#elite bomber

[orange-s-mario]

some of my favorite bomberman characters

#bomberman #shirobon #kiirobon #max #mujoe #elite bomber #plasma bomber #prune #assault bomber #bomber zero #pink bomber

[regina-bithyniae]

Finished The Wages of Destruction.

Solid 9/10.

Core ideas to take away:

work creation was a minor element of Nazi economic policy, a distant secondary concern after rearmament

rearmament had widespread public support in germany

shifting to autarky took extremely hacky and likely long-run unsustainable export controls, and even *export subsidies* because imports were still an inescapably vital input to industrial production in

controlling big business was largely a "soft co-opting" project while the agriculturalists were insane morons who were much more staunchly pro-nazi

once at war, Germany was going for broke from the very beginning and there was near-zero slack they could've squeezed out more war production from

truly pitiful productivity rate from Germany's conquered continental empire - the workers were far far more productive if deported to Germany than working in home countries

German surface navy seems useless, they didn't even have the oil to run the ships, and metal would've been better used elsewhere

Speer was a shit, Tooze hates hates him

bombing campaign actually was successful! specifically taking out the Ruhr

"blitzkrieg" doctrine was developed as they went; original 1940 invasion of France battleplan was to go "right up the center" not through the Ardennes and pre-battle production focused on heavy artillery ammunition

Bigger points: German "Strategy"

Germany escalated from diplomatic crisis to war with Poland/UK/France, and to war with the Soviet Union, and then America, out of a series of perceived closing windows of opportunity. First one was seeing UK/French production overtaking them in rates and catching up on stocks. In 1940 the US fully commits to aiding Britain, creating sense of "the bombers are coming eventually" and need to gain immediate advantage by conquering the Soviet Union.

Bizarrely, German production was focused on the Luftwaffe in preparation for fighting US/UK air war as Germany was getting ready for Barbarossa!

Declaration of war on US pitched as confirming alliance with Japan, but still feels stupid. Germany could just stay quiet and force US to either engineer entry to European conflict another way or stay out. Still seems less stupid, considering this is at a time when Barbarossa is coming apart.

But overall, a sound if massively risky plan assuming you accept the insane basic assumptions. Hitler's strategic vision often gets assumed to be terrible out of disgust for the consequences of his actions and their failure.

I really do wonder what the vibe was among German economic elite from 1942 onwards, it's obvious the war is not winnable, that you're very fucked, and that everyone is coming to kill you.

Anyways, good book and worth reading/listening to. Tooze could've slimmed down on the pre-war stuff. I find him vaguely irritating with how he brings up irrelevant things just to show how smart he is but that's probably just envy.

P.S.

The original Volkswagen was just a massive scam with no actual civilian cars being produced despite taking all the payments for the vehicles. Possibly suggests two dominant strains of conservatism? Former is old aristocratic conservatism of the nobility or classic US elite; latter is the populist oppositional culture right-wingism which is about 64% scam artists.

#econposting #historyposting

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #16 – The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera

I grabbed this on a recommendation I now forget the specifics of, but which I am incredibly glad I listened to. Not a perfect book, but a beautiful one. It really does immerse you in a capital-w Weird setting in a way I haven’t gotten to enjoy in a while, and might the best in years at really weaving it in with a sense of the mundane and the bathetic. Pacing and character development and plot are a little all over the place, but still a great read.

The story follows Fetter, the only child of the Perfect and Kind, anointed messiah of the Path Above. His mother tears his shadow off of him at birth, and forever after he must choose to remain tethered to the earth and not float away into infinity. He is raised from birth as a tool to take vengeance on his father by committing each of his five unforgivable sins – culminating, of course, in holy patricide. His childhood is spent in indoctrination and murders – and oh, he’s also the only one he knows who can see the monstrous devils who share the world with humanity.

So anyway, all that gives him a lot to talk about in therapy.

The actual book follows Fetters’ life as an aimless young adult in the city of Luriat, with its layers of impenetrable government and byzantine system of castes and races inherited from successive colonizers, its regular pogroms and plagues, and its tendency for any doors left closed and unwatched for too long to instantaneously become permanently shut portals to Somewhere. Over the course of the book, he is dragged into a revolutionary conspiracy, learns his father is coming to the city, learns deep metaphysical secrets, is a pretty terrible boyfriend, becomes a suicide bomber, and learns to fly.

To start with the negative, the pacing of the plot is...okay, maybe not bad, but it’s really not trying for the things I’d expect it to. A whole act of the narrative is spent meandering through an absurd purgatory of refugee/prison/quarantine camps Fetter has been consigned to. Lovely writing, thematically important, does eat up a lot of page count which then leads to rest of the book being things happening very quickly one after the other with very little in the way of buildup or reflection. Time is enjoyably spent just detailing the experience of Fetter’s day to day life, but much of the supporting cast feel more like plot (or thematic) devices than characters. The book ends with the protagonist loudly reciting the big lesson he’s learned from the events of the book. So yeah, less than perfect book. Still, I found all the sins very easy to forgive.

As mentioned, this was the first fantasy book I’ve read in a while that felt properly fantastical, like it was created from first principles rather than being the latest in a hoary old lineage stretching back generations. Which might be complete bullshit, I don’t know – not like I’ve read a great deal of other South Asian fantasy to compare it to – but it worked for me. A big part of which is how very modern it is. This is a secondary world with prophets and plague-bearing anti-gods, forgotten timelines whose ghosts leak into the world, and a whole plethora of almost- and not-quite- messiahs. And also one with cellphones and UN-administered refugee camps, labyrinthine bureaucratic politics and scandals over inappropriate allocation of imported medical devices. It all feels like a reflection of the present and its own concerns rather than the thousandth-generation pastiche much of the genre does, I suppose – which is something I really did appreciate.

The world of the book – or, at least, the little slice of it the story is concerned with. There’s clearly grander and stranger things happening off in the distance – is one intensely concerned with caste and class, race and religion and breeding. Luriat is weighed down with the architecture and high culture of successive waves of colonialism, and its elites organize and govern the population according to a syncretic mix of all of their ideological castoffs. Politics – and in particular the use of plague and quarantine on one hand and sectarian pogroms on the other to control the populace – is pretty key to the whole book. It’s also just about entirely beyond Fetter. Not that he’s dumb, just that he’s apolitical, in the sense of treating government like an inexorable and inevitable fact of life to be worked with/around or avoided, not something you can understand or change. Which makes for fun reading as there’s clearly a whole Les Mis thing happening like 0.5 degrees to the left of the book’s plot.

Anyway, I’m still sad Pipra didn’t get more screentime, and the whole ending feels almost comically rushed, but absolutely a worthwhile read.

#book review #the saint of bright doors #vajra chandrasekera #sff

[cherry-blossomtea]

I love Horn as a character so much because of how completely totally clinically insane she is but she’s so good at hiding it that you’d never know unless you thought to look. And I think a lot of people overlook that in favor of “angry lady who explodes things” which is absolutely an accurate characterization but like.

Rita could have absolutely been a nepo baby, she’s like a countess or some shit, the Skamandroses are old Victorian money but in the fashion of her family name said “Nah fuck that” and joined the army until she earned her place into an elite squadron as a commander no less. Beloved and trusted by her platoon whom she gave everything she possibly had and it was her life. I think for her, being a soldier was what she could do. She was drawn to the structure of it, even if she didn’t necessarily think so highly of the institution. She wanted to fight and so she went to war teeth bared.

She adheres strictly to discipline and rules and order and she finds comfort in the routine and orderly. If something doesn’t fit into the boxes she knows she will make it fit or discard it. Her values are nigh unshakeable, but it is…interesting to see what she actually values. Protecting those who cannot defend themselves, fighting for the people she knows and loves, desperately trying to rein in the chaos she stumbles through as Victoria eats itself alive. I think growing up as the daughter of a count gave her that insight—Victoria, the empire, isn’t something worth defending. She would have been privy to the political upheaval and grown up alongside the coup that overthrew the Steam Knights and the monarchy. So of course she doesn’t fight for king or country. But fighting to maintain order, to halt corruption, to save the lives of individuals? That she can do. “For the greater good” is anathema to the paradigm that guides her life.

Of course, she has lost control of herself. Bagpipe mentions her interrogating a serial bomber and being so violent she left marks the imprisonment device (likely similar to the ones we see in Mansfield). Her files mention her family’s originium arts grant them combat prowess, at the the expense of their own selves, and it’s something she’s tapped into again and again.

And then the fucking County Hillock incident happened.

In the span of 24 hours she loses her friends one by one and is betrayed by her superiors. So now you’re looking at this kamikazee of a woman who is fueled by rage and vengeance alone because they took everything else that kept her going—her squadron, her friends, her faith in the Victorian army, her faith in her ideals. The only thing left to her was screaming in fury as she literally destroyed her own body in an attempt to get revenge. If she had her way, she would have gone down in that fight and been another name on that memorial. She sent Bagpipe away so that at least there was something left because god knew it wasn’t about to be her. At what point was it even about honor or some bullshit everyone else around her seemed to have abandoned? It wasn’t about deservedness or justice or righteousness. It was just ‘the army and Dublinn killed her squadmates Mandragora killed Cello’ and someone was going to pay.

She truly didn’t expect to survive and to her it was probably crueler that she did.

#long post #upholding my blog title o7 #arknights #horn arknights

[jyndor]

oh my god this rolling stone by spencer ackerman article about kissinger's death is brutal

some highlights, though you should read it in its entirety, include:

comparison to timothy mcveigh, the oklahoma city bomber

the American elite and media's treatment of him:

on hillary clinton calling him a friend and the obama administration relying on him for counsel:

vietnam being a stepping stone to power for kissinger:

cambodia:

blaming the south vietnamese for the failure in vietnam in the most paternalistic way imaginable, and then biden doing something similar wrt afghanistan:

on kissinger not viewing the cold war through an ideologically anticommunist (read: fascist) lens but rather through the lens of protecting american interests no matter what:

dang it I can't upload any more, gonna reblog and do more because it's too good

#henry kissinger #richard nixon #us politics #geopolitics #neoliberalism #war crimes #history

[mysral]

#fantasy #poll #demons #demon lord #strategy #tactics

[precisionbattlesystem]

She was always strict, a mouth loud and wide, and a stature that was tall and proud. She was a Witch, like the ones you hear of fairy tales. I almost thought my squad mates were fucking with me.

She was in charge of the Medic Tent and saw to all of our injured and better off dead, and after a seeing a member of the recon squad come back torn in half walking out of the tent with a balljointed sigh of relief, I could only believe in the rumors that she was indeed, magical.

I never talked to her myself. The Elite Division had no need for bandages, even ones as magical as Hers. But fate has a funny way of twisting the knife.

It was after a search and rescue. Civillians were in a war torn battlefield, sand, dust, and blood. It was horrific, even by a professional murderer’s standards. And that’s when I received the orders. “Make it worse,”

The higher ups were hungry for medals. And rewards were only given out if the war was over. So if they could amplify the urgency through shock and uproar of the public, they could bring out the war enders. The heroes and war heads of yesteryear.

“Kill them *****,” I couldn’t hear my own name as my conscience screamed at me imagining what the family below me saw, looking up at the giant war machine, sharp pointy objects pointed at their home.

I couldn’t hear my own name over the explosions.

On the way back to the camp, a suicide bomber covered in a blanket of improvised explosions. Enough to level a building, and over kill to obliterate a mech.

It was karma. And honestly I was fine with this outcome. It’s what I deserved.

At least it’s what I hoped for. But then I woke up in the Medic Tent and saw her. She was tending to her magical remedies and herbs.

I was ready for her to work her magic, any pain I felt already subsiding knowing I was in good hands.

I was third in line to be worked on. She yelled at the other Medics, “Twenty centimeters of bandage! Soaked in the ointment for ten seconds!” She was specific with her orders as she worked. Precise. Clean. Good.

It was magical to watch. When she finally got to me, I asked without thinking, “How are you so good?”

I wasn’t ready for what she said. “Unlike you, I’m not dead,”

I began to panic. Were my wounds mortal? Was she not able to fix me? Was her magic not enough? “Am I going to die?”

“No you misunderstand, you’re already dead. You died when you settled for your status. When you refused to push yourself. When you followed your orders. A new you took old you’s place. If I were to die, take shortcuts and settle for less, I wouldn’t.”

She finished on me quickly as the others. She then gave me a small lollipop and patted my back, “Good luck Slayer, such a good dog,” she laughed mockingly.

It could hear its name again.

And it was repulsed.

#empty spaces #witch #war crimes #war

[gusty-wind]

Mindy Robinson@AmericanAFMindy

2h·

We have a corrupt, dementia patient for "president" that no one's allowed to question the "election" of that:

• Refuses to close the border to illegals, child sex traffickers, and gang bangers.

• Is actively funding this invasion using our tax money to do it.

• Won't stop inappropriately touching and sniffing children.

• Can't walk up or down stairs.

• Is appearing at political rally's where the general public isn't allowed anywhere near him.

• Can't speak or form a coherent sentence.

• Has a crackhead son he laundered money through.

• Who was installed by a Deep State that got caught censoring private companies to skew an election to his favor.

• Set up election protestors on J6 with federal informants they refuse to prosecute, a pipe bomber they refuse to look for, all while arresting veterans and MAGA grandmas that walked through an open door.

• Was installed with the help of a corrupt FBI that lied about the incriminating laptop being real.

• Is STILL protecting the elite pedophiles on Epstein's list.

• Blew up a pipe line that they bragged about before it happened, while simultaneously bitching to us about the environment.

• Allowed Chinese spy balloons to cross this country multiple times.

• Refuses to prosecute Fauci for the crimes against humanity he committed with Big Pharma.

• Left trillions in military gear and weapons to Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan.

• Whose administration accidentally drone bombed little kids, that no one even got reprimanded for.

• Is desperately trying to start a new world war to distract from everything his controllers have done.

• Is still employing mail-in ballots for a reason that no longer exists, on riggable machines they refuse to address.

• Is constantly pushing for abortion as a "right" when it's not, while actively trying to strip honest Americans of their 2A constitutional rights.

• Keeps lying about how great "Bidenomics" is like we don't have fucking eyes.

• Keeps pushing transgenderism, drag queens, and the sexual butchering of children for profit in the name of wokeness.

• Allows a corrupt FDA to continue to allow poisoned and carcinogenic additives and chemicals throughout our food supply.

• Hired 87,000 IRS agents to nickel and dime tax payers while allowing Congress to inside trade and profit off of bribes from lobbyists, corporations, and PACs.

• Won't stop sending money to be laundered to Ukraine.

• Refuses to help Hawaiians or Ohioans with their (not so natural) disasters.

• and now he's been caught flying around illegals to station all around the country for some kind of replacement or attack...

Am I missing anything?

Is anybody going to stop this crazy train and do something about this insane bullshit?

#the great awakening #war is real

[ladym-rules]

Brienne's Angels

If this was a film, there’d be a montage of three very handsome men fighting off the bad guys, showing their athletic prowess, and charming everyone in their paths.

Since it isn’t, please imagine these very handsome men working as an elite crime fighting team and serving up flirty looks on the side. Slow-mo hair toss, shirtless volleyball on the beach, maybe a surprise dive out of an airplane while disarming a bomber. That kind of thing.

My Charlie's Angels AU gift fic for @renee561 for the Jaime x Brienne Fic Exchange 2023.

Check it out on AO3!

#jaime x brienne #jaime lannister #brienne of tarth #braime #fanfic #my fic #jaime x brienne fic exchange #charlies angels #myfic

[super-earths-liberations]

Super Earth Invasion

Before the Helldivers deploy to their latest operation, we need to know how they fight. Super Earth invasion strategy isn't as simple as massed infantry charges across open fields, so how do they go about liberating a planet?

Their general strategy is pretty ingenious, and it all centers around their liberal use of hellpods. With these provocatively named drop pods, they can safely and consistently place troops anywhere on the planet without needing to worry about supply lines or battlefronts. Troops running low on ammo? Drop them some ammo. Helldivers need rocket launchers for a sudden tank attack? Drop some right beside them.

But it's not just supplies; it's also a matter of troop placement. Helldivers can be placed behind the front lines and destabilize their formations with ease. While Super Earth general forces get slaughtered en masse in the front lines, the Helldivers can immediately drop behind them and flank the whole army.

That would be devastating enough, but the way they use this ability is even deadlier. Why limit yourself to flanking when you could strike strategic assets?

Let's put this all together. Say there's a major air base garrisoned with tons of fighters, bombers, and transports that supplies the enemy air force with the majority of the region's air capability. The Ministry of Defense wants to disable it, but there's a tank division entrenched with the defenders. Sure, we could send in as many Helldivers as needed to destroy them all, and people are a renewable resource, but there's got to be a more cost effective way to do it. What do we do?

How about instead of attacking the air base directly, we attack a major communications relay two kilometers to the west?

Look at it from the enemy's perspective. The battles to control the planet are going swimmingly and all seems well. Suddenly, outposts in their controlled territory go dark. Patrols are sent to investigate what's happening, and they go silent. So they start sending more troops to see what's happening. Then they get the confirmation that a guerilla force is attacking the region, and they're gunning for the relay. Well we can't let that get destroyed, so we need to send in more troops to stop them. But nothing seems to work. At some point, all they can figure to do is send in some armor. And hey, there's a conveniently placed tank division just a few minutes away. it's not like they're doing anything right now. Why not send them?

And so they do; the tanks leave their post at the air base to take out the Helldivers wreaking havoc. Unfortunately, they don't get there fast enough to save the relay. Long range comms are out, but that can be fixed. More importantly, we need those tanks to take out these clearly elite troops mucking up our bases. We kill a few of them, but we lose just as many tanks in the attempt. We chase them off and they extract from the battlefield while we shoot impotently. In the end, we can't even say this was a victory. We simply lost too much to make a few measly kills worthwhile.

Then you receive word from short range comms that Helldivers launched an attack on the air base while the tanks were distracted. Local defense forces are getting wiped out, and those tanks need to get back there pronto!

So they rush back there just in time to see a lot of the base's infrastructure smoldering. Tanks try to get back inside, but the roles have gotten reversed, with the Helldivers now using the base's own defenses against them. Even if the tanks succeed at repelling the Helldivers and securing the base, their victory would be pyrrhic at best. How many aircraft did they lose in the attack? With the surviving craft, do they even have enough fuel and munitions to use them? How many guards and tanks did they lose trying to keep it all?

And this is just the small scale. Expand this to a planetary scale, and it's no wonder how Super Earth conquers a planet in a matter of hours. Quick diversionary strikes followed by ruthless decapitating strikes can quickly reduce any defender to small pockets of easily disposed resistance.

There's only one major drawback to the Super Earth strategy. If Helldivers need support, they have to call it in. It seems like the orbiting super destroyers can't fire on the planet without a beacon designating a target. How else can the automatons get away with building large outposts in the game, right? So Helldivers need to get down there first, and get within throwing range. Should they get spotted, the Helldivers risk getting killed before any necessary aid can arrive. This can ruin an operation completely, to say nothing of what happens if they miss their throw.

This is how Super Earth fights; dissecting planets apart before they can properly defend themselves. As long as super destroyers can get above a target, they can start a battle when it's most convenient.

Let's keep all this in mind as they meet their neighbors.

#helldivers #strategy #helldivers 2

[ikiyou]

BSD Rewatch Ep2

In episode 2, near the beginning, Dazai says something interesting after stating that the other ADA members didn't pay much attention to his barrel suicide antics:

"Anyone gifted with supernatural powers has something wrong with them inside…"

I've seen speculation by others in the fandom that Abilities come from some kind of trauma. I'm not saying this is any kind of confirmation of that speculation, but it is an interesting statement that he throws out there.

Could also refer to the idea that having an Ability eventually twists a person in some way - having power, having something weird with you, etc, can change a person. Being clearly different from others and from other Ability users (usually, it seems no 2 Abilities are similar), an Ability user is a lonely person with unique experiences that cannot be shared by anyone else. No two Gifteds can see the world the same way. And it is virtually impossible to share the impact one's Ability has on a person or forces them to experience.

And interestingly, later on in the episode, Tanizaki repeats Dazai's statement, "I swear, anyone gifted with supernatural powers has something wrong with them inside…"

So this isn't just a random statement…

From Tanizaki's POV as the 'bomber' enemy, clearly his take is that Ability users are unnatural freaks who can cause problems (he's there for 'revenge' after all). Although the stance of the public is rather unknown in BSD, this shows that there is at least some sentiment floating around that Ability users are some kind of mutant, unnatural form of humanity. Maybe not even human.

The fact that we learn a little bit about an 'Ability War' - some war possibly fought against Ability Users (or is it with and not against Ability Users?) - as well as the government's elite Hunting Dog team meant to hunt down and kill Ability users like they are rabid dogs, and even the government's Special Ability Department, meant to track and handle 'rogue' Ability users and the issues they cause - this all points to a pervasive distrust of Gifteds. At the very least from the government side, even if we never really see what the public thinks of them.

Having such sentiment plied on one from outside means one can possibly begin to believe it.

I'd say it's a thread that isn't really taken anywhere later on in the series - and it's NOT baked into the makeup of what we are exposed to as daily life in the BSD universe - but the major enemy of the series, Fyodor, very much believes this. So this is very much foreshadowing.

I'd just appreciate it if we could see more of this in the world building instead of having it relegated solely to plot moments.

And furthermore, it's interesting (admittedly jokingly), but at the end of the episode, Dazai says that were Atsushi not to join the ADA, he's a wanted tiger (despite the legal distinction between a murderer and a proven plea of insanity, which would be a parallel) and he would at best be fired, at worst captured and shot. Despite being a human being, who, even as a tiger, has not even harmed another human. Perhaps Dazai means that in his tiger form, he'd inevitably be shot rather than as a human, but. That still throws a bit of light on the idea that Ability Users are an exception to a normal treatment of a human being.

#bungou stray dogs #bsdrewatch2023 #bungou stray dogs meta #ep2 #Honestly I was wondering if I would even have anything to contribute since I don't tend to rip out pieces to espouse on like everybody else #But it's interesting that everyone tends to key on different aspects for different reasons

[j4m3s-b4k3r]

Staying Alive

Godzilla is just gonna smash stuff. Every time. No matter what humans do. Award winning actors & big name directors can headline a story where elite military forces wield the most advanced tech on Earth, but none of that will matter. The franchise requires that the big lizard will prevail. There is always entertaining spectacle, but (for me) there's little emotional engagement, because humans are merely gnats buzzing around the feet of The Big G. And so, I prepared for the inevitable cocktail of uninvolving mayhem as the lights went down before the latest Godzilla flick.

However, GODZILLA: MINUS ONE gripped me from the very beginning and didn’t let me go. I was amazed by this. I’d always felt that the sheer futility of any human action in a Godzilla film was the reason that these films would always have little involvement, despite all their spectacle. However, this film defeats those dramatic problems by flying straight into the eye of the storm. The implacable force of Godzilla is flipped, in a judo-throw by writer/director TAKASHI YAMAZAKI, to tell a moving story about human frailty.

After a cataclysmic war, the protagonist (movingly played by RYUNOSUKE KAMIKI) deals with the shame of being a kamikaze pilot who came home. To a Japan utterly firebombed into ashes by Bomber Command. Much of the plot deals with remorse, survivor’s guilt, and people forgiving others & themselves. With loved ones all dead, new families form when complete strangers become attached to each other. Every character is trying to pick up the pieces, and all their stories are affecting. 

In this Godzilla film, the human story is the A-story, and Godzilla is actually the B-story, and that’s why it works so well. Here, Godzilla is just a force of nature. Like the earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons that frequently bash the Japanese archipelago. The A-story is about humans making sense of life after cataclysm, just as the Japanese people have done countless times over the centuries. The frailty of human life is the very point of this story, which seems to ask - are frailty, failure and futility the same thing? 

In fact, this could be a moving film about finding meaning amongst the ruins, even without any Godzilla at all. Adding in a rampaging radioactive monster heightens the drama & stakes when these new human connections have been made. Godzilla is the ultimate unstoppable chaos agent, and in the right hands, the perfect vehicle for telling a story about finding meaning after loss, tragedy & defeat. Staying alive by accident, or even cowardice, isn’t a disgrace if something meaningful is done with the life that remains. 

I often squirm when a movie is over 2 hours, but GODZILLA: MINUS ONE didn’t feel bloated at all. Every scene and each performance strengthened the whole. It both looked & felt like a blockbuster epic, but apparently cost less than 15 million dollars. It was very impressive indeed.

5 Radioactive Stars!

#gojira #godzilla #illustration #essay #movie review #godzilla minus one #kaiju art #kaiju #ww2 aircraft #Shinden #takashi yamazaki #godzilla minus 1 #minus one #koichi shikishima

[beardedmrbean]

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iranian leaders vowed revenge on Thursday for two explosions that killed nearly 100 people at a ceremony to commemorate top Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani on the anniversary of his death in a U.S. drone attack.

"A very strong retaliation will be handed to them on the hands of the soldiers of Soleimani," First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber told reporters at a hospital were some of the wounded from Wednesday's blasts were receiving treatment.

Tehran has blamed the explosions on unspecified "terrorists", but no one has yet claimed responsibility for the bloodiest such attacks since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

An unnamed source told the state news agency IRNA that the first explosion at the cemetery in the southeastern city of Kerman "was the result of a suicide bomber's action".

"The cause of the second blast was most likely the same," the source told IRNA.

State TV showed crowds gathered at dozen cities across Iran, including Soleimani's home town Kerman, chanting: "Death to Israel" and "Death to America".

Iranian authorities have called for mass protests on Friday, when the funerals of the victims' of twin blasts will be held, state media reported.

Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps described the attacks as a cowardly act "aimed at creating insecurity and seeking revenge against the nation's deep love and devotion to the Islamic Republic".

The Guards commander in Kerman denied state media reports of a shooting in Kerman on Thursday.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has condemned the "heinous and inhumane crime", and Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, vowed revenge for the twin bombings, that also wounded 284 people, including women and children.

EARLIER ATTACKS

The United States on Wednesday said it was not involved in any way in the explosions and had no reason to believe Israel was.

Washington said the blasts appeared to represent "a terrorist attack" of the type carried out in the past by Islamic State militants.

Tehran often accuses its arch enemies, Israel and the United States, of backing anti-Iran militant groups that have carried out attacks against the Islamic Republic in the past. Baluchi militants and ethnic Arab separatists have also staged attacks in Iran.

In 2022, the Sunni Muslim militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Shi'ite shrine in Iran which killed 15 people.

Earlier attacks claimed by Islamic State include twin bombings in 2017 which targeted Iran's parliament and the tomb of the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The U.S. assassination of Soleimani in a Jan. 3, 2020, drone attack at Baghdad airport, and Tehran's retaliation - by attacking two Iraqi military bases that house U.S. troops - brought the United States and Iran close to full-blown conflict.

As chief commander of the elite Quds force, the overseas arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Soleimani ran clandestine operations abroad and was a key figure in Iran's longstanding campaign to drive U.S. forces from the Middle East.

Tensions between Iran and Israel, along with its ally the United States, have reached a new high over Israel's war on Iran-backed Hamas militants in Gaza in retaliation for their Oct. 7 rampage through southern Israel.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militia have attacked ships they say have links to Israel in the entrance to the Red Sea, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

U.S. forces have come under attack from Iran-backed militants in Iraq and Syria over Washington's backing of Israel and have carried out their own retaliatory air strikes.

#nunyas news

[rockislandadultreads]

New Title Tuesday: Sci-Fi Picks

The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei

They left Earth to save humanity. They’ll have to save themselves first.

It is the eve of Earth’s environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity’s last hope: eighty elite graduates of a competitive program, who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space. But halfway to a distant but livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, is an immediate suspect.

Asuka already felt like an impostor before the explosion. She was the last picked for the mission, she struggled during training back on Earth, and she was chosen to represent Japan, a country she only partly knows as a half-Japanese girl raised in America. But estranged from her mother back home, The Phoenix is all she has left.

With the crew turning on each other, Asuka is determined to find the culprit before they all lose faith in the mission—or worse, the bomber strikes again.

The Book of Witches edited by Jonathan Strahan

Witches! Whether you know them from Shakespeare or from Wicked, there is no staple more beloved in folklore, fairy tale, or fantasy than these magical beings. Witches are everywhere, and at the heart of stories that resonate with many people around the world. This dazzling, otherworldly collection gathers new stories of witches from all walks of life, ensuring a Halloween readers will never forget. Whether they be maiden, mother, crone, or other; funny, fierce, light and airy, or dark and disturbing; witches are a vital part of some of the greatest stories we have, and new ones start here!

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera

Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy.

He walked among invisible devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow, and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city, and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen.

Everything in Luriat is more than it seems. Group therapy is recruitment for a revolutionary cadre. Junk email hints at the arrival of a god. Every door is laden with potential, and once closed may never open again. The city is scattered with Bright Doors, looming portals through which a cold wind blows. In this unknowable metropolis, Fetter will discover what kind of man he is, and his discovery will rewrite the world.

The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

The dust may have just settled in the failed war of conquest between the Holy Vaalbaran Empire and the Ominirish Republic, but the last Emperor’s surrender means little to a lowly scribe like Enitan. All she wants is to quit her day job and expand her fledgling tea business. But when her lover is assassinated and her sibling is abducted by Imperial soldiers, Enitan abandons her idyllic plans and weaves her tea tray up through the heart of the Vaalbaran capital. There, she learns just how far she is willing to go to exact vengeance, free her sibling, and perhaps even secure her homeland’s freedom.

#fantasy #science fiction #new books #reading recommendations #reading recs #book recommendations #book recs #library books #tbr #tbr pile #to read #booklr #book tumblr #book blog #library blog #readers advisory

[antoine-roquentin]

This series has repeatedly made reference to obscure events in the Dominican Republic from 1961 to 1966 which culminated in an American military invasion. They are relatively unknown and appear murky to outsiders. They united the CIA, the non-violent section of the civil rights movement, and a group of labour movement figures with links to Norman Thomas' post-Eugene Debs Socialist Party of America, the Democratic Socialist Party of today, and the Neoconservative movement that planned the Iraq War of 2003. The next two (maybe three) parts of the series will hopefully elucidate some of these events for readers. The previous part, Part 5, can be read here.

1965 was the fifth time America invaded the Dominican Republic. The fourth was in 1916, initiating an occupation that went on until 1924. America also controlled the nation's foreign trade from 1904 to 1947, collecting 50% of its revenue by heavily taxing its people on imports in order to pay off European powers with Citibank getting a commission to do the counting. These events bookended the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, 1930 to 1961. This resulted in a weak state unable to defend itself or the foreign corporations who wanted to invest in it.

Trujillo's government was a revolution of sorts because he directly took his methods from the mafia to govern. He'd spent years as a plantation overseer by day and gang leader by night, then joined the American-trained Dominican police and became an army officer. He learned how to use violence and manipulation to get what he wanted as well as how to pleas foreigners. In one case, he'd been sent by the occupiers to deal with a guerilla army in the interior. He was so successful that the American troops covered the reports of rapes and tortures he committed while doing so. As one of his trainers said, "He thinks just like a marine!" When the Americans withdrew, he retreated to a former castle that served as a military base, building up power until he could take advantage of a crisis and overthrow the government. Once in power, he set to creating state capacity for his rule by shaking down local industries one by one, collecting revenue and inserting loyalists into their leadership while allowing them the benefits of state backing through investment and coordination. He was so successful that he was the longest serving leader in the Caribbean's history at the time of his death.

Trujillo used a similar system of creating win-win situations to persuade American diplomats and investors to support him. He went on a charm offensive, building a tourism sector internally and using his one-time son-in-law, playboy Porfirio Rubirosa, as an ambassador and press officer. Rubirosa was not only wildly charismatic, he was also reported by Truman Capote to have an eleven inch penis. After divorcing Trujillo's daughter, he married two French actresses and the two richest women in the world back to back, making bank on his divorce settlements. Like much of the Dominican Republic's elite, he lived a charmed life, racing/crashing Ferraris and airplanes (including a B-25 bomber) internationally. Both he and his former father-in-law lived part of the year in lavish apartments in New York City, racing Ferraris and buying out brothels. Some of the money came from Dominican visas that Rubirosa sold to German Jews fleeing the Holocaust and Spaniards fleeing Franco. Trujillo had retreated there to convince the world that he had changed his ways after spearheading the massacre of tens of thousands of Haitians in his country in 1937. In the shadows he worked to mastermind a comeback, making it seem like his people organically wanted him again in the 1942 show elections. He won 100% of the vote.

By 1947, the Cold War was on. Most people forget that this was a process initiated by a strong and muscular liberalism that had just defeated fascism and felt it could do the same to communism. Liberal intelligentsia in American government had undertaken a decade-long march through the institutions and created a new setup for the global economy with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, and Bretton Woods. It seemed to many in the Third World that America had turned over a new leaf and was ready to support democracy abroad. For the entrenched right wing forces in Latin America, however, it seemed like business as usual. Just as he had declared war on the Nazis, Trujillo now worked to find a communist menace to kill  to serve American interests. He used his agents to create a fake Marxist-Leninist party as opposition to run against him in the 1947 election. After picking up 92% of the vote, he used their supposed allegiance to Moscow to crack down on them, winning himself plaudits in Congress.

For many in Latin America, this was the last straw. In Cuba, 1200 men came together in what was termed the Caribbean Legion. Mostly exiles from Latin American dictatorships and sympathizers, they were ready to kill and die for liberalism. Some had fought in the Spanish Civil War and escaped death at the hands of the Franco regime when Trujillo had chosen to accept refugees from Europe as part of his developmental push, only to find their political allegiance was to socialism above all. They were backed by the elected leader of Cuba, Ramon Grau, who saw them as a way to topple a nearby enemy. They also pulled support from the president of Guatemala, Juan Jose Arevalo, who like his successor Jacobo Arbenz was an anti-communist liberal. Among the membership was Carlos Prio, the next president of Cuba, Juan Bosch, the most famous anti-Trujillo Dominican, Romulo Betancourt, a future president of Venezuela, Jose Figueres, the next president of Costa Rica, and a law student/basketball player at Havana University named Fidel Castro.

Figueres was a strange figure, perhaps the most fascinating of the Cold War. A plantation owner, he described himself as a "farmer-socialist". He invested his money in improving the living conditions of his workers, certain that it would make them more productive. He came to power with the help of the Legion in a very odd way, in a civil war that belongs with those pictures of Wikipedia where both sides are in odd alliances, with the right wing Nicaraguan dictatorship backing the Catholic Church and the Communist Party against Figueres' oligarch allies, supported by both America and the Guatemalan government it would later overthrow. Figueres immediately defenestrated those allies and took power for himself despite his talk of democracy, abolishing the army, nationalizing all banks, guaranteeing public education, giving citizenship to black migrants, giving women the vote, instituting social welfare, and banning the Communist Party. He helped establish the School of the Americas where the American military taught torture techniques and broke off relations with every American-backed dictator in the region. At one point, he was the subject of the only shooting war fought between different branches of the American government, when his State Department friends gave him planes to fight ones provided to Nicaragua by the CIA.

The Caribbean Legion would not have any other successes because it faced a classic problem of liberals during the Cold War: its membership was supportive of social reform, and that made the American government suspect they were secretly communists in disguise. The Legion had wanted to overthrow Trujillo, but the Americans convinced Grau to arrest them and confiscate their weapons. Castro managed to escape by jumping off the ship they were captured on and swimming to shore. Even as doors closed for the Legion, however, others opened. Ironically, it was another section of the American government that would save them. Their patron Figueres' liberal anti-communism had its fans in the CIA, which as an organization staffed largely by liberal WASPs from northeastern Ivy League universities felt that the combination would be sufficient to compete with the Soviets for hegemony among the Latin American peasantry. Figueres ended up on the CIA's payroll directly, codename HUMAIL. A lighter hand would be used for the Legion's membership, however.

[altruistresistance]

INFO DUMP FOR MY PRIMARY AU

SONIC: BATTLE LINE

PLOT

On the Planet Mobius, all is quiet. The population of Humans and Mobians alike live in harmony. Or so it seems. Under the shining exterior, a cold war between extremists and the government is starting to boil over. Head of the Science Division, Dr. Ivo Robotnik plots to use scientific advancements to turn the population against one another. As such, the Guardians of the United Nations scrambled a small platoon of heroes with remarkable powers in order to stop him. The conflict has been going for three years... and it's reaching a boiling point.

THE SECOND STAR RESISTANCE

Cole "Sonic" Aleena the Hedgehog (Powers: Super speed, mild wind manipulation.)

Michelle "Sonia" Aleena the Hedgehog (Powers: Invisibility.)

Jordan "Manic" Aleena the Hedgehog (Powers: Super strength, limited seismic manipulation.)

Miles "Tails" Prower the Fox (Powers: Two-tailed flight.)

Amy "Rusty" Rose the Hedgehog (Powers: Super strength, invisibility, cyborg anatomy.)

Elijah "Knuckles" Meadows the Echidna (Powers: Super strength, hyper durability.)

Clara "Rouge" Hopkins the Bat (Powers: Psionic shield.)

E-123 Omega (Powers: Internal nanometal arsenal.)

Samson Robotnik Beowulf "Shadow" Terios the Hedgehog (Powers: super speed, super strength, mastery over Chaos manipulation.)

THE ROBOTON REGIME (HIGH COMMAND)

Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik (Powers: Cybernetic enhancements Badnik control.)

Jason "Sleet" Fredrick the Wolf (Powers: control over the nanometal drones known as the Dingo Pack.)

Snively Robotnik (Powers: Badnik control.)

Neo "Metal Sonic" Metallix the Android Hedgehog (Powers: Nanometal copy ability.)

Xander "Infinite" Oliver the Jackal (Powers: Unstable Chaos energy manipulation filtered through the Phantom Ruby.)

Agent Breezie the Synthetic Hedgehog (Powers: Hypnotic mist.)

THE ROBOTON REGIME (BADNIKS)

MotoBugs (Motorcycle beetles armed with submachine guns. Weak point, wheels.)

Buzz Bombers (Small VTOL wasps armed with low-burn plasma beams in the stinger. Weak point, torso.)

Crabmeat (Crustacean sentinels with claw-mounted rocket launchers. Weak point, joints.)

Optic Pods (Single-eyed scouts with micro missile salvos. Weak point, power core/eye.)

Slicers (Praying mantis guards with reinforced titanium blades. Weak point, back of the neck.)

SwatBots (Elite humanoid Badniks capable of speech that use built in high-burn plasma cannons and smart-lock missiles. Weak point, Achilles heel.)

Hover Units (Large helicopter drones armed with ultrasonic concussion cannons, fusion core missiles, and a deployable energy shield. Weak point, rotor blades.)

Tank-Rexes (Huge theropod-like tanks with powerful jaws, optical plasma cutters, drill tail, and hyper-concussive roar. Weak point, internal generator.)

WEAPON TYPES

Melee (Swords, hammers, pile bunkers, the list goes on.)

Ballistic (Firearms that use traditional bullets. Effective against lighter Badniks, but useless against SwatBots and large units.)

Plasma (Firearms that utilize plasma engines rather than standard ammunition. Rare, but effective against more elite Badniks.)

Explosive (Be it a rocket launcher or grenade, these weapons pack a punch. Can be just as damaging to the wielder as it is to the enemy.)

HEADCANON VOICES SO FAR

Sonic - Benjamin Diskin

Sonia - Erica Mendez

Manic - Johnny Yong Bosch

Tails - Anthony Del Rio

Knuckles - Khary Payton

Amy - Jamie Lamchick

Rouge - Grey DeLisle

Omega - Keith David

Shadow - Ian Hanlin

Eggman - Charlie Adler

Sleet - Steve Blum

Snively - Peter MacNicol

Metallix - Ron Perlman

Infinite - Liam O'Brien

Breezie - Laura Bailey

SwatBots - Isaac Singleton Jr.

#sonic au #sonic fandom #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #miles tails prower #knuckles the echidna #amy rose #rouge the bat #e 123 omega #dr robotnik #sonic underground #sonia the hedgehog #manic the hedgehog #infinite the jackal #au #alternate universe #fanfiction #holy shit this was fun #i hope you enjoy