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ildarotyrannus · 3 months

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In the spring of last year, I made several color reconstructions of marine reptiles for a thesis and presentation (it was about the reconstruction of marine reptiles) for a conference that was held in Ulyanovsk in September. The drawings were done in ballpoint pen (lineart) and Paint Tool Sai 2.0 (shadows and colors).

The first is reconstruction of Mixosaurus cornalianus, a widespread small Triassic ichthyosaur. I had already drawn a Mixosaurus in water earlier and even wanted to use it in the article, but later changed my mind, deciding that lateral reconstruction would better convey the appearance of soft tissues. This earlier drawing can bee seen here:

Both pieces are based on the fin impressions described in 2020 from a specimen found in the Middle Triassic rocks of the Bezano formation, Italy (www.researchgate.net/publicati…). This specimen has preserved the tissues of the dorsal and caudal fins. Both prints have thin collagen filaments, and at the base of the caudal fin, it was possible to detect the remains of smooth, scaleless skin. The fins have a triangular shape, and the dorsal one is associated with 15-23 trunk vertebrae. In other words, its position turned out to be more

forward then in reconstructions done before his paper.

The second is lateral reconstruction of the metriorhynchid Cricosaurus albersdoerferi, belonging to a widespread genus that inhabited the shallow seas of future Europe, Central America and Argentina. It was not a particularly large animal, reaching from 2 to 3.2 meters in length. Like the first reconstruction of a Cricosaurus, which I performed in the spring, this drawing is based on a specimen that preserved a large volume of soft tissue on the tail (upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia…). Also shown here is the salt gland in the antorbital fenestra, the presence of which was previously indicated in Cricosaurus araucanensis and Dakosaurus andiniensis. The spring work with C. albersdoerferi can be seen below:

Plesiosaurs are mentioned too. This is reconstruction of the polycotylid Mauriciosaurus fernandezi from the Late Cretaceous of Mexico. A complete reptile skeleton preserved in fine-grained rocks was described by a team of paleontologists in 2017: www.researchgate.net/publicati… There are five types of soft tissue imprints around the bones. Among them are dark material, probably left from the walls of the peritoneum, dark gray traces of blubber and impressions of possible small scales. The impressions show that the animal's belly was covered with rectangular scales, which were mixed with inclusions of small fragments closer to the limbs. The scales of the living reptile were almost indistinguishable, so that the skin looked smooth. This beautifully preserved specimen showed that plesiosaurs had much more soft tissue than previously thought. The tail was especially fleshy. Fat deposits created a smooth, streamlined shape, ideal for an agile swimmer.

The last thesis drawing is this reconstruction of the famous Early Jurassic ichthyosaur Stenopterygius quadriscissus. Many of its skeletons of amazing preservation were found in the fine-grained limestones of Holzmaden, Germany. Some of them were discovered back in the 19th century, which made it possible to quickly correct previous ideas about ichthyosaurs. The Stenopterygius specimens retained soft tissue prints in the form of a bacterial film, which made it clear that they were fish-like creatures with a dorsal fin and a crescent tail. They re still attract the attention of researchers. In 2018, the skin structure of one partial specimen was studied: www.researchgate.net/publicati… A fossilized blubber was described, similar in microstructure to that of marine mammals and leatherback turtles. This led to the conclusion that ichthyosaurs were reptiles with a high metabolism, which required fat insulation. Blubber allowed ichthyosaurs to travel across the oceans, swimming even into the cold polar waters. In addition, this Stenopterygius had pigment cells - melanophores. They were absent on the ventral side, which means that the Stenopterygius had a dark back and a light belly. This countershading coloring is typical of today's marine vertebrates and serves as a camouflage.

I did also three works in fully traditional style, with pens and pencils, but I'll show them in the separate post. :)

#mixosaurus #stenopterygius #ichthyosaurs #cricosaurus #metriorhynchidae #mauriciosaurus #polycotylidae #plesiosaur #mesozoic marine reptiles #paleoart

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mirageofadesert · 7 months

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Till The End Of The Moon and the issue of audience identification

Who do you think is the main character in TTEOTM? Who do you like the most? Who do you identify with?

One of the things I loved the about this show is its approach to story telling. TTEOTM centers on two main characters with unique perspectives, who's goals are at odds with each other. This pattern is continued with the other characters as well, each of them having a perspective based on their experience and limited knowledge of the overarching story-line.

Reading some comments (mostly on reddit), this approach to story-telling seems to have gotten mixed responses. Among the fair criticism, however, are some comments that at times made me doubt, that we even watched the same show. And while a lot of it could be explained by difference in cultural background, age and media literacy, I think there is a potential problem in whom the audience identifies with, and what they consequently project onto the character.

Who is the main character?

The Main Character is the character with whom the readers most identify and around whom the passion of the story seems to revolve. In theory TTEOTM has two main character, however, these two are not equally fleshed out in the course of the show.

While we first get introduced to Devil God 2.0, it's Li Susu through who's eyes we experience the world. She is the main character for the first part, meanwhile Tantai Jin gets introduced later, but he quickly takes up more and more space. Most of the plot, action and emotional moments are soon linked to his character. The show succeeds in making us pity Tantai Jin and root for him - even through Li Susu is still the heroine of the story.

After Ye Xiwu's death, the story switches and from this point own, we get to know a new world, the sects of Buzhao Mountain, through Tantai Jin's eyes. Both emotional scenes and plot are still mostly linked to his character. Li Susu becomes more and more quiet - and I think some of it is due to the editing. In the last few episodes there are a couple of scenes of the camera just silently circling her. Going by the pattern of cinematography establish so far, these scenes probably had Li Susu's internal dialogue, which was later cut; same as some central moments of personal growth for her character (e.g. most of the demon arc in the Jing capital).

Who does the audience relate to?

Another common criticism is that Li Susu's action "don't make sense" or that she isn't well written. I have already dedicated a long post to this topic (and why I disagree). I believe, the main problem is that parts of the audience can't relate to her.

Some of it might come down to our media consumption habits and even expectations when it comes to Chinese dramas. In my personal experience and following the discourse on different platforms, some c-drama viewers seem to struggle with self-inserting into Li Susu. She doesn't have your usual relatable c-drama problems: parents, marriage, self-esteem, controlling family, social status, popularity etc. Instead, her problems are of the world saving kind. While there are relatable subplots later on (e.g. conflict between siblings, struggling with falling for the "bad boy"), it makes sense that not everyone will feel the same way about her.

Tantai Jin on the other hand is portrayed quite relatable. In an attempt to humanize him, the audience does not only empathise with his situation, his struggles evoke the majority of emotions. While none of us can relate to the pressure of potentially becoming an evil God, motives like marginalization, being ostracized and bullied, abandoned by a parent, fearing both commitment and loss, experiencing a more or less one-sided love or one's life being controlled by forces outside one's control, are human problems and therefore relatable to a broader audience.

I do relate to both differently, and it has elevated my experience of the show. However, Li Susu's character deserves a more flashed out character development, which might have made her accessible to more people.

The be him and to be with him

Like probably many of you, I tend to relate more often to male characters than females. A reason for this is, that female characters in media are often not written well or portrayed from the male gaze. You don't identify with the eye candy, you relate to the hero. Fortunately, Li Susu is not written from the male gaze!

From the glimpses I have seen of the international fandom, fans want to be Tantai Jin (because they identify with him), but they also want to be with him (duh). This is - to no small extent - because of Luo Yunxi's acting skills and popularity. Tantai Jin is not only most people's favorite character, he is "poor little meow mew", "babygirl" and a badass anti-hero. He is both romanticized in his relationship with Li Susu and sexualized on his own.

Identification can - and this is by no means a problem - lead to female-coding male characters in head-canon. Seeing them as a desirable character at the same time, however, can bring a different dynamic to the sexualization. Please, don't understand me wrong - I'm not saying this is something I'm criticizing, nor are these the only factors are at play in this.

I think, it's rather interesting to see the different reaction to male and female leads, and how e.g. cultural bias and gender socialization plays a role here.

With this in mind, the criticism of the characters in TTEOTM becomes understandable - not agreeable, but I'm beginning to understand why people have come to these conclusions. To say that Li Susu is heartless and unfaithful, that honest communication from the beginning would have solved all problems, or that Tantai Jin's sacrifice is a blasphemous appropriation of Jesus' death on the cross (not kidding), always tell more about the person making the interpretation, than about the medium itself.

Thank you for bearing with my rambling on why Tantai Jin is the best boy, and why I think Li Susu deserves better!

#till the end of the moon #tantai jin #ye xiwu #cdrama #tteotm #cdrama meta

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disappointment-san · 1 year

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Thoughts On Lucifer in Lesson 11

Spoilers for Obey Me! Nightbringer below

I’ve seen people everywhere ragging on Lucifer for his reaction and him coming to murder us. I’m just gonna say it - Belphie 2.0:electric Boogaloo. I do see it from his perspective. Like… From his perspective.

Some rando demon shows up at a RAD, a place where YOU and YOUR FAMILY will be heavily contributing to its function, at the exact same time you are there for your first tour.

A demon who CONVENIENTLY LOST THEIR MEMORIES and claims to not know who you/your family/THE DAMN CROWN PRINCE OF DEVILDOM is.

A “demon” who can LITERALLY FORCE HIM AND HIM BROTHERS TO DO WHAT THEY WANT. (“STAY!”)

Who turns out to be VERY CLOSE with SOLOMON - the only human that is a real danger to most demons

One who can read you and your brothers like a book

Who got Very close to his brothers almost immediately

Oh yeah.. WHO LIED TO THEM ABOUT BEING A DEMON. THEY ARE A HUMAN THAT HAS NO REASON TO BE IN DEVILDOM

Who seems to be involved in everything your brothers are getting into

Among a bunch of other things.

He’s still dealing with the trauma of not being able to save his sister, I would argue the person he loved the most. He is heavily responsible for casting him and his brothers down into Devildom and losing their Blessings.

MC is a threat to him and his entire family.

Yeah, he was upset and angry they were lied to. He is scared of losing his family all over again.

I do agree premeditated murder is a bit much, however, I’m just gonna say it. If someone hurt/killed someone in my family, I would not be sitting by if someone came by and was very obviously could pose a threat to the rest of my family. I doubt I would literally try to murder them, but still…

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charlieslowartsies · 7 months

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Hey, so I'm not sure if someone has asked you yet, but I'm fascinated by how you use the Cybertronian language in your transformers fics. How does it work exactly?

This got long, and I’m sorry as always. Thank Primus for read mores.

For starters when I FIRST began working on Resonance and realized I wanted to try putting Cybertronian into it, I read the wiki page, more specifically the opening paragraph:

It should be little surprise, given a moment's thought, that distinct Cybertronian languages exist. The Transformers did not go about speaking English or any other known Earth language long ages ago on their distant metal world. Though the records of such conversations are frequently translated for us, we should not forget that these conversations originally flowed in odd electronic syllables past strange metallic lips, or were etched by alien hands long eons before the first humans painted muddy shapes upon dark cave stone.

‘Fuck.’ Was my first thought. ‘I’m about to try and work an ancient language into this damn fic about a human and an alien robot boning/becoming soul mates…and I want it to be believable.’

‘College linguistics comes back to haunt me.’ Was my second.

So I’ve mashed several continuities together, from the comics to the tv show to the Bay/Knight movies. That sort of gave me a big door way to wedge information through, winding it around plot, and Cade and Prime’s interactions. There’s also more than one alphabet, because of course there is.

I wanted Cade and the Reader to bond as much as Cade and Prime did learning, and Prime teaching him/us. While Cade’s spent a handful of years with the 2.0 team, any lessons would be sort of like Cybertronian 101, rough and dirty. I didn’t want him fluent, (because how?) and reliant on the bots to explain more than they assumed. (Taken shamelessly from my own background. My mom and Uncle speak fluent Spanish but I know broken bits and pieces. I can swear like a sailor though.)

I also leaned into sticking to verbal lessons and displays of the language in action, instead of ‘Cade read a book’ which I think helped make it more…interesting? Hopefully!

Things, phrases, and manners of speaking Cade would be interested in just to help him survive among the bots. The word for ‘I’m a medic, don’t shoot my ass, I can help you!’ is kinda more important than names for Cybertron’s dead Primes or famous landscapes/battles.

Cade can speak Cybertronian better than he can read it, and indeed in Resonance the language is dying among its own kind, sort of like in Atlantis: The Lost Empire. (Not as degraded/gone though.) A younger mech that hatched off Cybertron and grew up amongst the stars only knows what they’ve heard/read or if an older mech transferred the language to them.

I decided to lean into Transformer’s physiology and history and create a few rules to stick to. Here’s a few from my notes, subject to have changed but I don’t think I contradicted them??

1. Transformers do not have a word or specific phrase for ‘please’ in Cybertronian. Instead of ‘Please do/give/take/etc X’ it would simply be removed from the vernacular. You don’t really ask a lot, you demand/take/coerce/threaten.

2. Yes is ‘Affirmative’ and no is ‘Negative’ and used more frequently than yes/no in reply to someone.

4. Short, stilted, and cutting phrases should make up the language when being translated into English. Blunt, but inseparable.

5. Delicate, kind, or sweet terms when being soft or gentle with a treasured person, such as an offspring, friend or mate. Long, lyrical, almost poetic??

6. Repetition to increase intention. “This is very good!” becomes “Good-good-good!” and perhaps engines might be made to purr a little to indicate pleasure/enjoyment/contentment, or optics would be squeezed shut for trust blinks like cats lol!

7. Nonverbal vocalizations slip in and out around Cybertronian as much as English. Static might come across grating to us, but static to a Transformer could mean confusion, alarm, or merely mumbling to oneself. It might not indicate stress—humans hear static and would be troubled, but a mech might be confused if a human heard their staticy sounds and assumed something was wrong. (Reversal, soft and wet sounds are jarring and foreign to Transformers, or usually mean something malfunctioning to them. Whistling from our lips is a great trick, they would think.) Steam whistles, and metal whistles but organic creatures making the noise? Woah!

8. There ARE other dialects but not gunna parse into them deeply or I’ll go nuts and the fic will derail. EX: Vosian (Vos) Vilocitronian (Vilocitron), Kaonic (Kaon) etc. Combatron is a colony thank god,can get away with it dominantly Cybertronian if I need it.

9. Look into Dragon Langauge/Thu’um and study.

10. Cade and Prime are ‘You-and-I’ when talking to one another, their special designation for each other. ‘They-Who-Are-One’ means the same but used by third parties. Prime also uses ‘Light-of-my-Spark’ or Sparklight, and ‘Cade-Beloved’

Those are old notes, dating back from Res’ early chapters in 2019.

Part of what helped me picture how I wanted the language to work was translating bot’s names into what I imagined their ‘true’ designations would be. It became kind of fun, actually. Especially seeing how short names could turn into long, almost lyrical titles. I wanted Cybertronian to sound harsh, heavy, and grating to humans in the fic, but also at its heart be flowing, connected and ever changing like the bot’s themselves.

Some were self explanatory to their ‘English’ version, some more esoteric. Starscream became ‘Screams-Like-Dying-Starlight.’ Terrifying but it paints a picture of what he does, what kind of fight he will give you, etc. As did ‘In-His-Crosshairs’ or ‘Drifts-Through-Darkest-Skies.’ Saying that 'Crosshairs and 'Drift' were what they were called on English seemed like a good way to show that we, as humans, are the aliens to them as much as they're alien to us?

Optimus Prime had other titles that both worked as nicknames or insults, depending on who said it their inflection. ‘He-Who-Reigns-War’ was meant to be heartbreaking as it was, well, kinda true. He doesn’t like it, Cade doesn’t like it. Many Autobots won’t use it.

Because I don’t study linguistics/zero time to study as much as I’d like, I have to absolutely work on rules and tweak them on the fly. I try to stick their speech being present, more than temporary.

‘Did you get hurt?’ would become ‘Hurting?’ and ‘I don’t like this at all, this is scary!’ becomes ‘Do-Not-Like! Scared!’

I wanted the Cybertronian dialect in Resonance to be emotive and rich in gestures, and firm statements. Abstract but ‘in the moment’ and very much still reliant on body language and tone versus tons of explanations or verbal hypothetical’s. There are noises and sounds humans cannot pronounce in this language, but there are work arounds within reason and, of course, a Cybertronian listening a human speak any Earth language can engage almost within minutes through learning and copying.

I hope this answered your question DX Sorry for the rambling!! If you read this far 200 cookies for youuuu

#resonance #barn husbands #cybertronian #tf #optimus prime

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theculturedmarxist · 6 months

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Israel’s military strategy follows precisely the parameters its war planners proclaimed: total war. This would not be mowing the grass. This was a fight all the way to the end of the line. To eradicate Hamas, yes. But far beyond that.

US leaders have telegraphed their acceptance of this approach by floating the notion of “what comes after Hamas is defeated.” In other words, after Hamas is totally dismantled and destroyed as a viable entity. They may be thinking of how the west and its regional allies attacked and largely eliminated ISIS as a viable force.

But as this article points out–the proper insurgency analogy for Hamas is not ISIS, but the Vietcong. A people’s army rooted in every home and village. With disciplined political and military cadres operating covertly and overtly everywhere and anywhere. Even when the Vietcong faced the most severe US-Vietnamese attacks, they never wavered. It was their country after all. They could never be defeated in any real sense. And events proved them right. They outlasted the invaders: a Vietcong version of summud.

Gaza, of course, is a much smaller area than Vietnam. So targeting Hamas would be an easier feat. But among 2-million people, you cannot eradicate a movement the people embrace. You would have to eliminate all the people to do that. Which brings me to my next point.

It is very likely, I believe, Israel intends to expel all Gazans. This isn’t just a war to destroy tunnels, or to eliminate Hamas fighters. It wasn’t even exclusively a war to eliminate Hamas. It was a war to make Gaza entirely unlivable. It is total war in an urban setting.

By total war, I mean one that destroys everything. Everything and everyone. Leaving the living to bury the dead…or die trying. The goal is to make Gaza so uninhabitable, that the world will find this version of the Final Solution perhaps unpalatable, but in the end unavoidable.

I can’t think of any modern version of total war comparable to this one. In every similar attack on a major city, the attacker did not intend to render the place permanently unlivable for survivors. Even in the case of the atomic bomb attacks in Japan, the US formed an Occupation government which entirely rebuilt the country, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while also creating a new democratic political system. After murdering 500,000 during the infamous Dresden bombing, the city was rebuilt. Only the ruins of the bombed cathedral remained, as a testament to the cruelty and suffering of the War.

There are ancient versions of this, all revolving on conquerors sowing the earth of the vanquished state with salt, so it would be unable to produce anything that could sustain life. In fact, this ancient version of a scorched earth-total war strategy, may originate in the ancient Middle East.

This may Israel’s Total War 2.0: a military strategy “updated” for the modern age. Preferably, it would be studied in military academies more for its horror than for the innovation of tactics or long-term success in achieving political goals.

The first stage of this process is the one we are in now–genocide by degrees. Eliminate neighborhoods, infrastructure, institutions. Render hospitals, schools, businesses either destroyed or inoperable. The latest is they’re even bombing water tanks and solar panels. Because I presume they’re major weapons of war.

People will then die not only from the bombs, but from their untended wounds, starvation, disease, etc. Despite the savagery of Israeli tactics in this stage, eventually the world slowly becomes acclimatized to it. What was once horrifying and downright uncivilized, is now the new normal.

That leads to what may be the next stage: Israel declaring, Gaza is now unlivable. It’s a sad tragic fact of war. We had to do it. They gave us no choice, etc. But guess what, the Israelis could say. Let’s start over. Let’s reconceive what Gaza is.

They might have a hybrid approach to how the post-war landscape will look: perhaps Israeli Jewish settlements, interlaced with Gazans carefully screened by the security apparatus, who are permitted to remain. Or perhaps it would be Palestine-rein (though that might be a bridge too far for a finicky global audience).

Gaza: Nakba 2.0

Israel has already published two separate plans, one produced by a whack job analyst, Amir Weitmann, arguing it would only cost $5-8-billion to resettle Gaza Palestinians in existing or newly built housing stock on the outskirts of Cairo.

In the video below, he tries to tear an RT reporter a new asshole. Pulling an Israeli Rambo, he threatens to personally destroy Russia. Or something.

A mentally deranged genocidal Nazi threatens Russia… 🤷🏽‍♀️#GenocideinGaza #ShutElbitDown STOP THE #GENOCIDE NOW! pic.twitter.com/GrMWMmbc4A — 🗣️📢 𝕗𝕣𝕖𝕖 𓂆 𝕡𝕒𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕖 (@ronnie_barkan) October 20, 2023

The other proposal came from the intelligence ministry. It was similar in some respects to the other plan. But it did not offer the newly expelled refugees anything other than tents in the Sinai. As far as this proposal was concerned, Israel dumped them there. It was now someone else’s problem.

Which wasn’t much different than what Israel did after the 1948 War. It expelled a million indigenous Palestinians and foisted them on neighboring Arab countries: your problem, Israel said. These countries now have 5-million Palestinian “problems.”

Media reporting on these two documents noted they weren’t produced by the country’s highest level security think tanks and that the intelligence ministry is really an insignificant backwater as far as government ministries go.

But a different strategy may be involved. These plans may be part of a broader plan. After they are leaked, the government gives them time to be absorbed by Israelis and the world. Then the genocide continues. The body count continues to rise. Savagery even escalates. Pressure builds up. Then Israel says: hey, we have a plan to end all this. No more killing. No more terrorism. No more Palestinian Gaza. Are you interested, world? It is quite possible that so many nations and world leaders will be so outraged by this Israel will pack it in and return to killing business as usual.

But…if Israel preps enough allies, if it gets Biden and Blinken on board. If they lobby the European allies, then Israel may be able to pursue a diabolical plan to its “logical” criminal conclusion. At least that’s what Israel hopes.

Gaza as colony. Israel, US, and European and Arab allies as colonial powers

The US and Israel have cooked up a real stew. They propose that after Hamas is eliminated (a dubious proposition to begin with–but more on that later), an occupation force consisting of American troops would administer Gaza:

The US and Israel are exploring options for the future of the Gaza Strip, including the possibility of a multinational force that may involve American troop…

Plan B involves an Arab multilateral force that would administer Gaza. It has even designated who that could be–none other than the next-up in the Abraham Accords sweepstakes, Saudi Arabia. Yes, those Saudis did such a bang-up job in Yemen, where they not only murdered 80,000 Yemenis, they also slaughtered hundreds of Ethiopian refugees fleeing from Yemen. We want these humanitarians to work their magic in Gaza.

Secretary of State Blinken summed up the (stupid) thinking behind the plan:

“We can’t have a reversion to the status quo with Hamas running Gaza,” Blinken, who will travel to Israel on Friday, told the Senate Appropriations Committee. “We also can’t have — and the Israelis start with this proposition themselves — Israel running or controlling Gaza.” “Between those shoals are a variety of possible permutations that we’re looking at very closely now, as are other countries,” he said.

So you can’t have Hamas running the show. And Israel wants nothing to do with the job itself because, guess what? It tried it and didn’t work well for them: one of the reasons Sharon so unceremoniously withdrew in 2005. A decision which led–you guessed it–to Hamas’ takeover of Gaza. Israel, of course, wants to foist the unwelcome job on someone, anyone else. Smart move for them. But not for the sucker left holding the bag.

But look at the language of Blinken’s statement. Who’s missing from consideration? Gazans themselves. They are an after thought. Or a non-thought.

The only thing colonial powers understand is who will run things. Not who lives there or what they want. But who’s on top. The problem with that approach is it ends up as all colonizing schemes do–the natives reject the guy running things because they want to run them for themselves. This is precisely the disaster the US is heading for under any of these schemes.

For once in his professional life as a pro-Israel US diplomat, Aaron David Miller is right when he warns:

“The idea of bringing Arab states in to do counter insurgency in Gaza in the wake of the death and destruction that the Israelis have visited is going to be extremely problematic because it would involve Arabs killing Palestinians,” said Aaron David Miller…

You bet. Not only that. It will involve Gazans killing Israel’s Arab stooge occupiers. That’s a message that would resonate with any Gazan.

Oh and here’s another Biden humdinger:

…One option would grant temporary oversight to Gaza to countries from the region, backed by troops from the US, UK, Germany and France. Ideally, it would also include representation from Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates,

Consider all the vague meaningless unquantifiable terms in this passage: “temporary,” “oversight,” “representation.” These words mean nothing: tissue paper floating on the breeze. What European country in their right mind would want to station troops in a Gaza tinder keg?

It was bad enough for them when they joined multinational forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. At least there was some international consensus behind the US invasion (as wrong as it was). There is no such consensus how to deal with Gaza. They would be walking into a building already on fire.

Which Arab nations would be foolish enough to join this shit show? Of course, those buddy-movie heroes, MBS and MBZ. They’ll go anywhere, do anything: Starve Yemen? Check. Murder Shiite clerics? Check. Fund ISIS? Check. Fund anti-Iran terror? Check. Dissolve dissident journalists in vats of acid? Check.

Israel’s friends at the Washington Institute came up with their own plan. It has as much merit as my last Amazon packing slip:

[It] called for a Palestinian-run interim administration, with the UN Relief and Works Agency continuing to provide food, heath and education. “Public safety and law enforcement could be directed by a consortium of the five Arab states who have reached peace agreements with Israel—Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco,” Washington Institute scholars wrote in an Oct. 17 note. “Only those Arab states would have Israel’s confidence, which is essential for this effort to succeed.”

So in other words, some Palestinian stooges, presumably the PA since they’re perfect casting for such characters, and UNWRA, will respectively, feed Gazans and administer traffic tickets (if there any cars left); while Abraham Accord stooges do all the heavy-lifting on behalf of Israel. I couldn’t have come with anything better myself (and I didn’t!).

As if reading my mind, Blinken offered fond hopes for PA’s future stooge role. Just not quite yet:

…What would make the most sense would be for an effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority to have governance and ultimately security responsibility for Gaza..

If those aren’t a few choice euphemisms concealing his admission that the PA is a bunch of corrupt aged incompetent grifters.

Media reporting on the various plans say Democratic senators were receptive. I wonder: do they have eyes in their head? Do they read the news? Do they remember when we imposed our own version of “democracy” on captive nations in Afghanistan and Iraq? How well did that end? If any of these harebrained schemes sees the light of day they should all have their heads examined.

But hey, it’s their own party. Let them make the rules. But remember the Pottery Barn rule, which Tom Friedman so infamously and erroneously attributed to Colin Powell: you break it, you buy it. The beauty of the these plans, especially for Israel, is that after they break it, they don’t buy it or fix it. They pawn it off on the Saudis and they “fix” it, as only the Saudis do (cf. Yemen). If Biden thinks that a joint military occupation by European or Arab allies will absolve him of responsibility for the inevitable disaster, he should think again. It won’t. Republicans will see to that. And for once in their lives, they would be right.

Hamas will last

Whatever happens to Hamas during this war, no matter how decisively it has been defeated (which is by no means certain), it will not disappear. It will not be eliminated. You can kill 100,000 Gazans and you will not eradicate it. Like the Vietcong, it is so part of the people the two cannot be separated.

No matter how much propaganda Israel tries to peddle. For example: Whispered in Gaza, a dog and pony show “hosted” by pro-Israel front-man, Dennis Ross, with his Foundation for the Defense of Democracies sidekick, Jonathan Schanzer. I tell you: there’s nothing that validates Israeli genocide more than offering Israelis and the west the delusion that they’re actually helping Gazans. One question? How did they obtain these purported statements from Gazans? Under what guise or pretense? Because even if these statements are genuine (not necessarily established), I guarantee that interviewees were deceived as to the purpose for which their statements would eventually be used. This is plain and simple information warfare. Ross has moved on from US diplomat to propaganda warrior.

That doesn’t mean all Gazans love Hamas. Not all Vietnamese loved the Vietcong. Not all colonial Americans loved the patriots. But Hamas fights. It resists. There is no other force in Palestinian society that fights for its rights against occupiers and oppressors. So until something better comes along, Gazans say this will have to do.

In whatever bright new future the colonial powers have in mind for Gaza, Hamas will not just fade into the mist never to be seen again. It will be there. It will assert itself and its presence. It will resist whoever calls himself a colonial Lord Jim. Doesn’t matter whether its a GI Joe, Saudi commander, or a Jedi knight. They’re all foreign occupiers. All unwelcome. It will be the undying mission of Hamas to rid Gaza of them. And eventually, if it takes a decade or five, it will. My money is riding on it. Colonial powers don’t have a very good, or long track record.

Something better could come along if these powers deciding Gaza’s fate recognized a Gazan voice, and compelled Israel to recognize a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, including free, full and fair elections. Never happen. I know. But I wanted to put out the real and only solution that works. Not the one that these colonial douchebags are sticking together with rubber bands and wood glue.

Gaza: the Biggest Loser

The Biggest Loser–and they always are–are the Gazans. At least one can say that in the Saudi scenario, they aren’t expelled and turned into refugees twice in 75 years. But they would now be under the boot heel of a hated, corrupt, despotic monarchy. If Hamas resonated with Palestinians before–it will even more in this scenario.

The Saudis failed to quell the Yemeni Houthis. In Gaza the conditions would be even less favorable. Despite their Israel-induced deprivation, Gazans are worldly, technologically-adept, politically engaged, etc. They are not tribal kinsman from the mountains. Gazans have as much in common with Saudis as Gigi Hadid has with Tokyo Rose. The Saudis will be as unwelcome occupiers as Israelis.

#hamas #palestine #gaza #israel #israel palestine conflict #us imperialism #colonialism #capitalism

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stromuprisahat · 2 months

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Something I'm always going to hate about Rule of Wolves (among a lot of things), is the way the supposedly good characters like Zoya brought up Baghra's suicide as if it was supposedly a good thing. Aside from the really gross misinterpretation of that event, I just think it's really insensitive for the good characters to use that to insult the Darkling. They don't like him or agree with him? Fine. But don't speak about his mother's death like that.

I think one of the worst issue of KoS's alleged heroes is an actual lack of empathy.

Sure, they like to name victims they personally knew, but not only they fail to consider wider picture, the way they're treating Aleksander- even when he's entirely powerless- is beyond abominable.

One of the characteristics of developed, humanitarian societies tends to be that they treat even their prisoners humanely. Denying someone suitable clothes, or even proper sleeping light conditions isn't something I'd expect from characters labeled as morally "good". That puts the bar regarding their "sensitivity" pretty low.

Zoya happens to be in possession of gigantic mommy AND daddy issues, inclination to idolize victimhood etc. etc. You cannot expect her to be even slightly objective about her abusive Mommy 2.0 beloved teacher. Especially is she happens to be related to her "neglectful" Daddy 2.0 "country's worst enemy LOL". You have to remember Zoya's own mother was rather terrible, yet she got kicked out of her life after doing something so traumatizing, it was unforgivable even for the unloved child. Baghra never did anything that would force Zoya to reconsider her view on her, never tried to sell her off to anyone.

For me, heroes should be people striving to do better for its own sake, that includes kindness and empathy. You don't have to turn the other cheek, but you shouldn't overlook one person's fault to put them on a pedestal only to kick another, while they're down.

#reply #Grishaverse #grishanalyticritical #The Darkling #Baghra Morozova #Zoya Nazyalensky #The Righteous Gang™#Rule of Wolves #anti Zoya #anti Baghra

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ofonikabutobeetlesandmen · 10 months

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Pre!4.0 Fontaine Thoughts & Musings

While I do plan on dropping my Fontaine theories pre!4.0 at some point, this is just more of my thoughts surrounding the nation as a whole based on the teasers and summaries of some leaked items. So this is most definitely your chance to back away now if you end up being one of the few people that read my ramblings and find them amusing in some way.

But yeah if you were here way back during 2.1, you’ll have seen this post of mine talking about how excited I was for Sumeru and Fontaine. I started playing the game in 1.1 and these were the nations I looked most forward to after seeing the Teyvat Travail trailer. My interest in these nations only grew further with the various NPCs we’ve run into talking about these countriesー and now both of my preferred nations are finally about to be on the ‘released nations’ list.

I’ve enjoyed Sumeru’s deserts and forests, the struggles of the desertfolk and the Eremites and seeing Cyno and Collei again, as well as some new friends made along the way. Now it’s time for Fontaine.

(Fingers crossed for some Afro-Fontainians since rock n roll was in real life was made by African Americans evolved through several genres of our music like Blues, Jazz, R&B and gospel among other genres but because this is Hoyoverse and we all saw how ‘well’ they did with Sumeru, I highly doubt there will be any despite France’s diversity. Welp, nothing the power of making OCs and edits can’t fix. Maybe I’ll use that time to finally relearn French like I’ve been planning, which I took for a year in high school because Creole runs in both sides of the family but then I forgot it all.)

Fontaine had me in a death clutch a while back during the Tatara Tales questline when Xavier had a small little monologue about his homeland in 2.0:

"For instance, I could tell you of the majestic waterfall that made a deep impression on my soul as I worked in my study in Petrichor. Or perhaps I could sing the praises of the countless gorgeous maidens in the Court of Fontaine, ethereal as the clouds themselves... Or the mesmerizing lake that held the reflections of the stars and the moon, such that walking along its banks was like treading amid the celestial skies..."

It sounded so beautiful that I wanted the remote from click to just fast forward to the point in time in which we’d finally be there. Every NPC from Fontaine until that point had talked about Fontaine being pretty, but none of them ever went into that much detail before.

I ate up the Dew of Repudiation Petrichor crumbs "Even if it were to flow into the surpassingly pure waters of Petrichor, this drop of water will likely resist assimilation as strongly as mercury."

Pocketed every trinket of info given by event NPCs about Fontaine’s energy crisis and how

Noted the lore on the Lochfolk/Oceanids from Rhodeia to Endora to the Spring Fairy and the information about the Lord of Amrita.

And now we have Idyia in that lineup with the new summer event going on right now in 3.8! It has long-since been stated since 1.4 that the Lochfolk were followers of the previous Hydro Archon, now known as the Lord of Amrita aka Egeria (according to leaks). They were tasked with spreading out across Fontaine as her spies, but they note it wasn’t because she was plotting war or anything of the sort on the other nations, but she wanted to do so as a way to connect everyone similar to how water is connected (or like how the Lochfolk come together in water to quote Endora:

Want to grow quickly. Want to find Rhodeia. A child. New life, like Endora. A child's mission is to grow. To grow? I thought it was to see the world. Love. For Oceanids, this is to meld together as one. There will be no division then. That is why Oceanids need no learning or thoughts of their own. All that is needed is love. It seems that Oceanids cannot love others, for others will only drown in the embrace of pure waters. So they disguise themselves as the dreams of young children, and withdraw from the lives of all other people. Every day, a child takes a stumbling step forward. Every day, a stream flows into the sea. Love, that is our destiny. But I still have a whole world left to see.).

But once the Lord of Amrita died, most Lochfolk went on a self-imposed exile from Fontaine, not getting along with the current Hydro Archon, Focalors, the God of Justice.

In 3.8, we got some more information on that from Idyia:

According to her, the waters of Fontaine changed when Focalors came into power, the water now full of pain and hatred and for those who left fleeing seemed like the best choice “if we wanted to live.” But as shown in 1.4′s Wishful Drop event with Endora and Rhodeia’s line at the beginning of a fight (and with some leaks stating that wild Oceanids can be fought in Fontaine’s overworld), line at the beginning of a battle, there are some Lochfolk that still remain in Fontaine for some reason unexplained.

According to the descriptions of the Water-Splitting and Water-Spouting Phantasms, new enemies in Fontaine, with most of the Oceanids having left Fontaine, new strange elemental lifeforms have taken their place after the cataclysm.

According to the Water-Splitting Phantasm description, while the water have long since been diluted and cleansed, Fontaine’s waters will never naturally birth Oceanids again until there are containers of pure water somewhere.

And if you look at the description of the Water-Spouting Phantasm, it states that: It is said that in Egeria's era, the Oceanids often lived alongside humans, and lived in the springs of clear waters dotted across the lands, and through this, they connected the waters of the world. But most died with their god, and for the survivors, the world no longer has any god they recognize. That unrecognized god obviously being Focalors.

I’ll expand on it in an actual theory post, but I do believe part of the Fontaine AQ will be restoring the waters of Fontaine to how they once were, allowing new Oceanids to be born from Fontaine’s water and bringing the Oceanids back to the regionー maybe even get them on better terms with Furina.

Speaking of Fontaine’s water, ever since 3.0, I am fascinated with it.

If you go to Port Ormos, specifically the port close with all the porters and the Eremite guards, you’ll run into an adventurer NPC named Vasco. If you talk to him, he goes on a bit of a tirade about sea monsters, but he starts off the dialogue with something very interesting. “Should I go to Fontaine and get a diving certificate?”

Even more interesting was the follow up: “To prevent myself from the cook's fate, I'm considering getting a diving certificate from Fontaine before adventuring again. But I heard the water in Fontaine is different from here, so it won't be a useful endeavor.”

Fontaine had me in a chokehold just by being the Hydro nation to start with, but the idea that Fontaine’s water is different from the rest of Teyvat’s? How is it different? What are the unique properties that separate from Fontainian water from regular Teyvat water? What do Fontainians living in/visiting other nations think of regular Teyvat water? What do people from other nations think of Fontanian water? I’ve got to know.

Part of “The Terrestial Sea, Origin of All Waters” description mentions that Fontaine where all waters of the world originate. It’s further elaborated on in the description of the set of drops from the Fontemer Abberant enemies (I will not be fighting the Puffbeast. Fuck everything else though lmao, those crabs and seahorses can catch these hands).

From left to right:

Transoceanic Pearl: A small crystal obtained from a defeated Fontemer Aberrant. Fontemer Aberrants arise from Fontaine's seas. They are believed to be a unique life form born from the mysterious energy in the water.

Transoceanic Chunk: A crystal obtained from a defeated Fontemer Aberrant. It gives off a somewhat mysterious energy. Although many legends speak of great life forms residing in remote seas beyond human reach, ordinary oceans can hardly compare to the vibrant seas of Fontaine.

Kaleidoscopic Crystal: A large crystal obtained from a defeated Fontemer Aberrant.It contains a mysterious energy. All rivers and seas originate in Fontaine, but the water loses all its unique properties once it flows outside Fontaine's borders.

Back to back, each description mentions that Fontaine’s water has a certain energy to it, that ordinary oceans cannot compare. But most interestingly enough, it reaffirms that all rivers and seas in the world of Teyvat originate in Fontaine but the moment it leaves Fontaine’s borders, it immediately loses all its unique properties.

I don’t doubt that the uniqueness of Fontaine’s water will be mentioned in Fontaine’s storyline. A good chunk in the AQ, considering Furina coming into power led to the Lochfolk leaving the country. But I also think a good chunk of it will come from WQ’s and likely from the Melusines, a race of seafolk unique to Fontaine that still live there. Which begs the question as to why they haven’t left Fontaine when nearly all of the Oceanids have.

According to one Melusine NPC from a leaked video that’s been removed, Melusines originate from a creature called the Elynas and if I remember correctly they come from its flesh or bones. And the Primuses came after the cataclysm and can be found near the Elynas, but I’m not sure if that’s the same for the Melusines since there isn’t more elaboration on it but I hope to find out more once Fontaine’s initial WQs start dropping.

And of course, I’m excited for the lore potential of the upcoming character.

Lyney, Lynette and Freminet all seem to have a connection to Arlecchino and the House of the Hearth and may even be working for her now as Fatui agents who possibly hope to one day live peaceful lives.

Neuvillette was once speculated to possibly be an Oceanid who remained in Fontaine, but it now looks like he is the Hydro Dragon. It sucks that it isn’t Kokomi but either way it doesn’t change the fact that the Hydro Dragon IS living among humans and even working closely with an Archon, when it has been shown through Apep that dragons from the time before the Seven hate Celestia, Archons and humans alike in this new era of Teyvat. So why live peacefully with them? I’m curious to know!

But by far, the character with some of the most interesting lore potential is of course going to be the Archon especially with what we know about her.

She’s a reason the Oceanids left Fontaine, according to Neuvillette she’s prone to hysterics and in a leaked clip of the AQ she even liquefies a man. Like, she is truly prepared to be the best worst Archon and I am here for it, she’s getting my guaranteed pull and maybe even her signature weapon if I can get it without pushing myself back too far on my Clorinde pulls.

And if we look at the Hydro gemstone for the Archon quote that gives more insight into their character, Furina’s says:

And according to Dainsleif in the Fontaine portion of the Teyvat trailer: “The God of Justice lives for the spectacle of the courtroom, seeking to judge all other gods. But even she knows not to make an enemy of the divine.”

If we look at some more leaks about her, we get some more interesting tidbits.

More specifically in this dialogue exchange with some NPCs:

In other words, it is looking like Furina is going to be a Chaotic Neutral character. She’s nonsensical, she’s a wild card, she welcomes being judged by even her own subjects she holds dominion over yet she considers herself pure and magnificent. If you’re able to win some sort of trial she places you in, she’ll be thrilled. Hell one might even get a medal. Sure that could all just be hyperbole from the locals, but even hyperbolic statements have some truth to it and with how long she has been in power, there have probably been instances such as the ones those NPCs described.

Yet even Furina fears Celestia because she knows the sort of damage they are capable of delivering if they ever deem her an enemy or a liability.

And with the concept that she may have two personalities, one can’t help wondering how that will come into play if it was kept as something final for Fontaine’s story and her design. I can’t help wondering about how she came into power as well. I don’t want it to be another ‘family’-based story.

Ei and Makoto were twins, Rukkhadevata and Nahida are avatars of Irminsul with Rukkha essentially being her mother plant so to speak.

I would like for Furina and Egeria to be unrelated. Maybe Furina was once a nymph that resided in Fontaine who later on ascended or I would find it cool if she ascended to Celestia as a regular mortal years ago and was given Fontaine to govern. And I would also like it if Fontaine didn’t have a new Archon for a while after Egeria’s death.

Both Ei and Nahida were able to immediately step in for their respective predecessors after they died. It would be interesting if for Fontaine, it took a while for someone else to step in which lead to a civil unrest. That could be used to even tie into Zhongli’s hesitance in retiring from being an Archon, siting Fontaine’s period of Archon-less complications as a reason to stay until he was otherwise reassured that Liyue would be fine without him.

There’s just a lot of potential with Furina and Fontaine’s story and I’m hoping they stick the landing considering how poorly Inazuma’s storyline was completed.

Anyway, this is getting long enough so I’ll stop now. This is mostly to just look back on my hype for Fontaine in the future when it’s been a while since its release and Natlan is on its way out of the basement.

#genshin impact #genshin #genshin impact leaks #genshin spoilers #genshin leaks #being a black genshin player is hard but i work harder #fontaine #focalors #furina #oceanid #neuvillette #lyney #lynette #freminet #arlecchino #genshin idyia #hydro

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ilovedthestars · 11 months

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**Contains character/worldbuilding info that is slowly revealed over the course of Witch King, but no big plot spoilers**

Witch King was the first non-Murderbot book by Martha Wells that I've read, so I spent a lot of it playing "Spot the Murderbot Parallels." They're very different books in style & content but there's also lots of of fun little things that reminded me of Murderbot. (I'm curious how many of these are Wells trademarks that show up in Raksura or her other books, but I don't have any other points of comparison). I kept a running list while I was reading, and most of them ended up being related to the respective protagonists, so without further ado:

Similarities between Murderbot & Kai

Villain-coded protagonists

Set apart from “mortals”/“humans”

And also exist somewhat between two worlds/two different kinds of being

And also are somewhat unique and alone among beings like them because of their choices/circumstances

Very dangerous to go up against as an individual, but also very much in danger themselves from larger societal/political forces and spend a lot of time on the run or hiding who they are

Fewer physical limitations (don’t need to breathe as much, can heal/repair, not slowed down by injury or pain)

Have the ability to become disembodied and occupy different “hardware” (ES gunship and 2.0, Kai’s body swapping and travel between the underearth and upper earth)

Also have telepathy (the feed) allowing private/secret communication, detecting people from far away, and sharing of senses

Touch is significant to them and associated trust/intimacy (although it sort of works in different directions for the two of them)

Despite all the politics happening around them, their driving force is “keep my people safe” (Kai uses the phrase “my mortals” at one point which made me very happy, and getting his found family back together is what drives the plot)

Use pain magic / self sacrifice to protect others (Making the decision "not to be like them" even at personal cost to self, more of a vague theme than a specific thing but I think they have this in common. this could probably be its own whole post tbh)

But also very willing to murder people when necessary in self defense, pursuit of goals, or occasionally sheer anger

“If they hurt my human(s) I will murder everyone”

Bonus: other similarities with the Murderbot books

Casual brownness and queerness and polyamory!!

Switching to very matter of fact writing style for effect, often when describing violence/emotion (Wells is really good at deploying this at just the right moment and it was so cool to see it in literally the first chapter of Witch King)

Worldbuilding elements are dropped in without ever being explained for the convenience of the reader (what exactly is the feed? what exactly is a cursebreaker? who knows)

There's clearly a huge world full of culture and politics and history and we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg

Oddly specifically, there's a lot of different conflicting calendar systems (none of which are ever explained, obviously)

and finally, even more oddly specifically:

Chapter Four of Witch King 🤝 Chapter One of Network Effect Protagonist sneaks onto a boat and then beats up the people on it

#murderbot #witch king #witch king spoilers #mostly vague ones #stars has thoughts #me reading ch4 of witch king: is this a boat fight. martha wells do you just really like boat fights #there is arguably at least one more fight on a boat later in the book. possibly several depending on how you count #i may end up making the whole post about the pain magic & self sacrifice if i can make my thoughts coherent enough

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 year

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Get ready for Dobbs 2.0, a decision that will far exceed the damage done by the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health.

In Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health, the radical majority on the Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to privacy that protects reproductive liberty. As a result, the debate over regulation of abortion was returned to the states. Or so we thought.

It is likely that a single federal judge in Texas will issue a nationwide ban on Mifepristone, a drug approved by the FDA for more than two decades to induce therapeutic abortions. The ruling, if made, will effectively outlaw or deny access to abortions across vast swaths of the nation—even in states where legislation or the state constitution protects the right of reproductive liberty.

We have reached this sorry state of affairs because ultra-conservative federal judges in Texas have rigged the system to ensure that all challenges to reproductive liberty and LGBTQ rights are funneled to a single judge with extreme religious views. The situation is explained by Dennis Aftergut and Laurence Tribe in Slate, The Texas-Sized Loophole That Brought the Abortion Pill to the Brink of Doom.

Aftergut and Tribe write,

The problem here goes beyond a single hearing, or even this single case. The real issue is systemic. Far-right groups have created a judicial pipeline to predictable triumph in one culture war battle after another: from Kacsmaryk in the plains of the Texas panhandle, to the hyperconservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, to the radically stacked majority on the Trump-packed U.S. Supreme Court. One Amarillo-based judge with carte blanche, virtually certain his extreme views will prevail on appeal, is apparently planning to curtail abortion access across the country.

[Here, there is] a coordinated national strategy, enabled by a district court federal bench, to bring right-wing legal causes into a single courtroom where a favorable result is a sure thing and where fair-minded appellate review has also been hijacked.

There is a simple—albeit difficult to achieve—solution. We need only elect a Congress and president willing to enact legislation to reform the federal judiciary. That will require (in my view) a carve-out of the filibuster, an expansion of the Supreme Court, curbs on the ability of a single federal judge to issue nationwide injunctions, restrictions on the ability of the Supreme Court to issue merits-based decisions on its “shadow docket,” and enactment of an enforceable code of ethics on the Supreme Court (among many other reforms).

At some point, the imposition of an extreme religious ideology on all Americans by a new class of judicial aristocrats—or “juristocrats” as described by Aftergut and Tribe—should cause Americans to reclaim their constitutional birthright. We have been too complacent in the face of a concerted assault over the last decade. Perhaps Dobbs 2.0 will be the decision that finally causes Americans to understand that the reactionary judges aren’t going stop until they have effectively codified their religious beliefs in federal law. The coming decision will hurt. Let’s turn our outrage into action.

North Carolina Supreme Court to reconsider case underlying Moore v. Harper.

On Tuesday, March 14, the North Carolina Supreme Court will hold a hearing to reconsider its ruling in the case underlying Moore v. Harper, currently on appeal before the US Supreme Court. You may recall that Moore v. Harper raises the question of whether the Independent State Legislature theory insulates the NC state legislature from judicial oversight.

Last year, the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned congressional district boundaries drawn by the state legislature. When the partisan composition of the NC Supreme Court flipped from Democratic to Republican, the new Republican majority on the court agreed to reconsider its ruling—for no good reason other than that it could.

Chances are good that the NC Supreme Court will reverse its prior ruling, thereby mooting the appeal to the US Supreme Court. The complicated procedural background and possible outcomes are explained by Democracy Docket, North Carolina Supreme Court To Rehear State-Level Redistricting Case Underlying Moore v. Harper - Democracy Docket.

Like the rogue federal judges in the Fifth Circuit, the Republican judges on the NC Supreme Court are making nakedly partisan rulings because they can. Like the solution for the federal judiciary, the solution in North Carolina is through the ballot box.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

#Corrupt SCOTUS #Opus Dei SCOTUS #Robert B. Hubbell #Robert B Hubbell Newsletter #Women's Rights #women's history #reproductive freedom #reproductive rights #political #the law

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mariacallous · 1 year

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We used to live in a world where large-scale conventional wars that left thousands of dead and wounded existed only in video games and books. A world where mutually beneficial commercial activity was guaranteed by a global security order, to which the world’s leading nations adhered in exchange for membership in a shared civilization. A world trending irreversibly toward liberal democracy.

Russia’s war of choice shattered these assumptions. In the heart of Europe, at least 18,000 civilians are dead, 14.5 million displaced, and thousands more tortured, mutilated, forcefully resettled. The trauma and misfortune Russia has wrought, unprovoked, on Ukraine is akin to those depicted in the tragedies of antiquity—advanced weapons such as drones and missiles notwithstanding. The barbarity of Russian warfare defies everything modernity stands for.

When this war is over, though, there is still hope that Ukraine will take its place in a brighter and honorable future, earned through the heroism of its people. The same cannot be said for Russia, which now finds itself staring down the inevitable black hole of its future.

I came of age as the borders of the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia embraced the West. I was one of those euphoric young Russians standing amid the ruins of communism, looking forward to a life free of ideology, oppression, and untruths. Back then, it seemed that after a decades-long totalitarian detour, Russia had finally found its true path—that of a free, democratic country. Now I’m forced to revise, yet again, my assumptions about what Russia is and what it will become.

This time, I, like many others, struggle to see any light in Russia’s future. I asked a group of military experts, sociologists, journalists, and economists who think about Russia professionally to help me envision the future. If there’s any agreement among them, it is that Russia as we knew it—a semi-mythical Eurasian nation that, according to its own lore, had saved the world from the Mongols and Nazis, endured a communist experiment, and then reunited itself with the West—is no longer there. Should Russia endure as a state within its current borders, we might as well come up with a new name for it.

So deep is the country’s malaise that even Russian President Vladimir Putin’s exit from the Russian political stage, whenever it occurs, is unlikely to change the country’s current trajectory. Too many red lines have been crossed, too many points of no return passed. Increasingly lawless, economically doomed, and morally bankrupt, Russia is running out of good endings, as though caught in a reenactment of its own sad folk tale in which the only choices available to the protagonist are to lose his horse, lose his life, or lose his soul.

War is a great catalyzer: It sharpens trends already in place and hastens their inevitable denouement. Russia’s descent into authoritarianism started a long time ago, but until Feb. 24, 2022, Putin felt compelled to at least maintain the semblance of a managed democracy.

Not anymore. “War has accelerated Russia’s descent from autocracy and into a totalitarian state,” said Mark Feygin, a former Russian opposition politician and lawyer who now runs a popular YouTube channel tracking the war. Russians’ two remaining freedoms—the ability to leave the country and to access alternative sources of information—can be shut down at any moment. Lev Gudkov, a prominent Moscow-based sociologist and director of Russia’s last independent pollster, the Levada-Center, described Putin’s regime as “totalitarianism 2.0,” under which key repressive instruments of the Soviet Union, including a politicized police force, subservient courts, and media censorship, have been reinstituted in a reversal of 1990s liberalism.

One clear break from its Soviet past is the Kremlin’s willingness to operate outside of any legal boundaries, or even its own societal norms. The distance between prison and success has always been short in Russia, but Russia today is a country where private individuals such as Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the infamous Wagner Group, can recruit convicts, arm them with weapons supplied by the Russian Ministry of Defense, and throw them to the frontlines. Those who manage to survive are granted amnesty and hailed as heroes, despite their criminal pasts.

Exiled businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia’s richest man before Putin imprisoned him, said Putin had “reset the rules of the game towards pure violence.” Russians never expected much from their historically weak legal system, but now they can be punished outside of the court of law in a positively medieval fashion.

This brutal “justice” isn’t limited by Russia’s borders, or battlefield lines. In case it wasn’t already clear by the poisoning of Alexey Navalny or Sergei Skripal, Russian agents’ suspected involvement in the recent Spanish letter bomb campaign—whose targets included the Spanish prime and defense ministers, and foreign diplomats—is yet another indication that Russia will resort to terrorism to achieve its goals, a hallmark of a failed state.

Whatever Russia emerges after the war, it won’t be the Russia of Chekhov and Dostoyevsky, the country that once tantalized Western intellectuals with its perennial quest for meaning and capacity for the sublime. It will be a country of warlords and criminals, where force is the only argument and crimes are not crimes so long as they are committed for the Motherland.

If this metamorphosis worries Russians, they show few signs of it. Having once considered themselves part of a peace-loving nation that picks up arms only to defend itself, the population has now closed ranks around its war-waging president. “If at the start of the invasion we saw fear and disorientation, towards the end of 2022 our polls showed increased public support for the authorities,” Gudkov told me.

In a repressive state, polls may not accurately reflect the true sentiment behind perfunctory answers, and samples may be biased towards pro-government participants, because those who don’t agree are afraid to participate. But they do indicate an overall trend. Of the 72 percent indicating their support for the government, 20 to 25 percent are actively pro-war—either because they have bought into Putin’s ressentiment narrative or been convinced that Russia really is surrounded by enemies. Propaganda pours daily from every TV screen in the country, and it is effective in manufacturing a form of organized mass consensus.

Many Russians likely share some psychological propensity to justify the war because if what they believe—that their country is engaged in a righteous war against forces of evil—is untrue, then the alternative is being complicit in, and thus culpable for, its crimes. Still, the majority may simply be afraid to protest given the scale of repression they experience and the regime’s track record of brutality against dissenters. “People feel impotent to influence the regime, so they adapt,” said Mikhail Fishman, a Russian independent journalist and host of a popular analytical show that is blocked in Russia.

As economic conditions worsen, Russians will simply be told to tighten their belts further and make sacrifices for Russia’s “great victory.” Those sacrifices won’t be small. Sergei Guriev, a professor of economics at Sciences Po in Paris, warned of the “catastrophic” economic impact of Western sanctions on the Russian oil and gas sector, the main source of funding for the federal budget.

Equally bad for Russia’s economic prospects is its unprecedented brain drain. Since the start of the invasion, more than a million people, or 1.5 percent of the country’s labor force, have fled. Whether afraid of being drafted or repulsed by Putin’s war against a nation with which Russia shares centuries of common past, those who leave tend to be more educated and productive. Their absence will prevent Russia from developing knowledge-based industries or diversifying from an oil- and gas-based economy in the future. Likely a long-term pariah state, Russia will continue to be cut off from cross-border trade and investment while it hemorrhages cash and resources into a bottomless war effort—instead of, say, schools or hospitals. Taken together, these trends indicate a bleak economic future, the brunt of which will be carried by the Russian people. The only trajectory available to their country is that of irreversible economic decline.

What of the Russian elites, whose hedonistic pre-war lifestyles, replete with yachts and villas on the French Riviera, are a far cry from the stringent demands imposed by their boss? They can’t be happy, yet there have been no high-profile government resignations or criticisms of the war from this group. The oligarchs, too, are silent, even though many have ended up under Western sanctions. “Putin has done a lot to make sure they all know he can persecute any lack of loyalty,” Guriev said. According to Gudkov’s data, 12 percent of Russia’s high-ranking officials have been arrested over the past five to six years.

This reality creates the same mood of fear among elites as it does among regular people. Arkady Babchenko, a journalist who staged his own death to thwart an alleged assassination plot by Russian security services, put it more bluntly: “Anyone showing dissent will simply fall out of the window”—a nod to a string of unexplained deaths of Russian businessmen over the past few months. “Putin rules Russia as if with a joystick,” Babchenko said. “It’ll go wherever he turns it.”

Lawless, declining in population and talent, and stuck in a resource-draining war against the collective West, it’s difficult to avoid the question much longer: Can Russia survive as a state? Many experts—and a growing portion of world leaders—think not.

Retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army Europe, told me that the West should be preparing for the federation’s imminent breakup. What—or who—would emerge after the current regime is anyone’s guess, he said. “The Kremlin has always been opaque, but in the old days we knew who the next three or four guys were,” Hodges said. “Now I don’t think anybody has confidence in what would regime change look like.”

If the breakup is imminent, how soon will it come? In an assessment created for the U.S. military a few years ago, Alexander Vindman, former director for European affairs for the U.S. National Security Council, forecasted Russia’s decline over the course of decades; now, the calculus has shifted to years. It’s possible, he said, that the beginning of Russia’s breakup may be seen in the next five to 10 years, particularly on the state’s margins. Vindman has studied Russia for years, but even for him it is hard “to break out of the confines of the notion that Russia will always be there, that it’s an enduring state,” he said.

Unlikely as Russia’s disintegration might sound, breaking the country into national “successor states” may be the only way to put an end to its pattern of predatory, consumptive despotism against its neighbors. For centuries, Russia has cast itself as a metropole, and its playbook for success has been based on the contributions of its provinces and republics, which act as an economic engine and talent farm for Moscow. That arrangement collapsed in 1991, and since then, Russia has failed to replace it with a more sustainable or productive model. It can’t quite shake its raiding mentality.

Alexander Etkind, a historian at the European University Institute, thinks in terms of “de-federalization,” a process in which Russia’s ethnic regions sue for sovereignty to reclaim their wealth. Most of Russia’s oil and gas, Etkind said, is extracted in two autonomous ethnic regions in Siberia: Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi. From there, oil and gas are piped to Europe, but the hundreds of billions of dollars of profit go to Moscow, which then doles out payments to its regions. Disruption of that model by Western sanctions may prompt resource-rich regions to challenge Moscow’s control. Why can’t the Republic of Sakha sell its diamonds itself? Why does the Chechen Republic need a battled, isolated Moscow to sell its oil?

In the post-colonial world, Russia’s modus operandi of plundering territories in its domain is not only amoral but outdated. “The problem with the Russian empire,” Feygin said, “is that it doesn’t produce anything. Let it finish falling apart.”

Can anything be built on the territory once called Russia that isn’t a prison? Despite the country’s failure to do so in 1917 and 1991, Khodorkovsky—the exiled businessman and head of the Open Russia opposition coalition—believes that Russia could be rebuilt as a parliamentary republic. In his manifesto How Do You Slay a Dragon?, a riff on the anti-totalitarianism fable by Soviet writer Evgeny Schwartz, Khodorkovsky sees the transition to a decentralized, de-personified parliamentary model with self-governed regions as a way for Russia to break free of its autocratic curse. The idea seems to be shared among other opposition politicians, including Navalny and Ilya Yashin, both of whom are now in prison. A change of this magnitude, however, will require a radical overhaul of Russia’s entrenched bureaucracy and a way out of the inertia inherent to a country of Russia’s size.

This and any other remotely optimistic scenario for Russia have one important condition: Ukrainian victory and Russian defeat. Though in the short term, likely the next two to three years, the defeat would only lead to more repression, it would weaken Putin politically and open the possibility for change. That doesn’t mean there will be a revolution. Russian people have long abandoned attempts to influence their government (elections in Russia are “managed” from above, just like everything else), but a more moderate faction within Russia’s current ruling elite may be able to steer the regime toward a lite version of Khrushchev’s Thaw, the period of relative liberalization that followed denunciation of Stalin’s terror. It could even be that, after a temporary revanchist swing toward “national patriots,” a democratic coalition would get another chance at rebuilding Russia, as is the hope of Khodorkovsky.

It isn’t clear, though, how eager Putin’s elite will be to give up their wealth or even freedom, as they’re likely to someday face criminal charges for their involvement in his war. Just as Putin was once the guarantor of their wealth, his rule may be their only chance to avoid persecution.

Putin may even convince his underlings that being shunned by the West is not the end of the world and that money, the raison d’être of his regime, can be made elsewhere. Russia still has plenty of sympathizers who see it as a counterweight to U.S. hegemony. The unfolding geopolitical realignment may even weaken the effect of Western sanctions, as Russia could switch its supply sources and develop alternative markets for its oil, gas, and other natural resources.

One year into the invasion, with Russian casualties mounting, it is clear Putin has decided to win this war no matter the cost. He’s urgently switched Russia’s economy onto military tracks and directed factories to work day and night to produce artillery shells and guns. The Russian army is expected to mobilize more troops in the spring. They may be untrained and unequipped, but they will still be thousands of men thrown into a fight.

Drawing out this war is Putin’s only hope, Hodges says. Today, Western support for Ukraine is strong. Yet it is not inconceivable that if the war goes on for too long, at some point the West may be forced to address other pressing domestic or international issues instead. In this less hopeful scenario, a battered and outnumbered Ukraine will be forced to negotiate. And Putin’s regime will be allowed to survive, regroup, and pursue its next target.

There seem to be three paths available for a post-war Russia under Putin or whomever may succeed him: break up into smaller pieces, turn further toward tyranny to keep what’s left of the realm together, or endure a long period of slow decline.

The common thread in all three is violence. A breakup means re-distribution of power and assets, which won’t happen peacefully. A weakened, anachronistic empire, whether in its tyrannical or slow decline incarnation, means a Russia severed from its foundational myths and struggling to stay economically relevant—a dark, unpromising place.

This is a far cry from the Russia that people shaped by perestroika had hoped for. Instead, Russia has become a democracy supernova that never fulfilled its promise, collapsing in on itself, spreading death and destruction to those within its orbit.

But nothing lasts forever, not even a black hole. The decline is slow, but one day a black hole runs out of matter to consume and starts losing its mass, exhaling tiny particles back into the universe. They escape faster and faster, until the black hole’s center is small and unstable. In the final tenth of a second of its long life, all that is left evacuates at once in a huge flash of light and energy. What was once thought to be eternal becomes a memory.

No one—not the best experts, the Kremlin’s innermost circle, or even Putin himself—can predict conclusively whether Russia’s own demise will come in the form of a huge explosion, a slow decay, or some combination of the two. But after years of consuming and destroying all the light in its path, perhaps the bigger question is whether Putin’s Russia can transform what it has consumed into something viable.

For Russia itself, Ukraine’s victory may be the only chance. In the words of Gudkov, “It’ll bring some future back.”

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probablyasocialecologist · 11 months

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The links between the Pentagon and Silicon Valley have undeniably grown stronger. The US Defense Department has even recently created the new post of Chief Digital and AI officer – a position filled by Craig Martell, former head of machine learning at the ride-sharing platform Lyft. And, for all the ethical concerns from their employees, America’s tech companies continue making inroads into the military’s procurement budgets. Thus, while Alphabet may have shelved its plans to work on the Pentagon’s controversial Project Maven – a computer vision project that prompted protests among its engineers – it went ahead and formed Google Public Service, an innocent-sounding unit which does offer cloud services to the military. It’s hardly alone. Silicon Valley’s cloud and machine learning capabilities remain crucial to the Pentagon’s vision of building a system to integrate data coming from terrestrial and air sensors – these are no longer limited to radar – from across all branches of the armed forces. The idea is to crunch them with artificial intelligence, so as to mount an effective joint response. To that end, in late 2022 the Pentagon awarded four tech giants – Microsoft, Google, Oracle and Amazon – a $9bn contract to develop the infrastructure for this bold effort (defensescoop.com, 7 December 2022). But, unlike in the old cold-war days, it’s not at all clear how much of this money would trickle down, Keynesian-style, to ordinary Americans. When it comes to AI, the labour costs accrue either to the star engineers – and we are talking hundreds, not millions of them – or to the numerous low-paid contractors who toil to help train the AI models. Most of them are not even in America, with OpenAI relying on contractors in Kenya to prevent ChatGPT, the popular AI chatbot, from showing obscene images and text. As for cloud computing, it’s also not clear how its expansion would help. Building data centres is expensive and their positive effects on the economy have yet to be seen. They do tend to drive up the cost of real estate. And the environmental costs of both AI and cloud computing are not trivial. So the multiplier effect of pouring all this money into military AI might be a mirage. So perhaps this Cold War 2.0 would not feature a return to ‘military Keynesianism’. Short of AI leading to the much-awaited Singularity, merely dumping more money in the tech industry won’t suddenly bring Keynes to life. Perhaps we are more likely to witness the weird new regime of ‘military neoliberalism’ in which ever-greater government spending on AI- and cloud-related matters would widen inequality and enrich the tech giants’ shareholders.

#usa #china #military #artificial intelligence #silicon valley

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sometipsygnostalgic · 2 years

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So I’ve been developing an AU where Bow and Entrapta swap places!

Here are the key points of this AU for Entrapta:

Entrapta is Glimmer’s cousin, the child of one of Micah’s more distant non-magical siblings. When she lost her parents as a kid she was alone for a little while, and after people caught on there was some debate with whether she should go to Castaspella or Micah. She had no magical powers so she went with Micah, and was effectively raised as Glimmer’s older sister.

She’s about 3-5 years older than Glimmer here.

Entrapta lacks her hair powers and has less tech advancement, so she is a bit of an underdog in the Rebellion. People are not afraid of her here, they underestimate her but she’s still a chaos gremlin who loves technology and machines, and adapts quickly to new challenges set in front of her.

Somehow she still gets Emily. She builds tiny robots. I’m going to struggle to stop her from trying to befriend Hordak and Catra.

Glimmer is largely the same, except without Bow around during her childhood as the Voice of Reason, so instead Glimmer and Entrapta take turns being the voice of reason (though if you ask Glimmer she will claim she is always the sensible one).

Adora and Entrapta should not be allowed in a room together. Adora’s storyline might get challenged if she has Entrapta there pushing her towards chaos and asking questions about how She-ra works and why Light Hope is stealing energy from the runestones.

Their core conflict is that Glimmer has all of the expectations placed on her while Entrapta is seen as a bit of a disaster nobody, and nobody has any expectations of her. So from Entrapta’s POV, everybody believes in Glimmer and nobody believes in her, she’s the Amethyst of this situation and the black sheep, while from Glimmer’s POV, she is fighting so hard to be her best self at all times to break out of Angella’s shadow, while Entrapta never takes anything seriously and does pretty much what she wants. .

Entrapta’s relationship to Angella is pretty awkward and complicated, because Angella is so focused on Glimmer. Entrapta doesn’t call her “mom” or even “aunt” most of the time, just “Angella”. However Angella does truly care about her niece.

Bow meanwhile....

Bow is the Prince of Dryl and in charge of the kingdom already. Bow never really wanted to be a Prince but takes his responsibility very seriously and has pushed down all of his own desires in order to live up to his fathers’ expectations. His fathers love him very much but, like in the show, he thinks if he does a bad job then he will be letting them down, and they fail to recognise that he’s unhappy. So, Bow shuts things out and becomes a pragmatic character.

Bow’s technology is very polished and he rarely has experimental mishaps but he’s not as into it, he doesn’t see his robots as people for example. Bow has a utilitarian approach to technology and his work serves its purpose perfectly and is well-tested before use.

He doesn’t have any close friends, though he is very good in social situations as always - he has lots of practice. Bow is a charmer among the boys and girls, in COMPLETE contrast to Entrapta. However, he never gets to truly connect to people, as genuine as he comes across.

Bow charms Glimmer pretty hard when they first meet, she gets a crush on the guy and there’s something about her that he likes. When she gets kidnapped at Princess Prom he offers his support to rescue her.

Bow is presumed dead after No Princess Left Behind (and I’d do a much more convincing job than the show did here...) but in reality he decides to join the Horde because he thinks they can help him advance his technology and the Rebellion is a disaster so he thinks it’s the only way to safeguard his family and kingdom.

Glimmer is Fucking Pissed when she finds out and she thinks Bow is a douche now but they do interact again. Oh god I turned them into Glitra 2.0. Bow’s relationship to Catra is nothing like Entrapta’s since he isn’t in it for the friendship and she doesn’t interest him much, but Bow actually warms up greatly to Scorpia. Bow loses his shit constantly at Hordak’s weird technological choices and isn’t afraid to call them out.

Over time Glimmer starts to realise that deep down Bow is a dork. Bow wants to use a bow and arrow and bare his abs, but is stuck using useful weapons and robots and dressing like a sensible person. He is a very repressed individual and his banter with Glimmer and other characters reveals the cracks in his cool facade. Eventually he learns to embrace his dorky side and stop hiding from his emotions.

So the purpose of this AU is mostly to show how Bow and Entrapta would be different if thrown into each other’s circumstances, namely their relationship to technology and to heart: Entrapta’s connection to these things is part of her very soul, I reckon, or at least she’s always going to be autistic and have the experiences that lead her to relate to machines. She can find love in technology and that is what she focuses on. However Entrapta’s technology is very chaotic and prototyped, she could have been far deadlier if her distractability and sheer love for science didn’t get in the way of the whole “making weapons for the Horde” thing. But she is a chaos gremlin through and through so that’s not going to happen. In these circumstances she’d struggle a lot with the inability to escape social situations but also have more support pillars from Glimmer and Adora, and can look out for them too.

Bow meanwhile CHOOSES to embrace love and connection, it’s more socialised into him by his parents, and I think there is an unexplored more jaded side to him, that we see sometimes like in Reunion where he hides his identity from his parents. I think Prince Bow, a version of him without Glimmer in his life, would be very susceptible to pressure and would make pragmatic choices over following his heart. I also think he would be far more efficient and deadly at tech than Entrapta because he doesn’t get distracted, but at the same time, she’s always going to figure out his work and keep up with him for as long as he isn’t truly passionate about it, and what Bow is passionate about is his arrows. That’s his dream, to become an archer, but he doesn’t think he can follow it.

So yeah Bow is basically Equius Zahhak but more likable. Also he was meant to have a goatee but I only remembered to draw it in one panel. Since Entrapta’s hair isn’t magic she just cuts it short.

#she ra #spop #glimmer #bow #entrapta #my art #adora #nerd swap au

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