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qqueenofhades · 2 months

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maybe i'm misunderstanding the concept, but it lately it's felt like Online Leftists™️ have been using homonationalism as a cudgel against lgbt people wanting to go abroad and feel comfortable doing so instead of as idk a way to critique american exceptionalism or whatever

The thing about Online Leftists and American exceptionalism in any capacity is that literally all their ideas and concepts of it are a) gibberish and b) completely contradictory and hypocritical. This is because it is all based on a reactionary Vibes ideology that has to constantly change itself to oppose whatever the Democrats/the US/the West in general is doing and therefore has no actual logical guidelines or consistent internal principles. To wit:

America is the most powerful country in the world, and that influence is always and forever totally evil because (insert terrible shit America has done here, which is then generalized and applied to all time periods and places without context or nuance). Indeed, America is so powerful that no other country or government in the world has actual agency or makes real choices for which they are morally and legally responsible; they're just helpless and manipulated pawns reacting to American/Western imperialism (which is the only kind of imperialism that exists, somehow). As such, nothing they ever do is actually "bad" or worthy of condemnation, because they're just totally victimized by America and everything they do is justified as long as it is anti-America. Hence, Russia genociding the Ukrainians is actually fine and good, the Ukrainians must have deserved it somehow (witness how many of the people currently screaming about Gaza were yelling that Ukraine was totally fine to attack actually!) and America is evil for trying to intervene. Russian propaganda calls America bad, we think America is bad, and therefore Russian propaganda must be correct, we love Russian propaganda a whole lot and have no interest in examining that fact any further. Russia is actually good because it used to be the USSR! Did you know that?

However, Israel genociding Gaza is utterly unforgivable and terrible and anyone who tries to offer any kind of realistic critique or appraisal of what can or can't be done to stop it is a genocide apologist. America should in fact be intervening to the point of invading Israel and/or dismantling the Israeli state, because maximalist American military intervention is Good when we say it is (but the rest of the time it's the most awful evil thing in the world WHY DON'T YOU CARE ABOUT THE GLOBAL SOUTH). America is still the most powerful country in the world and it should be intervening at all times, but actually it shouldn't do that at all because we're totally not the right-wing America First isolationists sent through the rabbit hole. If America does not choose to exercise its almighty godlike power to stop all the evil in the world (but remember, American military intervention of any kind is obviously bad and Ukraine should definitely still be genocided), it is just proving how evil it actually is. Remember, nobody else makes real choices. They're just reacting to America. America is all-powerful and also evil but still should use this evil power for good because it's good if we decide it is.

Voting is meaningless because the parties are the same, but it's powerful enough to produce a president god-king who could just decide to snap his fingers and end all bad things in the world but just doesn't do that (at least if he's a Democrat; we don't really care what a Republican president does). We think this is a good idea, but don't worry, America is still the source of all evil in the world. America should intervene everywhere and nowhere all at once. America should do nothing because everything it does is evil and past redemption and the only solution is The Revolution which destroys society. America is evil because it was founded on the violent oppression and exploitation of minorities, and therefore the solution is to let fascists be elected to punish those minorities even more because they get in the way of our purist thought experiments and their actual lived experiences don't matter when they contradict our Ideology. BUT ACTUALLY IT STILL SHOULD MILITARILY INTERVENE EVERYWHERE WE SAY SO BUT ACTUALLY IT SHOULDN'T EVER GLOBAL SOUTH. (We don't know what the Global South is or any of its issues, politics, problems, identities, languages, postcolonial developments or so forth, but we know that the Cold War happened and it was all America's fault. Have you heard this piece of Russian propaganda about how Joe Biden is the antichrist? SILENCE IS VIOLENCE SO YOU BETTER SHARE IT.)

Likewise, we support LGBTQ rights in theory but we don't think they're ever worth actually voting to protect (remember, voting is meaningless!) if that also contradicts our aim of The Revolution. We love virulently anti-gay groups like the Houthis if they theoretically support our Anti Genocide stance (don't look at Ukraine, that doesn't count) and also hate Jews. Israel is the only country in the world that has LGBTQ rights and also does stupid or awful military things, and therefore it alone is the problem because it's just pretending to be a democracy or have LGBTQ rights (in comparison to the rest of the Middle East) because it's just cynically covering for all its sins, but those sins are actually America, because Israel is just a white settler colonialist outpost of America, so America not stopping what Israel is doing (by being Israel) is bad. Remember, America is the source of all evil in the world and all other countries are its puppets, so it is also Israel, but it should stop being Israel, because it's the only country that ever makes any choices or has agency. We are very smart.

...basically, if your head hurt trying to read that or follow the logic, that's the point. It has to change constantly and contort itself around in order to both oppose those Weak Mainstream Liberals and act like it has the perfect moral high ground in doing so, regardless of what principles it has to change or what hypocrisies it has to embrace. As such, it has been stripped of any authentic critique or ability to say anything about anything, and I suggest we generally stop letting it pretend that it does. That is the only way to rescue western leftism and make it actually 2% of use at opposing fascism, because right now? Nah. Not in the least. It's actively and gleefully enabling fascism, and after so long hearing how us normie Democratic-voting losers were going to be the ones collaborating with fascists, it makes me just a little bit crazy. Good thing we can erase that too.

#frankenshane #ask #politics for ts

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thehistoriangirl · 6 months

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The Delirium of Still-Lifes [One]

Putting a unrelated gif of the blorbo because I haven't done the headers yet :D and because looook at hiiiim sirrrrr i wanna be ur hexcore--

Happy Halloween! <333

Vampire!Viktor x Fem!Artist! Reader----1.2K---SFW

> MASTERLIST -> Next

Synopsis:

Debts are paid with blood.

After a visit from death and ending all alone, you had no other option than to become like your late guardians—seeking refuge in the shady business where rewards are as high as the risks.

Your latest mission: steal and forge an expensive painting from a secretive private collector to complete the series of your current boss, and thus finally pay off the burden you still carry.

Debts are passed on by blood.

When infiltrating ends up being harder than planned, you have no choice but to apply as a working staff. Though working inside isn’t as easy as it seems, with all the strange noises echoing at night, and the random droplets of crimson staining the floors, the endless hallways with their flickering lights.

There are eyes always watching, whispers carrying secrets—and of course, the hidden painting that would define your life forevermore.

Maybe freedom can be given without the need of blood.

Ruins, fragments of a gilded past that had died with the house’s owner.

The building itself seemed to mourn; the curtains in the gigantic windows dirtying, sending grey hues against the dusty floor that clung to your footsteps, in the need of company after so many years of oblivion.

Yet there were strange signs of life blooming in the corners of the rooms; there where the furniture wasn’t covered in ghostly bedsheets, with no presence hidden behind them, waiting to haunt you.

Your boss was right—someone was renovating this house, which meant you had to find the forgotten painting, and soon.

The house creaked, breathed alongside you the further you went, the flame of your oil lamp flickering with each step, morphing you into a monster just like the ones the stories said haunted here at night.

From the second floor, you heard the slam of a door. The little hairs on the back of your neck rose with a blow of chilling wind, almost whispering to you to run away.

But you couldn't—there was no escape in that rusty gate you crossed, almost devoured by wildflowers. There was no escape out of the life blood that had tied to you, out of the debts death hadn't erased.

Closing your eyes, tucked in a corner with your back against the wall, you remembered the plans of construction for the house. The third floor was the office and library, your last option. In the second, all the bedrooms were divided in the East Wing, for the members of the late Ulhir family; and in the West, for all their guests. Unlikely.

The first floor, however, was meant to be the gallery, the nursery, and the music room.

A burned and draped carpet was laid over the spiral staircase that submerged in the darkness. However, you only need to go so far. An empty music room, a desolated nursery, all but bare of paintings, though the outline of their places hung in the wall prevailed.

Then, it was the shadow.

A dash of black against the discolored grey of the ruins, of something almost alive—certainly, if it moved that fast. From under the stairs like all monsters crawled under beds in those children’s stories, to the ballroom with the broken chandelier at the right.

Your palms were sweaty while taking ahold of the revolver, the metal becoming sticky and hot too quickly.

Monster or not, you doubted something could survive a dozen bullet wounds. If only you could finish with the monsters in your life so easily.

How the thing had been under the staircase? Nothing was supposed to be under it, only the wall where there was barely a corner to hide, or so the house plans said.

Aiming to the dark, the sensation of being accompanied by something had vanished, leaving only a cold void that could taken as relief when you saw the secret door.

Contrary to the other wings in the house, this gallery’s entry was tucked beneath the staircase, similar to the structure of a wooden decorative wall a simple ebony door, almost drowned in the shadows of midnight, with the clock suspended in the south wall of the foyer chiming so hard it made you tremble.

But with the cacophony, you could open the creaky door without a problem, still thinking that someone may be watching you.

The once spotless, dark ebony floor was covered in the ghostly veil of dust, welcoming your presence with avidness, marking each step you took inside as if the gallery had missed company, with all the unfinished portraits looking at you with the impassive gaze of eternity.

You almost dropped the slippery gun, tucking it behind the belt cinching your dark pants together.

All dozens of paintings, gold-framed and slightly crooked hung on the walls, none of them the ones you were looking for. These merged with the chaos of the desk, stains of color, and unfinished lines like paths leading nowhere.

Except for the one ahead of you; free of furniture, with the floor opening a path to show a bare wall where a lonely easel stood in front of a mirror, the canvas barely visible beneath the web of black scratches covering what once was a sketch.

Not only a sketch but a self-portrait, if the mirror was clue enough.

Opaqued by dust, you could barely see your reflection in it, passing your gloved hand over the surface to let you see the shameful image of what you have become. A liar, just like your parents. A thief. Would your parents be proud of you?

Probably. And such realization hurt so much more.

“I wasn’t aware I’d had guests for dinner.” A voice said, its strange cadence echoing in the still room. “And such a familiar one, at that.”

Your scream mixed with the thud of the canvas falling to the ground, turning to see the tall silhouette of a man leaning against a column, barely some feet away from you, two golden beacons as eyes piercing through the dark to keep you frozen in fear.

“W-wh-who are you?!” you said, trembling fingers trying to pull out the lent revolver, unsuccessfully. Part of you tugged at the sudden dèjá-vu, the cloaked man. Death.

It was Mr. Ulhir, of course. The owner of the manor and the one you were meant to steal from. The one that had died… years ago.

I’m talking with a ghost.

“I believe you shouldn’t be the one asking questions, should you? What are you doing in my house?”

“This can’t be your house—this… this place had been abandoned for decades!” You stopped, thoughts pouring into your brain. “Oh, I get what this is. You took this place for yourself and now you feel the owner…” you spat, walking toward him, just to discover that said beacons were too, too high up.

I’m talking with a ghost.

Your grasp on the revolver tightened, his eyes flickering down to where you kept it hidden in your back.

The man chuckled. “Well, this is getting interesting. What are you hiding there?”

Feeling bold at his taunt, you aimed your revolver toward him, only to feel cold, gloved fingers wrapped around your wrist as soon as you raised your arm. His presence leaning against yours, the soft cotton of his shirt brushing your cheek.

He was cold, yet solid.

He was no ghost.

You tried to yank away, but his grasp was like iron. Huffing at the effort, your eyes got drawn to the mirror, hoping the moonlight could at least decipher the outline of this sudden presence.

Alas, all that you could over its broken surface were a dozen of reflections of you, completely alone in the room.

“Truly unfortunate,” the man said, his free hand guiding your gaze away from the mirror and into his face, long fingers pressing the back of your neck as he tilted you toward him. “You weren’t supposed to see that.”

See what? There was nothing there—

He was no ghost. He was…

The man sighed. “Nothing personal, little fairy,” he said, pressing the sides of your neck with his fingers, your pulse quickening at the cold, ruthless movement. Your gaze swam toward the ceiling, parched glass ceiling to block the moonlight, and yet you saw him, truly, saw him.

"Ah—!" you tried to scream, but only a gurgle rippled out your mouth, your limbs becoming heavy, heartbeat exhausted, slow.

“Goodnight,” you heard his voice where there was nothing anywhere else, your gaze becoming black, brain shutting down until you were one with the night—all darkness, all void.

#viktor arcane x reader #arcane viktor x reader #viktor x reader #viktor arcane x you #arcane viktor x you #viktor fanfic #arcane viktor fanfic #viktor arcane fanfic #arcane x female reader #viktor arcane x f! reader

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the-garbanzo-annex-jr · 3 months

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by Farley Weiss and Leonard Grunstein

Israel is on the front lines of a war against the U.S. launched by Islamic radicals led by the Iranian regime and its proxies, including Hamas.

Hamas and its supporters are not only antisemites. They also hate all non-Muslims, the West in general and especially the U.S. Their ultimate goal is to conquer the world and kill or oppress all those who do not accept their interpretation of Islam.

In the U.S., supporters of Hamas and its sponsors have placed the country under siege. They shriek their support of the Houthis, who attack U.S. shipping and naval forces in the Red Sea. They violently disrupt or attempt to disrupt time-honored American celebrations and holidays, such as public Christmas tree-lighting ceremonies, the New York City Thanksgiving parade and the Times Square New Year’s Eve festivities. They close down bridges, tunnels and roads during rush hour. They pollute once-proud U.S. campuses with racist violence. At a recent violent “demonstration” in New York City, a Hamas supporter spewed the “n-word” at the police officers who arrested him. The anti-Americanism of these thugs is as strong as their antisemitism.

There have also been reports that these pro-terrorist “activists” are well-paid and coordinate their efforts, directly or indirectly, with Hamas and its cohorts. Hamas is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization and materially supporting it or providing it with services is prohibited under the law (18 USC 2339). Local laws also apply, which accounts for some of the arrests that have been made.

These pro-terrorist campaigns have no legitimacy whatsoever and no place in the public square. This is obvious given the policies they support. For example, besides supporting the genocide of Jews, they are also viciously misogynistic. Women under the Hamas regime are legally second-class citizens. Domestic physical and emotional abuse is rampant and honor killings regularly occur.

In addition, Hamas is virulently racist. It still labels thousands of people of African origin “slaves.” They reportedly live in a ghetto area of Gaza called Al-Abeed, meaning “The Slaves.”

There is also rampant child abuse, child labor, sexual exploitation of children and slavery in Gaza.

In other words, Hamas supporters are projecting their own evil beliefs and practices onto others, such as their false accusations of genocide against Israel. While supporting genocide themselves—as well as racism, misogyny, slavery and child abuse—they spew blood libels at the Jewish state.

Thankfully, the American people have woken up to the danger posed by Hamas and its Iranian supporters. Recent polls report that an overwhelming majority of Americans support Israel in this war.

It is time for the Biden administration to stop pandering to Hamas’s American supporters. They may be strident and vocal in their demands for an unconditional ceasefire and the elimination of Israel, but they do not represent a majority of American voters.

The mistakes being made by the Biden administration are similar to those made by Jimmy Carter when he was running for reelection in 1980. Carter faced similar challenges and his weak response to the Iran hostage crisis and equivocal support of Israel because of his disdain for what he viewed as Menachem Begin’s right-wing government are eerily akin to the errors being made by the current administration.

The results of Carter’s folly speak for themselves: His share of the Jewish vote dropped from 71% to 45%. He lost decisively to Ronald Reagan and the rest is history.

Recent polling suggests that Biden should avoid Carter’s mistakes. For example, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) has seen his support rise since he disregarded concerns about alienating his progressive base and came out strongly in support of Israel.

This is the time for Reaganesque determination and action, not Carteresque appeasement. America’s military response to Houthi aggression was a good start, but more is necessary to prevent further attacks by the Iranian regime and its proxies. The U.S. must project its overwhelming power in order to reestablish deterrence.

Hamas and its cohorts must be prevented from committing any further atrocities and acts of aggression. The only way to do this is to unequivocally support total Israeli victory.

#hamas #gaza #terrorism #islamic radicals #iranian regime #jimmy carter

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onekisstotakewithme · 2 months

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Tell People About Your WIPs

make a list of all your WIPs with a brief description of each and then people can ask you questions about them and then tag other people.

tagged by the creator of this game, @mihrsuri, and will in turn say 'anyone who wants to, feel free' but specifically of the westie besties Lil didn't tag, I'm yelling at @claudiajcregg 💜 I've been agonizing over having nothing to publish for ages now 😭

Currently Active:

Close to the Heart, aka MASH noir AU where Hawkeye is still a doctor, and Peg comes to him wanting him to kill her husband.

the west wing post-canon wedding: CJ and Danny try and make it work after CJ decides to stay in the WH, can't make it work, break up... all of which is backstory to the two of them reuniting at Charlie and Zoey's wedding a few months later... and going from there

the "BJ accidentally follows Hawkeye to a gay meet up, learns some things" WIP that I have been agonizing over.

the valentine's day tww discord prompt fulfillment (I know I'm not in the discord but humour me, i did the christmas exchange) that starts during "Manchester".

Things that Should be Active (but Aren't)

the prompt fulfillment for the Josh/Donna Rom-Com exchange in which I Romcomify "Inauguration: Over There" (I have words written for it, but not many. that was a busy week lol.)

President!CJ - you know the drill. I keep calling it president!CJ but the actual name should be "CJ runs for President and Ally rambles her ass off trying to make it happen". Anyone looking for a full time volunteer job as my research assistant to make this story happy, apply within.

The Requiem First Time Smut - it's six thousand words long and contains only one orgasm so far. aka the wednesday night where CJ shows up and they 'don't reallly talk' (except nobody is naked yet because they can't stop fucking talking!)

Random WIPs that can't even be considered in the same realm as active, yes i'm as annoyed about it as everyone else.

tww plane crash au - on the way back from a summit in Japan, AF1 crashes on a small island in the South Pacific. This project is my baby but alas. Featuring bioluminescence, sex cabanas and copious amounts of Repentance.

sperm donor AU - canon divergent in s5 of tww, after slow news day et al, where CJ starts seriously thinking about her life post-administration... and having a kid. Coincidentally, Danny comes back into her life around the same time.

mash triad ski au - BJ and Peg go on vacation over Christmas of 1998, and meet another skiier when they all get trapped on a chair lift together 😉

triad wedding - I include this on every list (sigh) just because a whole draft exists, it just needs to be burned to the ground, chopped up with a machete and started from scratch and I burned out hard wriitng draft one. Anyway, final part of the first "arc" of Home verse. BJ, Peg and Hawkeye get 'married'.

Ambassador Spock - genuinely don't think I've touched this since 2021 but. Kirk is still captain of the Enterprise, charged with bringing the Vulcan ambassadors (Sarek and his son Spock) to a summit, "Journey to Babel" style only with more Spirk.

#tww #m*a*s*h #wip wednesday #(but make it thursday)

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old-school-butch · 5 months

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hey im really glad you're speaking out on this israel/palestine issue. the public opinion is way, way too skewed in gazas favor.

ive been trying to talk to people irl about it, and my circle at least is mostly pro israel, and we all agree that what's going on on social media is insane.

absolutely no one is saying that all the information from gaza is coming from hamas, not to mention the defense of them. and i've never seen so much antisemitism just out in the open. the literal left is out here like "maybe hitler was right" and then call you "pro-genocide" when you call them out.

also, people are falling for propaganda and manipulation at degrees that, honestly, concern me.

Al Jazeera is the propaganda arm of the Qatari regime which, of course, is where the Hamas leadership lives. It's spent years developing a good reputation among lefties because it does - in truth - contain some analysis and information the Western media doesn't focus on. But it's part of a much larger information campaign that's happening that includes Russia and Iran and their social media outfits that aim to destabilize 'the West'. I've read AJ, just like I've read RT news - the Russian counterpart. They are designed to take a leftist argument and then put a spin on it - test the waters for more radical interpretations, push the limits and subtly distort perception. They have different outlets to massage the opinions on the right wing too. The goal is to make a middle ground impossible, and they are succeeding beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

Odds are good that we all follow at least one state actor - there was one here on tumblr that I had followed called, I believe, 'votingwhileblack' - which posted interesting critiques of the U.S. elections. But it was unmasked as a Russian agent, and I looked at the account contents more objectively. Much of it was very worthwhile analysis of U.S. attempts to disenfranchise people from their elections, but it was interspersed with subtle and not-so-subtle nudges - lots of 'don't bother voting, it's all rigged' material, Dems are just as bad as GOP, you can't trust the government at all, unless we do 'something radical' then nothing will ever change, all white people are racist and hatred is a natural response and so on. There are enough people who agree with these sentiments to spread that view, but by leading the conversation, it changes the tone. It makes anyone who disagrees with you the enemy, who is beyond negotiation, and so moderate solutions are discarded. The same is happening on the right and is why online discussion can be especially toxic and uninformative.

These campaigns have been running for years and these state agents have collected a huge amount of data points, floated a lot of arguments and learning which ones will stick. I can see this being applied to the current conflict.

The most striking to me is the word 'genocide' is used in a conflict with - even by Hamas' own claims - has 10,000 casualties. No one seems to question how many of those casualties are civilian and what portion are Hamas soldiers. Hamas claims to have 40,000 Hamas fighters in their 3-500km of tunnels. Hamas has fired thousands of rockets into Israel (and more of them land in Gaza than Israel to be honest, they're not good rockets) and Israel has dropped about 10,000 tonnes of bombs, including bunker busters that penetrate deep into the ground to destroy the tunnels. These are powerful explosions, so just compare that activity with the self-reported casualty count. It's actually quite low. Civilian deaths are always horrible to see, but there's absolutely no evidence that Israel is targeting civilians, much less killing them in large numbers.

But that's no problem if you follow the script - the genocide argument seamlessly shifts to the future, like Israel wants to occupy Gaza and/or expel all Gazans and that's really the genocide in play. I think the most likely long-term outcome is that Israel will occupy Gaza while they try to find a government that is willing to keep working to a 2 state solution, and they will stop employing Gazans - just as Egypt and Lebanon currently does - because it's quite likely that the setup for this operation was done by Gazan workers employed in Israel (the intelligence gathering on security weaknesses, the stolen IDF uniforms etc).

None of these outcomes are good for Palestinians, but they're also not genocide. Or all they all genocide? It's an easy pivot set up to be applied no matter what Israel does, the blame is always placed on Israel. And so by taking a real word with specific meaning, it's now going to be used as a vague accusation that can mean anything to advance whatever argument you want to make against whatever reality is taking place.

Honestly, even the word 'Palestinian' is somewhat complicated. Part of the difficulty of this conflict is this identity that refers to a nation without a state. The Arab desire for statehood in the region grew in the 20s and 30s but they didn't accept the UN proposal in 1948 and instead started (and lost) a war to control the entire territory. But they didn't also accept that loss, or claim Gaza and the West Bank as their own state. Instead, this idea is now the abstract 'Palestinian cause' that exists in almost a parallel world where Israel isn't real, the 1948 war is still happening and justice won't be done until Israel is gone and Palestine is created in its place.

Even 75 years later, there are millions of 'Palestinian refugees' who are the descendants of this movement living in Gaza and the West Bank. Yes, they are 'refugees' even while living in the land allocated for their self-governed state. They live in 'refugee camps' even though they are towns like anything else you'd build after living there for 75 years. But they don't want that land, they want Israel. Half of Jordanians are Palestinian but they don't want that, they want Israel. Southern Lebanon is controlled by Hezbollah but they don't want that, they want Israel. Nowhere else in the world are the grandchildren of refugees still legally considered refugees except here, where they officially ask for the 'right of return' which is to 'return' to the land of Israel (and put an end to the Israeli state) and regain the property or land their ancestors held in 1948. Which should make it really clear why they will always be refugees until they take over the land of Israel - there's always the threat that they will give up on Israel and find some land elsewhere to set up a state. Having sustained this movement for so long, the surrounding Arab states now realize its a potential threat to their own stability, so it's important that threat needs to keep focused on Israel.

If I were Palestinian I would be so angry at the world, because while everyone wants to use you and says they support 'the cause', Palestinian nationalists don't have any real friends. Hamas is an Islamist group that wants to start a global jihad to establish an Islamic caliphate, ideally on a global basis. They started in Egypt as the Muslim Brotherhood and got kicked out to try again in Palestine. The blockades on Gaza make them rich, because they run smuggling operations through their tunnels and extort money from the Gazan population, and the poverty that creates also gives them footsoldiers for their war, because desperate people in a broken country will sign up for their militia just to get a paycheque. It's in their interests to keep Gazans impoverished and at war.

The Western leftists are drawn out to support 'the cause' to atone for the sins of Western colonialism, but that's really just to avoid addressing issues in their own countries. You can chant 'from the river to the sea' all you want, but you'd have to overthrow and occupy Israel to do that, which means killing or expelling every Jew living there and that's not going to happen without an army of about 10 million soldiers and/or a nuke. No one in the West is really signing up for that. they're just following the urge to feel morally superior without actually doing anything and that's just fine for Al Jazeera and all the social media bots working the information campaign of this war.

The liberals of the West are being rallied for 2 goals - to continue the goal of splintering the political climate in the U.S. and affecting U.S. elections. (I don't think young people are even aware of how often the Palestinian cause has been used to influence U.S. elections, going back to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in the 60s.)

The other goal is to pressure Israel to stop their campaign before Hamas is fully destroyed and return to the status quo - another ceasefire in a war that began in 1948 and still continues, punctuated by one failed ceasefire after another. It's simplified and autotuned so it sounds like a call for peace, but it's actually a call for the horrible state of limbo to continue, where the cycle can be endlessly repeated and 'the cause' is kept alive to be mobilized again when it's needed.

Palestinian radicals have acted as a state-within-a-state in Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt attempting numerous coups, civil war and assassinations, this is why they no longer accept any refugees from the area. But in the end, where do Palestinian people go? The world eggs them on, but isn't actually going to help resolve 'the cause'. After Israel was created, about 700,000 Jews were expelled from most Arab countries and Israel took them in, ergo they are no longer refugees. Why are Palestinians still stateless after 75 years? The fact that Palestinians don't have a homeland or statehood says a lot about how committed its neighbors are to actually helping them achieve that goal.

In order to resolve 'the cause', you either need to have a 2 state solution so Palestinians can stop being other people's pawns and just get on with their lives, or Hamas achieves its goals and run the world under Sharia law. Both Israel and Palestinian nationalists need to come to terms with the shitty hands they've been given and accept a solution that might not be their ideals, but is better than war that continues for another 3 generations and it's better than living in a global caliphate

Anyway, I've now made 3-4 posts about this conflict and received an insane number of messages about this, ranging from death threats and hostile responses to overly earnest counter-arguments to things I've never said, mostly from people I've never heard from before and aren't in my orbit. And I'm a middle-aged gender critical woman on backwater tumblr getting this level of interference - can you imagine what popular social media accounts are getting? 'All those' people you hear aren't people, they are state interests working in a coordinated campaign to influence the West. And this is how a pro-Palestinian march keeps getting steered to the occasional 'gas the Jews' chant, how Taliban and Al-Quaeda flags keep showing up at the marches, or calls for Biden to be removed from office for his support for Israel (bc Trump is the most useful idiot ever and these accounts want him for president). Hamas et. al. are my enemy, not Palestinians and not Israel. Focus on their actions and you can really cut through the deception to see the strategy. They have really clear goals about what they want, they're making excellent gains by confusing everyone else about what's in our best interests.

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anosrepasi · 4 months

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10 Character/10 Fandoms/10 Tags

Tagged by the wonderful @aeide :)

Nil (Horizon Dawn Zero/Forbidden West) - My current obsession I'm rotating around in my mind. What's not to love he's charming in the sense that his most common AU occupation is "Serial Killer." Will he kill you? Depends! Only if you suck, and he promises to never stab you in the back, he wants to look you in the eye if he tries to kill you. But actually, I find him utterly fascinating and in the context of HZD he's just. so nuanced it destroys me. This man has decades of c-ptsd and asks the question of what happens when someone drenched in violence is suddenly expected to stop fighting- the answer is, it takes a lot! I adore him.

Kassandra (AC:Odyssey) - Look the more I think about Kassandra and like the canon quests in that game the more I'm like. They did you wrong, girl. They did you so dirty. SHE JUST WANTS TO GO HOME. IT TAKES DECADES. HER STORY IS A FUSION OF THE ODYSSEY AND THE ILIAD. YOU CAN APPLY THEMES FROM BOTHA ND IT DRIVES ME INSANE. And. And then they say, all thsi you worked so hard for? Well. We have other things we need from you. I am going to chew through my arm.

Mizu (Blue Eye Samurai) - Look. I could link thousand upon thousands words of meta about Mizu and her/they're relationship to gender and existence as a mixed race individual in isolationist Japan. And it still wouldn't capture it all. And past that it's hot person brutally murdering people in absolutely fantastically animated fight scenes.

Vincent Valentine (Final Fantasy VII) - Look. He's my original blorbo. I saw 10 minutes of screen time of him in Advent Children and have been insane ever since. I bought and played through Dirge of Cerberus for him. Something about him apparently just imprinted on me as a child, I've been a lost cause ever since.

Xaden Riorson (Fourth Wing/Iron Flame) - These books are still relatively new so I'll hold my tongue since a lot of what I am obsessed with re: him is spoilers but oh my god. oh. my. god. buddy.

Axel (Kingdom Hearts) - Also an original blorbo from childhood, imprinted on him like a baby duck. His death in KH2 made me bawl. His entire storyline makes me sob, he's the reason why every single aspect of Roxas' story was a gut punch cause like. The best way to make people care about characters is give them someone who loves them then make it sad.

Charles Milton Porter (Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den) - Look. This dude's DLC made me cry. big cry. I still kinda get choked up when i think about it for a while. it's about the grief.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits - I can't choose a characters from this, so I just advise everyone to play this game. It's so good. You're going to be emotionally devastated. It's also about grief. Every character in this game is so so good and you will feel things.

Joe Miller (The Expanse) - He was not the first but he was my defining love of shitty noir space detectives. I loved him from when he was introduced to when he left the series and my love was rewarded so much. Holden and Amos were the runner up characters for this fandom.

Death (The Book Thief) - I read the book thief for the first time in 7th grade I think? Every day of my life since them on my commute to work or when on break I look at the sky and think about how Death would describe the taste of the colors. This book irrecoverably changed me from the day I read it and firmly cemented this Death as the death i hope is there at the end of everything, i love this version of it so much. This death is like. look. go read the book if you haven't had the opportunity.

Tagging for anyone who wants to do it: @ongreenergrasses @lobstermatriarch @airmidcelt @tirsynni @aevallare @duesternis @salsedine @avelera @thehoundkeeper @green-nbean

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harpagornis · 7 days

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Volaticotheres of Lemuria

Reconstruction of the Cretaceous Indotriconodon magnus based on modern extant relatives, by omegafreelancer.

The shadow to the feathered flying lemurs, the volaticotheres of Lemuria are an ancient lineage whose origins stretch all the way back to the Jurassic, with forms like Argentoconodon and Volaticotherium pioneering mammalian flight 70 million years before other mammals took to the air. The latest Cretaceous Indotriconodon magnus is likely a close relative to the extant taxa; genetic studies show that living volaticothere lineages are no older than the Palaeocene. They occur, simultaneously, in the fossil sites of both Maldivia and Marama in the Eocene, flight likely being the reason for their success across both landmasses before they collided. Indeed, prior to the Pliocene they were the apex predators of these landmasses, some extinct forms attaining wingspans of four meters, being the largest mammals that ever flew. Only with the late Miocene climatic changes did these giants decline, giving way to the new apex predators of Lemuria proper: the giant raptors.

Still, the even today volaticotheres occupy the dominant mesocarnivore niches in Lemuria, being analogous to the weasels, mongooses, small canids and small felines of other landmasses. Except, you know, with the ability to fly. Over 45 species occur today in Lemuria, with 6 also found in Madagascar and nearby Indian Ocean islands. Three species occur outside of Lemuria: the African Kongamato (Afrodactylus kogamato), the Southeast Asian Ahool (Pitheconycteris ahool) and the Australasian Ropen (Luminopteryx ropen). The last two in particular are the earliest diverging crown volaticotheres, having diverged from their Lemuro/Malagasy cousins in the Palaeocene and from each other in the Oligocene, likely brought to their current range by the collision of India with Asia; as Indian Ocean winds blow majorly from east to west, most of the volaticothere diversity was kept from flying to Asia. It’s also speculated that the Van Meter cryptid was a volaticothere, but so far no remains have been found in the Americas.

Volaticotheres are among Lemuria’s various non-therian mammal groups, and the only non-therian mammals to fly (flight otherwise occurs in the placental bats and flying lemurs). Their wings are composed of a patagium stretched by a styliform bone, similar to that seen in flying squirrels but elongated and strengthened into resembling the pterosaurian wingfinger; the old mammalian tarsal spur in turn became a structure akin to the bat calcar, supporting the uropatagium. The membrane itself has various muscle and collagen fibers that prevent fluttering, much as with the wing membranes of bats. Of all mammalian flyers, volaticotheres are arguably the most efficient due to their epipubic bones, which support muscle groups that aid in lung ventilation; this has allowed them to produce larger flyers with more endurant flight. They are however less agile than bats and some flying lemurs, seeing as their styliform is not as flexible as their wingfingers. Like other flying mammals the ability to fly demmands an immune system with less extreme inflammatory reactions, and so their cells have similar “self-fixing” programs. This allows them to survive with high quantities of viruses without being infected, but makes them especially vulnerable to other pathogens. The Ropen has however found a symbiotic relationship with bioluminescent fungi in its wing membranes, making it the only bioluminescent terrestrial vertebrate (the same might also apply to the Van Meter cryptid, assuming it exists and is a volaticothere). Their unique metabolic and immune systems also allow for longer lifespans, with some species living almost as long as humans reaching over eighty years old.

Most volaticotheres are nocturnal, using sight and hearing as their main senses, though some species has also an accute sense of smell, particularly dedicated scavengers. Some species echolocate, but not to the extent of bats and mostly just to locate perching sites. Some species are highly social, gathering in large flocks when not foraging, but larger species are mostly solitary.

Like bats and flying lemurs they give birth to highly altricial young, some relatively developed but still dependent on their mothers for several months. Like all flying mammals they can only attain flight when close to adult size, which in some species may take over an year. Several species form creches like bats and flying lemurs, finding safety in numbers while their mothers forage. Others make nests, and in some both parents take care of the young.

The varying diversity of volaticotheres means that different species have different symbolic values to the cultures of Lemuria. Typically though they’re considered the shadow to the flying lemur’s light, and many species are considered signs of bad omens, not helped by their zoonotic diseases. Many however consider them excellent pest control, and some have attained an unique totemic status in indigenous religions, particularly the large and impressive Walamul. Indeed the Vavaitosy (Felipterus aloeri) has been semi-domesticated, allowing to patrol and nest in Sammangal gardens and trained for falconry. Many are endangered due to habitat loss and the spread of fungal diseases, but some have quite adapted to city life, and their ability to fly gives them an advantage over competing introduced species like cats, dogs and mongooses.

These beasts were the first to take to the air, and hopefully will remain fluttering about for millions of years to come.

The largest living flying mammal, the Walamul (Werer; also known as Avaitosy in Atratra, and various other regional names like Yauava in Lemurian Tamil) reaches a wingspan of three meters and up to 5 kg, though smaller estimates are more common.

It is distributed across Lemuria, though it favours the rainforest regions, where there are fewer large raptors to compete with. Accordingly, its white and black color suits it well when it hunts in low light conditions (it is primarily nocturnal) and its rounded wings suit it well as it flies in the dense forest. It is a fearsome predator, echoing the ancient giant volaticotheres as it pounces on mid-sized gondwanatherians or even elephant calves, but thanks to its ability to fly it can rely on a mostly scavenging diet. It has a better sense of smell than most of its relatives, and its larger size allows it to displace smaller predators and scavengers, aside from the birds of prey.

It is a largely solitary animal, but it can tolerate the presence of two or three members of its species in its territory. Most such small groupings tend to be siblings, or parents and children. Breeding happens every four years, males following females by urine scent and spending a long period of time trying to court them, producing low pitched sounds. After mating the female raises the sole pup alone, usually left in a crevice or tree hollow while she hunts. The juvenile spends over an year being raised this way, and even after acquiring its independence it may stay within their mother’s territory for years.

The Walamul is symbolic of the night itself across Lemuria’s cultures, and simultaneously revered and feared; while this animal rarely poses a threat to people, it may target livestock, though traditionally this is deterred by leaving piles of scrap and unusable carcasses in order to dstract it non-lethally. It most famously appears in The Drama of the Moon, where it is the final challenge for the two competing gods. In western Lemuria, where it is less common, it is seen particularly ambivalently as an enemy of the Sun Goddess, yet also a bringer of rain. In many areas it is a totemic symbol of great importance, and some people claim descent from the Walamul as an ancestor spirit.

Currently, it is Vulnerable due to habitat loss and occasional persecution as non-traditional agriculture declines and prejudices increase. Conservation efforts have been successful in raising its population from a bottleneck in the 60’s, and the animal can even occasionally be seen in urban areas. Cats and small dogs are occasionally targetted, but such urbanite volaticotheres often preffer to attack trash cans.

#lemuria #speculative biology #speculative zoology #speculative evolution #spec evo #volaticotheres #volaticotheria #indotriconodon #eutriconodont #triconodont #eutriconodonta

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brawlstars-dragon-au · 8 months

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please talk abour shelly and colt for. 5 hours thankiyiu

You got it! A long bundle of Shelly and Colt HCs/info in my AU (as well as ship HCs at the bottom as well 🛐).

Shelly:

Her attacks consist of a medium range solid fire breath. With enough charge, she can release a more explosive breath that shreds through walls as well. A regular shot is more orange, but her "super" is a lighter blue with a tint of purple.

Under her bandaid, she has a little scar from her younger days.

Her classic yellow bandana is a gift from her parents. She's gained quite a few over the years!

She was once part of a gang that was decently well known in the Wild West areas of the Park. They had taken her under their wings and cared for her from a young age. It disbanded after a few successful years (By this time, she was considered about 20 for humans), leaving Shelly to wander alone until situating herself in the quiet-ish life of the main town.

During her time in this gang, her coat colours were not as bright and were mostly light purples leaning to shades of grey and black.

She has a black cat named Starlight! She's very small but she loves her a lot 💛 she sometimes sits in her bandana as she does casual errands. Sometimes they have the exact sma expressions and it's kinda silly hehe

Colt:

The gold star on his back, as well as his tails, are dyed. (This fact may change in the future, as I want to give Colt a slight redesign.)

Colt's attacks consist of different bursts of fire that he breathes out. He usually attacks with a quick bursts of flames that go a far range, with a strong red flame on them. Stronger Super attacks lean to an almost pinkish orange colour. A small detail I want to expand on is that some brawlers' hair (pr another part) will actually turn slightly elemental-like when using what we consider as a super in the regular game. Colt's hair will become similar to a flame when he uses his supercharged flame blast.

His scar on his chin came from a heist back when he was still part of his mom's gang. He scraped it when falling to the ground. He once took pride with it, as it looked just like the one his father had. Now, it's more of an upsetting reminder of the life he left behind.

Additionally, back when he was in the gang, he dyed his hair and wings black to differ himself from his mother (which had a very bold red coat and feathers.) Similarly to Shelly, his colours were simply shades of dark blue and grey, apart from the red that shone through.

Colt's feathers are his pride and joy. You'll never catch anyone touching them, let alone preening (the act of cleaning feathers with birds, this also applies to dragons). The only acceptions are for those he trusts very much. Some examples are Shelly and Pam (Belle was once allowed, but in current times she is definitely not. Family drama!!!)

He left the gang during his late teens after conflicting ideals and issues that had been festering for years.

A bit after, Colt gets taken in by Pam, who welcomes him into the family. Cause of this, he is an honorary Junker ❤️

Colt's actually supposed to be very fluffy, but he sheers off a good chunk of his fur to give the appearance of a "vest" rather than a full fluffy hide. This trait is from his dad.

Finally, some classic Sholt - it's getting a bit long, so I'll add a read more here:

Years ago, while they were still in their gangs, they did interact a few times. Nothing too huge, let alone friendship, but a mutual respect for each other. They almost didn't recognise each other when interacting again as adults.

Colt fell first, Shelly fell harder.

Shelly is one of the few who has seen Colt during his molting period. She brought him snacks and made sure he knew she would still love him even if he thought he looked like some balding hatchling. I actually have an old fanfic for this. Might post it sometime!

When they nap together, Shelly will rest her head just above his wing, using the fluffy fur almost like a pillow. Colt will then rest his head on hers.

Colt's ways of showing affection vary so much, with all coming right from the heart. He gives words of affirmation with flirts and compliments. He'll put on grand displays of affection through small songs or even a little dance. He'll bring gifts that remind him of Shelly (can range from a new bandana he thinks she'd like, or simple trinkets and items that remind him of her).

On the other hand, Shelly's prefers to express her affection through actions. She would not hesitate to protect him in brawls and assures him that she's happy with him (leaning into the subtle insecurity at the heart of Colt's pride).

Shelly asked him out first officially. Colt had asked a few times before, but they were sort of casual and not direct enough. Shelly made that first step to directly say, "Do you wanna go on a date together?"

^ Colt probably sat there in shock for a few minutes /pos. Of course, he agreed! They've been happy ever since <3

In the future (or perhaps in a divergent au/future with fankids), they have a daughter named Shea. She's a lovely ruby red colour, with wing feathers a light lilac colour at the ends. She attacks similarly to Shelly, using stronger mid range attacks. Her attacks do seem to carry just a bit of electric magic/power in it, but that's only noticed when she's older. 🤭

There we go! That's a few of the headcanons I've got for these two. I do wanna flesh out their story in my au, as the past with the gangs really do give a lot to think of... but that'll come much much later when I at least have more designs for the AU 😭😭 Thank you for the ask! It was a pleasure writing this out! ✨️

#Oh look what you've done I'm gonna go one for ages- /lh #/pos #bs dragon au #brawl stars dragon au #brawl stars #brawlstars #colt #shelly #brawl stars au #sholt #long post #thanks for the ask!#headcanons #headcanon posts #story (?)#I need a tagging system.

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lunalunawillow · 1 year

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I don't know if this a hot take but tbh most of the stuff people accuse Azure Lion of being (aka a ruthless villain in the words of Lego themselves) can actually be applied more fittingly for Peng. I'm not outright stating that he's a villain but we have a few crumbs that suggest otherwise:

First off the banquet scene in New Adventures, Peng is the only one who doesn't mention the whole point of the Brotherhood going against the Jade Emperor, which is helping the suffering/the mortal realm and instead, in his own words, that he is tired of squabbling for scraps and probably wants more than what he currently has, which tbh seems a lot like the classic "low ranking villain wishes for more" type of stuff

Peng is also the only one who seems to take joy in battling and taking out his opponents as seen in him laughing when he beat up Mei in The Brotherhood and teasing Nezha in the assault against Heaven.

And overall his attitude just really gives off smug villainous vibes.

With that said, something interesting to note that some people have theorized that there's the possibility that the Golden Winged Peng may be the one behind the scenes this season, given that in Journey to the West, he is the leader of the trio and apparently he forced Azure Lion to fight Wukong... which is interesting to say the least.

But with that said please take this post with a good quantity of salt! Future info can completely debunk this post and overall I could be completely wrong about the matter even right. So please take this as a more fun analysis of my thoughts!

#monkie kid s4 #lego monkie kid #golden winged peng

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bopinion · 3 months

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2024 / 03

Aperçu of the Week:

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts."

(Winston Chrchill, former multi- & prime minister of Great Britain, historian and Nobel Prize winner for literature)

Bad News of the Week:

NATO is launching a maneuver in the next days. With 90,000 soldiers, "Steadfast Defender" is the largest since the end of the Cold War. What is being simulated - seriously, according to the official announcement! - is the defense "against an attack by Russia on NATO territory". Ooph... That's how far we've come now. Or again.

At the same time, the Ukrainian government is planning a massive increase in the conscription of its men. Hundred thousands additional soldiers are to go to war. With no combat experience, hardly any training and a faltering supply of equipment. This also acknowledges what observers have long assumed: that Vladimir Putin is relying on a protracted war of attrition. Unfortunately, from a strategic point of view, he is right.

In contrast to Russia's well-oiled arms industry, the West's military support for Ukraine is decreasing. The most important supplier, the USA, in particular, no longer has a budget at its disposal due to the refusal of a group of arch-conservative Republicans. A group that absurdly calls itself the "freedom caucus" - which apparently does not apply to support for a country that has been innocently attacked and is ultimately defending its freedom.

A colleague told me about his assessment that the election of Donald Jessica Trump at the end of November this year would probably have its good side too. After all, he would strike a deal with Putin on the price he would be willing to pay for an agreement and, of course ("America first"), stop all support for Ukraine at the same time. Which would then have no choice but to hand over Crimea, the Donbas and the territories in between to Russia. Phew...

Good News of the Week:

People are standing up. In sub-zero temperatures, millions of Germans are actually gathering on streets and squares to stand up against right-wing extremists and for democracy. The motto is "Never again is now!". Many are attending a demonstration for the first time, bringing children with them, having painted posters - democracy at work. I have been waiting a long time for the silent majority to finally stop being silent in the face of rising poll figures for the right-wing AfD (Alternative für Deutschland / Alternative for Germany) - currently at 22%.

The trigger was a subversive meeting of right-wing extremists who discussed strategies to deport all non-Germans, to put it simply. Uncovered by investigative journalists. I learned the word "demigration" in the process. Don't get me started on how valuable the so-called guest workers (mainly Turks) were for the German economic miracle back in the 1960s. That care for the elderly in this country would collapse without Eastern Europeans. Or that neither commercial kitchens would be able to survive without Filipinos nor IT departments without Indians. That immigration is necessary to maintain prosperity in our ageing society. And that integration fails more often due to a lack of willingness to accept immigrants than a lack of adaptability of those.

We are all human beings. A species that only exists because it has perfected the principle of cooperation. When one person goes hunting, another has to take care of the fire. Today we call that specialization. Or when was the last time you milked a cow, tilled a field, forged a shovel or prepared a medicine? Exactly. Morally, this becomes a community of solidarity in which not only does everyone do what they do best for everyone else, but the strong also stand up for the weak. You simply can't be blind in the right eye.

It is fitting that last week the Bundestag decided to amend the legislation on citizenship for immigrants. Against the votes of the conservative CDU/CSU and - surprise! - the AfD. In short: it will be easier and quicker than before. Above all because dual citizenship will be possible. It is important to know that in Germany, out of a population of 84 million, at least 12 million do not have a German passport. And are therefore not allowed to vote, for example. This door is now open. For a good 1.5 million Turks. And my wife. I have a strong suspicion that the radical right-wing AfD will not score any points with these citizens with their degenerate values.

Personal happy moment of the week:

We got rid of a monster. Eight years ago, I took over a yucca palm from a friend that was getting too big for his home. And I had a good place for it. And then only problems. The stubborn thing grew in all the wrong directions, attracted vermin and for years dripped a sticky secretion that ruined the sofas next to it, rendered a lamp useless, smeared a window and disfigured a speaker on the surround sound system. Now I've finally got round to getting rid of it. Which was difficult, because I had no room for it. It's now on the patio and dying, because it's still January in the northern hemisphere.

But I got over myself. And then for hours - there were four! - of scrubbing and cleaning to remove the incredibly dirty, sticky corner that had formed behind the sofas over the years. I managed it. And now I enjoy my first espresso in a clean living room every morning. I'm just not allowed to look out of the window to see the slow death of a living thing. Doesn't help.

I couldn't care less...

...that the train drivers' union has announced another complete rail strike. This time for a whole six days, starting last night. Workers' rights with all due respect, but if you no longer show any willingness to negotiate and the action becomes an end in itself, you are taking the population hostage. And you lose all understanding, not to mention sympathy.

It's fine with me...

...that we've had quite a mild winter this year. Because now I can take the bike to get to the station. And I don't feel guilty when my neighbors get up earlier than me to clear snow from our shared yard. And I'm happy about lower heating costs. Nice, actually. If it weren't for the human-induced climate change, what causes this mild winter. Which makes me shiver again.

As I write this...

...I listen to the first live album of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Wow, what a joy these guys bring to the stage. The Boss really knows how to work a crowd. Nice.

Post Scriptum

Gaza is still hell on earth. Unfortunately, that's all I can say at this moment. When are the next elections in Israel again?

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mariacallous · 2 years

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Regular readers of this column know that I’m not inclined to be alarmist. Although there are times when I worry about the costs and risks of certain foreign-policy decisions, I tend to push back on the tendency for foreign-policy experts to inflate threats and assume the worst—but not always. Sometimes, the wolf really is at the door, and it’s time to start worrying.

What’s troubling me today is the gnawing fear that we are living through a series of disruptions that are overwhelming our collective ability to respond. World politics is never completely static, of course, but we haven’t seen as serious a sequence of shocks in a long time. We’re accustomed to thinking human ingenuity will eventually provide solutions, but as political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon warned many years ago, that reassuring assumption may not apply when the number of problems to be solved becomes too large and complex.

Just how many shocks can the system stand? Let’s take them in chronological order.

The breakup of the Soviet empire

Although the collapse of the Soviet Union and the velvet revolutions in Eastern Europe were positive developments in many ways, they also created considerable uncertainty and instability, and they opened the door to political developments (such as NATO enlargement) that still reverberate today. The breakup led directly to a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, contributed to the dissolution of Yugoslavia and subsequent Balkan wars, encouraged an unhealthy sense of hubris in the United States, and reshaped politics in Central Asia. Loss of Soviet patronage also destabilized governments in Africa, the Middle East, and even the Americas, with unpredictable and sometimes unfortunate consequences. History didn’t end; it just headed down a different track.

China’s rise

Americans initially thought the unipolar moment would last a long time, but a new great-power rival emerged almost immediately. China’s rise is not a sudden or unexpected shock, perhaps, but it has still been extraordinarily rapid, and most experts in the West misread what it portended. China is still significantly weaker than the United States and faces serious headwinds at home and abroad, but its impressive economic growth, rising ambitions, and expanding military power are undeniable. Economic advancement there has also accelerated climate change, affected labor markets around the world, and helped trigger the current backlash against hyper-globalization. Its growing wealth and power improved the lives of the Chinese people and benefited others as well, but it is still a shock to the existing global order.

The 9/11 attacks and the global war on terrorism

The terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the U.S. Defense Department in September 2001 completely transformed U.S. foreign policy, and the United States found itself trapped in a war on terrorism for more than a decade. This event led directly to the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the two so-called forever wars eventually cost the United States far more blood and treasure than it had lost on that fateful day. The war on terrorism also destabilized countries throughout the greater Middle East and unintentionally spawned groups such as the Islamic State, whose actions aided the rise of right-wing extremism in Europe. It also accelerated the militarization and polarization of U.S. domestic politics and the mainstreaming of right-wing extremism in the United States—a major shock by any measure.

The 2008 financial meltdown

The collapse of the subprime mortgage market in the United States triggered a financial panic that quickly spread around the world. Wall Street’s supposed “Masters of the Universe” turned out to be as fallible (or corruptible) as anyone else, and although the people who caused the debacle were never held accountable, they could never speak with the same prestige and authority that they had before the crisis erupted. Europe suffered a sharp recession, a protracted currency crisis, and a decade of painful austerity, giving populist parties another political boost. Chinese officials also saw the crisis as a telling sign of Western decline and an opportunity to expand their own foreign-policy ambitions.

The Arab Spring

It sometimes seems nearly forgotten, but the Arab Spring was a tumultuous event that toppled governments in several countries, briefly kindled hopes of widespread democratic transitions, and led to civil wars in Libya, Yemen, and Syria that are still being fought today. It ended with authoritarian crackdowns (known as the “Arab Winter”) that reversed nearly all of the gains that reformers had made. Like the ill-fated Revolutions of 1848 in Europe, it was a “turning point at which modern history failed to turn.” But it consumed lots of top decision-makers’ time and attention, tarnished the reputations of a number of top officials, and led to considerable human suffering.

The global refugee crisis

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the number of “forcibly displaced” persons rose from about 42 million people in 2001 to nearly 90 million people in 2021. Refugee flows are themselves a consequence of some of the other shocks we’ve experienced, but they exert profound effects of their own, and the problem defies easy solutions. As such, they constitute yet another shock that governments and international organizations have struggled to address in recent years.

Populism becomes popular

The year 2016 marked at least two shocking events: Donald Trump was elected president of the United States and Britain voted to leave the European Union. Both events defied expectations, and each turned out to be as bad as opponents had feared. Trump proved to be every bit as corrupt, capricious, narcissistic, and incompetent as he had appeared to be during the campaign, but even his severest critics underestimated his willingness to attack the foundations of American democracy. Indeed, more than two years after his electoral defeat and facing multiple legal challenges, Trump continues to exert a poisonous effect on U.S. political life. Brexit had a similar impact in Great Britain: Not only did leaving the EU do considerable damage to the British economy (precisely as opponents had warned), but it accelerated the Conservative Party’s flight from reality, leading to the cartoonish and serially dishonest antics of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the utter trainwreck of Prime Minister Liz Truss’s brief tenure at No. 10 Downing St. Put your schadenfreude on hold, please: It is not good for anyone when the world’s sixth-largest economy is governed by such a succession of blundering buffoons.

COVID-19

What’s next? How about a global pandemic? Experts had long warned that such an event was inevitable and that the world was not prepared for it, and they turned out to be all too prescient. At least 630 million people have been infected worldwide (the actual number is doubtless higher), the official global death toll now exceeds 6.5 million, and the pandemic has had punishing effects on trade, economic growth, educational achievement, and employment in many countries (especially in the developing world). Work-life patterns have been disrupted, governments have had to adopt emergency measures to save their economies, future productivity growth has almost certainly been reduced, and a combination of loose money policies and supply chain disruptions have helped trigger the persistent inflation that governments and central bankers are now struggling to contain.

The war in Ukraine

We still do not know what the full impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will be, but it won’t be trivial. The war has inflicted enormous damage on Ukraine, threatened existing norms barring the acquisition of territory by force, exposed Russia’s own military deficiencies, sparked what may turn out to be a serious European effort at rearmament, worsened global inflation, and raised the risk of escalation (including the possibility of nuclear weapons use) to a level not seen in decades. Relations between Russia and the West have been deteriorating for some time, but few observers anticipated that this would lead to a major war in 2022 and dominate the foreign-policy agenda in Washington and Europe.

Climate change

Lurking behind many of these events is the slow-motion shock of climate change. Its impact is now being felt in worsening natural disasters, increased civil conflicts, and rising migration from heavily affected areas. Efforts to immigrate or adapt to rising atmospheric temperatures are going to be expensive, and global cooperation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is faltering. All told, the scope of climate change is one more shock that governments ignored for too long and will have to deal with for decades to come.

It would be easy to add some other events to this list, and it would be a challenge to address even one or two of them successfully. Dealing with such a rapid succession is proving to be nearly impossible.

The first problem is bandwidth: When too many disruptions occur too quickly, political leaders don’t have the time or attention span to develop creative solutions or weigh alternatives carefully. The odds that they’ll respond badly increase. Nor do they have adequate time to assess how well their chosen solutions are working, making it harder to correct errors in a timely fashion.

Second, because resources are finite, dealing with the latest shock properly may be impossible if previous crises have used up the assets that are needed today. The more problems leaders face, the harder it will be to give each one the attention and resources it requires.

Third, when successive shocks are connected, trying to solve one problem can make other problems worse. It made good sense for Europe to stop buying natural gas from Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, for example, but this step increased energy costs (making inflation worse) and burning coal instead of natural gas increases greenhouse gas emissions and exacerbates climate change. Focusing laser-like on helping Ukraine may be the right thing to do, but it takes time and effort away from the problems posed by a rising China. There is a good case to be made for limiting China’s ability to use Western technology to enhance its military power, but imposing export controls on chips and other forms of advanced technology impairs U.S. economic growth and will hurt some U.S. businesses, at least in the short term. The more problems you’re trying to solve all at once, the greater the danger that responses to one will undermine your efforts to deal with others.

Finally, unless leaders are extremely lucky or unusually skillful, trying to handle multiple shocks tends to erode public confidence in the entire political system. Citizens may rally around the government when a single, clear-cut crisis erupts (as Ukrainians have in response to Russia’s assault), and policy successes can help convince them that the people in charge really do know what they are doing. But when public officials are facing more shocks than anyone could handle and repeatedly fail to deliver good results, citizens will lose confidence in them (and in the experts they are relying on for advice). Instead of trusting people with the relevant knowledge, experience, and responsibility, publics become more dismissive of expertise and vulnerable to conspiracy theories and other flights from reality. Of course, this problem will be even worse if those in charge are visibly dishonest, corrupt, self-serving, and fully deserving of public scorn.

I don’t have a happy ending for this story, just a final thought. We’ve been living in an era where “move fast and break things” was the mantra—and not just in the fast-moving world of digital technology. Given the shocks we’ve endured in recent years, a better motto for the moment might be “slow down and fix stuff.” I hope we get the chance, and I hope we don’t blow it.

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thebreakfastgenie · 7 months

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☁️

😭

🐧

☁️ Cloudy - What inspired you to start writing your WIP? (or in general)

Time loop WIP (most active as of yesterday!): Groundhog Day, Before I Fall (I think there's a movie now, but I've only read the book), and the Mystery Spot episode of Supernatural. The way my time loop functions drew inspiration primarily from these, as well as other Groundhog Day derivatives. There are a lot of posts in the MASH fandom about time loops. Most of them more or less just throw the words "time loop" around. As a lover of time tropes, I became interested in applying the idea of a time loop seriously.

Ghost AU: The ghost episode! Follies of the Living--Concerns of the Dead got me thinking about it, especially because the ghost in that episode, Weston, is described as always making everyone laugh, making me think he was kind of the Hawkeye of his unit. The thing Hawkeye needs most is an audience (just look at the episode Hawkeye) so depriving him of that and forcing the rest of the 4077th to get along without him is too delicious a concept.

Honestly sometimes I have really good inspiration stories (like the West Wing fic that came from walking across an icy driveway, or the original short-short story that came from seeing toast crumbs in the tub of butter) but none of my current WIPs have one. In general, I'm inspired to write because I didn't want to stop playing with dolls when I grew up and I'm inspired to write fic by wanting more of a work and not being able to get it out of my head.

😭 angst or sad WIP snippet

This took forever to answer because I went on a whole spiral about what counts an angst but I think this is pretty sad. This isn't from one of my primary WIPs because those angst moments are under lock and key for now.

“The only difference between youth and arrogance is whether or not you grow out of it. We were all kids when we got over there, Hawkeye. We thought we knew what we were getting into. The truth is, we didn’t have a clue.” “None of us were kids when we left,” Hawkeye says softly. He’s given up arguing. Sidney’s right—he usually is. “Well, that’s the business of war, making men out of boys. Or so the generals say.” “The business of war is making corpses.” Sidney raises his glass somberly. “I’ll drink to that.”

🐧 a funny quote (silly! laughs! jokes! puns!)

“Did he look a little green around the gills to you?” BJ asks, his voice touched with genuine concern. It makes him a little sick, sometimes, the way BJ can be considerate. Through the netting, Hawkeye can see Charles stalking discretely in the direction of the latrine. “Maybe he has yellow fever,” Hawkeye suggests, scratching at his mosquito bite. “I heard it doesn’t mix well with blue blood,” BJ says in that voice he thinks is a deadpan. Hawkeye waits, and after a moment the stupid grin appears, right on schedule.

I'm proud of this one because it feels like the caliber of pun they have on the show. Slightly sophisticated, but not actually good. Also it led me to look up whether yellow fever is endemic in Korea and the answer is no it's not.

#my best friend assumed i was looking that up for grad school reasons #which would in fact make more SENSE

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allthebrazilianpolitics · 1 year

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Brazil to reduce biodiesel mix in fossil diesel as post-election roadblocks continue

Brazil’s oil and gas regulator ANP is preparing a precautionary resolution that will allow a reduction of the mandatory mix of biodiesel in fossil diesel fuel to 2% from the current 10%, sources told BNamericas.

The initiative is aimed at mitigating the negative effects on national fuel supplies of roadblocks organized by supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro protesting against his defeat in the election on Sunday.

Brazil's right-wing president was narrowly defeated by leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the workers party (PT).

According to the ANP, the change exclusively applies to sales of “Diesel B” fuel, the distribution bases for which are located in the south, southeast and center-west regions, or in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and other states that are yet to be determined by the agency.

#brazil #brazilian politics #politics #economy #brazilian elections #brazilian elections 2022 #oil industry #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt #truckers

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writer-at-the-table · 2 years

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For all of the people following me for or otherwise reading my liveblogging and meta posts about my current watch-through of The West Wing,

Welcome! I'm excited to talk about The West Wing with you guys!

Now, a few notes for context:

I've been a fan of The West Wing since early in its original run (yes, I did watch this show for the first time sometime between the ages of eight and ten. No, I probably didn't really understand most of it. But I kept watching, and re-watching on Bravo and later DVD. I grew into it).

This is not my first, or fifth, or tenth time watching the series. It's also been a while since I've watched much past In the Shadow of Two Gunmen and I'm sure there's details (and bigger things) I've forgotten.

Also, I'm skipping most of the Sam Laurie storyline, because I don't like it, and it's my watch-through and I'll do what I want to. :)

Finally, I don't like the direction the show took once Sorkin left. I think the writers after Sorkin fundamentally misunderstood the characters (especially, though not only, Toby and Josh) and the tone Sorkin had established for the show. I don't know if I'll keep watching beyond the point where Sorkin leaves. I'll decide when I get there.

But in the meantime, although when I discuss characters I often take into account information from later on in the series, I will likely not take into account things from the post-Sorkin era, especially if I think it's ooc. (I realize that term can't really apply when discussing actual canon, but it gets my meaning across, so here we are)

With all of that said, I love The West Wing with all my heart, warts and all, and I'm so glad I'm not the only one left on Tumblr who wants to talk about it.

I'm looking forward to the rest of my journey through the series, and to talking about it with all of you!

#The West Wing #there's more older stuff #on my tumblr #about the west wing #just click the tag #most of its just reblogs though #and quotes #some fic recs #i might go through an reblog any original posts I made #i might not though #*shrugs*#mine #My posts #my meta

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quietquaking · 4 months

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I just wanted to write a cute little 2K fic. Something to do for the night, right? But to do so required knowing a little bit about the specifics of Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters.

So I tried to figure it out. But the more I did, the more I realized it just didn't make sense. And suddenly there I was, redesigning the entirety of his school and the world with it. Now, almost six hours after I was planning on starting my (short! low-effort! one night!) fic... the map is done.

Worldwide Stats

- mutant-x gene appears in approx. 0.4% of the population, but is only activated in maybe a tenth of those (statistics are skewed by varying radiation levels around the world, as well as some hiding their mutations in countries less open to it)

- so about 27 million mutants worldwide, about 120K from the US

- options are to hide it, be killed for it, jump straight into specialized military or government care from a young age (normal age restrictions on military service apply in the US and other countries), hide somewhere isolated, or stay in a place specifically for mutants (Xavier’s school, Genosha, and global equivalents)

- in the future schools will start to adopt special policies for mutant kids, and they can continue living at home, eventually move on and live in normal society (this is mostly for kids with tame or harmless mutations-mutant schools and havens will continue to stay open, particularly for those with more volatile powers)(some can also go to specialized schools, learn to control their powers while getting an education, then rejoin the world with more control)

- currently, about 5K go to Xavier’s and ~16 million live on Genosha

- people immigrate from everywhere to live on Genosha, it’s the largest haven in the world (most range from towns or cities of 100-1 million)- technically Genosha is a small country, without the rights of one, living under the US government

- Genosha isn’t really a cityscape, it’s more stacked up neighborhoods (made of abandoned industrial material, mostly) and sprawled out farmland - people help each other, some areas elect local governors and some go to Erik for larger conflicts, but mostly it’s just peaceful and self-governing. lots of orphanages and group homes and adoptive families, bc human families keep trying to get rid of mutant kids

Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters

- originally it could only hold about 300 people, but it was destroyed during Apocalypse and rebuilt, now holds approx 5K (including 1K of staff) - about 1/2-2/3 stay on site

- floor plan has east, west, south, library, and nursery sections, entry fountain is south, flower garden is south, vegetable/herb gardens are northwest, hedge maze is northeast

- buildings sit in the southeast quadrant of the property

- basement (spanning south and west wings, and stretching farther west underground) holds Cerebro, jet hangar, x-men facilities, hank’s lab (with enough room for other scientists as well), and spaces for training particularly volatile mutations (similar to alex’s bunker in First Class)

- first floor (spanning west, south, and east wings) is large rooms that serve as classrooms (10-30 people), commercial kitchen w hired staff, communal dining space (basically a fancy cafeteria), entrance hall, and headmaster’s office

- second floor (spanning west, south, and east wings) is dormitories (400ish rooms) - for kids staying the week and leaving weekends or kids staying for the year and leaving summer - 6 kids per room (2 triple bunk beds), communal bathrooms, and game room (foosball, pool, ping pong, etc)

- third floor (spanning west, south, and east wings) is residential bedrooms, anyone who stays year-round or lives permanently (x-men and some of the staff)- kids staying summers but leaving after graduation share rooms, but only 2-3 people. couples can also choose to share. a few rooms up here are kept empty for last-minute changes of any kind, as well as a residential kitchen (midnight snacks and whatnot). bathrooms are in each room, but some rooms do share

- attic (south and east wings) is loads and loads of storage

- separate section for the library, 2 stories (kids can also have personal bookshelves in their rooms)

- kids under 6 stay in the nursery, kids 6-14 have someone older in their rooms to mitigate conflict, injury, etc

- everything is connected by two large sets of stair and two elevators, plus stairs in the library and down to the basement

- shed for sports supplies somewhere

- 3 basketball courts, two tracks, and a baseball diamond, plus lots of trees and free space w picnic tables (sometimes outside space gets used for training or classes as well)

- hedge maze and vegetable garden in the back, flower garden in the front

- students can also volunteer in either garden and cook in either kitchen

- the school is private, so it costs to get in, but alternate plans can be made for those that can’t afford it

- everyone is given an allowance to buy their own clothes and toiletries and have a bit of fun, school supplies and food are provided

- trips are taken twice a year in groups to get basic necessities

- there’s a bus stop about half a mile down the road, kids 14 and up are encouraged to walk there and catch the bus to anywhere in town on their days off (students younger than that must find staff supervision)

- students can be finishing up a HS diploma (credits are transferable), or starting from scratch, or just learning to manage their powers

- afterwards students can leave to attempt to rejoin society, go live on Genosha, go hide in the wilderness, join the x-men, or work as a staff member (living onsite or not)

[image id: a pencil sketch of rough squares and rectangles, labelled as all the buildings mentioned above]

#the only reason i'm posting this is so I can link it to the fic when it's done #so people that want some context can have it #x-men #x men movies #xavier's school for gifted youngsters

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