#turkish special forces | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

trupowieszcz-moved · 4 months

Text

fun facts about (polish) vampire folklore because i'm too autism

(disclaimer: my source for all of this is the book "Upiór. Historia naturalna" by Łukasz Kozak i'm not pulling this out of my ass)

The word "vampire" came from a mistranscribed Serbian word, written down by Austrian officials informing about a panic among the locals, who claimed that during a plague their dead were rising and biting them and spreading the plague further

In Poland, the words used to describe what later transformed into a "vampire" in literature were: upiór (and variations thereof - the word came from Ukrainian, and the Ukrainians got it from Turkish "ubyr"), strzyga (f)/strzygoń (m) and wieszczy (m)/wieszczyca (f). "Upiór" was used in the southeast, "strzyga" around the central regions, "strzygoń" (as well as strzyga) specifically in Lesser Poland (Małopolska) and "wieszczy" in Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) and in Kashubia. "Wąpierz" was not a word until some writer in the 19th century made it up!

The upiór actually very rarely drank blood. It happened, sure, but a much more bloodthirsty creature was zmora/mara. However, upiory often drank milk, stealing it from cows and horses. Both are life-giving bodily fluids, after all.

The above might make you think about witches, who were often blamed with stealing or spoiling milk, and you wouldn't be far off. You see, you had to be born as an upiór (these ones weren't contagiously biting!), and while you were alive, it would give you various magical powers, like clairvoyance and detecting the dead upiory, and so the upiór was practically a synonym of a sorcerer or witch. Of course, the sources vary, but depending on who you asked, they could control weather bringing heavy rains or droughts, see the future, know literally everything and so on. Those so-called "living vampires" knew who they were since birth and were often helpful, until they died.

After an upiór died, that's when the bad things happened. They disappeared from their graves, destroyed churches, broke candles, brought plague upon the people, scared their neighbors, and if one puffed in your face, you would soon die. They were said to be able to walk around with their decapitated head, so anti-vampiric burials often had to be very thorough and decapitation wasn't enough.

The signs that were supposedly telling of a living vampire were, among others: being born with teeth, being born in a caul, not having armpit or pubic hair BUT having a hairy chest, not having undergone confirmation (i'll come back to that in a moment), having a very red face and easily and often blushing (not being pale!), or being born with a deformed foot.

Not having participated in the confirmation sacrament was especially damning, because it was believed that upiory had two souls (and two hearts). When they were baptized, only one soul was being saved, and the confirmation sacrament was supposed to protect the second soul. This, of course, was extremely against the catechism, so the first "official", church-related sources recording those beliefs had to invent another "backstory" for upiory, and they claim that an upiór is a dead person specifically, who was given to the devil at birth, the baptism saving their soul, but their body still belonging to the dark forces, which was why they rose from their graves - the devil basically hijacked their corpses.

I won't make this post much longer but I will GLADLY answer any questions because this is my special interest and I just came back from an exhibition where the author of the aforementioned book talked about all of that so. me right now ⬇️ (readmore so you dont get continuously blased with the gif under it)

#vampires #history #folklore #poland

630 notes · View notes

timesofocean · 2 years

Text

Turkey claims it detains new Islamic State leader

New Post has been published on https://www.timesofocean.com/turkey-claims-it-detains-new-islamic-state-leader/

Turkey claims it detains new Islamic State leader

Istanbul (The Times Groupe)- Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi’s reign as leader of the Islamic State terror group (ISIS) may be over, less than three months after it began.

On Thursday, the Turkish website OdaTV first reported Abu al-Hassan’s arrest, saying that Turkish police had captured him without firing a single shot during a raid on a house in Istanbul last week.

Furthermore, the website reported that the IS leader was being questioned and that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would formally announce the arrest and share further details in the coming days.

According to Bloomberg News, two senior Turkish officials have confirmed the arrest under the condition of anonymity and confirmed that Erdogan has been notified.

U.S. officials, however, remained cautious.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Thursday that “[we] cannot confirm the reports about al-Qurashi.” Kirby added, “We’ve been looking into this all day, but we’re not in a position to confirm that press reporting.”

In March, IS named Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi as its third leader, saying he took over shortly after his predecessor was killed in a raid by U.S. special forces in northwestern Syria in February.

#Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi #IS leader #Islamic State terror group (ISIS)#Istanbul #latest News #Pentagon press secretary John Kirby #terror news #terrorism news #The Times Groupe #Times Of Ocean #turkey news #Turkish officials #Turkish police #Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan #Turkish website OdaTV #U.S. special forces #Unravel News #world news #World

0 notes

artificial-transmutations · 8 months

Text

Transformation Letter: Noah

Hello. My name is Noah and I would love transforming into anything or anyone. I'm an single 20 years old bisexual, who is annoyed by long work days as a german nurse. I would most likely describe me as the boring white boy with brown hair, brown eyes and nothing special. Would love to get out of germany.

It is way after ten in the evening after a long day of work. You are sitting in Ilkan's flat and enjoy a beer with your Turkish friend when he suddenly announces that he will have to return to Turkey soon because of family matters and there's a good chance he won't be able to get back for at least a few years.

For the last years, Ilkan has been a close friend to you, and a welcome opportunity to complain about work - the news is devastating. You even have a bit of a crush on the burly Turk, but since he is straight you kept that a secret. Of course, you can hardly say anything against him leaving, so, you just say "Tja."

You continue to sit there, sipping beer when suddenly, Ilkan appears to remember something.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I got this really strange letter today, do you know what's up with that?"

He fetches a letter from a company named "Artificial Transmutations" and shows it to you. It's just a QR code and a single line of text below it: "If you want to accept Noah's request, please install the app above."

Of course, you recognize the company - there had been an online ad and you decided to write a letter to them. Apparently, there was some kind of a raffle for a cruise or something, you didn't have a closer look at the ad back then.

"I think it's some kind of competition or draw or something where you can win a trip." You reply.

Ilkan nods and just as you are about to go on about data privacy, he has already scanned the code and started the download. Ilkan is refreshingly carefree with all of that.

The app installs quickly, and you are both looking at Ilkan's phone. Besides the logo, there is just a single green button labelled "Claim".

"So, does this mean you have won?" Ilkan asks.

"I don't know. Go on and press the button!" You answer, wondering why Ilkan has gotten the reply letter and not you. You are pretty sure you didn't mention your friend in your letter.

As soon as Ilkan taps the button, you feel very strange all of a sudden. Your dick grows stiff and strains against your jeans, flooding your system with arousal. You absolutely cannot think straight as you look at Ilkan, who is sitting next to you on the couch, legs spread slightly as usual.

Without further comment, you reach over and undo Ilkan's fly and greedily pull down his boxer shorts to expose his ample, but soft cock.

Ilkan is way too surprised of your sudden action to react and just starts to say: "Noah, what ahhhh..."

You interrupt him by closing your mouth around his soft cock, breathing in the sweaty groin and tasting the flavor of his unwashed dick, with all the traces of piss, sweat and dirt that have gathered during the day.

Almost immediately, you feel his hand at the back of your head, but to your big surprise, Ilkan doesn't pull you from his groin. Instead, he pushes you further in, with quite some force actually. Your nose is being pressed into his untrimmed bush of pubic hair, intensifying the manly smell even more as his hairs tickle your face. You cannot see anything since your face is in Ilkan’s groin, but you feel two things: First, Ilkan's cock is slowly raising and second, Ilkan stands up while still having his hand on the back of your head and positions himself right in front of you.

Your arms explore his big hairy legs that are spread widely in front of you, and you pull down his jeans and boxers for good. There is a slight movement as Ilkan steps out of them, all the while your tongue is busy teasing his cock.

Ilkan increases the pressure once more, and for a moment, your nose almost hurts since it is pressed into his groin with so much force. That passes quickly however, and you feel your face jumping forward a few centimeters more. It is like your nose has been flattened against his groin, but you didn't feel pain or hear a noise that would indicate it being broken.

Your mouth is full with Ilkan's increasingly erect cock now and he is bucking his hips lightly into your mouth. You hug his hips with your arm in order to press yourself even further to Ilkan, who now uses the hand on your head to face-fuck you, slamming your face into his sweaty privates with more and more force.

You don't even use your tongue even more - Your mouth is more like a pouch now, a place for his dick to be in, as your head becomes thinner and thinner - and more fabric like with every thrust. Your hands have fused behind his back and turned to an elastic rubber band, fixing yourself to his waist.

Suddenly, Ilkan closes his hand and warps your face - or what's left of it, around his erection. He grips his cock through your fabric face and begins to jerk himself off, warping your pouch that seems to be almost all that is left of you in the shape of his ample erection.

Finally, he cums a thick load of cum into you, which you absorb quietly as the jockstrap that you are now.

"Phew. I didn't know that was what you wanted Noah...". He pauses for a moment before continuing. "Although I suppose I shouldn't call you that any longer. You're just a jockstrap after all, and I'm gonna treat you like the thing you are, my possession."

You feel a warm feeling of agreement as your owner acknowledges your inferiority. Soon you're going to leave Germany wrapped around your best friends junk. You don't have to worry about your job anymore and you couldn't be happier.

Don't forget: If you, too want to send a transformation letter and want to be transformed, consider joining my riot page today!

#TransformationLetter #inanimate transformation

222 notes · View notes

workersolidarity · 14 days

Text

⚠️WARNING: GRAPHIC FOOTAGE⚠️

🔞

[ 📹 A young Palestinian girl is critically wounded and brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, after an Israeli airstrike targeted the building she and her family were sheltering in. Over 14'500 children have been killed in Zionist attacks on Gaza since the start of the war in October, 2023.]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

RENEWED ISRAELI OCCUPATION AIRSTRIKES TARGET FAMILIES ON DAY 186 OF "ISRAEL'S" GENOCIDAL OPERATION IN GAZA

On the 186th day of "Israel's" special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed several new massacres of Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of no less than 153 Palestinians, mostly women and children, while another 60 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

As a result of the recent withdrawal of the Zionist occupation army from the Al-Shifa medical complex, civil defense crews have managed to recover the bodies of 409 Palestinians from the hospital and its surrounding neighborhoods.

Civil defense crews continue recovery efforts to retrieve the hundreds of bodies laying strewn throughout the hospital grounds, and in the streets, while others were partially buried in shallow graves according to reporting by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the local media.

Local crews urged the international community to provide specialized equipment to assist in recovery efforts, as the corpses of many Palestinians remain buried under the rubble of their homes and shelters in the surrounding neighborhoods, while local citizens continue to inquire about the whereabouts of their missing relatives who were sheltering near the hospital during the Israeli occupation's assault on the medical center.

In other news, Turkiye imposed export restrictions on goods going to the occupied Palestinian territories, including products from 54 different categories, until a ceasefire agreement can be reached and the Zionist authorities allow a "sufficient and uninterrupted flow" of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, according to a statement issued by the Turkish Trade Ministry.

“Israel continues to flagrantly violate international law and ignores the international community's numerous calls for cease-fire and uninterrupted humanitarian aid,” the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the Israeli occupation must “in full cooperation with the UN, allow the uninterrupted provision of all basic humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including the medical supplies and health services they need."

As the international community begins to turn to more meaningful measures to use against the Israeli occupation in order to change its behavior in Gaza, the Israeli authorities continue to prepare for a major ground offensive in the city of Rafah, in the southernmost city of the Palestinian enclave, where more than one million Palestinians have gathered in improvised tent cities under evacuation orders from their homes elsewhere in Gaza.

According to the Hebrew media, an Israeli official confirmed that the occupation has purchased 40'000 tents to prepare for the forced evacuation of civilians from Rafah before a ground offensive can be launched in the city. This is because the city of Rafah is "thought" to be where Hamas's leadership is hidden, "possibly" along with Israeli hostages.

The Zionist authorities said they plan to evacuate civilians ahead of the proposed invasion after the United States President, Joe Biden, was claimed to have put pressure on the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to ensure measures are taken to protect civilians. Though 40'000 tents is nowhere near enough to house over a million Palestinians camping in the city after their homes were destroyed by the IOF.

However, the United States has so far refused to even consider the imposition of trade restrictions or sanctions on "Israel," nor has it used International bodies, such as the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to impose sanctions, or join in South Africa's suit in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, which accuses the Israeli occupation of violating the Genocide Conventions, in order to force the occupation to change its behavior in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the IOF renewed its intense barrage of air and missile strikes, as well as heavy artillery fire, on the Gaza Strip, targeting many civilian residences, as well as public buildings where local residents shelter inside from the occupation's bombardment and crimes.

In the northern Gaza Strip, Zionist warplanes bombed two residential homes in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, south of Gaza City, killing at least two civilians and wounding dozens of others, while at the same time, IOF artillery forces shelled the neighborhoods of al-Shuja'iya, al-Sabra, Tal al-Hawa, and Sheikh Ajlin, also in the city.

Local correspondants also reported the murder of one Palestinian and the injury of many others resulting from the shelling by Israeli artillery detatchments targeting local committees tasked with securing humanitarian aid in the southeast of Gaza City.

Zionist shelling also targeted the al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, in addition to the shelling of several neighborhoods in the north of the city.

Similarly, IOF fighter jets dropped munitions on a group of civilians gathered on Salah al-Din Street, southeast of Gaza City, martyring one civilian and wounding several others, while occupation aircraft also bombed a house in the northern Gaza Strip, coinciding with continuous artillery fire on a multitude of neighborhoods. The wounded were transported and treated at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.

In yet another criminal attack, an IOF airstrike targeted a residential home in the city of Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, killing one resident and wounding at least 20 others, while the occupation also raided the area of Al-Madaris street in the same area.

In similar criminal atrocities, Zionist warplanes and artillery shelling bombed a residential building in the Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in the martyredom of at least five Palestinians, while simultaneously, a Palestinian medical doctor named Shadi Abu Hasanein was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Saraya Junction in Gaza City.

At the same time, IOF artillery shelling targeted in the vicinity of a school sheltering displaced Palestinian families in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, killing two civilians and wounding a number of others.

Zionist forces also bombarded a residential tower in Al-Zahraa, in central Gaza, however, it remains unclear if any casualties were reported from the strike.

The atrocities continued with the occupation bombing of the Tiba Towers area, to the northwest of Khan Yunis, in the south of Gaza, after which, local paramedic and civil defense crews recovered the bodies of 10 civilians, including at least six children.

In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli artillery detatchments shelled a residential home in the Al-Tanour neighborhood, east of the city of Rafah, resulting in the martyrdom of two civilians and wounding several others, while Zionist gunboats opened machine-gun fire with live bullets towards the coast of Rafah, and also fired at least two artillery shells onto the coast.

Meanwhile, local civil defense personnel recovered at least 84 bodies from the Khan Yunis area after the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the southern Gazan city, leaving behind an alien landscape of destroyed buildings with corpses littering and lining the streets.

As a result of "Israel's" ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the death toll among the Palestinian population has risen in excess of 33'360 Palestinians martyred, more than 14'500 of those murdered were children, with at least 9'500 women also killed, while another 75'993 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression beginning on October 7th, 2023.

#source1

#source2

#source3

#source4

#source5

#source6

#source7

#source8

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

77 notes · View notes

usafphantom2 · 24 days

Text

Updated B-52 electronic warfare suite will be tested in flight in 2024

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 03/29/2024 - 10:36 in Military

Flying through the skies since the 1950s, the B-52 Stratofortress is a U.S. Air Force (USAF) workhorse and a lasting symbol of American military power. The eight-engine giant has unique capabilities unparalleled to any other American warplane - which is why, after more than 70 years of service, it continues to play a vital role in the defense and national security strategy of the U.S. And thanks to a collaboration between L3Harris and USAF, this iconic aircraft is prepared to remain ready for the mission against highly sophisticated emerging threats in the coming decades.

Under a 10-year contract worth $947 million granted in 2021, L3Harris is upgrading and improving the AN/ALQ-172 electronic war self-protection system (EW), which protects the B-52 and air crews from a wide range of electronic threats. Our current work is based on decades of experience in providing critical technology as a Manufacturer of Original Equipment of the AN/ALQ-172 systems for the B-52 fleet. And combined with other ongoing modernization efforts, these updates will increase the relevance and reliability of the B-52 by the 2050s.

L3 Harris AN/ALQ-172 systems.

"Our opponents continue to evolve, facing advanced and far-reaching threats that challenge our ability to operate in contested environments," says Robert "Trip" Raymond, USAF's Program Leader for EW Technology Development at L3Harris. "It is essential that we provide our B-52 crew with the necessary tools to keep the B-52 relevant, lethal and survivable as the backbone of the strategic bomber force of the United States."

The effort of modernization and support - ALQ-172 Maintenance and Reliability System (MARS) - intends to do exactly that, increasing the average time between failures due to its modular design, while further improving the performance, maintenance capacity and reliability of the system. Thanks to an integrated and improved radio frequency system, crews will be able to simultaneously combat multiple radar threats that interfere with aircraft operations. And by replacing analog systems with more economical software solutions, USAF will be able to reduce the size of B-52 crews from 5 to 4. This frees up resources for additional mission-critical activities.

Ultimately, the updates will further help USAF in its Global Attack Mission and strengthen the effectiveness of the B-52 in modern warfare, while making future upgrades cheaper and easier.

"We are implementing affordable solutions that not only reduce costs, but also provide crews with more advanced protection against the most sophisticated threats detected by radar," said Jimmy Mercado, Program Director at L3Harris. "All this results in a more modern, efficient and effective aircraft, ready to dominate the future struggle."

USAF plans to conduct a test flight with the new electronic warfare capabilities of the B-52 in 2024.

Tags: Military AviationBoeing B-52H StratofortressEW - ELECTRONIC WARL3HarrisUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air Force

Sharing

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

Related news

AERONAUTICAL ACCIDENTS

VIDEO: Russian Su-27 fighter in flames falls into the sea near Sevastopol

29/03/2024 - 09:43

An F-16 fighter from the Norwegian air force lands at a Turkish air base in the Turkish city of Konya, in Central Anatolia. Norway, a member of NATO, will donate F-16 fighters to Ukraine, whose forces are involved in a difficult counter-offensive against Russia. (Photo: AP / Burhan Ozbilici)

MILITARY

Putin threatens to attack NATO air bases that host Ukrainian F-16 fighters

28/03/2024 - 21:56

MILITARY

Retirement from F-22 in 2030 is unlikely, since USAF intends to spend $7.8 billion on it before that

28/03/2024 - 21:16

MILITARY

IMAGES: Inaugural flight of the first light combat aircraft Tejas Mk 1A

28/03/2024 - 18:27

Dassault Rafale Fighter. (Photo: Katsuhiko Tokunaga)

MILITARY

France tests Thales' IRST system update for Rafale F4.2 update

28/03/2024 - 15:00

MILITARY

Dutch drone fleet MQ-9A Reaper will receive tactical updates

28/03/2024 - 14:00

#b 52 stratofortress #usaf #bomber

33 notes · View notes

straight-from-gaza · 3 hours

Text

According to Al Jazeera's Sanad fact-checking agency, analyzed satellite images reveal that Israeli troops have transformed Gaza's only specialized cancer hospital into a makeshift military base. They have stationed dozens of armored vehicles at the facility and constructed earthen fortifications for protection.

The Israeli occupation forces initially moved their tanks and vehicles into the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, situated south of Gaza City, on November 23, as per the analysis. Since then, Israeli forces have constructed a dedicated supply road from the hospital to the 'Netzarim' corridor, an east-west military route that Israel uses to divide Gaza City from the rest of the enclave.

#free palestine #palestine #free gaza #gaza #genocide #news #israel #gaza genocide #gaza strip

21 notes · View notes

misfitwashere · 25 days

Text

Putin's paranoia (updated)

Terror, delusion, and self-destruction

Timothy Snyder

Mar 29, 2024

A week ago, four men associated with Islamic State attacked civilians in a concert venue near Moscow known as Crocus City Hall. Islamic State (IS-K) claimed responsibility for the horrifying mass murder, and released videos recorded the terrorists' perspective (don't watch them). Russia has since apprehended four men, who seem to be the perpetrators.

Russia has been engaged with Islamic State for some time. Russia has been bombing Syria since 2015. Russia and Islamic State compete throughout Africa for resources. All four of the accused are Tajiks, a people subjected to discrimination inside Russia.

These are the facts, subject to further verification and interpretation -- and inherently unpredictable, as facts always are. What was entirely predictable (and predicted) was that, regardless of the facts, Putin and his propagandists would place the blame for the attack on Ukraine and the United States. On the internet (and in the Russian and Serbian press) this version is present.

It is not hard to see why. If Ukraine and the West are guilty, then Russian security services do not have to explain why they failed to stop Islamic terrorists from killing so many Russians, because Islamic terror vanishes from the story. And if Ukrainians are to blame, then this would seem to justify the war that Russia is prosecuting against Ukraine.

Aftermath of Russian ballistic missile strike on Kyiv, 25 March

Russian officials make a highly circumstantial argument: the terrorists' car was stopped near Bryansk, which is in western Russia, and so vaguely near Ukraine, which means that the four Tajiks in a Renault were intending to cross the Ukrainian border, which means that they had Ukrainian backers, which means that it was a Ukrainian operation, which means that the Americans were behind it. The reasoning here leaves something to be desired. And the series of associations rests on no factual basis.

The suspects were in a car near the west Russian city of Bryansk. This much seems to be true. The first version of the story was that they were headed for Belarus, which would make more sense, given the route. Anyone with local knowledge would make a still more telling point. Because of the special relationship between Russia and Belarus, the Russian-Belarusian border is porous. Once inside Belarus, it is relatively easy to pass into the European Union, because the Belarusian regime enables human smuggling into Lithuania and Poland. Four Tajiks in a Renault would have been, in this sense, welcome in Belarus. They would have had a decent chance to pay a smuggler to get them into the Schengen zone and thereby escape.

The idea that the suspects were headed for Ukraine seems to be entirely invented and is extremely implausible. As of this writing, none of the suspects seem to have said anything about Ukraine, despite the fact that they have been tortured, presumably with such a confession in mind. And the notion of a Ukrainian escape route makes no sense. The Russian-Ukrainian border is a place where Russian security forces are concentrated. It is a site of combat. It is the last place terrorists would want to go. Four Tajiks in a Renault would have needed some very, very high-level Russian protection to get anywhere near the Russian-Ukrainian border.

Russian propagandists have told the population that it was not Islamic State but Ukraine who is to blame. ISIS is just a "fake." The propagandists need not give reasons, and don't. In the press, one finds the wildest chains of association. Britain is to blame for the attack (goes one claim) because one of the suspects was once in Turkey and the Turkish president knows the head of British foreign intelligence.

Only Putin is permitted to set the theoretical tone for the argument for Ukrainian involvement, and yesterday (25 March) he gave that a shot. His version went like this: Ukrainians are Nazis; Nazis do bad things; a bad thing happened; therefore Ukraine is to blame. One does not have to be a logician to find the holes. They are disturbingly large. While it is true that Nazis do bad things, it does not follow that all bad things are done by Nazis.

And the factual premise is empirically false. One should not have to say this at this point of the war, but the Ukrainians are not the Nazis in this conflict. The Ukrainian far right has never done well in elections, and is far less prominent than in any European state you care to name, let alone the United States. Ukrainians have an active civil society, a vibrant press, multiple political parties, and freedom of speech. Ukraine's president won a free and fair election. He is also, incidentally, Jewish. The Ukrainian minister of defense, for that matter, is a Muslim. The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces was born in Russia, where his parents still reside. This kind of political and social pluralism is unusual by any standards.

A Kyivan looks out the window after the 25 March Russian missile strike.

In Putin's version of the Russian language, of course, the word "Nazi" has no meaning beyond "what I wish for you to consider as the enemy." If we are going to pursue the question of who the fascists in this war are, however, it is worth knowing that Russia has none of what Ukraine has. Putin has never won anything like a plausible election to any office. His regime has crushed civil society, political parties (except his own), and the press. Putin runs a single-party state where the only principle of the single party is his personal status as its Leader. He rules at home by terror and prosecutes a genocidal war abroad, in Ukraine, with the help of Russian soldiers who ever more often openly identify as fascists. Putin himself espouses what is unmistakably a fascist ideology.

Calling the Ukrainians the Nazis while being the Nazis is not itself a problem within this system, since being the fascists involves living within a big lie. The challenge to such a system is that reality sometimes intervenes in a way that is hard to control -- as when Islamic State carries out an act of terror. This brings in a whole set of political and social realities that are usually suppressed in Russian propaganda: the bombing of Syrian civilians since 2015; the bloody resource wars in Africa; the oppression of Tajiks.

In Russia's system, it is not simply political convenience that adds the big lie of Ukrainian jihadism to the big lie of Ukrainian Nazism. It is the deeper need to make reality, or at least psychological reality, conform to the story told by the state. In the psychological project, more killing is necessary. Russians are engaged in the project of killing Ukrainians. Russians in Ukraine torture Ukrainians for being loyal to Ukraine, deport Ukrainian children for assimilation to Russia, and persecute and execute local elites who they regard as threats. Russians fire some combination of shells, glide bombs, drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles at Ukraine every single day, for no reason that communicates with reality. Yesterday, for example, multiple Ukrainian cities were struck by fifty-seven Russian missiles and drones.

It is the killing itself that makes the lies true, in a psychological sense. Russian soldiers who have killed Ukrainians believe they are fighting "Nazis," whatever that means. And now Russian soldiers write "for Crocus" on he shells they fire at Ukrainians. Yesterday (25 March) Russia fired two ballistic missiles at central Kyiv, even as Russian authorities announced that the terrorist attack means that they are permitted to kill high officials of the Ukrainian state.

Rescue workers prepare to help victims after a Russian ballistic missile hit the Kyiv Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design. Photo by Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images)

Among Ukrainians, all of this generates a weary shrug. It has been a kind of Western parlor game these last two years to ascertain the "rational" motivations behind Russia's war of atrocity in Ukraine. Such a debate is attractive in the West, because if one can identify a Russian rationality one can then defend a policy of doing less, or doing nothing, to help Ukraine win the war. If Russia is rational, then surely some compromise can be found. This is a Russian leadership, however, that interprets the fact of American warnings about the attack as a reason to blame the United States for it: as the puppetmaster of Ukraine, which is itself the puppetmaster of Islamic State.

For Ukrainians, being identified as Islamists as well as Nazis is just one more detail in what is for them a war of self-defense and survival. And of course, as Ukrainians will remind you, for different audiences the Kremlin also characterizes Ukraine as the center of gay civilization, as an element of the Jewish international conspiracy, and as a Satanist cult. So (the memes are out there) Ukraine is now a gay Jewish Nazi Islamist Satanist regime.

The Kremlin goal of identifying Ukrainians as terrorists might matter in the war. It can be used as an excuse to continue, to mobilize, to commit new kinds of war crimes. This is one way this will certainly go. But it is not certain that this development will be stable.

It might matter to Russians that Putin's big lie about Ukraine is growing whiskers. Once forced into gay-Nazi-Jewish-Islamist-Satanist territory, Russians just might be reminded of the late Stalinist purges directed against supposed Zionist-Trotskyite-fascist-imperialist (etc.) conspiracies. Or, more simply, people inside the regime, backed into a corner by Putin's escalation of unreality, might just realize that the Ukrainian scenario makes no logistical sense, and lacks any evidentiary basis.

This can undermine Putin's authority, and the sense that his story is a useful one. Judging by yesterday's appearance, this is no longer the nimble post-truth Putin who is capable of changing out one lie for another as necessary, with a wink to the insider along the way. This now seems to be a Putin who actually believes what he says -- or, in the best case, lacks the creativity to react to events in the world. His speech yesterday was grim for everyone, including to Russians who would like to think that their leader is ahead of events.

Putin's Ukrainian theory could make Russia more vulnerable to terrorism. The Crocus City Hall attack was more likely because Putin has chosen to use his security apparatus against Ukraine and the opposition. It is typical of his priorities that, on the very day of the Crocus City Hall attack, the regime defined international LGBT organizations as "terrorist." When Putin publicly ridiculed the United States on 19 March for warning of an Islamic State attack, he was signaling to the security apparatus that this was not a real danger. In conflating Islamic State with Ukraine now, he is doing the same thing at a higher level. That cannot be helpful in the practical work of preventing another attack.

Nor can, surely, Putin’s idea that Islamic State takes orders from the Jewish president of a European state, and that its actors are nothing more than pawns of American masters. I am not going to claim any expert knowledge of how Islamic State works or its leaders think, but it seems like it would not be best practice to ignore it and insult it at the same time. Publicizing the photos of the tortured suspects, as Russia has done, almost seems like goading Islamic State.

And although the official Kremlin position is that Kyiv and Washington and London are to blame, Russians have reacted (to the attack, and presumably also to the photos) by treating migrants and minorities aggressively. Because Putin denies that Islamic State is the actor, he cannot tell Russians that Islamic State is one thing and Muslims in Tajiks in general are another. He has created the impression, instead, that Muslims and Tadjiks are the enemy because they work for the West.

#timothy snyder #thinking about...

24 notes · View notes

ghostwarriorrrr · 2 years

Text

TÜRK ÖZEL KUVVETLERİ-TURKİSH SPECİAL FORCES

#turkey #turkiye #turkish #turkish armed forces #military #special forces #🇹🇷#💪#turkish special forces

4 notes · View notes

minihotdog · 5 months

Text

Good ol' fishing boy

Pairing: Simon Ghost Riley x gn!Reader

a/n: idk. Simon is a big ol softie in this one

Summary: Simon learns how to fish

c/w: fake worm, maybe a swearword

Word Count: 1k

***

The weekend had finally come around. The usual hustle and bustle of the compound died down as everyone ran off to enjoy the little free time they’d been given.

“Hey, Lt!” You beam at the sight of your superior. “Whatcha got planned for today?” You stood with your fishing rods tucked under your arm and a backpack stuffed to its brim.

“Nothin’.” He sat at the table with his morning tea. He always had such a cold look, with or without his mask, but you were determined to try and break down at least one of his walls. You’d been working for the task force for about three months now, and he was the only one who you still didn’t know a thing about.

“You ‘otta come fishing with me. It’d be a good time, I promise.” You raise your eyebrows at him, waiting for his response.

“Not up my alley.” He swiftly declines, leaving you taken aback.

In all my years, I’ve never heard a military man say no to fishing.

“Wha’d’ya gonna do? Sit here all day?” You say in disbelief.

“Yes.”

“Oh c’mon, Lt.! What if I fall in the water and I can’t get out and I’m all by myself!” You clasp your hands in front of you as if you were about to get on your knees and beg. He sighs at what he referred to as your ‘American dramatics’.

“Fine, but keep the talking to a minimum.”

“Yaay!” You celebrate, causing the stern Brit to groan in annoyance.

***

The air nipped at your nose as you and Simon sat on the bank of the river. The mountains off in the distance were topped off with fresh snow. The warm sunlight would occasionally peak out from behind the grey clouds.

“Here ya go,” You hand him a rod and open your tackle box between the two of you. You start tying your hook to the line and reaching into the box to pull out a long black fake worm. You look over to Simon, motioning to the worm, “See this little guy? Bass love this shit.” He snorts lightly but you notice him go still when he looks at the contents of the box.

“So what do I do?” He asks, a little embarrassed. Most boys learned how to fish with their dads, unfortunately, his dad had been set on being a nightmare rather than an angler. You stop dead in your tracks, eyeing the man.

“You ever been fishing before?”

“No.”

You almost drop your worm,

“What?! Really?!”

He shoots you a look that says, ‘Cool it or else’.

“Your dad never took you when you were a kid?” You probe.

“We weren’t very close.” His eyes avoid yours and look out at the bend of the river. Simon wasn’t one to feel embarrassed about his upbringing, he saw it as something that made him the man he was today. It motivated him to be better than what he witnessed and to maybe even eliminate the horrors that many were forced to live with. But it came with a cost and that cost was the simple things other people had gotten to experience that he didn’t.

“I wasn’t close with mine either,” You sigh, hoping that you hadn’t brought up painful memories. His eyes were back on you at the revelation.

“I actually learned how to fish from the locals when I was stationed in Turkey.” You smile, recounting the memories from your time overseas. “I rented a pole out and asked a taxi driver to take me to a fishing store. The taxi driver could barely speak English but it was clear as day that he loved fishing. We talked the whole way to the store and he even went inside with me.” You chuckle, “I’d run into a group of ‘Turkish Uncles’ out fishing and they’d try to show me their tricks.”

You place your rod down on the rocky ground and motion for him to give you his. “I’ll show you,” Your words come out softly. “This part is easy.” You place the rod between your knees and grab a hook out of the box to show him.

“Now, there are all sorts of knots you can do but I use the Y/L/N special.” You put the line through the hole at the top of the hook and wrap the loose end a couple of times around the line coming directly from the rod.

“So you wrap it however many times, then you put it through the loop at the bottom. Pull it and then tie a knot.” He nods at you showing he understands, and his eyes examine the funny-looking knot.

“One time I went fishing with a friend of mine. He was the Bill Dance of trout.” You pause briefly to explain, “Bill Dance is an old man in the States that strikes fear in the hearts of Bass everywhere.” Simon laughs softly at your dramatics. “But, he took one look at my knot and I thought I was gonna die from embarrassment. He was too nice to tell me it looked awful, but it works just like any other.”

You gently clap your hands together, “Moving on, you know what these are?” You point to the contents inside your tackle box. Simon shakes his head, a smirk still playing on his lips. He almost felt like a young boy again, recanting the stories he’d heard in school of the other boys going out on the lake with their dads. Here he finally was.

“These are lures, a.k.a. Fake bait. They come in all shapes: Frogs, worms, little fish. Depending on the fish, some work better than others. Bass like the worm. Snakeheads, those angry demon fish, like the frogs.” You trail off stating the different lures for different fish as you grab a black worm out of the box.

“You can hook however you want, but I think this is what separates boys from men.” Simon’s little smirk grows briefly. He found the way you explained things to him to be endearing.

You grab the hook in one hand and hold the fake worm in the other. “You could do this,” You put the hook through the side of the worm and let it dangle.

“But you’d probably lose your lure on the weeds or from a strong bite.” You pull the worm off. “This is what I do because I’m a big fishing man,�� You joke. Simon silently laughs again. He’d hear you constantly calling yourself jacked and joking that you were as big as him. Here you sat, looking about as big as the worm in comparison to him.

You put the hook through the top of the worm’s head, coming through the side. Your now cold fingers slide the worm to the top of the hook and poke through the middle of the squishy lure with the pointy tip nudging back into it. “This way, your hook stays weedless.” You hand him his rod before hooking your lure.

“Now we can rip some lips.” You laugh at your own joke as you stand and walk closer to the water. You point to the button your thumb rests on, looking back at him. “Hold that down when you cast.” You turn back to the water and give your rod a swift jerk. Your hook goes flying out to the middle of the river. Simon follows and casts his line out, the hook barely lands two feet away. He tuts quietly.

“Here,” You place your rod down and come up behind him. You place one hand on his left shoulder and the other over his hand on the base of the rod. “Keep your body facing the water, and swat it like this.” You run through the motion twice before backing away to watch him. This time he casts without a hitch. “Right on.” You smile at him and for the first time, he smiles back.

The two of you sit back down on the log. “Give it a couple of little tugs every once in a while and reel it in little by little. Or how the Turks taught me: Reel, reel, reel, action, action, action.”

“Reel, reel, reel, action, action, action.” He talks himself through the motions.

“Just like that. Now we wait.”

Moments pass of silence. You couldn’t complain, the view was beautiful.

“Is it true that fish can hear you?” Simon asks you, a bit of humor in his voice.

“No, I think that’s something dads made up so their kids would be quiet.” The two of you laugh. You liked this version of Simon. Relaxed, still quiet and reserved, but he wasn’t the same cold person you met as Ghost.

“Thank you… For teaching me.” He said suddenly.

“No problem, I could use a fishing partner.” You nudge him with your elbow. “Just don’t catch more fish than me or we’ll have a problem.”

#simon riley imagine #simon riley #ghost x reader #ghost imagine #ghost cod #simon ghost riley #myfic

43 notes · View notes

chadillacboseman · 5 months

Text

Summary: Alex is having a horrible, terrible, no good very bad...three weeks. Just a very short one shot of pre-Kate (@thesingularityseries) and pre-Echo (@roofgeese ) Black Dragon times.

Alex could hear the roar of the fight pits all the way from the storage room- a loud, unforgiving cacophony that rang in his ears as he searched the shelves. Kano's voice rang out, louder than the others, his accent grating on Alex's ears.

He ignored it and crouched to better examine the bottom shelf. He knew what the fight meant for him, it was only a matter of time until-

"Got another stiff for ya, Turk."

Alex glanced up and met Kano's glowing red eye; his face was flecked with blood and a fresh, angry cut ran across his cheek, not yet scabbed over.

Alex sighed and rose from his crouched position, his bum knee creaking in protest as it lifted his weight. The body behind Kano was that of a younger man, his brown hair cropped into a military high and tight. He was wearing olive green, and his name was sewn into the right hand side of his shirt.

Special Forces.

"Your ears painted on? Get rid of him," Kano gestured and his eye glowed threateningly, "And make it quick before he stinks up the place."

Alex sauntered past Kano and searched for the least bloody part of the soldier's body. From the looks of it, his death had been painful and slow. Alex crouched and hoisted the man over his shoulder, pointedly ignoring the wet squelch that met his ears on contact.

"There's the muscle we hired ya for! Now get a fuckin' move on."

Alex had been on body duty for three weeks, a punishment inflicted on him for a botched mission in Montana. It wasn't his fault, not really. The SF had known they were coming, had intercepted them at the bunker and nearly killed him in the process. The warhead Kano had desperately wanted was lost- Alex still didn't know what he wanted it for, but he'd threatened to gut him like a fish for the failure. Of course, Kano's golden child, Kabal, had gotten no punishment for his involvement in the debacle.

Alex made his way to the garage and found a suitable truck, dropping the dead agent unceremoniously into the open bed. He tossed a tarp over the top and retrieved a toolkit and shovel from the nearby shelf.

The drive to the dumpsite was uneventful, through the winding desert and into the mountain range. Still, he gripped his shotgun in the passenger seat, ready for blue and red lights to flash in the rearview at any moment.

By the time he reached the dumping ground, night had fallen and the headlights of the truck were his only source of light, their dull orange glow cutting through the slowly settling dust.

Alex had honed his grave digging skills over the weeks he'd been doomed to body duty- able to make a suitable hole in less than an hour. When he finished, he paused for a moment, resting against his shovel for support as he panted in the still-warm air.

When he had recovered, he made his way back to the pickup and ripped the tarp aside. Rigor mortis had begun to set in, causing the agent's limbs to resist his maneuvering as he wrestled him from the bed and onto the ground with a disgusting thud.

Alex swore in Turkish and began the laborious task of dragging the body awkwardly to the hole. He dropped it next to the grave and returned once more to the pickup, retrieving the toolkit from the cab.

Pliers. Blowtorch.

And then he set to work.

First went the fingertips, prints burned off by the white hot flames of the torch. The smell of burning flesh assaulted his nostrils and made his eyes water- a scent he'd never get used to.

Next went the teeth, each wrenched from the corpse's mouth with the crude, rusted pliers. The first time he'd done it, it had nearly caused him to relive his lunch. Now, he was numb, completing the task with the ease and nonchalance of repetition.

The teeth went into a bag, to be incinerated in the furnace back at the base.

"No hard feelings, pal," Alex spoke aloud to the corpse, something he often found himself doing, "I'm sure you were a nice guy."

The agent's now wide, bloodied maw of a mouth could almost be taken for a smile out here in the darkness. Alex rolled him over once, twice, and then he fell into the shallow grave with a muted whump that sent a small cloud of dust into the air.

The burying was easier than the digging.

Dirt rained down into the hole with each motion of his shovel, slowly building until the body disappeared entirely and Alex cast his shovel aside before lowering himself to the ground for a short rest.

Alex sat for a moment next to the newly-disturbed dirt of the grave and pulled his knees up into his chest before burying his face. Out in the desert, a coyote yapped out a haunting call, likely drawn by the scent of blood.

Perhaps it would be a mercy to be torn to shreds by a pack of hungry coyotes.

Would anyone from the base even come looking for him?

The crushing, all-consuming loneliness of the past three weeks hit him all at once, and for a moment, he felt as if he was going to cry. He wanted to call his mother. Wanted to jump in the truck and just drive until there was no more road to follow. Wanted to walk into the desert and let the coyotes have him.

A small meow from somewhere behind him snapped him from his stupor and he turned his head in search of the sound. Squinting in the darkness, he could just barely make out the shape of a small, orange kitten, huddled near the front tire of the truck.

"Hey, little buddy," Alex extended a hand and clicked his tongue. To his surprise, the cat trotted hesitantly toward him, pausing to sniff his fingers with interest.

It looked rough, covered in desert sand and lean from far too many days without a meal. The cat gently butted its head against his hand and he ran his palm over its matted orange fur, chuckling at the way it leaned eagerly into his touch.

"You wanna come back to base with me?"

The cat looked up at him, green eyes glittering in the headlights. He couldn't leave it out here...right? But Kano would kill him for bringing a cat back to the base.

Alex decided he didn't care.

#oc alex #alex demir #mk alex #mortal kombat ocs #art by @quiddling

29 notes · View notes

la-pheacienne · 1 year

Note

Alicent's stans say she never shown any ambition for the throne or power herself, only to keep her children from being executed. But what's wrong if a woman want to lead, rule, or administrating solely because she's ambitious ? Why EVERYTHING is about motherhood ?

I feel you anon. We wanted a ruthless antagonist that we can obsess with and we got Ninicent instead. And the funny part is, she's still the antagonist, just an extremely unlikeable one 😂

The Turkish TV show Magnificent Century actually has a storyline where the protagonist is genuinely afraid for the life of her kids and does evil stuff because of that, and it tells the story in a way that it's believable and does not reduce the heroine's agency and accountability. So if I remember correctly, there was a fratricide law in Ottoman empire, like if a man became Sultan he had to kill all his brothers, something like that. So that was an actual certainty. Hurrem's sons had an elder brother from another mother, Mustapha, and he was supposed to succeed his father, not Hurrem's sons, and he was a genuine good dude and he loved his brothers. Hurrem knew however that if he became Sultan, his mother and advisors would convince him to kill her children in order to secure his claim. So she influenced the Sultan to execute Mustapha, his own kid, because she was afraid for her kids. She was very sad afterwards because she genuinely didn't want him to die and she knew he was a good man. But oh well, politics.

So Hurrem acts because she's afraid for her kids, and genuinely cares for the very person she conspired against and was sad after his execution. She did what she had to do for her kids. Also, her kids were younger than Mustapha because she came second, she climbed up the hierarchy, she outranked Mustapha's mother who was there before her and should have become Queen consort, and then she conspired against the heir, which lead to his execution. And then she put her child on the throne.

The show is kind of a soap-opera take of the real story, so it has it's flaws, but overall the real story of Hurrem Sultan is the same in it's basic elements. It is contested if she actually played a role in Mustapha's execution but let's face it, she probably did, given the insane influence she had on the Sultan and the fact that she had a clear motive.

There are naturally a lot of similarities with Alicent's arc. She too had clear ambition since the beginning, she too wanted to outrank the heir and usurp her and put her child on the Throne. She too was afraid of her children because her children had a rival that could kill them. She too got caught up in the game and did things that she would have probably preferred to avoid. So, why do I support Hurrem in all of this, and not Alicent? Had they dealt with it correctly in the show, Alicent could have been a very compelling, intriguing antagonist. What makes her different than Hurrem?

Well Hurrem won, and Alicent lost. Hurrem won and it makes sense because of her wit, her political intelligence, her absolute and honest devotion to her family and her absolute loyalty to the Sultan. She also has a very special personality, she was very cheerful, brave, she loved art and poetry, she had a charismatic nature that outshined every single other person in the story and her relationship with the Sultan was so special in real life because of that and it makes sense why she won. We want her to win. She is meant to win. She is the hero of the story, both in real life and in fiction. She had what we call, the momentum. She is the driving force of the story. So I support her, not because she onLY FeAReD for hEr KidS and did nothing wrong evah, but because she's the boss, she's charismatic and exceptional.

What does Alicent have? Honestly? What does she give? Ok cool in the book she was cunning and ambitious and conservative and a religious freak and good looking, slut shaming Rhaenyra left and right. Ok? In the show, where she is supposedly better, what heroine qualities does she have that could make me support her? Honestly. Apart from the fact that she serves as a self interest for lesbians and Targ antis, she has nothing exceptional apart from her good looking appearance. The fact that she is a good mother? The hero of the story is also a good mother. We already have a hero in that story and the hero is Rhaenyra. Rhaenyra, the first woman named heir, Rhaenyra who tried to claim freedom and independence, who actively tried to make her own way and was punished because of it in the most horrible way. Alicent is (should be, anyway) Rhaenyra's foil. Rhaenyra's the protagonist, like Hurrem was the protagonist, and Rhaenyra was killed but her line survived, just like Hurrem's line survived.

So I got carried away from your initial question anon. Basically, we have multiple alternatives

1) show!Alicent, no ambition, only fear and lack of agency. I have explained multiple times why Alicent's powerless doll arc is boring as fuck and non-sensical given the immense power that she had as Queen. Alicent's stans using her non-agency as an argument to stan her is ridiculous. She ONly FeAReD for hEr KidS, just shut up. First of all, she feared for her kids because she was committing high treason using her kids, so she brought this upon herself. I literally see no reason to support a doormat that fucks everyone over just because she's "afraid" as a direct consequence of the shit she did. I doesn't make any sense.

2) book!Alicent could have been adapted in a TV show as a Hurrem type of character, they could have included the fear for her children (as a motivating factor in her scheming) and kept her ambition intact, as was the case with Hurrem. Hurrem was ambitious and also feared for her children and did things she didn't like, for them. It could work as a storyline for Alicent. But Alicent could have never been a Hurrem because she is simply not the heroine of the story, she is a foil, she is an antagonist, and she has the fate of an antagonist, period. They could have incorporated some elements of Hurrem's arc though, it would have been much better.

TL;DR a mother being afraid for her children is a valid tragic storyline and no, it doesn't necessarily erase her agency. But 1) it doesn't excuse everything she does especially when she is the one who started it all and 2) it's not enough to make me support her as a tragic héroïne.

#I had found this one amongst my 58 drafts #I had completely forgotten about it sorry anon #hotd #house of the dragon #anonymous #insane rambling sorry #rhaenyra targaryen #anti alicent Hightower #hurrem sultan #magnificent century

192 notes · View notes