#Cause I want to be dramatic and reveal stuff during the campaign

[arlo-rose]

me wanting to talk about my dnd character on here vs the fact that I’m mutuals with someone in the campaign and I don’t want to spoil anything

#I love jasper so so much #Their backstory is so cool and I’ve spent way way too long thinking about tiny details about it but *I can’t say anything* #Cause I want to be dramatic and reveal stuff during the campaign #The party is absolutely terrified of jasper which makes me happy #Yeah they’ve killed people. He’s also a sad little guy and I love them. Have you thought about that? #The dnd tag #<- cause I feel like I’m gonna be talking about this campaign more anyways

[im-the-king-of-the-ocean]

Pride Month ficlet: Mary had been searching for "the right one" in all the boys at Arcadia Oaks High and then some. She hadn't expected the right one to be the girl who sat next to her in her junior year math class. (Could be any f/f ship involving Mary)

The Art of Romance

Romance was an art.  One Mary Wang thought she’d mastered before she was even seventeen.  Though her birthday was in a few weeks, so she knew she needed to get a boyfriend again so he could properly romance her and give her gifts and everything.  Gifts from friends were fine and all, and she’d definitely celebrate with Darci and Claire.  Well, Darci now that Claire was headed across the country on what could only be the romantic getaway of a lifetime.  What Mary would give to get do something like that.  Travel without parents.  Without school or homework.  With someone she loved, like Claire, who…

Wait.  What was her train of thought again?  Oh, right.  Birthday.  Romance.  Mary doodled a trio of hearts in the corner of her math notebook.  Miss Janeth’s class was so boring.  Even after the “Secret Troll Apocalypse (That You Cannot Boast You Witnessed On Social Media, a Novel By Toby Domzalski)” and learning that her over-dramatic teacher could kick ass, math class was just so meh.  Like all of Miss Janeth’s awesomeness had been used during the troll apocalypse and now that things were getting back to normal, she’d gone back to her boring, old Math Teacher Template.  Seriously lady.  Would it hurt to permanently upgrade to something fresh and at least somewhat cool?  

Not that teachers could be cool.  They were teachers.  But still.  Mr. Strickler had at least gone from “Boring History Teacher Turned Principal Who Mysteriously Disappeared” to “Avocado Troll Teacher Who Runs Around In A Skirt Thing”, which had honestly been fun because Mary got to start an entire movement against him she called, “Put On Some Clothes, You Are Traumatizing The Children” with its own hashtag on the online Arcadia High Post-Weirdness Message Board (that she’d created and was an admin for—if she wasn’t allowed to talk on Twitter about Arcadia’s recent weird shit, well, she’d just find/create a place where she could) and everything.  Dude deserved the shade everyone had subsequently thrown at him through the ensuing week.  That’s what you get for criticizing girls for not wearing proper school attire, and then turning around and revealing yourself as a troll who runs around half naked.

The world was still learning there was no force more powerful than Mary Wang and her phone.

“Pssst!  Mary!”

Mary sighed.  “What is it, Shannon?”  She’d been in the middle of an internal monologue and so not interested in returning to the real world because that meant remembering she was in math class.  Oh and also she was in The Zone and her twenty-fifth doodled heart had almost come out completely perfect except now it was ruined forever.

Shannon jerked her head toward the front of the classroom.  Mary looked in that direction.  Miss Janeth was looking directly at her expectantly.  Too expectantly.

“Ms. Wang, we don’t have all day.  Please come to the board and show the class how you would answer this equation.”

Oh, shit.

Mary slid out of her desk.  Bit her tongue so a curse word wouldn’t slip out and she’d get in even more trouble.

As she passed Shannon’s desk, the other girl pressed a small piece of paper in her hand.  Mary managed to hide it and sneak a glance without Miss Janeth noticing.  On the paper was a mess of numbers and equations.  Something that, for anyone else, would be super hard to read, but she and Shannon had been passing notes since, well, since they first met freshman year.  Mary smiled.  So, answering the equation on the board wouldn’t be so hard after all.

“Darci, it’s not that simple.  It’s really not.  I have dated almost every single eligible guy at school and even a few forbidden fruit guys from the academy.  All the good ones, you know, except freaking Steve.  I can’t just pick a new one randomly.  Especially cause it’s my birthday.  These things take time.  Planning.”  Mary rolled her eyes and took a long sip from the orange juice bottle she’d packed in her lunch.

Dating guys was an art.  It took finesse.  Not that Darci could really understand that.  She’d gone for the first sweet guy to look her way.  Not that was a bad, if you liked that sort of thing.  Anyway, from her observations, Mary had decided Toby was worthy of dating her friend (even if he continued to perpetually frustrate her for being adamant about keeping the troll apocalypse a secret from her Twitter following).

“What about Eli?”  Shannon piped up.  “He’s nice.”

Mary wrapped an arm around the other girl’s shoulder.  “Not boyfriend material, Shan.”  Better put an end to that thought train before it went anywhere.  Shannon was nice.  Kind.  Good traits to have.  Except, of course, in high school.  Or when considering the art of dating.  “Let me tell you something about guys…”

Look, the point was, Mary knew everything there was to know about dating.  And she knew that every boy at their school, absolutely 100% all of them, were not worth Shannon’s time.  Shannon was smart.  A bit of a bookworm, but honestly there was nothing really wrong about that.  She was kind of cute when she started talking about something particularly interesting she’d read.  Especially when she came up with a pun or a joke and would laugh.  Her nose did this adorable crinkle thing and…

Anyway, they made the best team.  Shannon had the book smarts.  Mary, the street smarts.  Together, they were unstoppable at whatever they put their minds to.  It may have been Mary who got the campaign against Mr. Strickler’s troll attire started, but it was Shannon who really got it rolling and organized with the student body.

Why put a boy between that pure awesome sauce-ness?

Great, now Domzalski was rubbing off on her.

“Hey Mary, um can I talk to you for a second?  Privately?”  Shannon was looking at her and it occurred to Mary she’d gone monologuing in her head again.  Had any of that made it out into her external monologue to Shannon.  Crap.  Should she risk asking?  Is that why she wanted to talk privately?

Crap.  Crap.  Crap.

Mary followed Shannon over to an empty corner of Arcadia High’s yard.

“So, what do you want to talk about?”  Play it cool.  Play it cool.  Play it cool.  Mary’s brain reminded herself over and over again.

“Nothing bad, really.”  Shannon offered her a sheepish smile.  “It’s just…um…can you maybe not give me advice on how to date boys?  Like I get that you’re trying to be helpful and stuff but…it’s just…”  Shannon took a massive breath and exhaled it.  “I’m a lesbian.”  She looked Mary directly in the eye when she spoke.  “I…I like girls.  So I don’t really need advice on guys?”

“Oh, ok.”  Mary’s brain panicked.  Wait.  Why was it panicking?  It was totally fine that Shannon liked girls.  Mary herself had two dads.  She’d grown up knowing that Gayness Was A Thing.  It was fine.  Everything is fine.  “Cool.  Great.  I’ll remember that.  No more guy advice.”  Mary reassured Shannon, who breathed out in relief.

By Miss Janeth’s class the next day, Mary was still mulling over the Shannon Is A Lesbian thing.  Her brain wouldn’t let it go.  Or rather, she’d sort of realized she had this feeling.  This indescribable, kinda exhilarating feeling.

If Shannon was a lesbian, and she was.  That meant, that meant that girls could potentially date her.

And Mary was a girl.

Ok, a girl who had never really considered dating other girls before.  It was fun, after all, to be romanced by a guy (although most weren’t exactly great kissers, but whatever, she needed to get practice somehow).  But still, she was now in the category of Potential People Shannon Can Date.

Except did she want to date Shannon?  And would Shannon want to date her?  Mary hadn’t always been the nicest.  The time that she snapped at Shannon while they were both serving Saturday Detention came to mind.  Did Shannon remember that?  But wait, Mary had apologized for that, and for other stuff, when they started to hang out together a lot more after that day.  And they’d always been sort of friends since freshman year.  But for a good chunk of that time Mary hadn’t really taken Shannon seriously.  But they’d still been friends, hadn’t they?  So they could theoretically get along.

But could they get along like that?

Wait, why was she even considering this?  The entire plan had been to find a new guy to date so he could romance her for her birthday and stuff.  She didn’t even like girls.  Right?  Ok, again, she’d never thought about it in great detail.  Dating was something fun you did with whatever guy caught your attention.  But then that wasn’t the only way to date, was it?  So…

Mary’s mind went deeper and deeper into the idea all through math class.  She didn’t learn much that day, as her fresh notebook page was instead full of ideas and thoughts for something far, far more important.

The next day was the first day Mary had ever arrived early to math class, but she needed to get there before anyone else did (and that included Miss Janeth).  Quickly, before anyone could enter the room and catch her, Mary took out a small but well thought-out bouquet of flowers (yellow daffodils, vibrant orangey-red tulips, and, of course, a few red roses—all favorites of Shannon) and a card with a heartfelt poem she’d found online last night.

Mary had never really done the courting part of romance before.  But, in this instance, she definitely wanted to try.  Shannon deserved the very best and Mary, after all, was the Dating Expert (even if she was new to the whole romancing girls part).

After placing down her gifts on Shannon’s desk as carefully as humanely possible, Mary exited the classroom.  This way she could come in with everyone else, get to see Shannon’s surprise and her search around to see who her mysterious admirer was.  Mary wouldn’t tell her right then, in front of everyone (that would be really rude since Shannon wasn’t out to too many it didn’t seem like).  But since everyone also knew she, Mary, was the school’s Romance Expert, it would totally make sense for her to be the one to pull Shannon aside and give her “advice” on what to do (here “advice” meant reveal that the gift had come from her and maybe ask her out).  No one would suspect a thing.  It was the ultimate Romantic Move, made even better by the fact that it would be Mary doing it.

In hindsight, Mary should have considered potential disasters a bit more.

Steve and Eli were making some sort of disturbance out in the hall, which was strange because they’d been getting along recently (also since Steve cleaned up his whole bully act and started to make amends with people).  So everyone was gathered in a crowd and it delayed class.

Then, after breaking up the scene, Miss Janeth started class immediately as everyone filed into the math room.  So, even though Mary got to see Shannon’s eyes widen with surprise at her gift, she couldn’t really talk to her at all about it, and everything now sucked forever.

It was even worse when Mary noticed that, on her own desk, a “Secret Admirer” had put a cute little plushy teddy bear holding a deep violet rose (her ultimate favorite) and a calligraphed card asking her to meet by the soccer field after school.

Great, now some guy was trying to romance her while she was trying to romance Shannon.  Didn’t the universe know she’d made up her mind about the whole “who I’m dating” thing?  Guys were nice and whatever, but they weren’t Shannon.

Drama was so much more fun when it was about someone else.

Mary paced around in front of the goalie box at the end of the field.  Why wouldn’t the guy arrive already?  The sooner he arrived, the sooner she could turn him down, the sooner she could figure out her next step in trying to romance Shannon.  She needed to explain about the gift before someone else took all the credit and—

“Hi, Mary.”

Mary jumped.  Landed awkwardly.  Nearly fell over, but Shannon helped her catch her balance.

“Oh, um, hi.  Hi, Shannon.  What are you doing here?  Shouldn’t you be going home or something.”  Oh wait, it was Thursday,  Shannon had Book Club, so of course she’d still be here.  “Or in the library or…” Mary’s brain refused to slow down.  Why did it always have to get nervously excited around Shannon now.  Why, brain, why?

Shannon looked nervous herself.  “I, um, I asked you to meet me here?  In the card?  The gift in Miss Janeth’s class—”

“THAT WAS FROM ME, IF SOMEONE ELSE TOLD YOU OTHERWISE THEY’RE LYING!”  Mary slapped her hands over her mouth.  Classy.  Real classy.  “I…did you like it?  The flowers?”

“…yes.”  Shannon took the flowers out from the pocket of her backpack where she’d carefully stored them.  “These were from you?”

Mary could feel the blush burning her cheeks.  “Yes.  I…I, um, well, I…you’re really cute when you scrunch up your nose when you laugh at something funny and, um, I like you.  Like, like like you I think.  Not the friend like.  The other kind of like.  You know, like like.”  She took a deep breath.  This was stupid.  Why was she so awkward?  She was the Dating Expert.  She should be suave.  Sure of herself.  She’d never felt like this around any of the guys.  Finally something else dawned on Mary.  “Wait.  If those weren’t what you’re were talking about, then what…?”

Now, it was Shannon’s turn to blush awkwardly, which was oddly reassuring.  At least neither of them were being super great about this.  “I sorta got that teddy bear and the rose for you?  Cause I’ve sorta had the biggest crush on you since, well, for a while.  And I figured now that you know I like girls, I could maybe see if you wanted to go out?  But I was super nervous so I asked Steve and Eli to cause a distraction so I could sneak in and leave them for you.”  Shannon looked down at her hands and then back up at Mary.  “So, do you?  Want to go out with me, I mean?  It’s ok if you don’t want to, I get it.  I—”

“YES!”  Mary jumped.  Then laughed.  She’d given up all hope of being cool and she didn’t care who saw her honestly.  Even if none of this had gone according to her plan, it was still what she wanted.  She took a deep breath to collect herself.  “I would like that, like a lot.”  She bit her lip.  “But I don’t really know what I am yet.  I just figured out that I like you and I want to go out with you.  Like a lot.  But also there were all the guys, so I don’t know if I’m a lesbian or not yet.”

“That’s ok.”  Shannon smiled at her.  “You have time to figure you out.  Or we could figure it out together, if you’d like?”

“I’d like that too.”  Mary wrapped an arm around Shannon’s shoulders.  “So I know a great cafe we could go to or we could see what movies are playing?  That is, if you’re ok with missing Book Club?”  She stopped.  “Or we could go to your Book Club?”  Sure her reputation may take a hit going someplace so nerdy but whatever, there were more important things.

“I’ll be happy so long as we do whatever, we do together.”

That was the best thing Mary had heard all day.  The rest of the afternoon, and the future, was ahead of them and they could spend it having as much fun as they wanted.  Together.

#trollhunters #pride month ficlets 2k18 #mary wang #shannon longhannon #mary/shannon ship #sapphic content #ended up a bit longer than expected and that's why it took me so long to get it done #Anonymous #whirls writing

[quantumdotdot]

Marvel Masks: Earth-218, Session 1

We played the tabletop role-playing game Masks: A New Generation in an alternate version of Marvel’s Earth. This starts with stuff that we did as part of character creation, world-building, and “Session 0″ as it’s called, then going into the actual start of the narrative! I’ll be posting updates as the campaign continues.

You won’t need mechanical knowledge of the Masks system to understand it, though I definitely encourage anyone who’s interested in playing a superhero RPG, especially one involving teens, to give it a look.  I realized I’d never put this up anywhere but Twitter, and this campaign is honestly too good to keep to ourselves.

Also, shout-out to @Zhurenaissance for doing the lion's share of the initial world-building/prep; he's an incredible writer and I honestly couldn't have done it without him.

So, here ya go... Earth-218.

Cast of Characters

Shatterstar (he/him) - The Bull

Very tall (6’ 4”/6’ 5”), long red hair, about 18-19

Was actually born maybe(?) but thinks he was created in the genevats of Arize

Fought in gladiatorial combat on Mojoworld. Has 2 braids in his hair, a tradition for revolutionaries to show how many Spineless Ones he has killed

Tells people he and Rictor met by being at the same school

Billy Kaplan (he/him) - The Nova

16-17, skinny and short, wears t-shirts when not in combat

Has always been able to do small things with his powers

Recently had a back-against-the-wall moment with bullies and fought back, causing “property damage” when his powers manifested in full force

Hurt bystanders as well during the incident, which upset Billy. He found a mentor in Dr. Strange, who was training Billy to be the next Sorcerer Supreme, before Strange had his power stripped from him and stolen by some unknown assailant

Jen/Jennifer Walters (she/her) - The Transformed

Late 20s-early 30s, tall, looks ordinary

Jen is Jennifer Walters, not She-Hulk. Very important

Has been working as a lawyer/attorney in NYC, specializing in the rights of marginalized people, especially mutants

Her She-Hulk form changed dramatically post-Civil War and she is still dealing with the death of Rhodey, her boyfriend. Bruce also got killed shortly thereafter.

Tries not to transform into She-Hulk and has been hiding her emotions and grief. She is very unsure of her place in life, and looks to the kids of the team for help and support

Alex (they/them) - The Reformed

Looks 18. Looks thin, but is deceptively strong

Is a child created by Cyttorak the demon god to take over Teens totally normal human Teen, what are you talking about

“When our team first came together…”

Bull/Shatterstar: We defeated a dangerous enemy. Who or what was it?

Alex Summers. After Scott died, Alex was having a bad time, so Madelyne Pryor, Goblin Queen, convinced him to embrace his dark destiny as the Goblin Prince

Maddy has a classy black jumpsuit that shows minimal skin, whereas Alex gets a Sexy Badass Costume Change

The team fought off a bunch of goblins who had showed up at the school to claim it for the Goblin Queen

Nova/Billy: We destroyed our surroundings in the fight. Where was it? What did we destroy?

The fight was as the indoor/outdoor gym complex. Goblins took a basket hoop/pole, which was animated so that the hoop was a tongue and the backboard was a face. It blew a raspberry at the team as the goblins carted it away. The goblins also tried to take the biggest trophy from them but it ran around from them. It’s now a pet animated trophy.

Billy and Havok had a one-vs-one, Billy struggled with his shield powers, trying to shield the team and the school from Alex’s blasts, but lost control and the blasts ricocheted everywhere, collapsing several walls. Billy had to do detention to clean it up since the Xavier Institute is all about learning to take responsibility for your powers.

Maddie wasn’t happy with her Goblin Prince after looking at all the trash the goblins brought back.

Transformed/Jen: We drew attention and ire from plenty during the fight. One important person in particular now hates and fears us. Who is it?

J. Jonah Jameson now has an axe to grind against both the school and the team in particular after the mess from the goblin fight spilled out into Central Park a little bit. Not everyone listens to him, but a lot of the police and the Olds do. So that’s tough. He doesn’t have time for pictures of Spiderman now. Spider-Man has also never been confirmed to exist, he is a cryptid. JJ has hundreds of extremely blurry pictures of Spider-Man.

Reformed/Alex: We fought a terrible enemy from my old life. Who was it and what did they take from me?

Erik the Red worked with Maddy to send the goblins to the school as a smokescreen for testing Alex.

Nightmare also showed up at the school, who is this universe’s version of Toad; he’s a demon who is also part goblin. He carries a spinal hobby horse that summons a spectral horse that keeps the spine/bone ghost head.

Lower status among demons because he’s part goblin

He stole Alex’s staff from the locker room, that let them channel their powers through the staff while fighting.

Relationships

Shatterstar

Billy is your “love”.* You’ve opened up to them about the worst parts of your past.

Star saw the destruction Billy caused after standing up to the Goblin Prince and got stars in his eyes. He thinks Billy has the heart of a warrior and told him about his past in the dueling arenas, which freaks Billy out a little bit.  

Alex is your “rival”. They tried to control you at a crucial moment.

Alex knows a little bit about fighting, but they and Star come from very different schools of thought. They tried to tell Star how he should fight during the Goblin fight and Star holds a grudge against them for that.

* (Note: Shatterstar is still dating Julio, the "love" is a mechanical thing for Shatterstar's class. Billy is the only one he's opened up to on the team.)

Billy

You hang out all the time with Jen to blow off steam.

They bonded over baking cookies. Billy tries to bribe the other kids to be friends with him by sharing cookies. He once walked in on Jen hurling a stand mixer through the wall after getting frustrated, and now Jen calms down by watching Billy bake in the giant Xavier Institute kitchen. He learned how to bake at a young age by peering over the counter top on a step-stool when his bubbe was baking.

You once hurt Alex when you lost control of your powers.

Billy thinks that he hurt Alex during the goblin fight by making some that had poison spit lose their poison and accidentally hit Alex. Obviously, Alex is fine, but Billy still feels extremely guilty about all of it.

Jen

Shatterstar comforted me when I was at my lowest.

Star reassured Jen when she was about to Get Angry and hulk out after the Goblin fight. She was trying to stay calm and not lose her head after avoiding her ugly emotions and it hadn't been going well. Shatterstar helped by reassuring her that she had helped them and that she had a place with them on the team.

Laura / X-23 / Wolverine knew me before I changed.

Laura knew Jen from before, and fought her in a 1v1. Jen defeated her then, but ever since Civil War ended, Jen hasn’t been the same. Laura has faith in her that she can become the Jen she once knew again, so they can have a rematch and Laura can win fair and square this time, and so tries to encourage her. Laura maintains she could have defeated Jen if she had to though. Jen lets her think so.

Alex

I’ve earned the trust of Billy, and I follow their example of what a hero should be.

Alex wandered by when Billy was serving detention for the destruction he caused to the athletics facility. Billy had Alex help him clean up while they talked, and Alex looks up to Billy as an inspiration of what good guys are.

I did something terrible to Jen once. I hope they can forgive me one day

Jen was having trouble sleeping once, and Alex was a little low on energy, so they selfishly drained Jen, forcing her to go to sleep but leaving her feeling worse than it was. They feel terrible about it.

The Story, So Far...

It is the third and final day of the Super-Human Law seminar hosted by Jen at the Charles Xavier Institute for Mutant Academics and Outreach, located smack dab in the middle of Central Park, NYC. Once Jen has concluded her final topic and wrap-up on “Know Your Rights: How to Talk to the Police As a Mutant,” headmaster Kitty Pryde walks up on the stage and thanks Jen, calling for a round of applause. Jen looks visibly awkward. Kitty also brought up Claudette and Nicole St. Croix, the “Monet Twins” and the self-dubbed school cheerleading squad. They’ve composed a song with call and response that the whole school takes part in to see her off:

“Teacher and Students Yes-sir-eee We have a lot of fun Cuz’ Teacher and Students are We! Though our time is ending We learned a lot you see! We’ll never turn a frown Cuz Teacher and Students are We!”

The normally zoned out and distant Claudette transforms into a carefree girl for the duration of their choreographed song and dance. As soon as it ends, Nicole explains that she and Claudette wanted to show their thanks on behalf of both them and the entire school. The entire time, Jen was a bit tuned out, checking her phone and generally not loving being the center of this particular brand of awkward attention. Once the thanks are said and the dance number is over, Claudette folds back in on herself, only to be shuffled off the stage by her twin-caretaker.

After that, Kitty gestures to Jen to take a seat, and uses the opportunity of the assembly of 6th-12th graders to introduce the new transfer student Ginny Wayword. As she tries to introduce Ginny to the school, a loud thumping starts off-panel. Kitty keeps going with the introductions and a wide smile, but sweat starts to stream down the side of her face. The thumping gets louder, and eventually turns into vampires arriving by bursting through a wall in a cloud of bats. When the bat cloud disappears, it reveals a vampire lord with a group of hungry, feral vampires who reveal they are here for “Jubilation Lee” and demand that the school hands her over. Kitty tells Junior Squad to get in formation while she sizes up the situation and the rest of the students flee the assembly hall.

Meanwhile, Shatterstar has been running behind rapidly-emptying chairs, because he knows a threat when he sees one. Without waiting for the rest of the team, he leaps into action, stabbing the vampire lord with both blades. Rictor had asked him not to bring his swords to the assembly, so we get a flashback of him sitting at the assembly while his swords poke into the person next to him, and the person behind him tries to look around their hilts in vain. Shatterstar is smug in his knowledge that he was indeed right about bringing them along.

Star sinks his swords deep into the chest of the vampire lord, but it doesn’t work--vampires can’t be hurt by normal swords. The vampire laughs at Star mockingly: “Foolish mortal, swords cannot hurt me!” Star marks the condition Insecure because he’s just been laughed at by this vampire he tried to take down, and is locked in combat as he tries to free his swords.

While Star is in the fray with the vampire, Billy sees all the students trying to flee the assembly through the single door (the vampires broke through the wall with the other ones) and decides to shield them to make sure they can get out safely. Caveat being the team won’t be able to escape easily.

Alex finally arrives late with a piece of toast in their mouth, confused at why everyone’s leaving and assuming that means Jen’s speech is over. They try to clamber up to the stage with toast in their mouth after making their way through the swarm of students, asking Jen and Kitty what’s going on. They keep nervously talking through what they should do to combat the vampires while Kitty phases through her School Principal blazer, knee-length skirt, and hose, revealing her Shadowcat uniform under this weird ice skating costume version of Business Formal. Kitty tells Alex to get in formation as they continue to talk, but while they’ve been talking, the feral vampires have crept up on Alex. Alex tries to defend Jen and Kitty, and fails, and the vampires almost let Alex’s secret slip before they use their powers to drain some energy from the surrounding vampires.

With Alex, Shatterstar, and Billy occupied, Jen takes a second to assess the situation, realizing that the best way to end this conflict quickly is to give the vampire lord what he wants, or talk to him, which is gonna be a little tricky given that Shatterstar is currently grappling/being grappled by him.

Star takes a moment to roll backwards, regretfully leaving his swords stuck through the vampire lord’s Armani blouse for the time being, and asks what he wants with Jubilation Lee, and using that as an opportunity to assess the situation. He remembers from watching Buffy that wood can kill vampires, so he takes a particularly-splintery piece of wood and tries to stab it through the vampire’s heart. The vampire reads his move, and dodges with preternatural speed in a cloud of bats, reappearing behind Shatterstar as he was about to strike. The vampire lord hoists Shatterstar up by the collar, and, testing his weight, feels how light he is. The vamp gets curious and hurls Shatterstar as far and as hard as he can, smashing Star up against the part of the wall that’s still standing.

Star lands face-first, and his white eye lands against the wall, flaring up and glowing white as Star slides down the wall like a splatted bug. His powers go haywire from the blow, tearing open the fabric of reality as he falls like a knife cutting through a screen. The edges of reality splay open, revealing that Star has inadvertently opened an extradimensional portal into Limbo, where there are demons in jerseys playing basketball, a la the Mon-stars from Space Jam. Star is dazed, laying down on the ground beneath this tableau.

Billy, seeing Star in trouble, leaves the barrier where it is and sneaks over to try to help Star up. He tells Star what happened and asks if he can help, to which Star replies, confused: “Space…. Jam?” Once he comes to a bit, he tells Billy that he’s fine, and that Billy needs to go help the others while Star recovers.

The Vampire Lord, having finished with Star, turns to Jen and Kitty, finally introduces himself as “Alexandre Francois Bourgeois, Lord of the Vampires, head of the Bourgeois Clan,” and once again demands that they give her Jubilation Lee as he advances on them with his vampire legion. Alex sees this and tries to provoke one group of the vampires into a chase using themselves as the bait of a “tasty snack,” while Billy distracts the others by levitating and rattling chairs threateningly.

Alex’s plan fails though, and the vampires follow them, but not the way they wanted. Alex nervously tries to use their “Aw, gosh” demeanor to fend the vampires off, but it��s no use. We end as the vampires advance on Alex, saying they smell more like predator than prey, and taunting their attempts to appear as a normal mortal teen. Alex nervously replies "I'm not ugly, Arnold."

Final Thoughts

We didn't get to play too much because we did a lot of world-building, but overall I'd say Marvel Masks is a rousing success and I look forward to playing it again with the crew of awesome players I was lucky enough to have!

#powered by the apocalypse #masks a new generation #shatterstar #billy kaplan #tabletop roleplaying #pbta #masks #actual play #marvel #jennifer walters

[jollybuckaroo]

Some stray thoughts on Thor: Ragnarok

SPOILER WARNING FOR THOR: RAGNAROK

Hela once wielded Mjolnir. In Thor, Odin stated that whoever is worthy of the hammer gets the power of Thor. So does that mean that Hela once had lightning powers on top of her death powers? Did she just have lightning powers? Did she just have a hammer that Odin decided to repurpose for his son? Which came first, the power of Thor or Thor? Was Thor named Thor so he could possess Mjolnir and the power of Thor with it?

Do Odin and Frigga choose what their children will be the gods of or are they born that way? If they choose, why did they choose to have a daughter who was the Goddess of Death? If she was born that way, why was that not a red flag?

How did Loki get illusion powers? He’s not even Asgardian, and I don’t think any of the frost giants had illusion powers.

Thor is the God of Thunder, so he has lightning powers (sort of makes sense; God of Lightning sounds kind of dumb and thunder powers would just be loud noises, so he could also just be the God of Noise). Loki is the God of Mischief, so he has illusion powers to fool people and cause trouble. Hela is the Goddess of Death, so her powers are.... killing people? Everybody in the MCU kills, so what exactly are Hela’s powers? Necromancy doesn’t seem quite like a natural power since she needed the Eternal Flame to resurrect her army and Fenrir, and the other main thing she did was throw and conjure pointy things. 

Doctor Strange is better in this than he is in his own movie.

Bruce Banner states that if he turns into Hulk again, he may never be able to turn back into Bruce Banner. At the end of the film, it’s Hulk, not Bruce, who stands with Thor. That possibility is something they did not have to include in the film at all, so I’m interested to see what it does for his character. Maybe Black Widow will finally be the one to change Hulk back and they’ll run off together. Put some sappiness in Infinity War.

Hulk has taken over but is not trying to destroy everything in site for most of this movie. If Bruce only turns into Hulk when he’s angry and turns back into Bruce when he’s calm, does that mean that Hulk is pissed off during the final scene? Is he just standing next to Thor and the other main characters fuming and just trying to keep from breaking the whole ship? How does Hulk work?

Is Thor’s plan to take the ship to Earth and colonize part of Norway? “Hello, Norway, I am Thor, God of Thunder. This is my brother Loki, God of Mischief and attempted conquerer of the planet. This is my friend Hulk, who has broken cities and caused the deaths of many people. This is a giant rock monster who keeps trying to cause revolutions and his weird alien friend. And these are my people. We would love it if you would let us live in that field over there.”

Are there still people who believe in the Norse mythology? What are their thoughts on the MCU? If they exist, that means that they technically exist in the MCU. It would probably be cool for them if Asgardians tried living on Earth.

I would like a feature film all about Loki putting Odin in a retirement home, ruling as Odin, exiling Heimdall, and trying to put together that stage play about himself. And also show the stuff about the home being torn down and Doctor Stranger moving Odin.

Is Matt Damon playing himself who was abducted from Earth to be in the play because Loki learned that people like him or is Matt Damon playing a God of Dramatic Theatre? Same question for Sam Neill.

Did Matt Damon, Sam Neill, and the other Hemsworth brother survive or die? If they survived, are they damned to perform for Thor during their entire space trip?

Two main actors from Jurassic Park are in this movie and they never even get a chance to interact.

Thor left Earth in Avengers: Age of Ultron to find the other Infinity Stones and learn more about them. He spent a half hour (according to Loki) with Doctor Strange, who was wearing the Time Stone around his neck the whole time. Thor never picked up on that at all.

Loki definitely took the Tesseract, which houses an Infinity Stone, which means Thor is heading to Earth with the Tesseract on board. I read that the ship in the end credits is Thanos’ ship. They’re probably going to fight Thanos and somehow Thor will be separated from the Asgardians; maybe Loki and Hulk will be separated too. Whether or not everyone else on board dies is up in the air, but Thanos will leave that encounter with the Tesseract and head for Earth. The Guardians of the Galaxy will find Thor (and maybe his friends that got left behind with him), pick him up, and Thor will say “You have to take me to Earth.” Star Lord will refuse because he doesn’t want to go back to Earth, and then when Thor tells them that Thanos has Infinity Stones, Drax and Gamora and Nebula will be like “We have to go to Earth and kill Thanos. Plus he has an Infinity Stone which is really bad” and Star Lord will be like “FINE. We’ll go to Earth.” And that’s how the Guardians get involved in Infinity War.

They feel the need to explain why Thor’s (in)significant other isn’t in the movie, but I’m pretty sure no one cares.

I wasn’t counting bullets, but I’m pretty sure Scourge ran out of ammo for Des and Troy long before he actually did.

Scourge had a moped at the Bifrost. Instead of running the Rainbow Bridge to announce Thor’s arrival, why not use the moped? It’s slightly faster and would have a perfect visual gag for this film.

Surtur was voiced by Clancy Brown AKA Eugene Krabs, so the childish part of me wishes that he gone in that direction. “I HAVE THE SECRET FORMULER FOR DESTROYING ASGARD! AHGAHGAHGAHGAHGAHG!!”

This is definitely the best Thor movie, but it might be the weakest MCU movie of this year. Despite their flaws, Guardians Vol. 2 and Spider-Man are really solid films and a bit better than Ragnarok.

It’s hilarious that Hulk is pouty about not being allowed to punch a big monster in the face.

The snake story was also hilarious.

Neither “Thunderstruck” nor “Ride the Lightning” was played. But Immigrant Song was played twice. 2/10

Thor makes a comment about how he thinks it’s great that women get to have the awesome job of being a Valkyrie as if it’s been a man’s job for the last few thousand years. 

The Hulk reveal would have been awesome if the marketing campaign hadn’t spoiled it. There was legitimate build up and mystery in the film that would have caught most people off guard if they didn’t already know.

There is A LOT in the trailer that isn’t in the film as far as shots, coloring, and compositing goes.

#thor #thor ragnarok #loki #marvel #hulk #bruce banner #jeff goldblum #ragnarok #mcu #chris hemsworth #tom hiddleston #mark ruffalo #kate blanchett #hela #asgard #surtur

[littledragonsinmyhead-blog]

Crazy GW2 ff-ideaton for self (I’ll forget it all anyway): - Action/adventure - OC investigates Pact fleet destruction/Trahearne’s death years after. - Revenant abilities and HoT PTSR. - The world is bad, worse then in-game. - Being Commander is shit.  - Commader is “the hero Gotham deserves”. - Being everyone else is shit.  - Dysfunctional trammander. - Being “a part of a junge dragon” is shit. 

An ongoing detective/action/adventore story that takes place 10y+ from now.  - OC, for instance a young promising Shining blade exemplar (Who are they? What would they do? First thought - a headstrong tomboy, similar to Korra’s Kuvira). - SBs are preparing for something dramatic (The “enter-the-plane-of-torment-dramatic, but what exactly?).  - OC has their own team. - As they look for the support, they try to reach the remaining members of Dragon’s Watch, who refuse to take part in a suicidal mission for “I wanna get a life” reason. They never refuse to help with advice or intel, but will not accompany the OC. - Anise believes Kerida/Lidia will be a good place to start. That’s how the idea of recruiting the legendary Commander/Dragonslayer comes to life. - Commander is my own Shiro/Dragon/Renegade sylvari revenant because I can.  - Kerida thinks low of the Commander “thinking capabilities”. Recruiting him is spoken of as -a very bad idea- as he is universally considered an unpredictable living doomsday weapon nobody can effectively control. But the situation calls for drastic measures and only few people in Tyria are intense enough. The OC is worried, but also excited.  - Commander is found in Cantha, which has opened its borders by then, and he eerily reminds Shiro Tagachi in both appearance and abilities. Maybe not.  - OC views PC’s revenant skills - tearing thought the Mists - as wounds in the world and is initially frozen with terror. They overcome this feeling with time, but they also realize why nobody wants to deploy the Commander unless they absolutely have to.  - Legends have VUI (like Suicide Squad’s ”Enchantress”. Probable code phrases: Shiro - “Murderer”, Glint - “Here be dragon”, Kalla - “Renegade”, Mallyx - “Unyielding”. No Ventari or Jalis, PC is negative/offensive combatant). OC notices how the commander mutters something in combat, but never hears the exact words. - With time, OC begins to notice small shifts in the PC’s behavior due to legend invocation and can’t help wondering what exactly is left of the dragonslayer’s own persona and why he allowed himself to become what he is - literally an unthinking doomsday weapon.  - Back to DR, the SBs proceed with their preparation. Everyone is obliged to reiterate SB’s vows in the presence of a mesmer - to face their fears/desires, reveal their hidden interests and strengthen their minds. OC believes it is a good idea and everything goes well until - PC kills the inquisiting mesmer in front of witnesses and refuses to explain why. - Lady Meade oversees the process as an extra measure of safety. It seems she may have a clue - but she will never reveal it. - Commander is to be released because of the mission, being the Commander and being universally accepted “bad enough”. OC tries to confront him, but PC’s comments are cryptic - ”I didn’t kill the mesmer” and “we all understood the risks, no exceptions”.  - OC investigates. Something (WHAT WHAT WHAT???) tips them off to find out what “really” happened in Maguuma jungle about 12 years ago. - The official version of the Pact’s First Marshal death is “slightly” different from the truth. The fact that the PC killed him was concealed from the public to save what little remained from the Pact’s positive image. This was PC’s idea, supported by the rest of the high command and the few witnesses. Ridhais, who actually recovered the body, was gently persuaded to keep quiet with a lifelong pension and the Pact’s full support and protection. PC also found the way to make the Pale Tree hide the whole picture. - During the later confrontation with the PC, OC learns he had his own reasons for the many detours during Maguuma campaign and Rata Novus recovery. With the rest of the high command MIA/absent, PC’s priorities were with successful reestablishment of the Pact. In the end it costed him his sanity, earned him the impression of a mindless living weapon but worked well enough. OC is deeply disturbed and disgusted with the knowledge that the Pact was not transparent.  - In Maguuma, OC recovers some letters Trahearne and Commander exchanged during the Zhaitan campaign, as well as Trahearne’s later diary/album of letters that were never sent. OC reads it though and thinks it’s a fake, because it looks like a very unrealistic romance novel. OC tries to investigate who would benefit from compromising the high command, with no success. At some point, OC thinks the discovery has to be published or at least safekept with Priory, truth or not, but decides it can wait. - OC is enrolled in a SB’s mission for “previous effort’. The mission includes: mists, ghosts, sacred vows, runes, rituals, tons of magic. - Blah blah blah - OC and PC meet Trahearne. Each has a very painful discussion with him. - OC learns the second opinion about the Maguuma campain and thinks it looks ugly enough to be glad First Marshal died when he did. If not for the Big Statue and the Big Sacrifice talk, he would be charged with high treason for the fleet destruction, the Commander would be charged with high treason for the desertion (Eir was right!), Pact’s reputation would be ruined, Almorra would never be able to regain control during the White Mantle/Lazarus crisis, DW would be dead or scattered (probably for the best), Aurene would be a weak and sickly hatchling and probably wouldn’t survive. The world would be very different.  - Add some personal background here: OC thinks about small events changing the big picture and realises their own life would be total shit in this different world. Maybe a slave to the White Mantle/bloodstone ghoul? idk, ideas? - OC overhears some of PC and Trahearne’s talk, which is very personal. T describes what it was like to be a part of a jungle dragon. Neither expected the experience would cause PC’s revenant abilities to manifest. OC realises the “wound in the world” description is accurate.   - “Commander, the Pact” was T’s message to himself to preserve self-awareness: something that existed and was important regardless the connection to Dream and Mordremoth. T is partially responsible for Modrem attacks on the Pact camps. T believes he was powerful enough to contain the jungle dragon, but the perspective of living like this was terrifying, so he is grateful for going down as his own man (more or less). T is super-sorry this caused the Commander turning himself into a living weapon. Both say they would wish a different, happier fate for another.  - PC admits Caladbold has its own happy memory about T and he wouldn’t want to end with his mind’s eye image. OC realises a) PC doesn’t believe this conversation is happening, b) why PC could kill the mesmer. They don’t want to check the last part. - Blah blah blah - Back to DR/Cantha, OC hands the recovered letters and notes to PC.  Shorter version: start with PC killing the mesmer. Skip the first part.  I don’t have PoF yet so I don’t know how far madness goes there.  Now the big question: what would the OC be doing outside reading someone else’s correspondence?!! What is the original mission?  What team would they assemble?!! Mind, focus on the important stuff next time plz

#dysfunctional trammander #rationalizing gw2 shit #gw2 au #gw2 fanfiction ideas #heart of thorns was creepy and i like it #nlp in gw2 #evil enchanted tree

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights (Spoilers through E86)

Secret Denise message of the week: “He who sees my face will be cursed for a thousand years.” As you do.

Sam makes his entrance gagged and with his hands tied while the rest of the cast points and yells "shaaame” at him.

Laura thought Scanlan was screwing with them and kept waiting for him to turn around.Travis notes that they can usually talk people out of that kind of choice, and Marisha realized Scanlan was actually leaving when the conversation started going around in circles and there were no easy solutions.

Taryon was not supposed to appear in 85 at all. Midway through the show, Matt called Sam over and told him Taryon was going in tonight. “Why?” Matt: “’Cause... why not?” At that point, Sam had virtually no backstory planned for Taryon and didn’t even have Doty named yet. Matt: “...I can say that was a miscommunication and I thought that was the intent?” Matt told Sam they’d figure out Taryon once the party knew where they were going next, and Sam took that to mean in the next episode, so Matt sort of accidentally threw him in at the deep end.

Sam: “I did not do any of that to hurt you as people or characters, I did not mean any sort of betrayal by it. It just felt like the right thing to do... and the tasty way to do it.” Taliesin notes he’s had e-mails after a break-up that sounded just like that. Matt was tense through the whole thing.

Taliesin: “You’ve proven that we can bring in a new character and it works.” Liam keeps thinking of the pre-stream game and missing Scanlan. Marisha realized she was putting away her d12s because she only ever used them when Scanlan gave her inspiration.

Vex felt like she and Scanlan really understood each other because they both put up fronts, and now she’s starting to doubt that.

Liam notes that Scanlan was the only one who really managed to get through to Vax during his nosedive.

While Scanlan was out, Sam had time to think about how Scanlan would feel when he woke up, and he couldn’t really justify why Scanlan would stick around. He thought it would be really difficult to make it seem believable for Scanlan to stick around when he was that miserable, so a break made sense.

Liam: “With a little space from this, it was brilliant.”

Sam: “Some of the things that Vex said to Scanlan changed his plan. My initial intent was to leave solo, alone, and you guys all convinced me to stay with Kaylie.”

Liam points out that VM doesn’t really keep their guard down anymore, so they’re pretty wary of Taryon, although Grog’s on board now that they’ve beat him up (”I’ve done all the insight checking that’s needed”), and Percy’s on board because he’s excited to have a nerd-buddy and a very useful distraction.

It was Grog’s idea to beat up Tary and Doty, because he was worried about them possibly getting the rest of his friends killed if they weren’t able to hold their own.

Laura points out it was more of an audition than a hazing--they did it to their staff at the Keep. Marisha reminisces that she turned into a giant scorpion for the first time during that scene and scared off a lot of them on the spot. Vex shot an arrow at Jarrett, and he side-stepped and made eye contact, and she knew he’d be sticking around.

Taryon is inspired by the likes of Richard Branson and Tony Stark. The pitch to Matt: “I wanna be a guy with no skill at all who has bought everything he can do, if he has a problem he just throws money at it, and he wants to be a brave, daring adventurer and has no skill to back it up,” and Matt immediately thought of the artificer class. Matt: “In theory, without any of his equipment, he’d be a level 2. The equipment’s what brings him up to level 13.”

Percy stopped feeling threatened by Taryon when he realized he needed magic to build his stuff. “We can do a Bruce Banner-Tony Stark kind of thing.” Sam points out that Taliesin actually knows some of the stuff Percy talks about, whereas the simple machines Taryon talked about so condescendingly were the actual limit of Sam’s technical knowledge.

Marisha leans towards Keyleth mostly just using the elemental spells that she’s completed her Aramente for.

Vex thought of Scanlan as the dad of the group, the one you went to if you didn’t know what else to do. Sam, whispering: “...I’m so sad right now.”

Brian: “The first person who can open a fucking door should be the leader of Vox Machina forever.”

Liam on Vax: he was a total fuck-up, didn’t have a purpose, and that got flipped on its head. Vax thinks another shoe is gonna drop from the Raven Queen, but he’s not rushing towards that; he wants a little private time. “It’s a weird thing, being Fate-Touched in a game of chance.” He’s currently waiting for instruction, but doesn’t really know where to go. From Matt’s perspective, the Raven Queen’s set him on a path and has outlined the general direction, and until that path needs to be corrected, she’ll leave him to keep walking. But without training, Vax doesn’t really know how that connection works.

Travis thinks Grog would do okay one-on-one against Kevdak now.

A fan points out that Matt was silent for 18 minutes during the party’s confrontation with Scanlan. Matt loved it, because it let him become a member of the audience. “That’s the reward for all the hard work.”

Matt re: Keyleth potentially taking on True Resurrection as a ninth-level spell: “There’s an interesting disconnect between the mechanics of the game and a realistic narrative.” He feels that there needs to be a necessary, very important purpose for that person that didn’t get completed. Marisha mentions that there are some spells that Keyleth wouldn’t be comfortable with (same as Pike not using some spells), and that True Resurrection would be difficult. She’s excited about True Polymorph, though.

Matt had to tell Sam that Scanlan did not hear Grog’s contribution to the resurrection ritual--Grog unfortunately failed his contribution. Sam: “I will say as Sam Riegel listening to Travis Willingham’s song... legit tears.”

Doty is not quite as strong as rules-as-written, but is a little smarter so he can read and write. Liam: “But can he love?”

Matt points out that a lot of the show’s narrative stems from relationships, so it seemed natural that romances would start up in the game. Laura: “[Liam and Marisha] had to deal with all of us acting like asshole fucking schoolchildren.” Travis: “I just want the story to be good. I just want nudity and good story. I don’t care where it’s from.”

Marisha and Liam went out to lunch to talk Vax/Keyleth once it looked like things were heading that way to make sure everyone was on board and comfortable with it.

Sam thinks Scanlan would be very skeptical of Taryon and would think he’s an asshole and would be on board with pretty much everything that’s happened.

Liam hopes for a bit of overlap between Scanlan and Taryon. Sam: “Oh god...”

Sam honestly doesn’t know if we’ve seen the last of Scanlan.

Percy does not want to return to Whitestone in a permanent sense at all, but Taliesin notes that it doesn’t matter, because he has to, and he understands that responsibility’s part of being titled. He doesn’t think Percy will ever take power, but if it comes up, he has ideas of how he could be useful.

Brian: “Is there anything special you want to do for episode 100?” Liam: “Wear some pants, please.” Matt: “No. Never.”

Matt sighs heavily when everyone suggests a bodyswapping episode. Sam: “We’re doing it, Matt. Someday.” Matt: “...so hackneyed.”

Brian: “Oh, I forgot about Alpha! Probably because it hasn’t worked for months.”

After-Dark:

Sam would be down for playing both Scanlan and Taryon.

Everyone was pretty okay with Taryon not knowing their names. Marisha: “That seems like something we’d do.”

Brian asks where the giant mug is right now. Sam points out that it’s literally sitting on a shelf behind Brian, in the same shot as him. Sam’s new mug was a gift from Laura ages ago.

At the time, Vex thought hanging onto the deck was the smart thing to do, but after the conversation with Scanlan, she decided it was better to give it back to Grog. Travis had games and games of guilt-trips planned. Percy was planning to build fake magical cards with a bit of flashpowder.

Matt reveals that Fenthras was already Exalted when Vex got it. Laura, slumping dejectedly and extremely dramatically on the couch: “Fucking hell, I’ve got all this fuckin’ shit I’ve been working on!”

Exalted is the next level after Awakened for Vestiges. More info in the campaign guide.

Liam: “What if Pike was hit with love at first sight for Taryon?” Everyone just goes silent while they ponder that.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #long text post

[theconservativebrief]

Kris Kobach, who is currently holding onto a lead of fewer than 200 votes in Kansas’s Republican primary for governor, is one of America’s most effective advocates of racist policy. And that was clear even before he hired open white nationalists as part of his gubernatorial campaign.

In 2002, he helped the Bush Justice Department set up a registry for immigrants from 25 countries, 24 of which were majority-Muslim. Later, as a private attorney, Kobach criss-crossed the nation like the Monorail guy on The Simpsons, encouraging towns to adopt flagrantly unconstitutional laws targeting immigrants (earning millions in legal fees in the process). He helped craft Arizona’s SB 1070, a bill that was essentially an open invitation for racial profiling by instructing police to stop anyone they have a “reasonable suspicion” is an illegal immigrant.

As Kansas’s secretary of state, Kobach pushed through a voter ID law that lowered turnout by 122,000 votes, and adopted the Interstate Crosscheck System to purge voter rolls, moves that disproportionately affected nonwhite voters.

I don’t know what’s in Kobach’s soul. But I do know that one of the few constants in his career is an enthusiasm for policies that hurt racial minorities.

He’s not alone in that, among elected officials. What stands out about Kobach is the pedigree. His resumé is the stuff of ambitious Ivy Leaguers’ dreams. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard, as the top student in the government department, and received a master’s and doctorate at Oxford as a Marshall Scholar. He attended Yale Law, was on the law review, and got an appellate clerkship. He worked for years as a law professor at the University of Missouri Kansas City, eventually getting tenure.

We have an unfortunate tendency in America to treat racism and racial resentment as a pathology of the white underclass. Takes about the need for Democrats to abandon woke “identity politics” typically cite a desire to win back the “white working class,” not white members of the Harvard Club.

But while there’s some survey data backing the idea that working-class whites are likelier to harbor racial resentment (see table 3 here), the racism that kept Jews and blacks out of country clubs (and out of Harvard) for generations is still around. And Kobach is a great example of how it can continue to have real political consequences.

Institutions like Harvard occupy a weird place in our public culture, derided on both left and right for their complicity in various social ills (and of course no one loves to bash Harvard more than people who went there), but nonetheless associated with a kind of cosmopolitan sophistication. They may propagate, say, laissez-faire economic ideas, or reinforce class privilege, but surely they’re the enemy of base forms of ethnonationalism.

Kobach, however, is a friend to white ethnonationalism. And Harvard not only didn’t stop him, it helped give him the social prestige and power to carry out his mission.

Indeed, if anything Harvard seems to have helped Kobach find and develop his brand of racism. Kobach’s main mentor at Harvard was Samuel Huntington. Huntington is a complicated figure, a pioneer in political science whose The Soldier and the State (1957), Political Order in Changing Societies (1968), and The Third Wave (1991) are justifiably considered classics.

But by the 1980s and 1990s, when Kobach was under his tutelage, Huntington was becoming more and more skeptical of democratic procedures, with a special skepticism reserved for equal suffrage in racially divided societies. In 1981, he gave a speech in South Africa in which he warned that the apartheid government should absolutely not give blacks full suffrage, arguing instead for a “consociational” arrangement that purports to give white, black, mixed-race, and Indian South Africans autonomy over their own affairs, while preserving racial separation. Repression of revolutionary groups like the African National Congress should continue, he advised.

Two decades later, he authored Who Are We?, a book arguing that America’s Protestant culture was being eroded by Latino/a immigrants; the white nationalist Richard Spencer has cited the book as a key influence.

Obviously, Kobach studied with Huntington before his mentor took that last, dramatic turn. But he did study with him during the struggle over apartheid, and the side Kobach took is revealing. “Under Huntington’s guidance, Kobach wrote his senior thesis on how the movement to divest from South Africa was misguided because international businesses were already leading the way against apartheid,” Ari Berman notes in a New York Times profile of Kobach.

To be clear, many people went through Harvard, read and took classes with Huntington, and did not wind up being anything remotely like Kris Kobach. (The Atlantic’s James Fallows was one.) Huntington was not a sort of racist Midas Touch, where you take a class and come away wanting to deport Muslims.

But his experience at Harvard, Oxford, and Yale enabled Kobach’s career. It gave him markers of respectability (up to and including a tenured faculty post) that enabled him go from town to town, asking officials to pass anti-immigrant or anti-suffrage bills, and to get “yes” for an answer. It’s hard to imagine someone from, say, Cooley Law School being received so openly and rising so quickly. (That seemingly only happens in the Trump Organization.)

Kobach isn’t alone. White House adviser Stephen Miller didn’t have a Huntington figure during his time at Duke; in all the profiles written about Miller, I’ve yet to find one that mentions a professor who mentored him or even liked him. But it was Miller’s role as a conservative voice on campus during the Duke lacrosse scandal (a scandal that became a national affair only because of Duke’s elite status) that catapulted him into a career as a policy aide on Capitol Hill, and now in the White House. He, like Kobach, leveraged elite credentials to implement racist policies.

Further on the fringes of American life, Richard Spencer’s time as a Duke grad student, and Jared Taylor’s Yale pedigree, have helped lift them from obscurity into being commonly cited voices from the “race realist” movement. They got a patina of respectability, a sense that they’re a different, higher class of racist.

Working-class white racists can inflict a lot of harm; hate crimes in this country are a real thing, committed by people with all kinds of income and education levels. But economically unprivileged whites typically don’t cause damage on the scale of Miller or Kobach — or even Spencer or Taylor. That escalation requires elite credentials and connections.

Maybe this problem is inevitable. It’s probably impossible, and definitely inadvisable, for elite schools to aim to admit no students who are susceptible to racist demagoguery, or who stand a good chance of becoming racist demagogues themselves. That would likely result in ideological discrimination, which in turn would worsen institutions’ ideological self-segregation in ways that even liberals and leftists should agree are harmful.

But if nothing else, I hope Kobach can help change our mental image of an American racist, from lazy stereotypes of manual laborers to a Yale-trained lawyer with a PhD, whose racial views come in part from a celebrated Harvard professor. That’s the bigger danger.

Original Source -> Racism is a problem of white elites, and Kris Kobach proves it

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

[salty-dracon]

SECRET Heroes- The Traitor Revealed

During the SECRET branch meeting, two mysterious figures break into the site of the meeting. Val then proceeds to be a loser and Brid stabs someone that should have gotten the Caesar treatment like twelve years ago.

There was no poster advertising the event. However, all of the guests knew exactly where they were going. 

“Come on, we’re going to be late.“ A young man dragged his elder colleague into a large room, apparently a conference center.

“Let’s begin with a head count.“ Miss T’s eyes traced the entire group, seeing that all of the circular tables were filled. “Reps from every base in the States should be here, of course. Yes, I am receiving facial recognition data on everyone here. Good.“ She walked up to a podium onstage. “First, I would also like to welcome our guests from Europe, specifically from the bases in Paris and Amaroca. Welcome, Chairmen Marinero and Roi de Cartes, as well as agents Astro and Marcherd’eau. It was a miracle they were able to be here tonight, actually- their trip was intercepted a number of times by villains. I was considering changing the venue last minute, but.. ” she sighed briefly, “Cirrus told me he’d take care of it. I doubt we’ll experience any more attacks. Moving on, the agenda for tonight is to begin with-“

Her words were interrupted by the sound of a glass plate shattering. 

“I’ll go check.“ A young female hero stood up and zipped out of the room at superhuman speed. A few seconds later she returned. “A mirror in one of the bathrooms fell off the wall.“

“Well, that’s reassuring. As I was saying, the agenda for tonight is to begin with a discussion on the rise of political crime in Europe. Our European delegates will help facilitate this discussion. Recently, there has been a large wave of crime occurring in Northern Europe and the United States. It seems to be a fanaticism that has spread like a wave all over the region. To all who live in this country, it is election season. Campaign scandals and political slander are rife during this time. However, there has been a strange trend over these past few months-“

A loud ZAP. 

“-of prominent politicians, or even political hopefuls, turning into monsters of some kind. These monsters have come in many forms. Some were insectoid, reptilian, arachnid, mammalian... they were basically giant abominations that caused intense destruction to their home cities. Thanks to the efforts of superheroes, most of these creatures were destroyed without many casualties, but the question still remains- why? Is there a connection between the many attacks? According to SECRET’s top analyst Cirrus, there is none. No connection between the source of campaign funds, no connection in connections, no connection in background. Which begs the question- is this a growing trend to be fearful of? And if so, what is the-“

“Not today!“ someone shouted from the hall. A few seconds later, an armed guard tumbled into the room, apparently knocked out. 

“Do we have intruders?“ Miss T asked, as some of the other heroes stood up. “No, remain in the room. By power of numbers-“

Above Miss T, a portal opened. A woman with wings dropped down from it. As all of them turned their gaze to the intruders, a bright purple light flashed through the room.

“Freeze!“ The intruder’s command was clear. A gunshot then rang through the room. 

By the time that the hypnosis spell was broken, she was lying facedown on the ground, a pool of blood under their body. 

The entire room was silent, until someone yelled, “Bridget Shao?!”

That someone was Miss T, who was leaning against the podium, her eyes wide and her hand covering her mouth. The one holding the gun was none other than Cirrus, whose face was that of calm determination.

Suddenly, a hand appeared from a portal appeared behind Vince, pulling the gun from his hand and disappearing. Another portal appeared onstage, from which a man in white stepped out, holding the gun. 

Val stared at the crowd for a few seconds before stuttering, “Um... we come in peace...?” He gently nudged Brid with his foot. “Please help me out if you aren’t dead.”

Brid’s seemingly dead corpse suddenly moved. She pushed herself off the ground.

“That... hit a little harder than I thought it would, sorry... “

“Are you going to be okay?!“ Val asked. “You look like you’re in really bad shape!“

“Just need a moment to catch my breath.“ She collapsed again. “Go on, tell them.“

“You just got shot!“

“Tell them. Isn’t that why you wanted to come here?“ She smiled weakly. “Go on. This is what you wanted.“

“You’re dying.“

“I didn’t die for you to not spill the tea, bro.“

“... Shit. Fine.“ Val stepped up. “Listen, I’m Amplify, and I’m a freelance SECRET agent working in Europe. She“ -he pointed to Bridget- “is Bridget Shao, and she facilitated my entire journey here. Um, it’s kind of a long story, and we’re good friends, and she doesn’t want to hurt anyone, I promise, we just... needed your attention. Also this is her first time using her hypnosis in, like, six years, so... yeah, cool! We’re both kind of badasses.”

“What the hell are you doing?!“ Vince shouted, pulling another pistol out of his pocket. “Get off the stage and turn yourself in before I shoot you.“

“Cool your tits, Kraus! Anyway, I’m sure Chairman Marinero can corroborate my story, uh... monsieur president, noun sommes amis, n’est-ce pas?“

“If I couldn’t speak English-“ a man shouted from one end of the room. 

“Right, right, sorry, sir! Um, the thing is... you’re being lied to. All of you.“ 

“What?!“ Layla shouted. 

“I was on an assignment from... an anonymous tipper. Basically, I was to investigate a series of monster attacks. The ones that happened in Europe. And Miss T insisted that there were no connections... but she’s wrong.“

Vince’s finger twitched. “Keep spouting those lies, and-“

“I said calm your tits, Vince! I also talked to this other analyst in Europe. Agent Naga. Y’know, the really good one. I had my suspicions from the kind of data I collected in the first place, which gave more in-depth results than Miss T just offered. Naga confirmed my suspicions. Like, for example, all of the monsters in Europe had two distinct types of symbots floating in their blood. One was an injection type and one was a integration type. We found the exact same model of symbot in all of the monsters. And later, in Rubicon City and Pineville, we found similar symbots in the monsters that attacked then. They weren’t symbots available on the market. We looked carefully. They were all homemade.”

“So?“ Vince shouted. “Maybe there’s some black-market source you don’t know about.“

“They’re all homemade. I know that for sure. Because I saw them being manufactured. I traced the European politicians to a mysterious source of funding directly to their families. The source was a person that’s been assumed dead for about six years now. But I did find a way to contact her, and from that, a base of operations. It was an airship, in which I found a number of mutated creatures and the aforementioned symbot factory. I stole a drive from that place, too, and Agent Naga confirmed that it had information on the politicians she had paid. So... yeah. There is a connection between all of the attacks. It’s this one organization called the Ascended Empire, run by a lady named Dr. Amelia Victoria Fisher, I think. Brid, is that right?“

Brid, still lying facedown, gave a thumbs-up. 

“Yeah. Anyway, we both went after her minions, and we learned she’s kind of planning to destroy all of America with like, giant bombs and stuff. And then cause a war with a giant mutated army. So... yeah. She was also the one behind the destruction of Soleil, by the way. That singularity bomb was all her. Brid kind of helped me fake a terrorist attack so that we could get everyone to escape and then defuse the bomb. Uh... it worked, so that’s cool. I mean, Soleil got destroyed, but like... only nine people died, so at least we managed to save most of the city.“

“Eleven,“ Brid muttered. 

“Eleven.“

“What’s your point?!“ Vince shouted. 

“Okay, if we’re really going to skip past the whole story... “ he sighed. “I mean, I was going to give a timeline, but okay. I guess SOMEONE“- he gestured wildly at Vince- “wants to hear the main point. First, you’re going to be attacked by Genetika any moment now. Second, there’s a traitor in the room, who also informed Genetika about the location of the branch meeting.“

“Genetika?“ Miss T asked. “Who’s Genetika?“

“Did I... not say?“

“Nope.“

“... Oh. Genetika’s just Dr. Fisher’s alias. But seriously, she’s about to attack this place and kill everyone. Like, we need to get out of here. Now.“

“And the traitor?“ Miss T asked. 

“Oh yeah. Well, I was hoping to reveal it in a more dramatic fashion, but... eh, whatever.” He pointed into the crowd. “The traitor’s Vince Kraus, A.K.A. Cirrus.“ 

The entire room turned their eyes towards Vince. 

“That’s bullshit and you know it, kid!“ Vince shouted. 

“Well? You’re the one who handled the job in America. I’m pretty sure most of the branch heads recommended a study into... y’know, the monsters? The thing is, you’ve had a recent history of shouldering work off the other branch analysts. If I recall, it was Baltimore that originally had the assignment, right? They must’ve been glad to have someone else do the work for them. Of course, you didn’t intend to expose the empire, so you just gave a few facts as to why it couldn’t be an organization of any sort and tossed it aside.”

“I’ll have you know I take my job very seriously!“

“And so do I. The fact also remains that your name was mentioned at least four times in the drive. Along with some more interesting information about you. For example, prosthophile. I’m sure if we take a look at your left shoulder, we’ll find a unique bronze alloy plating. Genetika happens to love the stuff. Somehow, she also knew about your obsession with self-augmentation. Maybe she offered you some cooler tech in return for your service.“

“Bullshit!“

“Well, there’s one real way to figure it out, right?“ Val shrugged. “Brid, please, do the honors.“

He attempted to nudge Brid’s body with his foot, only to find that she wasn’t there... and nor was the pool of blood she had been lying in. Suddenly, Vince gave a scream. Brid was on top of him, pointing her weapon in its deadliest form directly at his chin. It hovered an inch above his throat. 

“My master hated you,“ she whispered. “Because in your own way, you made me suffer. I also heard you just went after three more kids, am I right? Three more innocent children that have no reason to feel the pain that we did. My master hated you for it... and so do I. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to make you pay.“

“Brid, I saved-“

“You saved lives, yes. But at what cost to us?“

“Fine then.“ Vince tilted his chin up. “If you’re so pissed off that I saved lives, then kill me.“

“You’re letting me kill you, Vince?“

“Yup. No tricks, no gimmicks. You can even tear apart my dead body if you want with that oversized Swiss Army Knife of yours. That’s a cool little toy, by the way. As soon as we find your master, I’ll be sure to ask him about it. He designed it, right?“

The entire room watched as Brid’s face grew furious and the room lit up with purple light. The next second, the weapon stood impaled inside Vince’s chest. 

“God damn it, Brid... “ Val muttered. “Killing him was the one thing you weren’t supposed to do!“

Brid shushed him. She motioned to his serenely calm face, and then kicked his head. 

“Ow!“ Vince’s eyes opened. “The shit? What am I... “ He glanced at the weapon impaled into his chest. “What is... “

“I’m not just a killer, Vince. I’ve used this device as a sort of portable life support. Right now, there’s a series of artificial symbots keeping your blood flowing and your body running.“ She gripped the end of the weapon. “Your expression said everything, Vince. You, the man who was so bent on staying alive throughout the whole Angel ordeal, and even on keeping his job after all of it, dared me to kill you. It’s almost like if you die, you’ll escape the situation you’re in right now.“

“Oh yeah,“ Val said. “Don’t you have a second clone back at Genetika’s airship? So that if Brid kills your body here, your memories will be transferred away?“

“Shit.“ Vince tried to struggle up, but found he couldn’t move. 

“Paralytic agent,“ Brid said. “You aren’t going anywhere until you tell us exactly where she’ll be attacking next.”

“Well, you’re right about one thing,“ Vince muttered. “She’ll be here in a few minutes, and she’s hell-bent on killing us all. Next... well, is it really my place to tell you?“

---------

#vince gets exactly what he deserves.txt #secretagents

[melbynews-blog]

MoA - Netanyahoo To Again Cry Wolf

Neuer Beitrag veröffentlicht bei https://melby.de/moa-netanyahoo-to-again-cry-wolf/

MoA - Netanyahoo To Again Cry Wolf

April 30, 2018

Netanyahoo To Again Cry Wolf – But Something Bigger Is Up (Updated)

Updated below —

U.S. President Trump wants to end the nuclear agreement (pdf) with Iran and wants to eliminated Iranian forces in Syria which support the Syrian government. Something is being prepared to make that happen.

Last week General Joseph Votel, commander of CENTCOM – the U.S. military command for the Middle East, was in Israel. It was the first ever visit of a CENTCOM commander to Israel which usually works with the European command EUCOM.

Yesterday former CIA director and now Secretary of State Pompeo visited Israel. A few hours later Israel bombed two ammunition depots in Syria which are supposedly related to Iran. This was a clear attempt to provoke Iran into some reaction.

The Israeli defense minister Lieberman just visited Washington DC and only today came back to Israel.

Now the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahoo loudly announced that he will hold a press conference to present a „huge amount of new and dramatic information on the Iranian nuclear program“. He will allege that Iran cheats on the nuclear agreement (JCPOA).

Netanyahoo is a notorious liar and warmonger. In September 2002 he lied (vid) to the U.S. congress:

There is no question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking and is working and is advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons – no question whatsoever”

Only yesterday he promoted a false story that claimed Arabs in Israel had disrupted a minuted of silence for some people killed in a flash flood.

The IAEA says that Iran is in full compliance with the JCPOA. If there were any serious intelligence about any Iranian deviation from the nuclear agreement it would be presented to the IAEA and the six signature powers of the agreement. The IAEA would investigate and report back. If Iran cheated it would be put back under serious international sanctions. That Netanyahoo wants to present something publicly makes it very likely that he has nothing of relevance.

We hear that the documents he is said to present were compiled by one Christopher Steele and assembled with the help of one Sergej Skripal and his MI6 handler [redacted]. They will show that Iran attempts to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger.

This new comedy stunt by Netanyahoo is tightly coordinated with the Trump administration.  Trump’s national security advisor John Bolton has worked with the Zionists since early 2000 to push for a war on Iran:

During multiple trips to Israel, Bolton had unannounced meetings, including with the head of Mossad, Meir Dagan, without the usual reporting cable to the secretary of state and other relevant offices. Judging from that report on an early Bolton visit, those meetings clearly dealt with a joint strategy on how to bring about political conditions for an eventual U.S. strike against Iran.

Behind Trump, Netanyahoo and Bolton is one financier, the militant Zionist and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. He financed Trump’s and Netanyahoo’s election campaigns and the various think tanks that create anti-Iranian propaganda and paid Bolton.

bigger

Trump wants to leave the nuclear agreement but the other signers, China, Russia, the UK, France and Germany want to keep it up. Just leaving the JCPOA without cause will increase doubt over any agreement the U.S. wants to make on other issues. The allegations Netanyahoo will put forward, no matter how ridiculous they may be, could give Trump some excuse to put new sanctions on Iran without actually leaving the agreement.

But even that does not explain all the recent meetings and visits by the various Israeli and U.S. officials. French soldiers and mercenaries from the UAE have entered north-east-Syria. What for? The Saudis are on board with any operation against Iran.

Something big is up and we do not know yet what it might be.

— Update

That was lame. Netanyahoo just finished his show (vid). He claimed that Israel got access to an Iranian archive of its former nuclear program dating from 1999 to 2003. In 2007 a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate found that Iran stopped all nuclear weapon research in 2003 after the U.S. had destroyed Iran’s then arch-enemy Iraq. In 2011 the IAEA reported in detail of Iran’s former „structured program“. It agreed that it had stopped in 2003.

All that Netanyahoo now claims to have acquired is old and known stuff. He refers to an AMAD plan Iran had as if that was some new intelligence. But the IAEA documented AMAD and its development in 2011 (PDF, Annex, page 5). He uses the archive documents with details of well known former programs to declare that Iran has cheated and is not trustworthy. He says that gives Trump reason to disavow the nuclear agreement the U.S. and others had signed with Iran. That is bullshit.

One wonders where the pictures and files Netanyahoo presented are coming from. I have a hunch that these were not obtained from a „warehouse“ in Iran but exfiltrated from a computer in Vienna where the IAEA analyzes the former Iranian research program from files Iran handed to it.

I had expected better from a serial liar. Some well forged documents or something more dramatic. This was just nonsense.

My feeling is that this is a diversion from an upcoming military(?) operation against Iran or its assets in Lebanon, Syria or Iraq.

Posted by b on April 30, 2018 at 01:06 PM | Permalink

Absolutely correct b. Something’s cooking and it won’t take long for the world to find out what it was.

Also, when responding to the Iranian threats to re-start their nuclear program, Mr Trump appears to have an answer pretty resolute i.e „They won’t be starting anything, you can bank on that“

One more thing I like to add. If Mr Trump withdraws US from the deal which is also endorsed by the UNSC, US will loose to IRAN in the war that follows-up.

Posted by: Fantome | Apr 30, 2018 1:18:54 PM | 1

Well, what’s up is war. Syria and Iran are still missing in the trophy collection.

Posted by: BX | Apr 30, 2018 1:20:34 PM | 2

Right now Netanyahu on CNN – Iran lied. Claims Israel has lots of stolen files.

Posted by: spudski | Apr 30, 2018 1:25:09 PM | 3

OH no! not the yellow cake saga again. Well, if they can get away with the Syrian chemical weapons attack that the white helmets can fix with a hose pipe, then anything goes. It looks as though the Skripal affair has lots more secrets to reveal. This story just keeps on giving and giving, although if you looked for it in MSM you wouldn’t find anything on it. I don’t understand why the missile defense system doesn’t appear to activate for the Iranian contingent in Syria. Is it because this was a surprise attack and the Syrians?Russians were caught off guard, or are the Iranians left to fend for themselves as far as air bombardment is concerned? I get the feeling that the West is probing and poking the bear a bit at a time with a stick to get a reaction. They may well be sorry what they wish for.

Posted by: john wilson | Apr 30, 2018 1:32:07 PM | 5

Doesn’t look like fake anti-establishment, swamp-drainer, poseur Trump has given himself ANY leeway…

with which he might counter or to move away from the numerous neocon nut cases hell-bent for WW3 whom he has permanently invited to his war cabinet golden shower party.

Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 30, 2018 1:36:25 PM | 6

Netanyahu is probably the most dangerous leader in this world, the raw lying and propaganda, its heinous. Not to mention this sick lunatic in Israel have some 300 nukes already themselves, IN SECRET!

Now he have come up with fake documents, trying to justify a war! Same jewish state that whine about antisemitism, this people are not sane…

Hopefully west dont accept this blatant sicko, because as usual, its not Israel that want to wage the war, no, the war must be fought by goyim europeans and especially americans.

With ugly pack of morons as Trump, POmpeo, Bolton, it doesnt look good.

This war hysteria just come weeks after the illegal and dangerous bombing of Syria. Netanyahu clarly is a psychopath.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 1:36:55 PM | 7

What is going on with those s300s? Russia needs to give Syria/Iran the means to defend themselves from these repeated acts of Israeli aggression. It should not be so easy for Israel to take out Iranian forces.

Posted by: Jayhawk2018 | Apr 30, 2018 1:37:18 PM | 8

The only way to kick the legs out of Iran in a manner that Israel cares about which would also hurt Assad would be to destroy Hezbollah. The only chance of doing that would be to go full war crime mode and use the most vicious thermobaric or possibly tactical nuclear weapons.

If we did that or enabled the Israelis to do that then we will have reached total depravity. At this point I believe the U.S. public is okay with bombing anyone as long as U.S. lives are not lost. If the Israelis do it we cheer, if we do it then it shows the rest of the world who is boss.

Posted by: Christian Chuba | Apr 30, 2018 1:40:17 PM | 9

Jayhawk2018

Russia is bust, they refused s300 and here we are, not only bombing of Syria but even Iran now?

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 1:40:41 PM | 10

This can all be easily followed all the way back to before the Iranian nuclear deal and a policy paper out of Brookings on how to set up Iran for war. Basically, it states make a deal with Iran then prove that although the West did its best, Iran broke the deal in whatever manner. Appears they have all the actors lined up. Now it begins. The war of words then war. Like we haven’t seen this before.

Posted by: LJ Smith | Apr 30, 2018 1:40:54 PM | 11

Nuttyyahoo is dangerous BECAUSE he is thoroughly enabled by the FUKUS, but especially the US in EVERY way – politically, monetarily, morally, and and he is promoted on every television network and mainstream media outlet.

Trump has become increasingly dangerous because he has surrounded himself with Pompeo, Bolton, Nikki Haley, Nuttyyahoo…

Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 30, 2018 1:48:46 PM | 13

Holy jumping f***, the „yellow cake“ BS again. You’d think these war mongering morons could be more inventive.

Posted by: ben | Apr 30, 2018 1:52:18 PM | 14

Where will it end? Russia allows it to continue. Then remains who? Pakistan? Are we profitting? US has become monster.

Posted by: Jared | Apr 30, 2018 1:54:26 PM | 15

„That was lame.“

US/UK/Israel are not even trying for convincing narratives now. Sounds like F-35 was used to hit the ammo dumps in Syria. Maybe the zionists figure they have F35 bugs ironed out and its time to put it to work against Iran.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:03:51 PM | 16

Nikki Haley aka Nimrata Randhawa, is obviously a mental lightweight and a „yes man“ for positive reinforcement & public relations/messaging purposes.

The others are genuinely depraved, lunatic warmongers whom maintain the ability to string together sentences.

Wonder where the Kagans are in all this. Cheering from the sidelines? Seems they’d be invited.

Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 30, 2018 2:03:57 PM | 17

Didn’t an American Green Beret from IIRC a nuke snoop/radiological team just die reecently in Niger?

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Apr 30, 2018 2:13:18 PM | 18

We hear that the documents he is said to present were compiled by one Christopher Steele and assembled with the help of one Sergej Skripal and his MI6 handler [redacted]. They will show that Iran attempts to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger.

I think b was being sarcastic although Netanyahu and Bolton really are dumb and arrogant enough to try it.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Apr 30, 2018 2:19:08 PM | 19

Actually Iran has a long-time investment in uranium mines in Namibia, from the Shah’s time, and Ahmadinejad even visited Niger in Apr 2013 while that country was looking to diversify its uranium sales away from the French Areva. There’s nothing „secret“ about any of this, uranium is a fuel for reactors.

Posted by: Cyrus | Apr 30, 2018 2:20:01 PM | 20

… What I like about this story is that, even though smearing Iran doesn’t make any sense, narratives that don’t make sense are ’normal‘ for that bloodthirsty experiment in social engineering known as „Israel“. One wonders whether, if the „Israelis“ are serious about attacking Iran, then shouldn’t they be encouraged to give it a try, just to see what happens? If they’re not worried about blowback from Iran and Hezbollah, why should anyone else lose any sleep over it? When Medvedev was President of Russia he said in an interview (with Zacharia) on a US network that ab attack on Iran would create an „unimaginable refugee catastrophe“. Ironically (or Russian-ly), he didn’t say for whom it would be catastrophic…

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 30, 2018 2:20:13 PM | 21

The JCPOA is not a treaty it’s an agreement between the US president and some other countries. The fact that a US president would seek any agreement with its mortal enemy Iran (as dictated by Israel) is ridiculous, but Obama needed something positive for his presidential library besides mandatory medical insurance (Obamacare) so there you go.

So now there’s a new president who ran on a campaign of scrapping the Iran nuclear agreement (and Obamacare) and he’s doing it. It’s no surprise to Ayatollah Khamenei: Oct 6, 2013– Iran’s Leader “Optimistic” about Rowhani’s US Diplomacy, but Skeptical of Washington, Israel

Certainly, we are pessimistic about the Americans. We do not trust them. We consider the government of the United States of America as an unreliable, arrogant, illogical, and trespassing government, which is badly possessed and dominated by the international Zionist network. They are forced to appease the extorter and forged regime that has occupied Palestine to observe the illegitimate desires and interests of the international Zionist network. They ought to be flexible against it for the interests of the international Zionist network. They call it America’s interests, whereas America’s national interests entirely contradict what they are doing today in support of the forged regime. The government of the United States of America is blackmailing the entire world, appeasing the forged Zionist regime. We witness these facts. We do not trust the US government. We trust our own officials. We are optimist and we want them (officials) to take right and firm steps carefully and considering all aspects. They should not forget national interests even for a second. The important point for the Islamic Republic’s system is the internal strength of the structure of the Islamic Republic, the internal strength of the Iranian nation. This has managed to protect the country, national unity, respect to great ideals of the Islamic Republic, and respect to the national honor. The Iranian nation is a dear nation. The revolution gave honor back to them. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 2:21:40 PM | 22

Also, there was actually never any evidence of a nuclear weapons research program prior to 2003 either. The IAEA has specifically gone on record stating in 2009 that it has „no concrete proof that this is or has been a nuclear weapons program in Iran“. Gareth Porter has written more about the 2003 allegations and Israel’s later attempts to undermine the NIE by insisting that there was evidence of „continued“ nuclear weapons work. The worst that the IAEA could ever say it actually found in Iran, were „fragmented and incomplete feasibility studies“ that were „relevant to“ nukes — none of which is in any way a violation of the NPT which actually ENCOURAGES the sharing of technology „relevant to“ nuclear weapons including data from nuclear test explosions.

Posted by: Cyrus | Apr 30, 2018 2:25:01 PM | 23

Wow! The anti-corruption probe into Nuttyyahoo’s activities must be coming close to arresting him; so, to avoid arrest, he must start an actual war of aggression. Only problem is the Zionists like their Outlaw allies are incapable of actually defeating anyone they might attack.

What the Zionists are scared to death of is becoming irrelevant; their Airstrip 1 existence no longer of any value to the Imperialist Empires that created the Zionist state for their own geopolitical machinations. Is there any real reason to militarily attack the Zionists beyond reclaiming Golan? If Lebanon becomes strong enough–I’d argue it’s already–then a simple containment policy coupled with the international BDS movement will be more than enough to facilitate internal political change within the Apartheid State over time–containment will take several years to work as it did on South Africa. Zionist racism has destabilized itself. Talk about a state ripe for being Color Revolutionized. Those are the reasons for the easily seen and rebutted lies of a very desperate politico wanting very much to avoid prison for crimes he committed against his own nation, not the many War Crimes against others.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:26:38 PM | 24

Cyrus

„Also, there was actually never any evidence of a nuclear weapons research program prior to 2003 either“

INdeed, b better fix that desinformation.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:29:26 PM | 25

doesn’t make sense …FUKUS does war on Iran, Iran closes the Gulf …oil goes to 200/ barrel ….US does a superb imitation of a Dead Fly.

Posted by: Breadonwaters | Apr 30, 2018 2:34:35 PM | 26

B.: I had expected better from him. Some well forged documents or something more dramatic. This was just nonsense. ______________________________________________

This is another example of a trend I’ve been on about lately. You’re quite right; the quality of the Western/ME hegemony’s Big Lies is deteriorating markedly before our eyes. But only the minority who are willing and able to keep their eyes wide open seem to notice.

It’s hard to tell if the proliferation of weak and incredible fabrications is based on the Big Liars‘ belief that the public is, or has become, so benighted and bamboozled that they’ll swallow anything, or if it’s an indication that they are running on empty. But, whether it’s due to hubris or degenerate incompetence, it indeed looks as if they aren’t even trying any more.

Then again, as you also point out, Bibi’s anticlimactic histrionics are on a par with his comical September, 2012 performance at the UN, where he produced that cartoon drawing of a „bomb“ in order to flog the typically mendacious and hysterical claim that the noble, harmless State of Israel was in imminent danger of destruction from the „Iranian bomb“.

It’s one thing when zealous Hasbarists, amateur or professional, troll/spam Internet comments boards with their rigidly fatuous, fantastic, Zionist Israel-serving talking points. One expects unsophisticated, fully-indoctrinated True Believers to spew rote talking points and dogma that insult the intelligence of anyone outside the Zionist Hive Mind.

But the fact that Israel’s leaders and authorities shamelessly rely on such childish props to sell their genocidal policies and actions suggests both hubris and abiding contempt for the rest of the world.

It’s hard to believe that Bibi and his allies and supporters don’t know that they’re insulting the rest of the world’s intelligence. I think there’s a word for this. Chutzpah, maybe?

Posted by: Ort | Apr 30, 2018 2:36:07 PM | 27

https://www.bitchute.com/video/IF7ZwfM4tQQK/

This is an absolutely stunning breaking interview of the Syrian independent member of parliament Fares Shehabi by the bbc hardtalk program. The msm typically try to aggressively browbeat non-western interviewees that they disagree with. Unfortunately, most of the interviewees either get cowed or they get emotional and angry.

Fares Shehabi instead is factually and rationally aggressive, fact by fact, counter-argument by counter-argument, not allowing the bbc interviewer to shut him up. It is a model of how to deal with the msm.

the msm have already managed to get the interview wiped off youtube. but it is still available here

http://www.syrianews.cc/syrian-mp-fares-shehabi-pummels-bbc-colonialist-sackur/

download it and upload it and torrent it everywhere you can so that they cannot wipe it off the net.

crossposted

Posted by: anon | Apr 30, 2018 2:36:12 PM | 28

@b and 19: please clarify re Steele and Skripal reference re Net’s „documents“

Posted by: Sid2 | Apr 30, 2018 2:40:25 PM | 29

@Peter AU 1 16 Sounds like F-35 was used to hit the ammo dumps in Syria What’s your reason for saying this. We established at the previous threat that GBU-39 glide bombs were used. They are a stand-off weapon and I believe that the F-35 is incapobale of carrying them.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 2:48:38 PM | 30

anon @ 27

The interview appears to be deleted from the second link also.

Posted by: spudski | Apr 30, 2018 2:54:45 PM | 31

spudski 30

No I just watched its there. Scoll down a bit.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:55:47 PM | 32

Thanks very much, Anonymous @31.

Posted by: spudski | Apr 30, 2018 2:58:00 PM | 33

„unhinged“ = arrogance turns into stupidity? The latest in the continuing Net-job droning on and on „war with Iran“ might not go as well as he expects, given resistance to withdrawal from the JCPOA. A more easily applied application of „arrogance turns into stupidity“ is the White House Correspondents Dinner this weekend roasting Press Sec Sanders. James Woods‘ response did it nicely at „low class trash.“ More of this sort of thing will indeed be „a gift“ to the Republicans in the upcoming elections.

http://theduran.com/james-woods-crushes-white-house-correspondents-dinner-comedian-michelle-wolf/

Posted by: Sid2 | Apr 30, 2018 2:59:38 PM | 34

it’s getting harder and harder to tell what’s really going on. Sites like this are useful, but can only read between the lines: they simply do not have the resources to independantly uncover and vet primary sources of information. More the pity that our establishment news organizations are totally corrupt and have no credibility. That’s a bigger loss than one might at first realize.

That said, it’s interesting that Israel seems to be going real crazy now and not acting as it usually does through its proxies in Washington. I posit two possible interpretations, based on what I would expect as blowback from Trump’s latest Syrian missile strike.

1. The US strike really was successful, Russian air defenses are impotent against US weaponry, and Israel and the US elites feel that it’s now open season on Israel and Iran etc. Open skies, blast away!

2. The US strike was a failure, and Russian air defenses are potentially totally changing the game. Israel and US elites are going nuts and determined to strike hard and fast before the window of opportunity closes, and because they are just in general pissed off at having been defied (‚how dare they defend themselves from our holy humanitarian missile strike?‘). Israel is determined to build momentum for war before the military option becomes untenable. Even if Russian air defenses really are that good, the West can still prevail in the middle east through overwhelming massed attacks… for now…

Note that my thinking posits that our elites will go crazy regardless of what happens – which fits with past experience, but is not perhaps what Karl Popper would have called „falsifiable.“

Posted by: TG | Apr 30, 2018 3:11:12 PM | 36

@Fec 34 The F-35 is not capable of GBU-39 carry, also these glide bombs could be released over international water which safeguards the delivery system.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 3:15:23 PM | 37

If Nikki Haley was supposedly voted most likable US politician hence I suggest, lock the US insane asylum and throw out the key, since now anything will be blabbermouthed and nothing of substance will really happen except some unwitting crisis actors will die, a fact of inhumane cruelty of imperial rulers.

Where are dire warnings from Russia about severe consequences if Syria attacked. Russians lost credibility of their threats which is even worse if they have never made them.

I do not know what it would take for people to see what cruel charade all this is, what would it take for people to realize that it is all Roman type of theater of wilderness and pain and we are audience and targets of this propaganda of fear of global nuke war and destruction that they want us to believe is behind all this cruel soap opera.

There will be no global war since there are no fundamental conflicts within global elites despite what propaganda from all sides claims and that including b, trying to make sense of utter unadulterated nonsense of MSM, for those establishment people in west who are already in it are not idiots but rational people who do that immoral, opportunist job for money knowing what they lie about, knowing that there is no danger of global nuke catastrophe whatsoever, otherwise they would act more sober like it was during Cold War.

However, there is logic in this madness, namely to forcefully align nations with discredited ruling elites who attempt to take role of saviors, when no other method of control over population works any more and policies of deliberated destruction of welfare and civil society, openly provoked mass unrest or revolution and instigated natural growth of working class movements in self defense. Warmongering was classical ploy against discontented population used many times in history and nor mere speculation.

Spreading of fear of global anihilation among populations is the ultimate objective of this unheard of verbal and acting belligerence on world stage, which upon examination of basic socioeconomic facts especially soundness and calm of global financial system indicates mood of world peace and love among oligarchic elites who have a good thing going while sheeple are orderly dying of starvation and fear.

But I guess even on this quite brainy blog people are more interested in menacing tabloid surrealism than boring naked truth. Otherwise, b would not have much to write about in his devastating reports on masive MSM lying, with implicit hope that one day may be NYT writes some truth.

It ain’s gonna happen b , their business is lies yours it seems is to skillfully debunk them, these are ironically two sides of the same coin of unsubstantiated hope of making any difference anymore.

Posted by: Kalen | Apr 30, 2018 3:16:34 PM | 38

Israel will not risk Jews so they will stick to launching air strikes from Lebanon. All of the characters will be happy to use another mercenary army of goys to attack the Syrian gov and it’s allies. Especially attractive might be to use these to buttress the SDF to hold onto eastern Syria or to attack Turk aligned forces.

Posted by: Alaric | Apr 30, 2018 3:43:34 PM | 42

b,

unfortunately the majority only read headlines. In a world where evidence matters not, details of Bibi Nuttuyahoo’s claim 1999-2003 is a side show.

Bibi is setting the stage for his managing director, D. J. Trump, to „honourably“ withdraw from the JCPOA on May 12 and to pressure the other signatories.

There are somethings larger – I do hope someone (Russia or China) will grant Iran their nuclear umbrella. And Kim, do make a note to self.

The Anglo-Zionists are deep in pretexts to coverup:

1. the black swan flying under heavy wings with $230 trillion global debt must be brought down. Not nearly enough in the ESF.

2.Revelations on the recent 100 missiles hoax to retaliate for the ‚chemical attack‘ that was not. Can’t disappear Robert Fisk’s expose – he is widely read..

3. Christoper Steele’s Case on the dock wherein he will be deposed. Oh wait, where is he in hiding with the Skripals?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

@ 8, re Russia delivery of S-300s to Syria. Don’t count on it as Israel’s and Russia’s militaries „have an arrangement to avoid aerial conflict over Syria.“ Last week Russia’s Ambassador to Israel made that clear.

Posted by: Likklemore | Apr 30, 2018 3:48:57 PM | 43

Looks to me like trump is groveling before the Saudis for keeping the petrodollar. Hence he is walking out of the Iran deal despite its geopolitical risk, and trying to show some fireworks in Syria. What’s the half life of this show? More, or less than Trump’s average ejaculation time?

Posted by: meme | Apr 30, 2018 3:49:50 PM | 44

Putin blocking the delivery of S-300 in Syria against the demands of the Russian Military

This was discussed by Putin with General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on April 20. The Russian military, they told the President, want the go-ahead to deploy S-300 missile batteries to cover Syrian and Iranian forces against US and Israeli attack from the air. They believe Israeli threats to attack the S-300 batteries as soon as they are operational are a bluff which Russia must call if Russia’s positions in Syria, and Iran itself, are not to come under subsequent attack from the American-Israeli combination. Testing the threat in Syria, they argue, is the less threatening, less costly option than encouraging the Americans and Israelis to prepare their offensive against Iran. Putin won’t agree.

To respond to Putin’s reluctance, the General Staff and the Defence Ministry have devised a step short of the S-300, but with potentially enough defensive power to intercept or deter American and Israeli air attacks. This is the deployment of more Russian electronic warfare systems with the capacity to jam the surveillance, targeting, fire control and command signals on which the attackers rely. It is the Samson Haircut option – deprive the giant of control of his firepower, blind him.

Silently, Putin has decided to protect Deripaska; not to call the US attack on Rusal an act of war; and to test the Americans with an offer of armistice. International bankers close to Russian business believe it is a Russian illusion that an armistice with the US can be anything but temporary; pursuing it is a miscalculation of US intentions, the sources add. They warn that new attacks will come.

http://johnhelmer.net/the-samson-haircut-option-one-step-before-russia-opens-fire-on-american-israeli-forces/#more-19116

Putin Reportedly “Ready For Deep Concessions”, Seeks Deal With Trump

He understands Russia can’t compete with the West economically and he doesn’t plan to go to war with the West.

Kremlin has ordered officials to curb their anti-U.S. rhetoric.

Putin’s decision explains why lawmakers Monday suddenly pulled a draft law that would’ve imposed sweeping counter-sanctions on U.S. companies, two of the people said.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-18/putin-reportedly-ready-deep-concessions-seeks-deal-trump

Russian Senators to soften counter sanctions against US

RBC: Russian senators to water down Moscow’s response to US sanctions. Two Federation Council members told the newspaper that the final version of the amendments to the ‘anti-sanctions’ bill initiated by State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and leaders of all parliamentary factions, will be “quite mild.”

http://tass.com/pressreview/1001647

Russia not to take action against US diplomatic property – diplomat

More: http://tass.com/politics/1002504

Posted by: Passer by | Apr 30, 2018 3:53:05 PM | 46

Don and Peter.

That’s a lot better than what I had. Beast mode. Hilarious.

For all I know, they shoved it out the back of a C-17.

Posted by: Fec | Apr 30, 2018 3:54:08 PM | 47

By the huge ammount of trolls totally blocking comments at RT English ( and I suppose at any other media )with thousands of botted likes under their comments to rise them to the top of view, I would say they are preparing something big, since I have not seen this level of trolling ( which implies having RT news about this topic blocked for comments as if a DDOS attack would be happening in fact )since the beginning of the Syrian war at some MSM where I started commenting supporting Syria.

Posted by: From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 3:58:55 PM | 48

Passer by | Apr 30, 2018 3:53:05 PM | 45 I believe Putin is playing for time. The March 1 weaponry display didn’t include production numbers but I think it is a safe bet they don’t exist in sufficient numbers..yet.

So US&Co have a small window left to create hell on earth for as many as possible and they IMO will hit Iran before the football playoffs that Putin so wants to go smoothly.

I would assume Iran is/was responsible for Iranian defense of these sites so I am surprised they didn’t respond, maybe there was no time?? Couldn’t Russia have warned them?? And does anyone know what weaponry the Russians brought into Syria recently under cover of smoke?

Posted by: frances | Apr 30, 2018 4:02:55 PM | 49

I’ve no doubt that for a lot of people the question of F-35 usage anywhere near a combat zone is a so-what issue, but for those of us who have struggled for years to bring some truth about this fault-filled much-delayed program through the fog of corruption, it’s important to maintain that the current fleet of expensive pre-production F-35 prototypes is truly worthless.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 4:08:50 PM | 50

Likklemore

@ 8, re Russia delivery of S-300s to Syria. Don’t count on it as Israel’s and Russia’s militaries „have an arrangement to avoid aerial conflict over Syria.“ Last week Russia’s Ambassador to Israel made that clear.

Uh, that is the reason Russia should use S300. Then, there wouldnt be any „aerial conflict“ over Syrian sovereign airspace to begin with.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:09:58 PM | 51

@ frances 48 US&Co . . will hit Iran before the football playoffs And how might they „hit Iran?“ Do you mean hit the country itself with a military attack?

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 4:13:42 PM | 52

Israel has said that it will take out any S-300 in Syria, and that would include any nearby Russians.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 4:15:24 PM | 53

From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 3:58:55 PM | 47 You’re right, pretty amazing, I did manage to post two comments debunking the docs, but it took forever.

Posted by: frances | Apr 30, 2018 4:18:37 PM | 54

@ frances

I think the World Cup is playing a big role in the decision making as you have said. There is a lot at stake: investments already made and international exposure also. I can’t wait for it to be finished so we can get back to war !! (sarc)

Posted by: imoverit | Apr 30, 2018 4:20:46 PM | 56

Israel could start its assassination program, carry out sabotage, airstrikes, there is no limit to the sick regime and the sick western media accetpance of the same unhinged behavior by Israel.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:32:44 PM | 57

Posted by: frances | Apr 30, 2018 4:18:37 PM | 53

Go out of tha site and come in again to post your comment, This you must do it with every comment you want to post, as I have discovered so far, but who is to tire with this invasion and what is at stake? Not me…. I am noticing that they are already tyring indeed, and start desisting. One of my comments was deleted while still tipping….and the keyboard gets blocked when you saty there a while, but if you go out and come in again you will be able to post. Try it.

Posted by: From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 4:37:17 PM | 58

the hero of hebrew history above is a great man did obaama not give him 30 billion in war arms. did germany not give him 5 free dolphin class submarines for samson option. does german public funds pay compensation cover amounting to a trillion euros by the year 2070. the man is a god he can drop and fire depleted uraniun ,drop dialed down nuke bombs kill president,primeminister sell usa top secret files to china and russia via operation talpiot can he not listen and blackmail the world. who else can kill gaza semites by the 10s of thousands and then call critic anti semite this man benji is a king maker bow down for you are not fit to lick his precious fingers

Posted by: charles drake | Apr 30, 2018 4:38:45 PM | 59

From the resistance

Re: trolls at RT commenting commenting and liking troll comments to many thousands. I have seen this before so its not a new thing, I wonder who initiate this, most likely western states spy orgs.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:41:20 PM | 60

Does NuttyYahoo’s document collection include the plans for nuclear triggers that the CIA gave to them via Operation Merlin?

Posted by: Curtis | Apr 30, 2018 4:44:15 PM | 61

Et al–

Russia began its Syria intervention with an S-400 deployed in Latakia and has introduced several more since, one being in Sept 2017. Syria also has the BUK-M2E AA system and the Pantsir to go with its older and upgraded S-200 systems along with who knows what else. Just what was off loaded from Russian supply vessels under the cover of smoke last week (don’t know if such veiling’s continuing)? My guess is more AA systems of the type causing Zionists on both sides of Atlantic to freakout.

As for the Zionists attacking Iranian military bases, those Iran uses in Syria are joint-use with Syria regardless of what’s said by Zionists; so, any such attack will need to be aimed at Iran proper. The consequences for the region would be horrible–particularly for Zionists and Saudis: Dimona would be leveled as would Saudi oil infrastructure. The fallout and other pollution would be appalling. If the Zionists want to keep their skin, they’ll arrest Nutty before he gets his get-out-of-jail war started.

Zionists know they’ve lost and are contained and constrained, so they’re moving into desperation mode. Too bad they lack the courage to put a pistol to their head and pull the trigger.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:45:37 PM | 62

to all those who say the F35 can not use the GBU-39, well what about the upgrade to this weapon the GBU-53/B which it can…

here is a pic of 4 loaded on F35 http://www.navair.navy.mil/img/uploads/2012209CA001-159.jpg imbedded date on this image is 7/27/2012

also note the small diameter bomb has been adapted to be launched from HIMARS mlrs. So, the story of ground launched weapons used could have been this version of the weapons used in addition to air launches.

SDB weapons can also be used from drones…

Posted by: the original Paul | Apr 30, 2018 4:46:33 PM | 63

I have trouble in believing that Trump will really attack Iran, just because of some new fake evidence from Netanyahu. N’s been trying this forever.

The basic point is that Trump’s electorate don’t want real war, with American deaths. So far, it’s been like that, 102 missiles following 59 Tomahawks,and no effect.

Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 30, 2018 4:47:05 PM | 64

Laguerre

Trump is dumb enough, Pompeo, Bolton, Trump, I mean you cant get worse, these are the most sick hawks and Trump have already showed that he could attack states illegally Syria, with no proof whatsoever. Stop hoping on Trump.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:58:29 PM | 65

Posted by: TG | Apr 30, 2018 3:11:12 PM | 35

Israel is in a position to attack but not to defend. Israel’s problem is not Iran but the Palestinians.

John Helmer seems to think that Russia has decided on electronic warfare, that would be reason for panic as Israel’s (and US) stuff is completely dependent on electronics.

Posted by: somebody | Apr 30, 2018 5:00:07 PM | 66

One guy has traced the „Paul Bright“ bot IP to KSA..but I do not know how the hell it could be done…

Posted by: From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 5:05:31 PM | 67

It’s clearer and clearer that Russia is at best impotent, but more likely complicit.

Posted by: paul | Apr 30, 2018 5:07:14 PM | 68

Its absolutely disgusting to see comments on social media majorities uncritically belive Netanyahu.

Posted by: Robert D | Apr 30, 2018 5:12:43 PM | 69

„Trump is dumb enough,“

yes but not to the degree where he has to justify American dead.

Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 30, 2018 5:16:15 PM | 70

„It’s clearer and clearer that Russia is at best impotent,“ Frankly that’s fantasy.

Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 30, 2018 5:25:04 PM | 71

@Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:26:38 PM | 23 „the Imperialist Empires that created the Zionist state for their own geopolitical machinations“ Read a book once in a while. Some racial-supremacist, religious-supremacist Ashkenazi zionist jews created Israel for their own machinations, and no-one else’s. Israel is not Airstrip One. It serves no masters other than bigoted zionist jews.

@Posted by: Ort | Apr 30, 2018 2:36:07 PM | 26 Convince the plebian mob, and you convince most of society. Dissenters are drowned out, or hounded. Jewish-owned/run companies control most of the Western world’s major news media.

@Peter AU 1 16 „Sounds like F-35 was used to hit the ammo dumps in Syria“ F-35 is a POS. Ammo dumps hit by old technology – ground-launched ATACMS missiles with unitary penetrating warheads. ATACMS = supersonic, manoueverable, non-ballistic flight path, hard to shoot down, big @%!$ impact and kaboom.

Posted by: 3.14159kalteckaltectowthatline | Apr 30, 2018 5:29:53 PM | 72

Laguerre

No hes right, russia is backstabbing as usual.

Posted by: Robert d | Apr 30, 2018 5:31:46 PM | 73

There were a number of reasons for the Balfour Declaration, but one of the major ones was defense of the Suez Canal, vital for communications to India. The Turks had already attacked the canal twice by 1917. The Brits wanted a local group on the spot that would help to defend the canal. A Jewish settlement filled the bill.

Posted by: lysias | Apr 30, 2018 5:43:03 PM | 74

And in 1956 they did precisely that. But by that time the British Empire was too far gone to be able to make proper use of that support.

Posted by: lysias | Apr 30, 2018 5:47:03 PM | 75

@Cyrus | Apr 30, 2018 2:20:01 PM | 20 As background knowledge that most overlook, Iran is one of the top sources for uranium ore, unfortunately it is contaminated with molybdenum making it almost useless for high grading. That is a primary reason for their investment in uranium in Africa.

Posted by: Bakerpete | Apr 30, 2018 5:48:45 PM | 76

Embedded in the news story (link below) is a video claimed to be of one of the bombs dropped during the attack described in the news story.

I have no way of knowing yet how many bombs were dropped in all nor what they were exactly. The report of the attack registering 2.6 on the Richter scale suggests that at least one hit was something VERY big. I am inclined to believe that this blast in the video is entirely independent of the earth-shaking explosion.

The explosion in the video is obviously of a uranium-based warhead. The brilliant white flash is NOT a nuclear (fission or fusion) flash (no mushroom shaped up-draft), and it is followed immediately by a scattering of equally brilliant white sparks and leaves a major fire burning. The sparks are bits of the warhead (which is actually made of a uranium-based alloy — at least 95% uranium) designed to shatter upon ignition in order to give access to air (oxygen) to all the metal mass of the warhead, thus enabling it all to burn simultaneously (i.e. within a few seconds of the initial ignition) and create maximum heat/destruction. The smaller the pieces, the better they burn in such an explosion.

When the uranium is ignited, it burns at +/- 6,000°C. creating heat on par with a nuclear explosion (but without that horribly inconvenient mushroom-shaped cloud). This one looks like a thermobaric bomb (a reworked up-graded, „enhanced“, uraniumized version of the „daisy cutter“ first used in Vietnam).

Visible near the end of the (brief) video are other, small explosions, which could be of the same magnitude but much farther away or which could be the result of other weapons near the same site but of much smaller power.

This bomb appears to be similar to those used in southern Lebanon in 2006. The United Nations Environmental Program’s post-conflict assessment unit found that those warheads had been made of low enriched uranium.

Noteworthy, and in contradiction to the official version of an attack on arms depots, is the lack of any cascade of explosions that such an attack would trigger among the arms in the depot. After the invasion of Iraq, there was an attack on a United States arms depot, and it was recorded on a fair number of videos, some quite good, all, as far as I know, long since flushed down the memory hole. The noise of the depot’s arms exploding was unmistakable, and there were major firey elements flying everywhere from those secondary explosions. There is none of that here.

Iranian missiles destroyed in ‚bunker busting‘ Syria strikes: Report #SyriaWar

Hama and Aleppo attacks destroy major arms depots and cause minor earthquake, according to reports, days after Israel threatened Iran http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/syrian-army-says-enemy-rocket-attacks-strike-military-bases-886095650

No news site is perfect — much less infallible. However, Middle East Eye I have found to be one of the more reliable. Hence, I am inclined to take seriously anything that they publish, even when it does not seem to make sense to me.

R.J.P.

Posted by: Robet James Parsons | Apr 30, 2018 5:50:46 PM | 77

Russia’s non-intervention in the attack last night will only encourage further attacks.

Posted by: Perimtr | Apr 30, 2018 5:53:21 PM | 78

Russia could easily give Syria the s300 system. But Putin clearly does not want to hurt his buddy Netanyahu’s feelings. They are always so chummy you can see there is a mutual respect between them whenever they meet. Russia is only in Syria to fight terrorism. They will obviously not confront Israel and go to war, and that is of course, understandable. But whats even worse is that they seem to refuse to give Syria/Iran the means to defend themselves from Israeli attacks.If its true Putin is blocking the delivery himself against the request of the Russian Army, that is even more shameful.I guess in terms of preventing a World War, it is good that Putin is chummy with Netanyahu.However a regional war is looking very likely at this point.Unfortunately the only way Israel will learn is by being smashed in the teeth. I’m sure in time Syria, Iran or Hezbollah will have to teach them another lesson.

Posted by: Jayhawk2018 | Apr 30, 2018 6:03:45 PM | 79

It’s hilarious when some idiot suggests I read a book when almost my entire knowledge-base comes from various written sources including several thousand books over the years.

Seems the Zionist desalination program’s insufficient to solve Palestine’s water crisis, which is the primary reason Lebanon’s been invaded by them. Jordan’s situation is even worse as it has less water and faster growing population. Here’s one brief look at the problem but lacks specifics about the Zionist’s contribution–they don’t want to share with any non-Zionist. The Zionists new desalination plants would be juicy targets (yes, I know they aren’t supposed to be targeted, but tell that to the Killer Coalition Outlaws), more important than Dimona.

Or maybe it’s that Nutty has his own private Death Wish.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 6:26:03 PM | 80

@Posted by: Robet James Parsons | Apr 30, 2018 5:50:46 PM | 76

The fire-station in HOms 35km away from the strike main point was also targetted in a clear intend to avoid fire-fighters going to suffocate the huge fires in the aftermath, which is a despicable act much in line with Israel usual behavior.

Also, by attacking the „Zainabydoun Brigade“, where the young died soldiers belonged, Israel is clearly trying to provoke the Shia sector of the resitance, and especially Hezbollah,in the verge of the Lebanese Parlimentary Elections to be hold 6th May, where hezbollah could well consolidate, more if needed, its role as one of the main political forces in Lebanon with which Israel and the US will find it more difficult to continue labelling it as a terrorist organization…

Posted by: From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 6:28:00 PM | 81

A lot of Russian oligarchs are dual Israeli or American -Russian citizens. Even in the Soviet era while they provided just enough support to prevent the Arab countries from being totally defeated they stopped short of giving them enough to threaten Israel or defeat them. Putin has made peace with a number of the oligarchs that remain in Russia but he has to take care not to get the pro Israeli -US faction riled or threaten their overseas financial interests which Trump has threatened to do with sanctions targeted at the oligarchs

So Russia will prevent Syria from being totally overwhelmed but concede the US the northeast oil rich fields and Israel gets the gas fields in Golan. They will allow isolated missile attacks and bombing by US and Israel that both resort to for show to appease their hawks. In the meantime if Assad has an accident or gets overthrown due to economic reasons then israel and US may get their puppet state and Russia/Iran may exit. Then on to Lebanon and Iran.

Wars are not fought to be won anymore. They are fought to be long lasting. Perpetual War Abroad is Peace at Home

Posted by: Pft | Apr 30, 2018 6:50:46 PM | 82

Not one Arab country gave a damn about Israel’s nuclear weapons, becasue they knew Israel would never attack them.

the donmeh house of Saud did NOT say it was going to build a nuclear arsenal becasue Israel has one.

Nope —

the mi6 donmeh house Saud said it is going to build a nuclear arsenal if they think Iran will produce nuclear weapons.

There you have it.

Posted by: charles drake | Apr 30, 2018 7:04:31 PM | 83

The strike on the Aleppo targets (only some civilian buildings were hit, either there was a glitch or they simply didn’t care what they hit) seems to have been carried out by Israeli aircraft releasing glide bombs from turkish (and/or US) controlled air space, similar to the 2007 warehouse attack.

As for the Hama strike, it seems that for the first time ballistic missiles instead of cruise missiles were used. These are more challenging targets than subsonic cruise missiles because of their high speed (The Scud for instance reaches Mach 5 / 1.7 km/s).

The „Pantsir“, the most modern short range AD system in syrian service is suitable for targets up to a speed of Mach 3 / 1 km/s. A new high speed missile for the system should enable it for target speeds of several km/s, but it is only scheduled to become available in 2019.

The most modern medium range system is the „Buk“ which is able to combat targets with a speed of up to 1.2 km/s in the M2 version. The M3 version gets up to 3 km/s but it is only available since 2016 and therefore not likely to be in Syrian service.

Syria does not have modern long range air defence systems with ABM capability like S300/S400. Note that because of the target speed the range of an AD system is lower against ballistic missiles, S-400 with its standard 48N6DM missile has a range of 240 km against aircraft, but only 60 km against ballistic missiles. Therefore the Russian S-400 system in Khmeimim was not in a position to do anything against the strike.

So the current capabilities of Syrian AD against ballistic missile threats don’t look too good – the S-300 really is needed.

Posted by: Menschmaschine | Apr 30, 2018 7:04:54 PM | 84

A 95% uranium „anything“ is not possible, and would kill anyone trying to manufacture it, or transport, load, store etc., if it did not go fissile in the first place…

Dont pull facts out of your ass here, OK?

regards

OY

Posted by: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 7:11:02 PM | 85

Canthama at SyrPers provides this from the SAA’s FB:

Canthama: „I believe this an important statement from the folks of the SAA FB (not official SAA but with ex SAA and with deep connections to the SAA leadership).

„It confirms some of the info we shared early today, limited damaged, but it brings hints of a possible attack from the ground and not long distance missiles, that would explain the lack of SyAAD activity. Worth following this info.“

SAA FB:“We had a long post regarding last night and we were asked to put it on hold for the time being. We can however say that almost all the speculations and analysis that are circulating social media are false.

„A storage depot was hit by GBU-39B glide bombs not coming from the sea or South/West; the attack is highly suspected to be ground launched but we cannot confirm this.

„The type of ammunition targeted was insignificant, grad rockets and several other domestic munition; there was no sophisticated weaponry whatsoever; also, the level of attack was insignificant as well.

„What created the huge explosions was the fact that one of the major storage depots caught fire and exploded which resulted in what you saw.

„No side publicly claimed responsibility for the attack but that doesn’t mean the Syrian command isn’t aware of the side and the intention.

„Finally, and this message is to those in non-official military media; in cases of foreign aggression no one should be spreading any sort of information that they aren’t sure of, rather they should wait an official statement or only stick to the aftermath in their reports, rather than jumping into spreading rumors and analysis-based reports then calling it news.

„For the time being, we cannot answer more than what’s written here but perhaps soon we can have a long explanation posted.“

Canthama recommends this piece by Adam Garrie which I too find interesting. However, Garrie’s incorrect about the lack of fatalities; Canthama specifically posted these four–Captain Fadi Othman, Lt Hassan Zuhair, Suleiman Mohsen Al Malhami, Yahya Mohammed Alsaleem–out of an initial 13 reported KIA.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 7:11:34 PM | 86

There is nothing new about Netanyahu’s nonsense-as everyone seems to realise: the only justification for his party and his particular brand of fascism is the belief that there can be no peace for Jewish people generally, and Israelis in particular until all potential opponents have been wiped out or terrorised into slavery. And he has managed to convince most Israelis of this-something which means that in moral and political, and probably clinical terms too, they are insane- beyond the reach of reason. What is new and makes the situation very dangerous is that the US is going along with this for the ride. It has run out of ideas on how to deal with the gathering storm of consequences from eighty years of arrogance and careless neglect of the inevitable fall out from its self indulgent policies. And Trump, under constant pressure from the idiots running the Deep State, has no conception of the implications of the little games that he is playing and encouraging others (see Netanyahu above) to play. In his mind he is starring in an extempore version of the Godfather. Way down at the bottom of things worth mentioning is the fact that the UK government is in an even bigger crisis. It is clearly doomed unless the world ends first, which is something it is happy to consider. May and her allies (who include the Blairite Labour party and almost all the political class including the SNP and the Liberals) will (as the recent attacks in Syria showed) go along with Trump whatever happens, which means that the other ‚eyes‘ the White Commonwealth of Canada, Australia etc will do the same. This is the problem with empires in decline, they become suicidal. And having reconciled themselves with death they lose any inhibitions. Poor old Putin just doesn’t understand that: for years it has been clearer and clearer that Russia and China were rational, legalistic and diplomatic while the ‚west‘ reverted to its barbaric ways, defying rules, breaking treaties, laughing at international law, drunken berserkers running amok employing the weapons that they have been accumulating for decades because fearing that the end is near they fear nothing else. The future holds no hope for them. Putin who sees only the reality that the US remains both enviably rich and powerful cannot understand how unstable and dangerous it has become. As to China, nothing surprises its leadership any more which is why it spends all day lifting weights and eating high protein foods, ready to defend itself and studiously avoiding involvement.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 30, 2018 7:13:34 PM | 87

I’m still in shook Putin didn’t place 300s in Syria long, long ago. He really can be behind the curve at times. How could have thought the Empire would not grow more brazen in aggression?

Posted by: timbers | Apr 30, 2018 7:33:08 PM | 88

Here is a well thought out thread that analyses Bibi’s claims. Including that Israel probably hacked into the IAEA systems to get some of the data, in particular a photo of the ’new‘ storage site.

https://twitter.com/yarbatman/status/991064102314369025

Posted by: JohninMK | Apr 30, 2018 7:38:16 PM | 89

Excellent bevin @86.

Here is former Sweden foreign minister Carl Bildt, in a tweet immediately after Netanyahu’s remarks: “Nothing really new in @netanyahu Iran speech. Confirms that Iran closed down nuclear weapons program in 2003. Continued technology efforts. In peinciple all of this well known. No allegation that Iran cheats on 2015 nuclear deal.”

Posted by: fairleft | Apr 30, 2018 8:05:02 PM | 90

@karlof1 85 the [GB-39B glide bomb] attack is highly suspected to be ground launched but we cannot confirm this. Mar 10, 2015 Boeing, Saab Unveil Ground Launched SDB

The system essentially sticks a GBU-39B small diameter bomb, widely used by the US military and a number of international customers, on the front of a M26 rocket. The M26 is set to be demilitarized by 2018 under a set of cluster munitions treaties, meaning the GLSDB program would essentially be recycling an item that countries were planning to stockpile or scrap. The weapon is designed to be launched out of a multiple launch rocket system (MLRS), used by a number of US allies already, avoiding the need to design a new launch system. That MLRS can hold six weapons per pod, with two pods per vehicle. . .here

There would be evidence of the rocket, methinks.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 8:10:43 PM | 91

„I’m still in shook Putin didn’t place 300s in Syria long, long ago“

Shocked? Lol

Israel ordered Putin not to sell the S-300 to Syria 7 years ago. It is a well known info. „Western Partners“ demanded that Russia never sells anything like that to Syria. Russia also complied with US sanctions against Iran and refused to sell them the S-300 until the JCPOA was signed. Even now, Russia offers the S-400 to Turkey and Saudi Arabia but not to Iran.

Not only that, but there is an agreement between Putin and Netanyahu where Russia allows Israel to bomb targets in Syria without any retaliation.

You see, Putin is begging to be admitted in the Western Club, as an equal. This is why he is doing those things. But they still don’t want him, as they want full control over Russia. They do not recognize „equals“. What he wants is that several different oligarhies carve up the world between themselves (multipolar world), and so that his group can control Russia and the surrounding areas (its sphere of influence). What they want is only one oligarchy to rule them all (unipolar world).

Syria is just a chip for Putin in that game to be part of the NWO.

Posted by: Observer | Apr 30, 2018 8:16:55 PM | 92

@timbers 87

„I’m still in shook Putin didn’t place 300s in Syria long, long ago“

Shocked? Lol

Israel ordered Putin not to sell the S-300 to Syria 7 years ago. It is a well known info. „Western Partners“ demanded that Russia never sells anything like that to Syria. Russia also complied with US sanctions against Iran and refused to sell them the S-300 until the JCPOA was signed. Even now, Russia offers the S-400 to Turkey and Saudi Arabia but not to Iran.

Not only that, but there is an agreement between Putin and Netanyahu where Russia allows Israel to bomb targets in Syria without any retaliation.

You see, Putin is begging to be admitted in the Western Club, as an equal. This is why he is doing those things. But they still don’t want him, as they want full control over Russia. They do not recognize „equals“. What he wants is that several different oligarhies carve up the world between themselves (multipolar world), and so that his group can control Russia and the surrounding areas (its sphere of influence). What they want is only one oligarchy to rule them all (unipolar world).

Syria is just a chip for Putin in that game to be part of the NWO.

Posted by: Sea Breeze | Apr 30, 2018 8:18:55 PM | 93

Re: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 7:11:02 PM | 84

You don’t know what you are talking about.

For example, nuclear fuel rods are made of low enriched uranium typically containing 3% to 5% U-235, with the other 95-97% being pure uranium-238. While you wouldn’t want them in your pocket 24/7, you certainly could hold them in your hand without any great danger.

Even a sub-critical mass of uranium-235 is not going to go fissile and it will not „kill anyone trying to manufacture it, or transport, load, store etc.“

Please do a little homework before you rudely go off on someone without having any idea what you are talking about.

Posted by: Perimetr | Apr 30, 2018 8:19:52 PM | 94

@bevin 86 the US is going along with this for the ride No, for the money. The simple fact is that AIPAC and Israel have an iron grip on each and every member of the US Congress. It’s been established that Israel rules, and Congressmembers get „contributions“ and trips to Israel and other perks. On the other hand, if any Congress member who gives a slight little anti-Israel (i.e. anti-Semitic) peep will become an ex-Congressmember. It’s happened, with highly-financed opposition to a deviant’s transgression at the next biannual election. One example is Cynthia McKinney (links broken.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 8:30:39 PM | 95

@52 I don’t understand that argument, Don.

The Russians can unload any S-300 delivery at Tartus. There is zero chance that the Israelis will bomb them while they remain inside a Russian military base.

And those missiles can stay there while the Russians train up the Syrians in their use. Again, attacking while they remain inside Tartus is a no-go.

And the S-300’s are road-mobile. They can be driven out of Tartus to their eventual operational deployment, which means that they leave the protection of Tartus only when they are capable of defending themselves.

Or, in short: Israeli plans are predicated on taking out those missiles before they can be made operational. But they can be made operational while they are still inside a Russian military base protected by S-400 defences, and by the time they leave that protection the Syrians are already able to shoot down any attackers.

Posted by: Yeah, Right | Apr 30, 2018 8:33:06 PM | 96

The only thing using a 95% uranium level is a fission weapon(supercritical reaction)…otherwise 95% is only found in top national R & D labs, working on fission efficiency…letting field grunts load a 95% uranium anything?…not in anyones imagination….

regards

OY

Posted by: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 8:34:44 PM | 97

@ 92…do you understand why the majority is u238?

OY

Posted by: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 8:39:02 PM | 98

You wrote „A 95% uranium „anything“ is not possible“. Maybe you meant something else, but that statement is hardly true.

Posted by: Perimetr | Apr 30, 2018 8:44:25 PM | 99

@97 we are not talking about a weapons R & D facility…we are talking applied munition in the field…scattering many kgs of 95% uranium in the field would be fairly easy to detect, and would bring you under immediate international scrutiny…

OY

Posted by: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 8:49:38 PM | 100

Net News Global

Quelle

قالب وردپرس

[nothingman]

The revelation that WikiLeaks secretly offered help to Donald Trump’s campaign, in a series of private Twitter messages sent to the candidate’s son Donald Trump Jr., gave ammunition to the group’s many detractors and also sparked anger from some longtime supporters of the organization and its founder, Julian Assange.

One of the most high-profile dissenters was journalist Barrett Brown, whose crowd-sourced investigations of hacked corporate documents later posted on WikiLeaks led to a prison sentence.

Brown had a visceral reaction to the news, first reported by The Atlantic, that WikiLeaks had been advising the Trump campaign. In a series of tweets and Facebook videos, Brown accused Assange of having compromised “the movement” to expose corporate and government wrongdoing by acting as a covert political operative.

Brown explained that he had defended WikiLeaks for releasing emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee, “because it was an appropriate thing for a transparency org to do.” But, he added, “working with an authoritarian would-be leader to deceive the public is indefensible and disgusting.”

He was particularly outraged by an Oct. 26, 2016 message, in which Assange had appealed to Trump Jr. to let WikiLeaks publish one or more of his father’s tax returns in order to make his group’s attacks on Hillary Clinton seem less biased. “If we publish them it will dramatically improve the perception of our impartiality,” the Assange-controlled @Wikileaks account suggested. “That means that the vast amount of stuff that we are publishing on Clinton will have much higher impact, because it won’t be perceived as coming from a ‘pro-Trump’ ‘pro-Russia’ source, which the Clinton campaign is constantly slandering us with.”

A screenshot of a direct message from the WikiLeaks Twitter account to Donald Trump Jr.

As Brown pointed out in another tweet, it was all-caps exasperating that Assange was in this case “complaining about ‘slander’ of being pro-Trump IN THE ACTUAL COURSE OF COLLABORATING WITH TRUMP.”

The journalist, an Intercept contributor, whose work had been championed by WikiLeaks, also shared a link to a Reddit AMA conducted two days after the election in which WikiLeaks staff, including Assange’s longtime collaborator Sarah Harrison, had denied point-blank that they had collaborated with the Trump campaign.

Was "Wikileaks staff" lying on Nov 10 2016 when they claimed "The allegations that we have colluded with Trump, or any other candidate for that matter, or with Russia, are just groundless and false", or did Assange lie to them? https://t.co/xQtDwuNnCh

— Barrett Brown (@BarrettBrown_) November 13, 2017

“The allegations that we have colluded with Trump, or any other candidate for that matter, or with Russia, are just groundless and false,” the staffers wrote then. “We were not publishing with a goal to get any specific candidate elected.”

It is not surprising that Brown felt personally betrayed by Assange, since, as he explained on Facebook Tuesday night, “I went to prison because of my support for WikiLeaks.” Specifically, Brown said, the charges against him were related to his role in “operations to identify and punish members of the government and members of private companies that had been exposed by Anonymous hackers of my acquaintance, via email hacks, as having conspired to go after Assange, to go after WikiLeaks.”

That sort of activism, dedicated to making public secret wrongdoing, Brown argued, is very different from “colluding with an authoritarian presidential campaign backed by actual Nazis while publicly denying it.”

“Plainly,” he observed with bitterness, “the prospect of a Clinton in the White House was such an unimaginable nightmare scenario that all normal standards of truth and morality became moot and it became necessary to get people like Sebastian Gorka into the White House to establish order.”

Before his private messages to Trump Jr. were leaked, Assange himself had categorically denied that he or WikiLeaks had been attacking Hillary Clinton to help elect Donald Trump. “This is not due to a personal desire to influence the outcome of the election,” he wrote in a statement released on November 8 as Americans went to the polls.

Even though Assange had by then transformed the WikiLeaks Twitter feed into a vehicle for smearing Clinton, he insisted that his work was journalistic in nature. “The right to receive and impart true information is the guiding principle of WikiLeaks — an organization that has a staff and organizational mission far beyond myself,” Assange wrote. “Millions of Americans have pored over the leaks and passed on their citations to each other and to us,” he added. “It is an open model of journalism that gatekeepers are uncomfortable with, but which is perfectly harmonious with the First Amendment.”

The same morning, WikiLeaks tweeted an attack on Clinton for not having driven her own car during her decades of public service.

Clinton: out of touch, cronyistic, didn't drive a car in 35 years, flew all over the world but accomplished nothing https://t.co/dc2OjdPIII http://pic.twitter.com/P8yiYkD6bO

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 8, 2016

For Brown, and others who have been critical of Assange for using the platform of WikiLeaks to fight his own political and personal battles, his secret communication with the Trump campaign was damning because it revealed that he had been functioning more like a freelance political operative, doling out strategy and advice, than a journalist interested in obtaining and publishing information, concerned only with its accuracy.

James Ball, a former WikiLeaks volunteer who has described the difficulty of working for someone who lies so much, was also appalled by one post-election message to Trump Jr., in which WikiLeaks suggested that, as a form of payback, it would be “helpful for your dad to suggest that Australia appoint Assange ambassador to DC.”

That request for payback, on Dec. 16, 2016, came three weeks after Trump’s father had called on the British government to make his friend Nigel Farage its ambassador. “This should be it, game over, end of it, for anyone who tries to suggest Assange looks out for anyone except himself,” Ball observed on Twitter. “That’s his cause, and plenty of good people have been played, badly.”

There was also criticism from journalists, like Chris Hayes of MSNBC, a network Assange accused of being, with the New York Times, “the most biased source” in one note to Trump Jr. Pointing to a message from WikiLeaks sent on election day, advising Trump to refuse to concede and claim the election was rigged, Hayes asked how, exactly, offering that sort of political advice squared with the organization’s mission to promote transparency.

A screenshot of a Nov. 8, 2016 DM to Donald Trump Jr. from WikiLeaks.

Still, many of Assange’s most vocal supporters stuck with him, calling even secret communication with the Trump campaign to undermine Clinton entirely consistent with his vision of WikiLeaks as a sort of opposition research group, dedicated to “crushing bastards” by finding dirt in the servers of powerful individuals or organizations.

As Raffi Khatchadourian explained in a New Yorker profile of the WikiLeaks founder in 2010, “Assange, despite his claims to scientific journalism, emphasized to me that his mission is to expose injustice, not to provide an even-handed record of events.” To Assange, Khatchadourian wrote, “Leaks were an instrument of information warfare.”

One steadfast Assange ally was Kim Dotcom, the founder of the shuttered file-sharing site Megaupload, who helped fuel a conspiracy theory that the DNC emails had not been hacked by Russia, but provided to WikiLeaks by a young Democratic staffer named Seth Rich, who was subsequently murdered. Alluding to another entirely unsubstantiated allegation — that Hillary Clinton had once suggested killing Assange in a drone strike — Dotcom said that the WikiLeaks founder was merely part of a crowd-sourced political operation that had successfully defeated the greater evil.

I think what @JulianAssange wrote to @DonaldJTrumpJr is perfectly fine. Who’s surprised? He doesn’t like Hillary. She wanted to assassinate him with a drone for publishing the truth. And he’s fishing for information like any good editor. We wanted to prevent Hillary and we did!

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) November 14, 2017

As it happens, one of the anti-Clinton rumors that WikiLeaks had urged Trump Jr. to “push” in an Oct. 3, 2016 message was a tweet linking to that unsubstantiated allegation in an unsigned blog post citing anonymous sources. The blog post includes no documentation of the allegation, but the WikiLeaks tweet linking to it, which Trump Jr. told Assange he did share, included an excerpt from the blog post in which the type was styled to look like a leaked document.

Hillary Clinton on Assange "Can't we just drone this guy" — report https://t.co/S7tPrl2QCZ http://pic.twitter.com/qy2EQBa48y

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 3, 2016

While WikiLeaks has undoubtedly facilitated the release of information that is both true and important, it is Assange’s Trump-like willingness to traffic in such unsubstantiated rumors, conspiracy theories, and innuendo not supported by evidence that undermines his claim to be a disinterested publisher, not a political operative.

While this tendency to disguise personal animus in the cloak of high-minded ideals was very much in evidence during his work on behalf of Trump, it is a consistent feature of Assange’s advocacy for other people and causes.

During the final week of the Brexit campaign last year, Assange tried to undermine the credibility of a witness to the savage murder of a pro-European member of parliament, Jo Cox. In the immediate aftermath of the assassination, Brexit supporters like Assange were concerned that a wave of sympathy for the murdered MP could sway the vote. So they set out to contest evidence that the killing had been politically motivated.

To that end, the WikiLeaks Twitter feed drew attention to the fact that one witness to the killing — who said he had heard the attacker shout “Britain First!” — might have belonged to a racist political group, the British National Party, whose membership rolls WikiLeaks had obtained. Within hours of the murder, WikiLeaks also shared a link to a conspiratorial post from the pro-Brexit Breitbart UK, which speculated that the witness might have lied about what he heard as part of a feud among far-right racist groups.

UK: "witness" who claimed MP slayer shouted "Britain First!" appears in BNP list https://t.co/pCSc1HOmqV #Brexit http://pic.twitter.com/qgylg91u3T

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 17, 2016

The next day, British police confirmed that the attacker told the arresting officers he was “a political activist,” and had indeed shouted pro-Brexit phrases including “Britain First,” during the murder.

More recently, during the separatist protests in Catalonia he supported, Assange was forced to delete several fake images he had shared on Twitter — like one photograph of Spanish police officers struggling with Catalans, which had been digitally altered to insert a Catalan independence flag.

A screenshot of a fake image Julian Assange shared and later deleted.

In the final months of the 2016 presidential election, the WikiLeaks Twitter feed promoted not just its new publications, but also frequently referred to tabloid rumors — like old chestnuts about Hillary Clinton’s supposed “role in the death of White House counsel Vince Foster” — and wild conspiracy theories about her campaign chairman taking part in bloody Satanic rituals.

FBI interview with Hillary Clinton over death of White House aid have gone 'missing' from the US National Archives https://t.co/YCbOHqwlkb

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 23, 2016

The Podestas' "Spirit Cooking" dinner? It's not what you think. It's blood, sperm and breastmilk. But mostly blood.https://t.co/gGPWFS3B2H http://pic.twitter.com/I43KiiraDh

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 4, 2016

We know now that, from late September on, Assange was also privately using that account to urge the candidate’s son to hype the mostly anodyne emails stolen from the account of the campaign chairman, John Podesta, as crucial evidence of Clinton’s unfitness for office. And it certainly looks like the campaign took his advice.

On October 12, 2016, just 15 minutes after Assange told Trump Jr. that a new batch of Podesta emails had been released, with “many great stories the press are missing,” his father tweeted a complaint accusing “the dishonest media” of ignoring “incredible information provided by WikiLeaks.”

Very little pick-up by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks. So dishonest! Rigged system!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2016

In the same message, Assange urged Trump Jr. to share a link he provided to the email database — wlsearch.tk — so “you guys can get all your followers digging through the content.” Two days later, Trump Jr. shared that link.

For those who have the time to read about all the corruption and hypocrisy all the @wikileaks emails are right here: https://t.co/SGcEeM9rCS

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 14, 2016

Despite the constant claims, from Assange and the Trumps, that the emails stolen from Democrats implicated Clinton in scandal and corruption, it is important to keep in mind that the WikiLeaks method of encouraging Trump supporters and Reddit trolls to scour the documents for evidence of malfeasance did not, in fact, uncover any such evidence.

Instead, the hacked emails were used to reverse-engineer preposterous conspiracy theories, like the imaginary pedophilia scandal called Pizzagate, which WikiLeaks was still treating as real two months after the election.

CBS Reality Check covers Pizzagate. https://t.co/KNaKp1XONR

More: https://t.co/Sc1nFTAFgV

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 18, 2017

This is the real tragedy and menace of the public and private collaboration of WikiLeaks with Trump. An organization with a sterling reputation for providing the public with accurate information about secret government and corporate activities was used to launder conspiracy theories that helped elect a racist, sexual predator President of the United States.

That might be a terrific result for people like Julian Assange, who see a dysfunctional, discredited White House as a way to undermine what they see as the real evil empire. For Americans condemned to live under Trump, particularly the most marginalized who, as Noam Chomsky pointed out, will suffer the most from his cruelty, it is less good.

The post We Knew Julian Assange Hated Clinton. We Didn’t Know He Was Secretly Advising Trump. appeared first on The Intercept.

via The Intercept

#IFTTT #Feedly #Nothingman uses feedly

[trendingnewsb]

The bright spots in the dark era of Trump Twitter: political parody accounts

Image: mashable composite: Christopher Mineses

Over the course of his first months in the White House, President Trump notoriously turned Twitter into his personal outlet for unhinged political venting. That of course inspired the creation of dozens of parody accounts that became tools of resistance, coping mechanisms, and light-hearted distractions from the political chaos.

A simple Twitter search for “Donald Trump Parody” reveals a collection of over 50 accounts, and though each tackles Trumps presidency with a different approach, they all set out with a common goal: to make Twitter in the Trump era a bit more bearable.

SEE ALSO: Hit Trump where it hurts (his Twitter account)

To get a better sense of what it takes to challenge Trump on his favorite social platform, we reached out to the creators of two of the most popular Trump parody accounts on Twitter and uncovered some intriguing facts about the 24/7 job.

For instance: One of the most thought-provoking accounts on Twitter was inspired by Trump’s spat with the musical Hamilton.

While accounts like @RealDonalDrumpf and @mechanicaltrump attempt to imitate Trump’s unique online behavior, tweeting with an excessive amount of exclamation points and bashing Obama and the Democratic party every chance they get, others, like @aTinyTrump, give followers a good laugh with the help of Photoshop.

Wouldn’t it just be terrible if @realDonaldTrump saw our page and threw a little tantrum like this? That would just be tremendous. http://pic.twitter.com/twbHwJxPjI

TinyTrump (@aTinyTrump) February 19, 2017

The more serious parody account @DTrumpExposed, meanwhile, provides followers with essential information related to Trump’s presidency and his administration, serving as an alternative source of news for those who want to stay in the loop.

@IfHillaryHad imagines American politics in an alternate reality, tweeting on a day-to-day basis as Hillary Clinton had she won the election. @BRIDGETTRUMPSD1 is a depiction of Trump’s diary entries if they were written in the style of Bridget Jones. You know, very normal stuff.

Which brings us to @HalfOnionInABag, the scrap of a vegetable just looking to get more Twitter followers than Trump. It hasn’t quite reached the president’s 28.4 million, but 739,000 followers is still pretty impressive for a vegetable.

What if this account that is simply half an onion in a Ziploc bag ended up with more followers than @realDonaldTrump? http://pic.twitter.com/D28lODPZLO

Half An Onion (@HalfOnionInABag) January 20, 2017

Trump now with maturity!

If there’s anything we’ve learned from the overzealous, typo-ridden 140-character messages posted to the president’s Twitter account, it’s where there’s a Trump tweet, there’s room for improvement.

One man decided to take on the taxing job of editing those tweets to try and make the president’s words sound more, well, presidential. Under the promise of anonymity, the 52-year-old creator of Mature Trump Tweets spoke to us about the inspiration behind the thought-provoking account, how life has changed since starting it, and what kind of impact he hopes his revised words have on the world.

Here’s how he edited one of Trump’s tweets about “fake news”:

The independent media have an important job to do. Informed Americans can ferret out the truth w/out my need to try to sully or discredit. https://t.co/URR1qsHxly

PresidentialTrump (@MatureTrumpTwts) February 25, 2017

Since several early followers wondered if Barack Obama were behind the account, the creator has decided to go by the nickname Barry.

“I think he’s failed to recognize, or worse doesn’t care, that his words matter.”

He began the account last fall, a few weeks after Trump won the election, as things on Twitter got more and more surreal.

“I think he’s failed to recognize, or worse doesn’t care, that his words matter,” Barry said. “I became almost numb due to the Twitter assault that seemed to attack first amendment rights and lack of civility in his tone,” he went on, identifying the president’s Twitter beef with the cast of Hamilton as one of the events that drove him to create the account.

“I needed to do something because I felt powerless. So I decided to recreate his tweets and tweet the way I think a true diplomatic statesman would. It was cathartic for me, and I had a hunch it would be for others too.”

Watched @nbcsnl for laughs b4 turning in. Just need @AlecBaldwin to purse his lips a bit more :-)If we can’t laugh at ourselves, we’re sunk. https://t.co/qOFVb2sg8n

PresidentialTrump (@MatureTrumpTwts) December 4, 2016

Throughout the course of the young presidency, Barry’s goals for the account have evolved. “Originally it was selfish. I needed an outlet,” he explained. “I also was determined to not allow this type of tone to be normalized. That’s a scary proposition.”

Retweets from powerful social media voices like J.K. Rowling, Ricky Gervais, Seth McFarlane, and Mark Cuban were soon to follow. Mature Trump Tweets has 123,000 followers, some of whom have reached out to tell Barry how important the account is to them, offering to start GoFundMe or Kickstarter campaigns to ensure it remains up and running.

The first 90 days of my presidency has been humbling. I’ll work tirelessly for you & this country. We have much yet to accomplish, together. https://t.co/9OvgFOoObr

PresidentialTrump (@MatureTrumpTwts) April 17, 2017

“Today, I have bigger goals,” Barry admitted. “I think this could be a counter movement. One that espouses kindness, civility, decorum things I think Americans and people around the world truly want and crave.”

Maintaining an account that directly responds to Trump’s relentless Twitter activity isn’t always easy. “I usually retweet Trump when he tweets, which means daily usually early in the morning or late at night,” Barry said.

Barry also tweets whenever he feels the president should be tweeting, even if Trump remains silent. “Those are often the most popular, because it demonstrates the fact he seems tone deaf on what’s important and what the majority of Americans want to hear from him.”

“W/so much negativity in headlines right now, know we really can & will build a better, kinder world together. Pls keep believing.” – Barry

PresidentialTrump (@MatureTrumpTwts) April 20, 2017

Embracing the chaos through humor

During Trump’s first month in office, executive order signing became something of a sport for President Trump and it wasn’t long before 34-year-old Mike Gaines took notice.

With each document Trump presented, Gaines thought he resembled a proud little kid showing off his drawings to his parents. Gaines was inspired to take a more lighthearted approach to manage his political frustrations. Trump Draws a brilliant collection of photoshopped GIFs was born.

kat http://pic.twitter.com/ra55wo0ulW

Trump Draws (@TrumpDraws) January 31, 2017

When Trump fired Sally Yates, the deputy attorney general who refused to defend his travel ban, the Los Angeles-based visual effects artist decided to transform the proud president into an ambitiously doodling toddler with the help of his iPad Pro, the app Procreate, and Adobe After Effects.

Gaines began posting to the account several times a week, showing Trump dramatically revealing drawings of cute little animals and holiday greetings, with timely political references. He misspelled captions (in too-real Trump fashion) and occasionally even doodled with his non-dominant hand to really capture the youthful aspect of his photoshop creations.

me http://pic.twitter.com/R64NwAYGKu

Trump Draws (@TrumpDraws) January 31, 2017

“In this increasingly divisive political world, the account somehow cuts through all the BS,” Gaines said. It’s “simply a way to laugh at the doodles of a very proud man, who just happens to be the president of the United States.”

After the account which is currently at 439,000 followers received such a positive response from Twitter users, Gaines decided to expand the endeavor to include paintings in the White House, presentation tools, and really any other white surface begging to be memed.

my office http://pic.twitter.com/rqjbKxRxgr

Trump Draws (@TrumpDraws) March 1, 2017

my lemonade stand http://pic.twitter.com/1T8SxB0BkQ

Trump Draws (@TrumpDraws) April 5, 2017

“I feel like these accounts really are a bright light in a pretty dismal world right now, he said. “Laughing and comedy are the best way to cope.”

Though Gaines refers to Trump as “a diamond mine for comedy,” he thinks the president’s seemingly unfiltered, unprofessional Twitter account is a true cause for concern. “Dude needs to pick a new game … maybe trying to run the country instead?” he suggested, clarifying that he’s not trying to use Trump Draws to make a political statement.

“I really just want to add some levity to this crazy political climate,” Gaines said. “Sometimes you just need to see Trump childishly draw an elephant to get you through the day.”

So simple, yet so effective.

my job http://pic.twitter.com/H0FL6n8JP5

Trump Draws (@TrumpDraws) April 28, 2017

Parodies FTW

Though its tough to say definitively whether Trump is the most parodied president in history I mean, even George Washington was subject to sketches The Donald does seem to have a big target painted on his back in the social media age.

Even when it comes to more recent presidents, a search for “Barack Obama parody” yields eighteen results on the platform. “George Bush parody” reveals a mere three. (Though, to be fair, Obama was elected when Twitter was only in its infancy.)

The takeaway? When it comes to being parodied on Twitter, Trump is winning. So much winning.

WATCH: Trump accidentally stood next to Darth Vader and this is why symbolism exists

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