight of him again reminds her that dying embers can still light a fire.
Had he waited for her? Or is this fate?
‘Come with’ he whispers to her that evening, wrapping his warm hands around hers. And in that moment, she is tempted. This is the furthest east she has ever travelled, has never dared leave the familiar safety of Parthia. There is still much further to go.
But would be madness. She hardly knows this man, can barely speak to him. Besides, she has already sold on her Western goods; there will be no market for the heavy silks she just bought back where they came from.
‘Next time. Perhaps,’ she tells him, unsure whether she has missed an opportunity or avoided a mistake. He nods and presses her fingertips to his lips, and her doubts disappear once more.
***
There is no sign of him the next time Nisa returns. She searches through the markets while refusing to trade on her wares, fearful of stumbling into the same mistake as before. New caravans of traders arrive from the east every day, but his face is not among them.
Fate indeed.
What a fool she was to think that he alone might be something solid in a world where nothing is fixed in place. The cities forever full of unfamiliar faces, a different camel at every trading post, always carrying things she cannot keep with only a bag of mismatched coins from places she’s never seen to show for it.
She could give up, go back to Ctesiphon and its comfortable memories. But how long would that last, with the Romans eyeing its walls like hungry wolves, seeking to swallow it whole as they do everywhere else within their reach?
All she has now with any certainty is the same stretch of road back and forth and back again, and the point outside Nishapur where she buried her husband too many years ago.
And certainty in herself.
When the new day begins, cold and clear, Nisa packs her new camel with her unsold goods—the same eastern silk unpicked and rewoven to a fine sheer veil as if it were something new—and joins the next caravan heading east to Bukhara.
There are half a hundred reasons why she’ll likely never see her stranger again. No matter. There’s no use waiting.
---
Original here.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/1968/10/08.htm
https://aklatangbayan.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/great-anti-imperialist-revolutionary-cause-of-asian-african-and-latin-america-peoples-is-invincible.pdf [PDF]
It is nearly a year now since Comrade Ernesto Che Guevara, an indomitable revolutionary fighter and a true internationalist champion bom of the Latin American people, died a heroic death on the battlefield of Bolivia. The Korean people, together with the revolutionary peoples throughout the world, are commemorating the first anniversary of the passing away of Comrade Che Guevara, with a burning hatred for the enemy and in deep grief.
Che Guevara took the path of the sacred struggle to bring freedom and liberation to the peoples, holding aloft the banner of anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. struggle early in his youthhood, and devoted his whole life to the revolutionary cause of the oppressed peoples.
Over a long period up to now since the curtain rose upon the prelude to the bloodstained history of modern bourgeoisie, in which the exploitation camouflaged by medieval religious and political illusions was replaced by a naked, shameless, direct and cruel one and man's dignity turned into an exchange value, numerous Communists and revolutionary fighters on the globe have shed their blood and laid down their lives in the midst of the revolutionary tempest to sweep away all that is obsolete and corrupt and reorganize the whole structure of society in a revolutionary way, to overthrow the upper strata of that cursed old society and prepare the cradle of free and happy, new society. Che Guevara dedicated his precious life to this sacred struggle and thus became an honourable member of the ranks of world revolutionary martyrs.
Che Guevara was an indefatigable revolutionary who was tireless in struggle and a true internationalist champion who was completely free from narrow nationalist sentiments. Throughout his life he showed a fine example of a steadfast revolutionary fighter and real internationalist.
Along with the Cuban revolutionaries led by Comrade Fidel Castro, Che Guevara unfolded a heroic armed struggle, thereby contributing greatly to crushing U.S. imperialism and the dictatorial regime of Batista, its lackey, and attaining the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. In 1965 Che Guevara, burning with revolutionary zeal, left the triumphant land of Cuba to move the arena of his struggle to a new outpost where manifold difficulties and stern trials awaited him. Everywhere he went in Latin America, he organized and mobilized the masses of the people to armed struggles against U.S. imperialism and its minions and fought bravely to the last moment of his life in the forefront.
The revolutionary activities of Che Guevara made a tremendous contribution to further consolidating the triumph of the Cuban Revolution and stepping up the advancement of the Latin American revolution as a whole.
The triumph of the Cuban Revolution is the first victory of the socialist revolution in Latin America and a continuation of the Great October Revolution in Latin America. With the Cuban Revolution emerging victorious, the Red banner of socialism now flies high over Latin America which was regarded as a hereditary estate of U.S. imperialism only until recently, and the socialist camp has extended to the Western Hemisphere and grown in strength a great deal. Today the Republic of Cuba which marches on firmly in the forefront of the Latin American revolution is the lighthouse of hope for the fighting Latin American peoples and throws the rays of victory on the road of their struggle. The triumph of the Cuban Revolution shook the colonial system of the U.S. imperialists to its very foundation in the Western Hemisphere and has thrown the whole Latin America into a revolutionary tempest, forcefully arousing the peoples in this area to the sacred struggle for independence and freedom. The triumph of the Cuban Revolution signified, indeed, the beginning of the disintegration of the U.S. imperialist system of colonial rule in Latin America, the stern judgment on U.S. imperialism which had exploited and oppressed the peoples in this area for a long period and its condemnation to ruin.
Consolidation of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution is not only an important problem which decides the life and death, the rise and fall of the Cuban people but also a key problem which sways the destinies of the general development of the Latin American revolution.
Revolution begins with brilliant successes in one country but undergoes a considerable period of painful throes. The countries whose proletariat has grasped power in the encirclement of international capitalism are not free from the danger of imperialist aggression and restoration of capitalism during the entire historical period of revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism. The overthrown exploiting classes always attempt to recover their lost positions and foreign imperialists incessantly engage in armed invasion and intrigues and manoeuvres for political and ideological subversion.
The U.S. imperialists and the reactionaries of Latin America deeply hate and fear the very existence of the Republic of Cuba and are manoeuvring stubbornly and maliciously to stifle it. They are working hard to get rid of the Cuban Revolution so as to drive out the "spectre" of Communism haunting the Western Hemisphere and check the liberation struggle of the peoples which envelops Latin America like a prairie fire. While scheming to strangle Cuba by directly mobilizing then- armed forces, the U.S. imperialists are instigating the reactionary Latin American regimes of dictatorship under their domination and subjugation to bring political and economic pressure to bear upon Cuba in order to suffocate her with the policy of blockade.
For the attainment of the ultimate victory of the revolution, the peoples who have gained power in the encirclement of international capital, while reinforcing their own internal forces in every way, should receive solid support from other detachments of the world socialist revolution and should receive broad international assistance from the working classes of all lands and the oppressed peoples of the whole world. In other words, revolutions should take place consecutively in the majority of countries of the world, in several adjacent countries at the least, to replace imperialist encirclement with socialist encirclement, the barriers of imperialism that surround a socialist country should be torn down to open the path of turning the dictatorship of the proletariat into a world-wide system and an end should be put to the isolation of the socialist fortress of one country in the encirclement to form the strong ties of militant solidarity of the international working classes and the oppressed peoples of the world. Only then will it be possible to prevent completely armed intervention by the imperialists and their attempt to restore capitalism, and say that the ultimate victory of socialism has been secured.
As the forces of capital are international, so the liberation struggle of the peoples is an international movement. The revolutionary movements in individual countries are national movements, and constitute part of the world revolution at the same time. The revolutionary struggles of the peoples in all countries have the relationship of supporting and complementing each other and join together in one stream of world revolution. The revolution which has emerged victorious should assist the revolutions of those countries which are not yet triumphant with its experiences and examples and render active support to the liberation struggle of the world's peoples with its political, economic and military power, while the peoples in the countries which have not yet won the revolutions should struggle more actively to defend the victorious revolutions of other countries against the imperialist policy of strangulation and hasten victory for their own revolutions. This is the law of the development of the world revolutionary movement and the excellent tradition already formed in the course of the people's liberation struggle.
The Cuban Revolution is an organic part of the world revolution and, particularly, constitutes the decisive link in the chain of the revolution in Latin America. To defend the Cuban Revolution and to consolidate and follow up its victories is not only the duty of the Cuban people but also the internationalist obligation of the oppressed peoples of Latin America and all the revolutionary peoples of the world. Just as the defence of the gains of the October Revolution in Russia which made the first breach in the world capitalist system was an important question decisive of the fate of the development of the world revolution, so the defence of the gains of the Cuban Revolution which made the first breach in the colonial system of U.S. imperialism in Latin America is an important question decisive of the fate of the Latin American revolution.
It is of great importance for the defence of the Cuban Revolution to advance the revolutionary movement in those Latin American countries neighbouring on Cuba. If the fierce flames of revolution flare up in many countries of Latin America where U.S. imperialism sets foot, the force of U.S. imperialism will be dispersed and sapped as much and the attempts of the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys to strangle Cuba by concentrated force will inevitably fall through. Further, if the revolution emerges victorious in some other Latin American countries, Cuba will get out of the encircling ring of imperialism with which she is confronted on all sides, there will be opened up a favourable phase in the revolutions of Cuba and Latin America, and the world revolution will be stepped up still more.
For a revolution to take place, the subjective and objective situation should be created for it. The revolution in each country should be carried out to suit the specific realities, in which the objective revolutionary situation is created. This, however, by no means signifies that the revolution can develop or ripen of itself. The revolution can always be advanced and brought to maturity only through an active and hard struggle of the revolutionaries. If an active struggle is neglected, only waiting for a favourable situation to arise by reason of the arduousness of the revolution, revolutionary forces cannot be fostered. Revolutionary forces cannot be prepared spontaneously without any struggle, they can be fostered and strengthened only through a hard struggle. If preparations are not made to meet the decisive hour of the revolution by preserving the revolutionary forces against the enemy's suppression and, at the same time, constantly accumulating and building them up through a positive struggle, it will be impossible to win victory in the revolution even when the objective situation has been created. To turn away from the revolution on the pretext of avoiding sacrifices is in fact tantamount to forcing the people to remain in lifelong slavery to capital, forcing them to tolerate for ever the cruel exploitation and oppression, unbearable maltreatment and humiliation, enormous sufferings and sacrifices. In general the acute pain experienced at a revolutionary turning-point is always much easier to endure than the chronic pain caused by the ulcers of old society. The social revolution cannot be achieved as easily as proceeding along a royal road in full daylight, nor can it progress as smoothly as a boat sailing before the wind. On the path of revolution, there may be rough thorny bushes and turns and twists, and there may be temporary setbacks and partial sacrifices. To flinch before difficulties and to hesitate in the revolution for fear of sacrifices is not the attitude befitting a revolutionary.
It is the task for the revolutionaries of each country to lay down a scientifically-motivated, careful way of struggle on the basis of a correct assessment of the internal and external situation and a proper calculation of the balance of forces between friend and foe, accumulate and build up the revolutionary forces by rearing the nuclear elements and awakening the masses of the people in the trying crucible of the revolution, unfolding an active struggle and yet going around the snags and avoiding unnecessary sacrifices at ordinary times, and make full preparations to meet the great revolutionary event. And once the revolutionary situation is created, they should not miss the opportunity to rise without delay in a showdown to shatter the reactionary regime.
The forms and methods of revolutionary struggle, too, are determined not by the wishes of individuals, but on all accounts by the subjective and objective situation created and the resistance of the reactionary ruling classes. The revolutionaries should stand prepared for all forms of struggle, and should effectively advance the revolutionary movement by properly combining various forms and methods of struggle such as political and economic struggles, violent and nonviolent struggles, legal and illegal struggles.
Counter-revolutionary violence is an indispensable means of rule for all exploiting classes. Human history not yet knows an instance of any ruling class submissively turning over its supremacy, or an instance of any reactionary class meekly waiving its power without resorting to counter-revolutionary violence. In particular, the imperialists cling ever more desperately to violent means to maintain their rule as they approach nearer to their doom. The imperialists, while suppressing the peoples of their own countries, check all the revolutionary advance of the oppressed nations in a sanguinary way with their military forces for aggression and plunder against other countries.
In these conditions, the liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples cannot emerge victorious without using revolutionary violence to crush foreign imperialists and overthrow the reactionary dictatorial machinery of the exploiting classes at home that work hand in glove with them. It is imperative to meet violence with violence and crush counter-revolutionary armed forces with revolutionary armed forces. The revolutionary flames now raging furiously in Latin America are the natural outcome of the revolutionary situation created in this area.
The absolute majority of the Latin American countries have been placed under the complete domination and bondage of U.S. imperialism. Pro-U.S. dictatorships have been established in many Latin American countries and the economy of these countries has been turned completely into an appendage to the U.S. monopolies. The U.S. imperialists' policy of aggression and plunder towards Latin America constitutes the major fetters impeding social progress in this area, and has plunged its peoples in unbearable mishaps and distress. The U.S. imperialists and the pro-U.S. dictatorships in Latin America extensively set up various repressive apparatuses including the army and police and suppress all forms of revolutionary advance of the people in a most brutal way.
It is obvious that unless the ill-clad and hungry, oppressed and humiliated people in Latin America bravely rise in arms in the struggle against the oppressors, they cannot attain freedom and liberation.
It is quite justifiable and admirable that under the banner of proletarian internationalism, under the banner of anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. struggle, Che Guevara, together with Latin American revolutionaries, unfolded an active, heroic revolutionary struggle in various Latin American countries with arms in his hands in defiance of sacrifice in order to defend the Cuban Revolution and hasten the day of liberation for the oppressed peoples in this area. The revolutionary peoples of the whole world express deep sympathy with the brave act of Che Guevara who waged a heroic armed struggle together with Latin American revolutionaries. The brilliant example of Che Guevara is a paragon not only for the Latin American peoples in their revolutionary struggle but for the Asian and African peoples in their liberation struggle, and inspires them to heroic exploits.
Che .Guevara is not with us now. But the blood he shed will never be wasted. His name and the everlasting revolutionary exploits he performed will go down for ever in the history of liberation of mankind and his lofty revolutionary spirit will be immortal. There will appear thousands of, tens of thousands of Che Guevaras on the scene of decisive battle in the revolutionary struggle in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and the revolutionary cause which he left unaccomplished will surely be achieved by the struggle of the Latin American revolutionaries and the revolutionary peoples the world over.
Today Asia, Africa and Latin America have become the most fierce anti-imperialist front. Imperialism has met with the strong resistance of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples and suffered the heaviest blows from them. Nevertheless, imperialism is desperately trying to maintain its old footing and regain its lost positions in those areas.
The cause of liberation of the peoples in Asia, Africa and Latin America has not been completed. So long as imperialism exists on the globe and oppresses and plunders the people, the people cannot leave off the anti-imperialist struggle even a moment. The struggle must continue till all shades of colonialism are wiped off the face of the earth once and for all, till all the oppressed and humiliated nations build their independent states and achieve social progress and national- prosperity.
Imperialism will never give up its rule over colonial and dependent countries before it is kicked out. It is in the nature of imperialism to perpetrate aggression and plunder. If there ever is imperialism which is not aggressive, it is no longer imperialism. Imperialism will not change its aggressive nature before it dies. That is why one should dispel all illusions about imperialism and fight it out. Only when a. principled stand is maintained against imperialism and a staunch anti-imperialist struggle intensified, can the oppressed nations win freedom and independence and the liberated peoples check imperialist aggression, consolidate national independence and achieve prosperity for their countries and nations.
U.S. imperialism is the most barbarous and most heinous imperialism of modern times, and it is the chieftain of world imperialism. It is not the Asian and Latin American countries or the African countries alone that have their sovereignty and territories infringed upon by U.S. imperialism or are under the menace of U.S. imperialist aggression. There is no place on the earth to which U.S. imperialism has not stretched out its tentacles of aggression, and where U.S. imperialism sets foot the people always shed blood. The U.S. imperialists pursue the invariable aim to put the whole world under their control. It is to realize this aim that the U.S. imperialists incessantly perpetrate armed invasion and subversive activities against the socialist and newly-independent countries, and brutally suppress the liberation struggle of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. This wild aggressive design of U.S. imperialism must be frustrated decisively. It is clear that world peace cannot be safeguarded, nor can national liberation and independence or the victory of democracy and socialism be achieved, apart from the struggle against U.S. imperialism. To fight U.S. imperialism is the inescapable common duty and the first and foremost revolutionary task for all the peoples of the world.
For the successful defeat of U.S. imperialism, it is necessary to penetrate into its world strategy thoroughly.
The basic strategy of U.S. imperialism for world aggression at the present stage is to destroy by force of arms the small and divided revolutionary socialist countries and newly- independent countries one by one, while refraining from worsening its relations with big powers and shunning confrontation with them as far as possible and to intensify ideological and political offensive against, and subvert from within, those countries which are weak ideologically and not willing to make revolution but spread illusion about imperialism among the people clamouring only for unprincipled coexistence with imperialism, and desire to live on good terms with imperialism.
On the basis of this world strategy, the U.S. imperialists are increasing their armaments extensively and further reinforcing their military bases and aggressive military alliances to attack the socialist and the progressive countries. The U.S. imperialists have openly embarked on "local war" and "special war" in Viet Nam and some other places, while preparing total war and nuclear war on a large scale.
Simultaneously with this, the U.S. imperialists resort to a new form of cold war to encourage "liberalization" and "democratic development" in certain countries, while running wild to bribe and make a cat's-paw of the cowards within the ranks of the working-class movement who are afraid of revolution. They clamour for the "most favoured nation" treatment and the expansion of the "East-West contact and interchange" and, with this as a means, seek to infiltrate their reactionary ideology and culture to degrade the peoples ideologically, hamper economic development and thus undermine those countries from within. The imperialists are carrying out sabotage and subversive intrigues to tear the newly- independent states away from the anti-imperialist front one by one. While resorting to force overtly, they penetrate into the newly-independent countries with "aid" as a bait and meddle in their internal affairs. The U.S. imperialists whip together the right-wing reactionaries and pit them against the progressive forces, and seek to sway certain newly-independent countries to the road of counter-revolution.
Namely, wielding an olive branch in one hand and arrows in the other, the U.S. imperialists manoeuvre to swallow up the revolutionary countries one by one through armed aggression and subvert the ideologically weak countries through ideological and cultural aggression, combining nuclear blackmail with "peaceful penetration" and repression with appeasement and deception.
The peoples of the whole world should maintain sharpest vigilance against such intrigues and manoeuvres by U.S. imperialism and should be fully prepared to counter enemy's possible aggression of all forms.
In order to develop the anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. struggle vigorously, it is important to cement to the maximum the militant unity of all areas, all countries, all parties, all people and all forces opposing imperialism.
The revolutionary struggles of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples go on closely linked with each other for the community of their desires and aspirations. When Latin America groans under imperialist yoke, the Asian and African peoples cannot live in peace and when U.S. imperialism collapses in the Asian and African areas, a favourable phase will be created for the national-liberation movement of the Latin American peoples, too. The militant unity and close ties of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples will multiply the anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. revolutionary forces several times, scores of times and will become an invincible force which can frustrate successfully the aggression of the imperialists and the united front of international reaction. Therefore, the peoples in all regions where U.S. imperialism is entrenched should pool their strength and strike it hard.
In Asia, Africa and Latin America there are socialist and neutral countries, and big and small countries. All these countries except the puppet regimes of the imperialists and their satellite states constitute anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. forces. Despite the differences of state socio-political systems, political views and religious beliefs, the peoples of the countries in these areas, as the oppressed nations who were suppressed and exploited by the imperialists and colonialists, have the common goal and aspiration to achieve national independence and national prosperity against imperialism and old and new colonialism. The differences of state socio-political systems, political views or religious beliefs can by no means be an obstacle in the way of joint struggle against U.S. imperialism. All countries should form an anti-imperialist united front and take anti-U.S. joint action to crush the common enemy and attain the common goal.
True, there may be various categories of people among those who oppose imperialism. Some may be active against imperialism, others may vacillate in the anti-imperialist struggle, and still others may join in the anti-imperialist struggle reluctantly under the pressure from their own people and the peoples of the world. But, whatever their motives, it is necessary to enlist all these forces except the henchmen of imperialism in the anti-U.S. joint struggle. If more forces, though inconsistent and unsteady, are drawn into the anti-U.S. joint struggle to isolate U.S. imperialism to the largest possible extent and deal blows to it by joint action, that will be a good thing and by no means a bad thing. Those who avoid the anti-imperialist struggle should be induced to turn out in the struggle against imperialism and those who are passive encouraged to be positive in the anti-imperialist struggle. To split the anti-U.S. united front or reject the anti-U.S. joint action will only bring a serious consequence of weakening the anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. struggle.
To fight down U.S. imperialism, all countries, big and small, should strike blows at U.S. imperialism. Particularly important here is that small countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America should give up flunkeyism tended to rely on big powers and take an active part in the anti-U.S. struggle. It is wrong to think that U.S. imperialism cannot be beaten down unless big countries fight it. It would be better certainly if big countries join small countries in fighting against U.S. imperialism. That is why small countries should endeavour to unite with big countries. But, this is by no means to say that no country, unless it is big, can fight and defeat U.S. imperialism. It is too obvious that one cannot make revolution if he depends on big countries and sits idle and that others cannot make revolution for him. Even small countries can defeat big enemy, once they establish Juche, unite the masses of the people and valiantly rise in battle despite sacrifice. This is a very plain truth of our times which has been borne out by actual life.
The experience of the Korean war proved this truth, and the triumph of the Cuban Revolution and the heroic war of resistance of the Vietnamese people against U.S. imperialism and for national salvation have proved this truth.
Moreover, when many countries, though small, pool their strength to fight imperialism, the peoples will be able to beat the enemy however strong he may be, with a decisively overwhelming force. The peoples of the countries making revolution should join efforts to tear left and right arms from U.S, imperialism, tear off its left and right legs and behead it eventually everywhere it stretches out its crooked hands of aggression. The U.S. imperialists are bluffing now, but when the revolutionary peoples of the world join in mutilating them, the U.S. imperialists will become impotent and bite the dust in the end. We small nations should unite and counter the strategy of U.S. imperialism to swallow us up one by one, each chopping off its head and limbs. Such, it can be said, is the strategy of struggle for small countries to defeat U.S. imperialism.
The Korean people have fought against the occupation of South Korea by the U.S. imperialists and for the unification of the country for more than 20 years. The Korean Revolution is part of the international revolutionary movement, and the revolutionary/struggle of the Korean people is developing amid the joint struggle of the peoples of the whole world for peace and democracy, for national independence and socialism. The Korean people are fighting to accomplish their cause of national liberation and, at the same time, are doing everything in their power to accelerate the advancement of the international revolutionary movement as a whole. Our people unite with all forces opposing U.S. imperialism and consistently support the peoples of all the countries in their struggle against U.S. imperialism. We regard it as an important factor in bringing victory to the Korean Revolution.
Imperialism is a moribund force whose days are numbered, whereas the liberation struggle of the peoples is a new force which aspires for the progress of mankind. There may be uncountable difficulties and obstacles and various turns and twists on the way of the liberation struggle of the peoples, but it is the inevitable law of the development of history that imperialism is doomed to ruin and the liberation struggle of the peoples is sure to be crowned with victory. Though the imperialists headed by U.S. imperialism are running amuck in an attempt to check the surging liberation struggle of the peoples, it is nothing but the death-bed tremor of those who are condemned to destruction. The more frenziedly the U.S. imperialists act, the more difficult their position becomes. U.S. imperialism is going downhill and confronted with the fate of a setting sun. The U.S. imperialists will definitely be forced out of Asia, Africa and Latin America by the liberation struggle of the peoples. The great anti-imperialist revolutionary cause of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples is invincible.

Sharing my story to spread awareness as well as expressing my frustrations with the mental health care system in my area as an Autistic female. This is only based on my personal experience so please know that I'm aware that not every location/program/person is the same and each person's experience is unique to them. This is a long read so feel free to skip to bottom for TLDR.

• TW- mention of SH and SI.

I recently spent 3 months in two different hospitals after a breakdown during a mental health crisis. I was eventually transferred from the initial hospital psych ward to another inpatient hospitalization program that was supposedly geared towards helping people with "complex mental health issues." I was told that this was a great program that could help me as they offered therapeutic groups and specialized in mental health conditions such as Autism. During my experiences at BOTH hospitals I was continuously baffled by the lack of knowledge that many of the doctors and nurses had about autism. This post will focus on the Psych Ward experience.
The Psych Ward
Being admitted to a hospital can be very traumatic for anyone but even more so for an Autistic person. From the very beginning I felt shocked by the amount of doctors and nurses (I've met) who seem to lack a lot of knowledge and understanding of autism. Despite explaining that I was autistic, many still didn't understand my stimming/self soothing bvrs (and how they were escalating due to overstimulation). Instead I was heavily medicated/sedated right from the beginning and throughout my experience at both hospitals. (Level of medication depended on severity of stimming/meltdown as well as how uncomfortable it seemed to make others feel).
The psych ward is basically a waiting room/limbo for medication experiments. I felt like a lab rat as they tried to attach different diagnoses to me despite all of those labels tying into the one huge explaination: autism, burnout, trauma, eating disorder, depression/anxiety etc. All these mental health conditions interact, it's all interconnected.
Instead of being able to speak with someone who knows about autism I kept being giving different med cocktails and experienced many side effects.
Examples: -Oh you want to end your existence as you're struggling to function in a capitalistic society where we are slowly destroying our planet? Here let's take a med so you're too numb/tired to notice anymore. - Oh you keep having repetitive thoughts/words? Lets try an antipsychotic for intrusive thoughts. - Anxious and agitated from overstimulation in a place that has people screaming, alarms/phones ringing bright lights and being confined to 2 crowded hallways... Have a med! - Oh ADHD too? Let's up your dose since you're so tired and unable to function as a side effect of all the other meds you're on! - Oh she keeps walking in circles and humming, let's give her that anxiety med again she's agitated. - She keeps sensory seeking through self harm and using it as a coping tool for overstimulation? must still be depressed, let's up her dose! - She's having a public meltdown and is inconsolable! Let's inject her with a sedative to help everyone else feel comfortable and safe. - Still struggling with suicidal ideation and repetitive thoughts, switch the med! Keep her longer!
What helped me during my stay was doing puzzles for hours, but I got extremely triggered over missing pieces or when other people interfered. Having a meltdown over a puzzle was what led me to my first encounter of trying to help a kind nurse understand my autism experience.
This meltdown had confused her but she still wanted to help. After I explained a bit about autism she was so understanding and even asked questions in regards to how she can better help me (or future autistic patients) and further her level of understanding. Later that day she brought me brand new unopened puzzles and wrote on my file that I would be allowed to work on puzzles in my room alone! This accomodation became my new coping skill and hyperfixation.
That particular experience left me inspired and curious to see how familiar other nurses/dr.'s were with the autism spectrum and how it appears differently on an individual basis. Each day/night nurses rotated shifts and we frequently had different nurses who didn't know us yet. I found myself explaining my autism, triggers, and support needs (helpful vs not helpful) to each one of them.
Everytime I had a new nurse my first question would be, "do you know much about autism?". A few of them did know a bit, some would say they knew someone with autism (I even met a nurse who was also autistic which brought me so much comfort!). Often times though nurses would admit they didn't know much about it or only knew what autism looked like in kids. This was pretty shocking to me, how could so many of these professionals in the mental health field not even know much about autism?! Is my brain really that different or hard to understand?
It felt like most of them were familiar with and prepared to "help" with all the other mental health conditions/diagnoses EXCEPT for (something as simple as) autism. (I know autism is complex but so are many of the other conditions!) So many of the healthcare professionals I met seemed to have a very limited understanding of it. Like wait, what medication do we give for that?!
I made an experiment out of my whole hospital experience. I met many student nurses and I asked them if they were learning about autism in school and most of them said "no not really." I told them how beneficial it could be to learn more about it because so many people are autistic including patients like me in the psych ward. Patients that keep getting misdiagnosed and medicated for the wrong things because no one seems to know the signs to look for. If there was more of an understanding of Autism, accomodations could be made rather than constantly medicating and potentially making things worse.
I spent 4 weeks in the Psych Ward and I watched so many patients come and go. The doctor was frustrated because the meds weren't working and she realized I was right about her misdiagnosing me. She finally acknowledged my autism and admitted she didn't know much about it or how to help me. She then referred me to another program that she claimed "specializes in complex mental health issues including Autism". After having to wait in the psych ward for a bed to become available at the other hospital I was finally transferred. I had high hopes of finally finding the help I had been seeking in an environment that was supportive and understanding.
Spoiler alert. The program was not in fact helpful and I strongly disagree that they "specialize" in conditions such as Autism. Spent 2 months there and left feeling frustrated and discouraged about the lack of resources available for autism (in my area).
TDLR- 4 weeks in psych ward. (Many) Health care professionals had very limited understanding of autism. Misdiagnosed, Autism went unacknowledged, stims medicated & misunderstood. Failed med cocktails led to Dr. admitting she didn't know much about autism and couldn't help. Transferred to another hospitalization program that supposedly specialized in Autism. ***spoiler, program wasn't helpful and staff STILL didn't seem to be very knowledgeable about Autism.
Again for emphasis; every location, facility, individual, and experience can vary. This was only my personal experience.

I just ordered some HXE among other things and decided to attempt to make a solution in bacteriostatic water at 100mg/ml concentration. It turns out that no matter how long I wait, shake, stir, and let the container sit in a hot water bath it will not dissolve whatsoever and just results in a foamy heterogeneous mixture. I tried doubling the amount of liquid, to attempt to get it to disolve at 50mg/ml and the result is the same. After letting it sit for a day the powder mostly settled down at the bottom of the bottle, so I'll just decant as much liquid as I can and leave the rest to dry out. So, lesson learned: Don't try and put your HXE into solution; oral and insufflation administration are the way to go.

I just ordered some HXE among other things and decided to attempt to make a solution in bacteriostatic water at 100mg/ml concentration. It turns out that no matter how long I wait, shake, stir, and let the container sit in a hot water bath it will not dissolve whatsoever and just results in a foamy heterogeneous mixture. I tried doubling the amount of liquid, to attempt to get it to disolve at 50mg/ml and the result is the same.
After letting it sit for a day the powder mostly settled down at the bottom of the bottle, so I'll just decant as much liquid as I can and leave the rest to dry out. So, lesson learned: Don't try and put your HXE into solution; oral and insufflation administration are the way to go.

I stared up at the magazine cut out of a Maxim model that was crudely pasted on the underside of the top bunk. Her pert breast shimmied ever so slightly as Pete tossed and turned above.
She was platinum blonde with legs long enough to wrap around me twice. Or so the camera angle made it seem. I felt a stirring below, that yearning for a woman’s touch… which I hadn’t felt in six years, three months, and eleven days.
I rolled to my side, stifling it. It was the wrong time to seek out an orgasm, and I knew after the release I’d just spiral into self-loathing anyway. I focused on a crack in the cinder block until my eyelids became heavy.
Static pushed the thought of women from my mind as I slipped into sleep. The smell of cigars and oil flitted through my mind in a memory. My dad’s repair shop. The one I was meant to take over, before the arrest…
------
“Aaaarrgghh!”
A cry echoing from somewhere deep within the prison startled me awake. My heart thundered in my chest like a rabbit thrashing against its cage.
I rolled over to see Pete crouching low, his face pressed against the bars.
“What’s going on?” I croaked.
“They’re taking Benny.” He whispered.
“Fuck, really?” I pulled myself to the top corner of my mattress, just enough to peer around the edge of the bars.
Two guards wrestled the young latino onto a gurney as a man in a lab coat watched from a distance. He fought against them but it was futile. Once the straps were locked in he screamed once more, pleading for help.
Dozens of eyes watched from dim lit cells, none of which stirring to offer assistance in the slightest. We knew there was no helping him. We knew what happened next…
His cries were muffled as the doctor jammed a syringe into the base of his neck. Benny’s muscles tensed and pulsed in the fit of a seizure, but then lay still. The cell block was silent once more as they wheeled him down the hall and into the catacombs.
I did a cross over myself but didn’t bother to pray. Once they took them, they never came back.
“A damn shame…” I muttered.
“Yeah, he was a good kid…” Pete stood and leapt back onto the top bunk.
A fire burned in my chest. I wanted to say something. To cry out about the injustice of what was happening to us. That committing a crime shouldn’t damn a man to whatever terrible fate they had instore for us below three feet of steel and a quarter mile of dirt.
But I didn’t… What good could it do? Other than drawing attention to me in a very negative way.
Once they took you to the lab, you were never seen again.
All you could do was hope that your number was never called, and that you got out of here before they visited your cell late into the night.
—-----
87…88…89…90…
My chest was on fire as sweat dripped from the tip of my nose. I couldn’t go back to sleep last night. Kept thinking about Benny.
91…92…93…
So began the push-ups. It was the only way to clear my head.
94…95…96…
My therapy.
97…98…99…100.
I rolled to my back, out of breath.
Three years, six months and change.
So much time left to go.
Benny had only been here for a little over a year. It made no sense…
None of us could figure out exactly why they took who they took. There seemed to be no method to the madness.
Just a couple weeks ago they took old man Tom Finch. He’d been here longer than any of us. A lifer on the account of premeditated murder back in the 70s. But they didn’t come for him until he’d served most of his adult life behind bars.
The red beacon suddenly swirled above. A buzzing sound hummed as the cell doors clicked and slid open.
Breakfast.
—----
I pulled my tray along the bar to be loaded with oats, powdered eggs and bread.
Meager rations.
I grabbed a small carton of milk and made my way over to sit with Pete. He was already nibbling on his toast while perusing a crossword puzzle.
We exchanged nods and I went to devouring the entirety of my plate.
Calories build muscle after all.
Which was something Pete had no interest in. He was a bookworm through and through. Rail thin too. When we’d met, I’d assumed it was from the drug problem he’d had on the outside, which ultimately landed him in incarceration. But come to find out it was just his metabolism and general lack of appetite.
“John…” He whispered.
I looked up from my feast.
He was looking to the corner of the cafeteria and I followed his gaze to see two men in lab coats surveying the crowd.
I grunted and squeezed the handle of my fork until my knuckles went white. The impulse of burying it into their throats was almost overwhelming.
“Their activity has been ramping up.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been seeing them much more frequently as of late. They must be close to a breakthrough.”
“Breakthrough of what?” I furrowed my brow.
“Who knows? Whatever it is they are doing down there. They’ve been taking us more often as well.”
Pete sighed at the twist of confusion on my face.
“Think about it… Benny last night, then Tom two weeks before that. Then Eric ten days before that, and Deonte maybe three weeks prior. It’s never been that close together. Until recently, they only came perhaps once every other month. Sometimes only once a season.”
Shit… he was right. I hadn’t realized it before.
“So what does that mean?” I asked, shoving another hunk of egg into my mouth.
“I have no idea. But I’d say our odds of survival have been reduced dramatically.”
—-----
Pete might as well have been an oracle, peering into our grim and desolate future.
Over the next several months we started seeing the lab coats weekly. Sometimes even more often than that.
The prison yard felt empty. Sure there were still plenty of us left, but our population had been noticeably trimmed. One gang in particular only had two members left, which didn’t bode well for them. The others slowly circled them like sharks. I had no affiliation with any of them and kept to myself. But still, I could see their fate a mile away.
Although, despite the business as usual dog eat dog atmosphere, there was an undercurrent of fear rippling through the general pop. You could smell it, like a scent of decay and desperation. Hard faces that had once promised violence, now almost flinched around every corner and jumped at each shadow.
The energy of a couple of hundred men that felt like an animal backed into a corner was palpable.
But what could we do?
I didn’t know but I sure wish someone would tell me… I threw myself into my workouts and Pete hardly ever looked up from a book. Escapism was our only reprieve.
I went to bed with a prayer on my lips, hoping I wouldn’t hear those iron bars moving in the late hours of the night.
—-----
A loud clanking followed by footsteps pulled me from sleep.
I squeezed my eyes tightly shut hoping it was the cell next to mine.
But it wasn’t…
Three guards hovered behind a fourth that was unlocking our cell. The bars clicked and began to slide open.
I jumped to my feet and backed up against the wall. I pulled my fists up into a boxing stance, I wasn’t going to go without a fight. My muscles tensed and flexed like coiled steel.
“In the corner inmate! We’re here for your cellmate.” A short and stocky corrections officer barked with his hand gripping the baton at his waist.
Pete squirmed into a ball at the corner of his mat and looked at me with wide, pleading eyes.
I put my face in the opposite corner as instructed. A mixture of fear and relief roiled in my gut, and I hated myself for it. It made me feel like a coward.
“No, no, no, no, no!” I heard Pete squeal from behind as guards flooded the cell.
I peaked over my shoulder and watched as they pried him from the top bunk. Pete tried to resist, but there was nothing to him. A bag of bones that they easily wrestled down.
That same fire ignited in my chest. Anger washed over me, cleansing away the cowardice. For God’s sake, he was my only friend.
All I could see was red.
I spun around bringing the back of my fist across a guard’s face, shattering the bridge of his nose. Blood spurted from it as he dropped Pete’s legs.
With a giant step forward I brought an uppercut into the portly officer’s abdomen, dropping him like a ton of bricks.
I shoved a third into the corner, pinning him there as I screamed for Pete to run. He scampered out the opening and the last thing I heard were his footfalls as a baton smashed across the back of my skull. Everything went black before I even hit the ground.
—-----
I spent a month in solitary.
The room was so small it should have been inhumane to house a human being inside of it.
Still… I made the best of it with dips, pushups and situps. Countless reps of them. It was all I could do.
Some mornings I’d wake up with horrible migraines. I assumed it was a slight concussion from the impact of the baton.
I only hoped Pete could have somehow made it out. But somewhere deep down I knew that would have been impossible. Hopefully he at least gave them some hell before they took him below.
I stopped praying before bed. It didn’t seem like it did any good.
If there was a God, he didn’t exist inside these walls.
We were abandoned.
The unheard.
—-------
When I finally got back to my cell it had been emptied of everything. Pete’s books, artwork from his niece and even my Maxim cutout.
Just like he’d never existed. My heart sunk at the sight.
Later that day I’d learned from others that he had been captured just moments after escaping the cell.
But our actions weren’t wasted in vain.
We were the first to fight back against the abduction and it sparked something in the others.
They started talks of an uprising a few weeks back. A prison riot.
They even had a guard on the inside. C.O. Matthews. He was a very religious man and was just as horrified by what was happening as we were and had been looking for a way to help.
“It’s going down tonight John, just before lights out. Be ready.” Jerry whispered at the picnic table.
I gave a nod that I understood and headed off for my daily jog around the courts.
It wasn’t about getting out. Getting free. That wasn’t going to happen. It was about sending a message.
I let my mind go blank, filling with static as I enjoyed what could be my last day outside.
—------
The beacon swirled overhead in the common area.
“Inmates to their cells. Lights out.” The intercom buzzed.
There were over fifty men in cell block B, and not a single one of us moved.
The voice on the intercom repeated himself angrily as guards began to shuffle in closer. Nods passed like dominoes from one inmate to the next. We were ready.
“Get to your cell inmate.” a guard growled as he clamped his hands down on my shoulders.
I threw an elbow behind me into his groin, he howled in pain as he hit the floor. The other inmates sprung to their feet and flew off from their leaning places to join in the brawl.
Fists, feet and batons flew wildly across the cell block as we engaged in war with the uniformed officers.
I grappled with one until I was able to submit him in a choke until he went limp in my arms.
I stomped another in the face, spilling blood and brains on the concrete floor.
It had looked like we were winning until they sent the special response team in. We formed a line, many of us battered and bloody, in front of the row of riot shields.
We waited for their charge for what felt like an eternity.
But suddenly they backed out from where they’d come and slid the cell block doors closed.
What the hell…
The red beacon swirled once again overhead as a clicking sounded out behind us.
The rear entrance that the lab coats had always used swung open. I spun around to see…
“Mary, mother of God.” I gasped.
It was Pete…
But there was something horribly wrong with him.
His skin clung loosely to his body and had a terrible jaundice looking hue to it. His eyes almost seemed to glow and his hands… they were impossibly large like contorted branches.
I held my hand up to my mouth in disbelief.
A scientist stepped out from behind him.
“As you can see, we have a few kinks left to iron out, but we are making great progress. Would you all care to see what he can do?” He looked into each of our eyes inquisitively.
“If you don’t, head back to your cells now. You have ten seconds and then I shall release him.”
It was so silent you could hear a pin drop. But a violent and hungry energy filled the room, emanating from what used to be my friend.
Suddenly, over half the remaining inmates bolted for their cells out of fear. Not that I could blame them, my knees wobbled and threatened to buckle just at the sight of him.
But I stood my ground, as did a handful of others.
“Very well then. Specimen 3-1-0, engage.”
A growl reverberated through the cell block.
“Everyone rush him at once! It’s our only shot.” I hollered.
And we did, but it didn’t matter. It happened so fast. It was over before I could even comprehend it.
He moved like an animal, picking each of us apart almost in unison.
I lay on my back, unable to feel my legs as I watched Jerry be disemboweled. He was trying to shove his intestines back inside the tear in his abdomen before the creature came back to finish him off.
I did a cross over myself but didn’t bother to pray.
As Pete stood over me, with dead eyes, I knew there was no God.
He didn’t exist inside these walls.
We were abandoned.
The unheard.

I stared up at the magazine cut out of a Maxim model that was crudely pasted on the underside of the top bunk. Her pert breast shimmied ever so slightly as Pete tossed and turned above.
She was platinum blonde with legs long enough to wrap around me twice. Or so the camera angle made it seem. I felt a stirring below, that yearning for a woman’s touch… which I hadn’t felt in six years, three months, and eleven days.
I rolled to my side, stifling it. It was the wrong time to seek out an orgasm, and I knew after the release I’d just spiral into self-loathing anyway. I focused on a crack in the cinder block until my eyelids became heavy.
Static pushed the thought of women from my mind as I slipped into sleep. The smell of cigars and oil flitted through my mind in a memory. My dad’s repair shop. The one I was meant to take over, before the arrest…
------
“Aaaarrgghh!”
A cry echoing from somewhere deep within the prison startled me awake. My heart thundered in my chest like a rabbit thrashing against its cage.
I rolled over to see Pete crouching low, his face pressed against the bars.
“What’s going on?” I croaked.
“They’re taking Benny.” He whispered.
“Fuck, really?” I pulled myself to the top corner of my mattress, just enough to peer around the edge of the bars.
Two guards wrestled the young latino onto a gurney as a man in a lab coat watched from a distance. He fought against them but it was futile. Once the straps were locked in he screamed once more, pleading for help.
Dozens of eyes watched from dim lit cells, none of which stirring to offer assistance in the slightest. We knew there was no helping him. We knew what happened next…
His cries were muffled as the doctor jammed a syringe into the base of his neck. Benny’s muscles tensed and pulsed in the fit of a seizure, but then lay still. The cell block was silent once more as they wheeled him down the hall and into the catacombs.
I did a cross over myself but didn’t bother to pray. Once they took them, they never came back.
“A damn shame…” I muttered.
“Yeah, he was a good kid…” Pete stood and leapt back onto the top bunk.
A fire burned in my chest. I wanted to say something. To cry out about the injustice of what was happening to us. That committing a crime shouldn’t damn a man to whatever terrible fate they had instore for us below three feet of steel and a quarter mile of dirt.
But I didn’t… What good could it do? Other than drawing attention to me in a very negative way.
Once they took you to the lab, you were never seen again.
All you could do was hope that your number was never called, and that you got out of here before they visited your cell late into the night.
—-----
87…88…89…90…
My chest was on fire as sweat dripped from the tip of my nose. I couldn’t go back to sleep last night. Kept thinking about Benny.
91…92…93…
So began the push-ups. It was the only way to clear my head.
94…95…96…
My therapy.
97…98…99…100.
I rolled to my back, out of breath.
Three years, six months and change.
So much time left to go.
Benny had only been here for a little over a year. It made no sense…
None of us could figure out exactly why they took who they took. There seemed to be no method to the madness.
Just a couple weeks ago they took old man Tom Finch. He’d been here longer than any of us. A lifer on the account of premeditated murder back in the 70s. But they didn’t come for him until he’d served most of his adult life behind bars.
The red beacon suddenly swirled above. A buzzing sound hummed as the cell doors clicked and slid open.
Breakfast.
—----
I pulled my tray along the bar to be loaded with oats, powdered eggs and bread.
Meager rations.
I grabbed a small carton of milk and made my way over to sit with Pete. He was already nibbling on his toast while perusing a crossword puzzle.
We exchanged nods and I went to devouring the entirety of my plate.
Calories build muscle after all.
Which was something Pete had no interest in. He was a bookworm through and through. Rail thin too. When we’d met, I’d assumed it was from the drug problem he’d had on the outside, which ultimately landed him in incarceration. But come to find out it was just his metabolism and general lack of appetite.
“John…” He whispered.
I looked up from my feast.
He was looking to the corner of the cafeteria and I followed his gaze to see two men in lab coats surveying the crowd.
I grunted and squeezed the handle of my fork until my knuckles went white. The impulse of burying it into their throats was almost overwhelming.
“Their activity has been ramping up.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been seeing them much more frequently as of late. They must be close to a breakthrough.”
“Breakthrough of what?” I furrowed my brow.
“Who knows? Whatever it is they are doing down there. They’ve been taking us more often as well.”
Pete sighed at the twist of confusion on my face.
“Think about it… Benny last night, then Tom two weeks before that. Then Eric ten days before that, and Deonte maybe three weeks prior. It’s never been that close together. Until recently, they only came perhaps once every other month. Sometimes only once a season.”
Shit… he was right. I hadn’t realized it before.
“So what does that mean?” I asked, shoving another hunk of egg into my mouth.
“I have no idea. But I’d say our odds of survival have been reduced dramatically.”
—-----
Pete might as well have been an oracle, peering into our grim and desolate future.
Over the next several months we started seeing the lab coats weekly. Sometimes even more often than that.
The prison yard felt empty. Sure there were still plenty of us left, but our population had been noticeably trimmed. One gang in particular only had two members left, which didn’t bode well for them. The others slowly circled them like sharks. I had no affiliation with any of them and kept to myself. But still, I could see their fate a mile away.
Although, despite the business as usual dog eat dog atmosphere, there was an undercurrent of fear rippling through the general pop. You could smell it, like a scent of decay and desperation. Hard faces that had once promised violence, now almost flinched around every corner and jumped at each shadow.
The energy of a couple of hundred men that felt like an animal backed into a corner was palpable.
But what could we do?
I didn’t know but I sure wish someone would tell me… I threw myself into my workouts and Pete hardly ever looked up from a book. Escapism was our only reprieve.
I went to bed with a prayer on my lips, hoping I wouldn’t hear those iron bars moving in the late hours of the night.
—-----
A loud clanking followed by footsteps pulled me from sleep.
I squeezed my eyes tightly shut hoping it was the cell next to mine.
But it wasn’t…
Three guards hovered behind a fourth that was unlocking our cell. The bars clicked and began to slide open.
I jumped to my feet and backed up against the wall. I pulled my fists up into a boxing stance, I wasn’t going to go without a fight. My muscles tensed and flexed like coiled steel.
“In the corner inmate! We’re here for your cellmate.” A short and stocky corrections officer barked with his hand gripping the baton at his waist.
Pete squirmed into a ball at the corner of his mat and looked at me with wide, pleading eyes.
I put my face in the opposite corner as instructed. A mixture of fear and relief roiled in my gut, and I hated myself for it. It made me feel like a coward.
“No, no, no, no, no!” I heard Pete squeal from behind as guards flooded the cell.
I peaked over my shoulder and watched as they pried him from the top bunk. Pete tried to resist, but there was nothing to him. A bag of bones that they easily wrestled down.
That same fire ignited in my chest. Anger washed over me, cleansing away the cowardice. For God’s sake, he was my only friend.
All I could see was red.
I spun around bringing the back of my fist across a guard’s face, shattering the bridge of his nose. Blood spurted from it as he dropped Pete’s legs.
With a giant step forward I brought an uppercut into the portly officer’s abdomen, dropping him like a ton of bricks.
I shoved a third into the corner, pinning him there as I screamed for Pete to run. He scampered out the opening and the last thing I heard were his footfalls as a baton smashed across the back of my skull. Everything went black before I even hit the ground.
—-----
I spent a month in solitary.
The room was so small it should have been inhumane to house a human being inside of it.
Still… I made the best of it with dips, pushups and situps. Countless reps of them. It was all I could do.
Some mornings I’d wake up with horrible migraines. I assumed it was a slight concussion from the impact of the baton.
I only hoped Pete could have somehow made it out. But somewhere deep down I knew that would have been impossible. Hopefully he at least gave them some hell before they took him below.
I stopped praying before bed. It didn’t seem like it did any good.
If there was a God, he didn’t exist inside these walls.
We were abandoned.
The unheard.
—-------
When I finally got back to my cell it had been emptied of everything. Pete’s books, artwork from his niece and even my Maxim cutout.
Just like he’d never existed. My heart sunk at the sight.
Later that day I’d learned from others that he had been captured just moments after escaping the cell.
But our actions weren’t wasted in vain.
We were the first to fight back against the abduction and it sparked something in the others.
They started talks of an uprising a few weeks back. A prison riot.
They even had a guard on the inside. C.O. Matthews. He was a very religious man and was just as horrified by what was happening as we were and had been looking for a way to help.
“It’s going down tonight John, just before lights out. Be ready.” Jerry whispered at the picnic table.
I gave a nod that I understood and headed off for my daily jog around the courts.
It wasn’t about getting out. Getting free. That wasn’t going to happen. It was about sending a message.
I let my mind go blank, filling with static as I enjoyed what could be my last day outside.
—------
The beacon swirled overhead in the common area.
“Inmates to their cells. Lights out.” The intercom buzzed.
There were over fifty men in cell block B, and not a single one of us moved.
The voice on the intercom repeated himself angrily as guards began to shuffle in closer. Nods passed like dominoes from one inmate to the next. We were ready.
“Get to your cell inmate.” a guard growled as he clamped his hands down on my shoulders.
I threw an elbow behind me into his groin, he howled in pain as he hit the floor. The other inmates sprung to their feet and flew off from their leaning places to join in the brawl.
Fists, feet and batons flew wildly across the cell block as we engaged in war with the uniformed officers.
I grappled with one until I was able to submit him in a choke until he went limp in my arms.
I stomped another in the face, spilling blood and brains on the concrete floor.
It had looked like we were winning until they sent the special response team in. We formed a line, many of us battered and bloody, in front of the row of riot shields.
We waited for their charge for what felt like an eternity.
But suddenly they backed out from where they’d come and slid the cell block doors closed.
What the hell…
The red beacon swirled once again overhead as a clicking sounded out behind us.
The rear entrance that the lab coats had always used swung open. I spun around to see…
“Mary, mother of God.” I gasped.
It was Pete…
But there was something horribly wrong with him.
His skin clung loosely to his body and had a terrible jaundice looking hue to it. His eyes almost seemed to glow and his hands… they were impossibly large like contorted branches.
I held my hand up to my mouth in disbelief.
A scientist stepped out from behind him.
“As you can see, we have a few kinks left to iron out, but we are making great progress. Would you all care to see what he can do?” He looked into each of our eyes inquisitively.
“If you don’t, head back to your cells now. You have ten seconds and then I shall release him.”
It was so silent you could hear a pin drop. But a violent and hungry energy filled the room, emanating from what used to be my friend.
Suddenly, over half the remaining inmates bolted for their cells out of fear. Not that I could blame them, my knees wobbled and threatened to buckle just at the sight of him.
But I stood my ground, as did a handful of others.
“Very well then. Specimen 3-1-0, engage.”
A growl reverberated through the cell block.
“Everyone rush him at once! It’s our only shot.” I hollered.
And we did, but it didn’t matter. It happened so fast. It was over before I could even comprehend it.
He moved like an animal, picking each of us apart almost in unison.
I lay on my back, unable to feel my legs as I watched Jerry be disemboweled. He was trying to shove his intestines back inside the tear in his abdomen before the creature came back to finish him off.
I did a cross over myself but didn’t bother to pray.
As Pete stood over me, with dead eyes, I knew there was no God.
He didn’t exist inside these walls.
We were abandoned.
The unheard.

All good things must come to an end. 🥲
As you surely know by now, this will be the very last Cup in The Silph Arena's long and glorious history. And so even though I slowly faded away from my monthy meta writeups for Silph some time ago (I think it's been over a year now! 🥹), I HAD to come back for one last ride together, my friends. Like many of you, I only ever got into PvP because of The Arena, and was a PvP veteran when GBL was still but a twinkle in John Hanke's eye. Many wonderful memories of tournaments and communities, local and remote, that I will cherish always.
And of course: YOU, my dear readers. I am sorry I stepped back, but you all surpassed beyond me and my relatively simple meta overviews. After a while, budget picks became less and less necessary to study as you had more and more tools already at your disposal, built up from the metas of the past.
In short, to paraphrase the great Yoda himself: I am what you grew beyond. That is the true burden of all teachers.
And perhaps, here at the end, you still don't need my simple budget heroes, my rather basic overview of the meta and, of course, off-meta potential wonders. You know, the thrifty AND the nifty stuff. 😉
But I can think of no better way to say a proper goodbye to the good folks at The Silph Arena AND you, my dear friends, than to give this one last go. Together.
One last..."Nifty Or Thrifty"! For old times' sake.
So here we go!
For those who don't remember, this article series serves a few functions. First, it gives a first blush, comprehensive look at the meta for the upcoming Innocent Cup, particularly from the perspective of which Pokémon are likely worth the cost of leveling up and adding a second charge move (nifty) and which ones would probably work out fine without heavy investment (thrifty), including some alternatives to the more expensive options. For those on a stardust budget — and/or folks trying to save up some dust for the future — it can be daunting trying to figure out where to spend or not spend it. We all want to field competitive teams of six, but where can we get the best bang for our buck and where should we perhaps instead channel our inner scrooge?
And as always, while I have tried to whittle somewhat, this is likely to be a long read, just to warn you up front! But always as per normal, I'll try to keep it entertaining as well. 😃
Before we dive in, make sure to familiarize yourself with what makes up Innocent Cup. It's Dragon, Fairy, Flying, Psychic, and Water type Pokémon, with with Arbok, Dragalge, Garbodor, and Swalot specifically whitelisted in as well. Excluded are Ice, Fire, Poison and Steel types, plus Altaria, Galarian Zapdos, Galarian Moltres, Galarian Articuno, Cresselia, Hawlucha, Lanturn, Mandibuzz, Mantine, Mew, Alolan Ninetales, Noctowl, Pelipper, Pidgeot, and Trevenant are all specifically banned. The full list and rules are over here, so check that out before reading on.
Now it's time to dive in, but only after one final, unapologetic musical intro. Hit it!
🎼 Oops, let's do this again
🎶 Silph played with our hearts
♫ We got lost in the game
♩ Oh baby, baby
♫ Oops, I think I'm in love
♬ Silph was sent from aboooooove
♪ I'm not that Innocent....
Okay, maybe not one of my greatest ever, but it was either this or a mushy goodbye song like "My Way" or something.
Anyway, in retro style, let's go through this final meta in order of cheapest second move cost all the way to the Legendaries. Here we go!

10,000 Dust/25 Candy

ALOLAN RAICHU
Volt Switch Thunder Punch & Wild Charge/Psychic
There is a LOT in AhChu's favor here. It resists Flying, Psychic, Electric, and Fighting damage — all very relevant in this format — and wails on all the Waters and Flyers around. As tempting as Grass Knot is for its ability to blow away the Mud Boys (and other Ground types), I think that if you choose NOT to use Wild Charge, it is Psychic (the move, to keep the old inside joke going!) that you want more, as it can at least slap around the important Poison types in the meta (beating ALL of them, whereas Dragalge and Swalot can escape otherwise). That said, the overall more threatening move remains Wild Charge, which obviously has its drawbacks, but is pretty widely unresisted and alone has the power to blow away things like Hypno, Azumarill, and Araquanid.
EMOLGA
Thunder Shock Discharge & Acrobatics
When I began this article (WAY too long ago now! ), Emolga was a mere footnote here. But that was then, and this is now with the addition of Acrobatics. I still don't know how high Emolga may soar now in PvP, but I know that with THIS meta, it should be off to an impressive start!
SWELLOW
Wing Attack Sky Attack & Brave Bird
Wait wait wait... Wing Attack and Sky Attack and Brave Bird? Why have you hardly seen any of these used? Well, it's much less tanky than Pidgeot and especially Noctowl, which is why they generally get all the press and poor Swellow usually languishes. But one thing that has always separated Silph from GBL are the spot bans, and in this Cup, it is Noctowl and Pidgeot that are on the outside looking in, allowing Swellow to soar high. And beyond the obvious Electrics and a few Fairies, there really isn't too much that it has to fear. Go fly past the competition!
DARTRIX
Leafage Brave Bird & Seed Bomb
Poor Decidueye may remain unexciting in PvP, but at least Dartrix now gets its moment in the spotlight as a budget (and with the addition of Leafage, perhaps even better?) Tropius here. I say "perhaps better" despite the fact that Razor Leaf Trop has a better record because of between the two, only Dartrix manages to overcome Dragalge and Clefable (and spicy Togetic). Trop instead shreds things like Hypno, Gliscor, Wobbuffet, Alolan Raichu, and Seaking, so there's certainly room for both, but Dartrix is absolutely the better fit on some teams.
WHIMSICOTT
Fairy Wind Moonblast & Seed Bomb/Grass Knot
I'm listing Charm and/or Hurricane as options here, but other than the latter sometimes winning the mirror, there's really nothing major they can do that Fairy Wind and Moonblast (along with one of the now-two Grass moves) can't. Only with the speedy charging of Fairy Wind can Whimsie outrace stuff like Azumarill, Tapu Fini, and Whiscash, and Moonblast is more reliable than Hurricane at taking out things like Wobbuffet, Zapdos, and importantly, have the advantage versus Dragalge. As for Grass Knot vs the new Seed Bomb, the former has the power to take down Wobb and Whiscash, while the latter instead now outraces (Fairy Wind) Slurpuff, (Ice Beam) Jellicent, and (Sludge Wave) Swampert. Go with Fairy Wind. You have plenty of other Charm options anyway. For example....
WIGGLYTUFF
Charm Ice Beam & Disarming Voice
Yes, you definitely want both Ice Beam and the new Disarming Voice for Wiggly to be well-rounded, but as is often the case with Charmers, it can often be best to go for the Charm-down, allowing additional wins against stuff like Dedenne, Tapu Fini, Florges. and several fellow Charmers (assuming they are not also trying to just Charm-down). Wiggly remains among the best, if not THE best, pure Charmer in yet another format.
CLEFABLE
Fairy Wind Meteor Mash & Moonblast
Fairy Wind is now the way to go here (and likely in many metas yet to come), as Meteor Mash can do some serious work, especially in whalloping the other Faires! You can run Psychic as well to also shock Poisons (Swalot and Dragalge in particular), but it's overall a bit weaker than Moonblast, which is needed for wins like Azu, Hypno, Wobbuffet, and most of the Electrics in the meta (Dedenne, Zapdos, and Emolga, specifically).
SWALOT
Infestation Sludge Bomb & Ice Beam/Gunk Shot
I've written about Swalot before, but only as an often-desperate attempt to show it as a decent thrifty Poison with upside. But never has it really SHOWN that upside like it does here in Innocent Cup. It can swallow all Grasses and Fairies whole, and can also topple things like DDeoxys, Alolan Raichu, Dedenne, Wobbuffet, Seaking, and fellow Poison Garbodor. Give it Ice Beam for coverage instead of big closer Gunk Shot, and while it gives up a couple Fairies (Azumarill, Tapu Fini) and Araquanid, it gains Ice-weak Zapdos and Zweilous instead. Swalot is not only finally a breakout star here at the end of Arena play, but you have legit options with it! You love to see it.
SWAMPERT
Mud Shot Hydro Cannonᴸ & Earthquake/Sludge Wave
It would be easy to assume that Sludge Wave is clearly THE way to go in this meta filled with Fairies and key Grass types. And there is wisdom in that, as Sludge does indeed conquer every Fairy here except the new Fairy Wind Togetic. But there remains just a strong a case for good old Earthquake instead, as it instead knocks out all the Poisons, plus Zweilous, Jellicent, and enemy Swamperts. The choice is even more in Quake's favor for Shadow Swampert, as it beats all the major Fairies besides Togekiss, Togetic, Azu, and Whimsie, still uniquely takes down Dragalge, Jellicent, and Swampert, and adds to that Whiscash and Rainy Castform as well. I understand the attention being given to Sludge Wave... Innocent Cup IS one of the better fits for it. Just don't put those blinders on too tightly. Earthquake still bears consideration too, depending on the rest of your team. And of course, there is also Shadow Swampert, which I think also prefers Earthquake, beating everything Quake non-Shadow Swampie can, PLUS Clefable, Tapu Fini, and Slurpuff as non-Shadow can only if it has Sludge Wave, AND completely unique wins versus Gliscor, Zapdos, and Rainy Castform too!
WHISCASH
Mud Shot Mud Bomb & Blizzard
Aside from the just-buffed Mud Bomb making Whiscash a bit better anyway, it has one other big thing going for it in this meta that separates it from Swampert: Blizzard, which simply destroys Flyers (Drifblim, Emolga, Jumpluff, Togekiss, Togetic) that Swampert can't touch, as well as Whimsicott for good measure. Sure, Whiscash can't match Swampert's wins versus things like Hypno, Florges, Tapu Fini, or Florges, and usually will lose to Swampert in the head to head, but at least it stands on pretty equal footing in this meta. Some teams will want one, some will want the other. Which do YOU prefer, my friend?
BLASTOISE
Water Gun Hydro Cannonᴸ & Ice Beam
As always, Blastoise is not exactly exciting, but it can get the job done in a pinch. Its excellent bulk allows it to hang in and beat every meta Fairy that isn't part Water or Grass, and also handles things like Drifblim, Swampert and Whiscash, Swalot and Garbodor, and thanks to Ice Beam, Dragalge, Jumpluff, and (Air Slash) Tropius as well. Nothing flashy, but solid as always. I do not particularly recommend Shadow Blastie.
GOLISOPOD
Shadow Claw X-Scissor & Liquidation
Golisopod is suddenly interesting now that it has all-new move Liquidation, which brings in new wins like Whiscash (it already beat Swampert), Swalot, Drifblim, and Gliscor. Add to this some surprising wins like Azumarill, Rainy Castform, and Alolan Raichu, and Golisopod may be more spicy than meta itself, but it's certainly on the upswing.
GYARADOS
Dragon Breath Aqua Tailᴸ & Crunch
Gyarados does just enough to be interesting, including taking out all the Poisons and Dragons in the meta, all Grounds but Quagsire, and stuff like Hypno, Wobbuffet, Jellicent, Rainy Castform, Drifblim, Araquanid. Slurpuff, and even Jumpluff. Not bad, right? Just don't get too cute with Shadow Gary.
SWOOBAT
Confusion Psychic Fangs & Aerial Ace
Hey, leave it to me for the oddball picks, especially among the "thrifty" 10ks. Swoobat is NOT a good PvP Pokémon, but it DOES come with Confusion to blow away the scary Poisons, and being a Flyer means it performs well against things like Swampert, Medicham, and the Grasses as well. It also manages to several of the big name Fairies and even Gliscor and Rainy Castform too. Not fantastic, but a lot of potential fun in this final Silph Cup.

50,000 Dust/50 Candy

SEAKING
Poison Jabᴸ Icy Windᴸ & Drill Runᴸ
One thing that doesn't change, despite all the new Fairy Wind around, is that Seaking still wipes away ALL the Fairies here, even really scary ones like Dedenne and Aromatisse/Slurpuff, even with fast-charging Fairy Wind and their scary Electric and Grass charge moves. With its adaptive moveset, it also handles big Poisons Dragalge and Garbodor, Flyers like Gliscor, Tropius, Emolga, and Jumpluff (and most non-Razor Leaf Grasses in this meta in general), and Dragons like Zweilous. Versatile and a LOT of fun, Seaking earns every bit of its current Top 3 Ranking in Innocent Cup!
JUMPLUFF
Fairy Wind Energy Ball & Acrobaticsᴸ
So here's one that DOES take a little hit with the redistribution of Fairy Wind (but Jumpie is still pretty good!). Jumpluff beats all the major Fairies except Florges... unless they're running Fairy Wind. But now it loses to FW Clefable, who is likely to suddenly be quite popular, and FW Togetic, who I feel like folks are going to bring as long-desired spice. It also has not a prayer against most Poisons (though it can handle Dragalge thanks to resisting Aqua Tail) but beats most Waters, Wobb, Medicham, Hypno, Zweilous, and even Tropius.
DEDENNE
Thunder Shock Discharge & Play Rough
When and I other analysts starting looking over this meta, we got very excited about Deedee. Upon further review, I personally like Alolan Raichu better overall, as it knocks out things Dedenne cannot like Hypno, Florges, Drifblim, Jumpluff, Seaking (Deedee does NOT like Poison damage!), Fini, Castform, and Clefable. Dedenne IS still quite good, with its better bulk and Fairy subtyping allowing it unique wins like Wobbuffet, Slurpluff, and Zweilous. And of course, you can always put Deedee AND AhChu on the same team of six....
FLORGES
Fairy Wind Disarming Voice & Moonblast
So Florges doesn't do anything particularly unique, as it is arguably best running with all Fairy moves. It CAN do some neat things with Vine Whip, like beating Jellicent and winning the mirror, but Fairy Wind is just better, instead taking out Jumpluff, Hypno, Wobbuffet, Whimsicott, Tropius and more.
As for other 50k Fairies:

• AROMATISSE is just kind of there. Thunderbolt is nice coverage in this meta in theory, but of course Charm makes it more of a Hail Mary than something to truly threaten all the Waters and Flyers with.
  
• SLURPUFF can operate with Fairy Wind, though it does so much less successfully than others. It's actually probably also best as a Charmer, just, again, a rather unexciting one. At least Flamethrower and Energy Ball are fantastic coverage options if you ever get to throw them!
  
• GRANBULL and TOGEKISS are even less exciting. Pass.
  

There is ONE other Fairy well worth mentioning here, though....
AZUMARILL
Bubble Ice Beam & Hydro Pump/Play Rough
If there's one lesson we learned early on in The Arena, it's that if you allow Azumarill into a meta, it will find a way to become relevant. And lo and behold, here is yet another example. Not even Swalot, Emolga, or Zapdos can safely overcome Azu! And that's on top of all the Fighters, Psychics, Flyers, Mud Boys and fellow Fairies that Azu can strike down. Azumarill is a strong contender here, as it has basically always been in these metas.
JELLICENT
Hex Surf &/or Shadow Ball &/or Ice Beam
I think I can pretty definitively recommend Hex as the fast move, but after that? Time for a classic side-by-side. My default recommendation is Surf/Shadow Ball, which can get to meaningful wins like Whiscash, Drifblim, and the mirror, but also valid are Surf/Ice Beam and even Beam/Ball work. Ice Beam is basically required to beat Whimsicott, Tropius, Jumpluff, and Dragalge, but can usually do it alongside Ball or Surf. Beam/Ball can beat most of what Surf/Ball and Surf/Beam can except Clefable, Florges, and Slurpuff. I think the basic question is thus: do you need extra coverage versus Grasses and Dragons? If so: Ice Beam. If not? Probably just stick with Surf/Shadow Ball. But there's no "wrong" answer, really. Good luck!
ARAQUANID
Bug Bite Bubble Beam & Mirror Coat/Bug Buzz
Gotta be that Bug Buzz is the closer to go with, right? Well, yes... but also perhaps no. It's true that only the raw power of Bug Buzz can overcome things like Seaking, Fairy Wind Whimsicott, and Clefable, but as bad a move as Mirror Coat is, it's ALSO true that 'Nid can overcome all the format's Poison types (and win the mirror match) only with Mirror Coat, not Buzz. Do with that information what you will, but I like when I get to highlight secret tech like that.
QUAGSIRE
Mud Shot Stone Edge & Mud Bomb/Earthquake
I still don't think it's quite right to call new Quag toy Mud Bomb a straight upgrade, as there are good things like Earthquake can still do that Bomb can't, like overpowering Azumarill and Swampert. But yes, Mud Bomb is probably the de facto standard now, getting its own nice wins versus things like Seaking, Rainy Castform, Tapu Fini, and Wigglytuff. Lord Quag is certainly more interesting than it was in May, particularly Shadow Quag which can do all of that PLUS also beat all versions of Jellicent, Hypno, and Togekiss, and Azumarill slides back into the win column too!
DRAGALGE
Dragon Tail Aqua Tail & Gunk Shot/Outrage
Good enough place as any to slide over to the relevant Poison types, since Dragalge masquerades as a Water type with Aqua Tail. But which way to go for the closer? Well, I'll start by saying that either one nets wins versus Araquanid (without Mirror Coat!), Tropius, and Jumpluff. After that, the slightly better record lies with Outrage that can beat Jellicent and Castform with high neutral damage, but I think I STILL lean towards Gunk Shot for its own unique win versus Azumarill and its high pressure versus enemy Fairies, Grasses, and others in the meta. In this case, I'd just keep it simple.
GARBODOR
Infestation Gunk Shot & Body Slam/Seed Bomb
With a face only a mother could love, here comes the only meta that can also tolerate Garbo. It's still not quite on the same tier as Dragalge and Swalot, but yes, Garbo is legit viable in Innocent Cup. Body Slam is my recommendation for spam alongside the required Gunk Shot, as Slam overwhelms stuff like Wobbuffet and Araquanid. But there is some potential spice here as well if you instead run with Seed Bomb, as you can then beat (Sludge Wave) Swampert and surprise the heck out of Ground and Water types in general.
ARBOK
Acid Dark Pulse & Acid Spray
And even a small step below Garbodor (there is a sentence is never thought I would write!), we have Arbok withAcid, and NOT the Dragon Tail you might expect instead. While it's true that Tail can beat other Dragons and/or Poisons (Dragalge, Zweilous, and Swalot specifically), it's very poor otherwise. Acid is a bad move, but it does manage to dissolve (see what I did there? I so funny hee hee haha) every non-Psychic Fairy and Grass type in the meta besides Tapu Fini, which is obviously a big deal in this meta.
HYPNO
Confusion Shadow Ball & Thunder Punch/Ice Punch
Usually an analysis on Hypno means a long debate between competing (and all viable) movesets. Now there ARE several that work outside of my recommendation of Shadow Ball/Thunder Punch, but I am ready to label that the odds on favorite. It just brings the most overall pressure in this meta, especially to the many Water and Flying types (beating Azumarill as one specific example), at the very small cost of being non-ideal versus Grasses... though Hypno doesn't beat Jumpluff or Tropius with Fire OR Ice anyway, so in my mind, no harm, no foul. At least, that's the way I'd go for non-Shadow. For Shadow Hypno, Ice Punch now comes with the power to freeze and shatter Jumpluff and Tropius, as well as Gliscor and Swampert, and still manages to knock out Azumarill too. Best of all worlds!
FARIGAMARIF
Confusion/Tackle Psychic Fangs & Thunderbolt
Bittersweet moment here, as it's my last time getting to talk about ol' Geeriffa— um, Giffimar— uh, Jeffomafig? Oh, fine... Girafarig. Yes, I HAVE known how to spell it all these years. 😅 My boy has only gotten better since recieving Psychic Fangs, to the point that it's viable in TWO configurations in this meta: [Tackle]() to overcome fellow Psychics (the type, NOT the move... two long-running jokes in one section! 💪) like Hypno, or Confusion which overpowers Whimsicott, Drifblim, Castform, and Clefable and is, honestly, just the better fast move in general. And don't forget Shadow Farigamiraf, which does give up Swampert, Jumpluff, Gliscor, and Charm Whimsie, but gains Surf/Shadow Ball Jellicent (already beats other Jelli variants), Seaking, Tapu Fini, Whiscash, and Togetic... and now beats Hypno without needing Tackle! One last toast to everyone's favorite funky Girafamathingy! It's been real, buddy. Glad you get to go out in style. 🦒
SLOWBRO/SLOWKING
Confusion/Water Gun Surfᴸ & Ice Beam/Psychic
Slowbro gets the slight nod because I like Confusion/Surf/Ice Beam the best personally (with standout wins versus Jumpluff, Tropius, and Florges), but if you want to instead run Water Gun/Surf/Psychic (the move!), then Slowking or Slowbro work equally well. The unique wins there are basically other Psychic types like DDeoxys and Wobbuffet. Either way, the Super Slow Bros are pretty nifty here! Similar BRUXISH not quite so much though.
CLAYDOL
Confusion Rock Tomb & Ice Beam/Shadow Ball
Not a strong recommendation, but Claydol does just enough here to be interesting (and that should make the Niantic employee that keeps adding moves to it every couple seasons very happy). With Ice Beam it beats Jumpluff, but beyond that you really want Shadow Ball, I think, which can instead beat Seaking and gives Claydol unique coverage versus Psychics, Flyers, AND Poisons, among others.
MEDICHAM
Counter Ice Punch & Psychic
Speaking of doing just enough to be interesting, this is one of those rare-ish metas where Medicham is merely okay. It does manage to hold down the Poisons as a good Psychic type should, but beyond that it doesn't really know what it wants to be in this meta, settling for picking off some big names but whiffing on plenty of others. I don't feel great about it myself, but be ready for it to show up in your opponent's six at some point, especially after it absolutely rocked the first Play Pokémon tournaments of the new GBL season.
HONCHKROW
Snarl Sky Attack & Brave Bird
One final chance to put in a good word for Honch (and end a 50k section with some spice... sniff 😢), one of the ultimate boom or bust options in PvP. Really not much to say than that... just reminding you that it and its Shadow version remain out there, lurking, daring you to take a shot with it. High risk, but potentially sky high reward in this final Silph month, folks!

75,000 Dust/75 Candy

TROPIUS
Razor Leaf Aerial Ace & Leaf Blade
I feel I am contractually obligated to start this section with ol' Banana Chin, specifically to point out a rare disagreement with my good friend Mr. PvPoke, who lists Air Slash as the fast move of choice. Respectfully, I disagree... it is Razor Leaf you want here. Not only does it still manage to beat everything Air Slash can that you most care about, and not only does it shred even scary Water types like Seaking and Jellicent, but it's also THE way for Trop to beat Florges and Electric types like Alolan Raichu and Dedenne. If you want more charge move pressure and such, go with Jumpluff. If you want to just beat stuff down almost regardless of remaining shields, Razor Leaf Tropius is your friend.
GLISCOR
Wing Attack Night Slash & Earthquake
Regular and Shadow both have plenty of merit. Non-Shadow has the bulk to outlast Clefable, Florges, Whimsicott, Zweilous, Medicham, Emolga, and Swampert, while Shadow instead has the raw power to overcome Jellicent, Tropius, Zapdos, Whiscash (before it can get to Blizzard), and non-Ice Punch Hypno.
GLIGAR
Wing Attack Night Slash & Returnᴾ
Honestly, though... purified Gligar is just better than Gliscor. Return is a big equalizing beatstick that allows Gligar to beat everything Gliscor can (regular and Shadow Gliscor combined, that is) except Jellicent, Whiscash, and Swalot, and further add on wins against Dragalge, Togekiss, and Gliscor itself! I think Gligar is a big time sleeper in Innocent Cup.
DRIFBLIM
Hex Icy Wind & Shadow Ball
It just got Mystical Fire, but at least in this meta, I think Blim wants to stick with Icy Wind, which does everything Fire can do plus can beat Flyers like Gliscor and Togetic. And just this once, I even give Shadow Blim a thumbs up. It drops Dedenne, but gains Tapu Fini, Rainy Castform, and stuff like Slurpuff too. Nice!
RAINY CASTFORM
Water Gun Weather Ball (Water) & Thunder
No Lanturn, no problem? Lanturn would indeed be perhaps a bit OP here, but Rainy is juuuuuuust right. Washes away Swalot and Garbo and even resists-all-its-moves Dragalge, Clefable and Togetic and Wigglytuff, and of course a ton of Waters (Jelli, Azu, Fini, Seaking) thanks to Thunder (and Swampert thanks to Weather Ball spam). Someone is definitely going to do well with it this month.
SYLVEON
Qucik Attack Psyshockᴸ & Moonblast
I mean, you CAN run Sylvie with Charm, but what makes it unique is Quick Attack. That plus Psyshock makes it the Fairy that handles the Poisons, while still doing most of the standard Fairy job (handling Dragons and Fighters and Bugs) and beating most of its fellow Fairies (and Jumpluff!) as well. It is very quietly a great Fairy in this meta.
ZWEILOUS
Dragon Breath Body Slam & Dark Pulse
Yes yes, it MUST avoid double super effective Fairy damage. And that leaves it with a less than inspiring record against the core meta. But take those away, and it has little to worry about beyond the few Bugs and Fighters in the meta. It beats the other Dragons you're going to see, and obviously dominates Psychic and Ghost types. And being a Dragon means resisting Water and Electric and Grass damage and beating many of those types too. It's far better (and sure to be far more popular) than the simple numbers would indicate.
DRAGONAIR
Dragon Breath Body Slam & Aqua Tail
Similar story here. The numbers are so-so, for similar reasons as Zweilous, but Dragonair puts out a lot of very spammy neutral damage. And unlike Zweilous, it can handle Seaking, Whiscash, DDeoxys and others.
I'll point out that Shadow DRAGONITE is pretty spicy too, though far less safe. It's more of a blunt object to the scalpel of Dragonair and Zweilous.

100,000 Dust/75 Candy

Running out of space (and already WAY out of time), so gonna blow through these briefly....

• ZAPDOS is the most interesting Legendary here, even with Emolga now really nipping at its heels. Emolga can overcome Whimsicott, Medicham, and Swalot, but it's still advantage Zapdos with wins versus Seaking, Jelli, Swampert, Gliscor, and Emolga itself. Zappie is still worth it, folks.
  
• It's no Azumarill, but yes, TAPU FINI still puts in some work. While Azu can outlast things like Emolga, Zapdos, Swampert, Gliscor, Florges, Wobb, and DDeoxys, it is Fini that alone can beat Jellicent, Dragalge, Araquanid, and Dedenne. There really IS a good case for both. If you're feeling particularly frisky, maybe literally both on the same team?
  
• Honorable mentions for GUZZLORD (which, unlike Zweilous, at least carries Sludge Bomb to somewhat threaten Fairies), LATIOS (just a Dragon that can wallop Poisons and other things with Luster Purge), DEFENSE DEOXYS (not particularly awesome here, but always a decent filler), and strangely-popular-so-far (according to Cup stats to date) CELEBI.
  

FEELIN' LUCKY?

For those unfamilar, this final section wraps up with stuff that needs to be pushed far into XL Candy territory. It CAN be great, but we're way past any semblance of "thrifty" at this point. Let's bring this one home!

• Staraptor isn't so hot here (partly because there's just not much for Close Combat to do), but STARAVIA has got the sauce, right up there with the surprising Swellow. The downside, of course, is having to max out Staravia just to get to 1468 CP. Worth it? Well that's YOUR call, my friend!
  
• So this one is cheating a bit, because RUFFLET is actually more than viable JUST beyond Level 40, if you max out a hundo at Level 40.5, hitting 1500 CP right on the nose. And it actually performs better in ways than the recommended heavy XL investment variety, having a better shot at beating Hypno and Swalot (while #1 IVs instead takes down only Dragalge and Togekiss instead). Wing Attack/Brave Bird** can't even be held down by the mediocre Aerial Ace. Rufflet is yet another strong bird candidate. If it didn't make sense why Noctowl and Pidgeot were banned yet, this should finally make that case.
  
• VULLABY kinda works too (and is one I KNOW folks have already invested in), obviously with distinct advantages versus Psychics and Ghosts in particular, and it beats plenty else besides. The big risk, of course, is a weakness to Fairy that other birds in this meta don't really have to worry about (at least not in terms of taking super effective damage). While the Flying Normals are more all-arounders, Vullaby is more of a specialist here.
  
• One of my favorite memories from early in my PvP analysis "career" was basically being bullied into writing an expansive analysis on LEDIAN by some Pokémon GO friends on Discord, and then being teased by many members of the early PvP community about it. This was in the days before XL Candy, so Ledian topped out at like 1350 CP then, making it a particuarly nutty venture. But hey, it CAN get to 1500 CP these days, though it's still mere spice and nowhere near meta. But if you took the plunge way back when... hey, this is the last month, right? YOLO!
  
• Mentioned a few times throughout this article, WOBBUFFET is honestly just alright, suffering from some of the same issues as DDeoxys... bulk and Counter alone don't get you so far in this particular meta. Not like they usually do! Wobb works, but this is not the time to build on from scratch, IMO. Smoke 'em if you already got 'em, sure.
  

And before I ramble on any further... that’s a wrap! Thanks for hanging with me to the end... of this article, of course, but also for the many of you that have followed and supported me for four and a half years now. I appreciate and love you all. 💙
Before I go, one final extension of my thanks to my PvP friends, local and around the world, who have lent their own ideas and suggestions over the years and helped teach me to be a better player and student of the game. There are too many to list them all, but a few specific shout-outs to PvPoke, GO Battle Log, PvPIVs.com, PokeMiners, my old friends at GO Stadium for mutally getting each other off the ground in the pre-GBL days, and of course, one final time, to the good folks at The Silph Arena and The Silph Road. Krydos, Drock, Zooeys, the old Meta Team, Steeeeeeeeeeve, Myugenlol, and Dronpes for really launching this multi-year adventure by reaching out to me in the first place, back in simpler times. And to those I ran out of time/brain capacity to mention... you know who you are. Thank you for being here along that journey and walking parts of that (Silph) road with me. And once more, my thanks to all of you, dear readers, for your own encouragement, support, and patience with me over the years.
Okay, I said I wouldn't get sappy again, and specifically that I would NOT use this song, but I think I kind of have to as a musical outro. So with apologies to Ol' Blue Eyes... well, I always HAVE done these reviews... my way.
🎼 And now, the end is near
♫ And so we face the final curtain.
♪ My friends, I'll say it clear:
♬ I stated my case, of which I'm certain!
♫ And more, much more than this
♩ I wrote it myyyyyyy way!
I hope you've enjoyed these analysis articles over the years as much as I've enjoyed preparing and sharing them with you!
All the best, my friends. I hope you have as many happy Silph Arena memories to hold on to as I do. To whatever comes next! Take care, Pokéfriends.
Don't cry because it's over. Smile, because it happened.
— Dr. Seuss

I expressed to my boyfriend that I'd like to get flowers a while ago, among other things that I felt weren't right in our relationship and wanted to improve them. I said I didn't want anything expensive, the flowers from the nearest store are maybe $2 the cheapest. He said he's sorry that he didn't get me any in almost one year.
I thought he would do it, but he didn't. When he was out of the house and I thought he would. When I left the house I thought he would make me a suprise, but he didn't.
When we had the conversation about the flowers I also told him about some other things that make me unhappy (not the first conversation of this kind).
I just can't help but think that if he didn't get me some cheap flowers, the easiest thing I asked for, he won't be delivering the rest either. Or try. Just like nothing changed before, when we had another conversation like this. I feel disconnected from him and us and I just feel like I'm somewhere else.

1. From him, from Ali Bin Al-Husayn, from Ali Bin Abu hamza, from Abu Baseer, who has narrated the following: Abu Abdullah (a.s) regarding the Statement of Allah (azwj) Mighty and Majestic: “[58:7] Nowhere is there a secret counsel between three persons but He is the fourth of them, nor (between) five but He is the sixth of them, nor less than that nor more but He is with them wherever they are; then He will inform them of what they did on the day of resurrection: surely Allah is Cognizant of all things”. He (a.s) said; ‘This was Revealed regarding so and so and so and so (Abu Bakr and Umar), and Abu Ubeyda Ibn Al-Jarrah, and Abdul Rahman Ibn Awf, and Saalim Mawla Abu Huzeyfa, and Al-Mugheira Bin Sho’ba, when they wrote the agreement in between them and took a pledge and agreed that if Muhammad ﷺ were to pass away, they would not let the Caliphate to be in the Clan of Hashim, nor the Prophet-hood ever. So Allah (azwj) Mighty and Majestic Revealed this Verse with regards to them. I said, ‘The Statement of the Mighty and Majestic: “[43:79] Or have they settled an affair? Then surely, We are the settlers. [43:80] Or do they think that We do not hear what they conceal and their secret discourses? Indeed (We do), and Our messengers are by them, to record”. He (a.s) said: ‘And these two Verse were Revealed regarding them on that day’. Abu Abdullah (a.s) said: ‘Hopefully you will see that is was a day resembling the day of the writing of the agreement except for the day Al-Husayn (a.s) was martyred, and thus it had preceded in the Knowledge of Allah (azwj) Mighty and Majestic which He (azwj) Made known to the Rasool Allah ﷺ that when the agreement is written down, Al-Husayn (a.s) would be martyred, and the kingdom would exit from the Clan of Hashim. So all of that did take place. I said, ‘The Verse: “[49:9] And if two parties of the believers quarrel, make peace between them; but if one of them acts wrongfully towards the other, fight that which acts wrongfully until it returns to Allah’s command; then if it returns, make peace between them with justice and act equitably; surely Allah loves those who act equitably”. He (a.s) said: ‘The two groups, but rather its explanation came on the day of Al-Basra (The battle of the Camel), and they are the ones belonging to this Verse, and they are the ones who rebelled against Amir-ul-Momineen (a.s). So it was obligatory upon him (a.s) to fight them, and he (a.s) fought them until they submitted to the Command of Allah (azwj). And had they not been submitted, it became obligatory upon him (a.s) with regards to what Allah (azwj) Revealed, that he (a.s) should not raise his sword (stop fighting) until they complied and returned from their opinions, because they had pledged their allegiances willingly, without compulsion. And this is the rebel group as Allah (azwj) the High has Said. So it was obligatory upon Amir-ul-Momineen (a.s) that he (a.s) should deal with justice among them when he (a.s) was victorious over them, just as the Rasool Allah ﷺ had been just among the people of Mecca, he ﷺ was benevolent upon them and forgave them. And that is what Amir-ul-Momineen (a.s) did with the people of Al-Basra when he (a.s) was victorious over them similar to what the Rasool Allah ﷺ did with the people of Mecca. Like a sandal follows a sandal (same footsteps). I said, ‘(What about) the Statement of the Mighty and Majestic: “[53:53] And He destroyed the Overthrown Cities (of Sodom and Gomorrah)”. He (a.s) said: ‘These are the people of Al-Basra. It is the overthrown city’. I said, ‘(What about) “[9:70] and the overthrown cities; their messengers came to them with clear arguments”. He (a.s) said: ‘They were the people of Lut (a.s), their town was turned upside down upon them’.

Mir‘at al ‘Uqul Fi Sharh Akhbar Al al Rasul (6 / 68) موثق على الظاهر Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi

What's going on?

A recent Reddit policy change threatens to kill many beloved third-party mobile apps, making a great many quality-of-life features not seen in the official mobile app permanently inaccessible to users.
On May 31, 2023, Reddit announced they were raising the price to make calls to their API from being free to a level that will kill every third party app on Reddit, from Apollo to Reddit is Fun to Narwhal to BaconReader.
Even if you're not a mobile user and don't use any of those apps, this is a step toward killing other ways of customizing Reddit, such as Reddit Enhancement Suite or the use of the old.reddit.com desktop interface .
This isn't only a problem on the user level: many subreddit moderators depend on tools only available outside the official app to keep their communities on-topic and spam-free.

What's the plan?

On June 12th, many subreddits will be going dark to protest this policy. Some will return after 48 hours: others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed, since many moderators aren't able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app. This isn't something any of us do lightly: we do what we do because we love Reddit, and we truly believe this change will make it impossible to keep doing what we love.
The two-day blackout isn't the goal, and it isn't the end. Should things reach the 14th with no sign of Reddit choosing to fix what they've broken, we'll use the community and buzz we've built between then and now as a tool for further action.
For more information, please visit Save3rdPartyApps

What can you do?

1. Complain. Message the mods of reddit.com, who are the admins of the site: message reddit: submit a support request: comment in relevant threads on reddit, such as this one, leave a negative review on their official iOS or Android app- and sign your username in support to this post.
2. Spread the word. Rabble-rouse on related subreddits. Meme it up, make it spicy. Bitch about it to your cat. Suggest anyone you know who moderates a subreddit join us at our sister sub at ModCoord - but please don't pester mods you don't know by simply spamming their modmail.
3. Boycott and spread the word...to Reddit's competition! Stay off Reddit entirely on June 12th through the 13th- instead, take to your favorite non-Reddit platform of choice and make some noise in support!
4. Don't be a jerk. As upsetting this may be, threats, profanity and vandalism will be worse than useless in getting people on our side. Please make every effort to be as restrained, polite, reasonable and law-abiding as possible. This includes not harassing moderators of subreddits who have chosen not to take part: no one likes a missionary, a used-car salesman, or a flame warrior.

What else can I do except browse Reddit?

Depending on subreddit, some will still be available for viewing, but not posting. One of the reasons for the protest is to damage Reddit's viewership to raise awareness among the upper management, so it is advised not to browse reddit, even if a subreddit is still viewable/not participating.
Here are some moderator's choice way to spend time:

• Touch grass
• Tachiyomi is a free (android only) software for reading comic books and manga. I can personally recommend titles like: Fables, The twelve, Gokushufudou: The way of a house husband, The flintstones (2016), Spider-man/Deadpool and Black hammer.
• Parsecis a free software you can install on your pone to remotely control your PC. A simple bluetooth mouse or a controller can allow you to play your PC games on mobile (Unfortunately, you connection might be too laggy to play ULTRAKILL depending on your connection)
• Mirhaze Ultrawiki is a recently created alternative to the Fandom ULTRAKILL wiki. It's still very early in development, but with it's more informative tone might be appealing to some readers. This gap in ULTRAKILL's activity might be a good opportunity to judge it for yourself.

Additionally, I will add any recommendations you might want to share in comments ^^