#export proxy

[rubyreadd]

Premiere pro >:(

[maryawmsblog]

شماره خاله رامهرمز

شماره کوص رامهرمز

شماره جنده رامهرمز

شماره داف رامهرمز

شماره سکس رامهرمز

شماره خاله رامهرمز

شماره کوص رامهرمز

شماره جنده رامهرمز

شماره داف رامهرمز

شماره سکس رامهرمز

[maykitz]

one particularly annoying effect of culture wars focusing on random minorities is that it routinely leads to the most painfully inane, meaningless discourses in the world being lead with such rabid intensity that you sort of end up being coerced into participating just because the stakes are being raised to such an inappropriate level and because either side knows very well they're actually debating proxy wars for greater social questions. but that doesn't make the actual topic less inane. drag queens for example are probably on average one of the most boring and overhyped cultural exports of the gay lifestyle ever (sorry) but because the people who dislike it can't stop sounding like hitler about it you're constantly forced to defend the practice just on principle of like, basic human rights. awkward poorly written token minorities in gaming et al are somewhat obnoxious and are almost always soulless cash grabs but since a sizeable portion of the criticism comes out as jim crow-style vitriol the counterposition inevitably turns to wholesale endorsement because there's no room left for emotionally proportional behaviour. someone putting their pronouns in their email signature approximately ranks among the most unimportant matters in the world but somehow i'm supposed to pretend not only that it's worth having an opinion on but that this opinion is so vital that our very civilisation is at stake over it. mandatory cultural unclenching now

[thetruequeenoftheabyss]

Its mermay and I have brain worms about these three. (If you see typos in the writing no you do not)

V's design is largley based on Rio from the show although I will be the first to admit I don't know anything about waveriders lore wise (do they even come from the ocean idk and idc)

I choose the mimic octopus for Mel because in the show Le blanc calls her an empath and for some reason in my brain that meant she should be able to shapshift and mimic things or something.

Jayce doen't get fish privlages because I think its funny. (also becasue in my mind piltover would be the land and zaun would be the ocean and since mel is form noxus is the company that ambess runs thats poluting the ocean or whatever)

More ramblings and the sketches for this under the cut

Piltover is a costal nation known for their ocean exports

Zaun is a secret underwater nation of mers

all mers have magic but to varring degrees

going to the surface and interacting with humans is forbbiden due to the dangers of humanity and the fact that they keep poluting the oceans

Noxus is a weapons manufacting company spearheaded by Ambessa Medarda, she has an unusal obession with the ocean and insists on building her factories on the coastal islands surrounding Piltover

Jayce comes to piltover to research the reefs and the wild waveriders found there, secretly he's there becasue as a child he was saved from drowning by a mysterious force while on a family vaction

As a kid he was obsees with the idea of merpople and magic but all he has as "proof" is an unusually shiny scale from the encounter, he wears it around his wrist constantly

He learned to hide his true motivations after being shunned by the scientific community

the only ones hes even mentioned it to in years are Cait, Mel, and his mysterious new friend viktor whom he met after moving ot piltover

He's friends with Mel from collage where they were on the student council together and is the one to call her when he notices sus activity regarding her mothers activites on the ocean and odd corraltions with the growing polution in the surrounding reefs

Viktor had been illegaly sneaking to the surface to research humans and their technology when her runs into jayce and is immediatly facinated by this human, he of course, knows jayce is right about mers and magic, but hides his identity for safety reasons

Jayce is the one to intoduce Mel and Viktor and that meeting triggers Mels own realzations about her mer abilites

Viktor is quick to explain the dangers of ocean life to Mel and cautions her against telling Jayce despite the affections they bothe seem to share for the human

Mel and Vik realise that her mother is up to more than just shady busniness practicaces and is activly posioning the ocean in order to drive the mers out of hiding so she can harness the magic for herself

(Hense why mel has a merform idk if Ambessa just made a shady deal with a seawitch or if she got sum of that fish dick but yeah shes got a magic daughter now)

Shenanigans ensue with Mel and Vik trying to dismantel Ambessa all while keeping Jayce oblivious and safe

Cait probably gets roped into things via Jayce being like "Sprouttttt my two really hot friends who i'm definatly not in love with are hiding something from me do you think they hate me 🥺" and Cait is like "well now I gotta pull up becaue you're really smart when it comes to fish and really dumb about situational observation so clearly there is somehting bigger happening"

She ends up meeting Vi because Vi followed her rebelious sister jinx/powder to the surface and ended up getting arrested by surface police and forced to stay on land for stupid reasons

Vi ends up revealing Zaun to both Cait and by proxy Jayce (get some booksteet duo in there) and Jayce ends up feeling hurt by the fact that nither Mel nor Viktor trusted him enough to share this with him

Meanwhile MelVik are both sweating like damn we fucked up

Idk what happens after that or how any otf this resolves but somehow everybody gets a happy ending and Jacye gets fish wife and fish husband and Cait also gets a fish wife and Vi reunites with her sister and everybody lives and everybody is happy

[mariacallous]

The spectacularly rapid fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and his regime is the Middle East’s 1989. Like the fall of the Berlin Wall, this weekend’s end of 54 years of Assad family rule signals an earthquake in the regional order—with tremors that will be felt for decades to come. Just as 1989 was marked by a series of falling dominoes in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, and elsewhere, the collapse of the Syrian regime is part of a chain of events, including Israel’s decimation of Hezbollah, Iran’s loss of its most potent proxy forces, and the weakening of Russia due to the war it started in Ukraine.

And just as 1989 marked the end of communism in Europe, Assad’s flight to Moscow signals the demise of the ideology of anti-Western, anti-Israel resistance in the Middle East. For more than half a century, the Assad family was the backbone for a political order in the Middle East in which a bloc of states styled themselves as the resistance to what they labeled Western imperialism and Zionism. The appropriation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict proved to be a powerful tool to mobilize the masses across the region who wanted justice for Palestinians—sentiments that the Syrian regime and its allies instrumentalized to distract from their domestic failures, oppress their own people, and extend their regimes’ regional influence. In reality, these regimes cared little about the Palestinians.

Within this bloc, Syria and Iran believed they had entered a mutually beneficial and durable alliance—and each thought it had the upper hand. Syria was crucial for Iran because it was the heart of the land bridge between Iran and its most valuable proxy, Hezbollah in Lebanon, while Syria saw alignment with Iran as increasing its own stature against Israel and bolstering its influence over Lebanon.

For Iran, the ideology of resistance was an indispensable tool to rally support from Arabs and Sunnis as Tehran vied for dominance in the Middle East. As the leaders of a self-styled Axis of Resistance, the clerics in Tehran were able to supplant the old ideology of pan-Arab nationalism, as espoused by the Syrian Baath Party and others, and ultimately dominate several Arab countries through well-armed proxies. The Assad regime ignored this challenge even as Iran manipulated the Baath Party to serve Tehran’s own objective of achieving regional dominance. For example, Iran presented Hezbollah to Syria as an ally when Hezbollah’s primary purpose was to support exporting the Islamic revolution.

The Syrian uprising of 2011 and the war that followed shifted the balance of power toward Iran, which intervened to prop up the Assad regime. Most consequentially, Tehran summoned Hezbollah to support the Assad regime against the Syrian rebels.

In the course of the Syrian war, the country moved from being a partner to a client of Iran. A much-diminished Assad regime was now dependent for its survival on Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah and Tehran-controlled militias from various countries. In other Middle Eastern states, including Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen, Iran’s proxies consolidated their status as dominant political and military actors. Iran increased its investment in them as its outer lines of defense and tools of geopolitical influence.

Iran’s rise and dominance as a regional power came to define an entire era of Middle Eastern politics. Across the region, most countries either were under direct Iranian influence via the country’s proxies or were forced to configure their foreign policies around the threats posed by Iran. The Gulf Arab states, for example, ended up pursuing de-escalation with Iran to stave off the instability caused by its activities.

The United States, other Western countries, and Israel did not like this Iran-dominated order, but they tolerated it. They saw it as lower risk compared with the unknown forces that sudden political change in Iran or Syria could unleash. This Cold War-like arrangement with a confrontational status quo made Damascus and Tehran feel confident in their power vis-à-vis the West and its allies.

U.S. disengagement from the Middle East under the Obama administration paved the way for Russia to insert itself into the regional order. When Iran and its proxies showed themselves unable to prop up the Assad regime on their own, Moscow saw the Syrian war as a low-cost opportunity to reclaim its status as a global power and arbiter of the region. Russia’s substantial naval and air bases in Syria also served as critical logistical centers for Moscow’s expanding military operations in Africa.

For almost a decade, Russia thus became a major actor in the Middle Eastern cold war. Russia, Iran, and the rest of the Axis of Resistance appeared to form one bloc, while Western allies such as Israel and the Gulf Arab countries formed another. But Russian support for Assad was little more than a transactional partnership, and Russian-Iranian relations were never frictionless. From the beginning of Russia’s military intervention in Syria, it sought to undermine Iran’s influence in the country so that Russia remained the dominant actor.

The Iranian regime, in turn, was concerned about the challenge that Russia presented to its influence in Syria. Yet Tehran had no choice but to remain in Moscow’s orbit, regarding its influence over Syria as a small price to pay in return for gaining a powerful backer for its Axis of Resistance.

Tehran presented Hezbollah and the Assad regime to the Iranian people as a worthy investment: the front line of resistance to Israel and the crown jewels of Iran’s regional clout. Tehran needed to reassure Iranians that the economic sacrifices and political isolation that its support for Hezbollah and Assad generated were not in vain. Otherwise, Tehran argued, Iran would be under threat of erasure by Israel and the United States.

The collapse of the Assad regime has jolted this dynamic to an abrupt stop. Russia’s abandonment of Assad—and by extension, Iran’s project in Syria—creates additional rifts in Iran’s already shrinking network of proxies. The Iranian leadership will struggle to justify to its people decades of investment in Syria that have gone down the drain in a matter of days.

Standing alone without Syria and Russia in the face of a still-strong Western-backed bloc, the regime in Tehran will be revealed to its people as having imposed a futile sacrifice that not even its nuclear program can redeem. This poses a serious risk to the survival of the Islamic Republic—potentially the biggest fallout of last week’s events.

The repercussions of Assad’s collapse will also ripple across Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen as Iran’s proxies find themselves without an important lifeline. In Lebanon, in particular, the political dynamics set off by Israel’s decimation of Hezbollah are likely to accelerate with the loss of the all-important land bridge for weapons supplies from Iran. The sudden vulnerability of an already weakened Iran also means that Tehran’s remaining proxies may doubt the reliability of their patron.

The domino effect of the collapse of the Assad regime will inevitably mean the end of the Iran-dominated regional order. Replacing it will be a regional order dominated by Israel and its partners. Israel has shifted its perspective from an uneasy tolerance of Iran’s influence in the Middle East to actively seeking an end to this status quo and has succeeded in practically neutralizing the biggest threat to its security, Iran. Israel will move from being a state surrounded by adversaries and clawing at regional legitimacy to becoming the Middle East’s agenda-setter. Enjoying good relations with both the United States and Russia also makes Israel a key player in ending the cold war in the Middle East.

For the Gulf Arab countries, Iran’s degradation as a destabilizing actor also bolsters the implementation of their economic visions. The defeat of Iran’s revolutionary project will pave the way for widening the scope of normalization between Arab countries and Israel on the basis of shared business, political, and security interests. This recalibration will likely push Turkey to act more pragmatically in the way it engages with the region.

The anti-Western ideology nurtured by the Syrian Baath Party for 54 years and successfully appropriated by Iran blossomed for decades but is rapidly withering. Just as the Cold War ended with the defeat of communism, decades of confrontation in the Middle East will end with the defeat of the resistance ideology.

[lefluoritesys]

A breakdown of apps you can use to communicate with your alters as separate people and write down information about them online and offline with their pros, cons, and a personal rating because I really needed it when I was new to being a system:

Note: by "PC" I mean any computer/macbook/etc. By "all devices" I mean PC, mobile, tablet, iPad, etc.

I apologize for mistakes in advance.

1. Antar: An app created to chat with your "inner self," found in both Play Store and AppStore. One of the more popular ones among systems. It is an app where you get to create personas that would be chatting with each other in chats called "sessions." Those sessions can either be given a name or just left named after the date they were created on. Each persona is given a color that would become the color of their messages in sessions. Offline app.

Pros: Fiarly easy to use, no in-depth information needed to access it fully. Biometric lock; 4 languages (English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish) for the system, however any language can be used via text; no limit to the amount of personas added (as far as I'm aware). Messages sent by the wrong persona can be changed; the "quote" feature allows you to start a thread under a message; provides descriptions of each persona. You can also give your personas an avatar rather than just a color. Has a "replay" and "visualization" feature, though I'd say it's strictly just for funzies.

Cons: Not available on PC; has no backup, phone-related resets or deletion of the app results in all information lost. Session order constantly changes depending on which senssion you entered, which in my opinion (+OCD) is a nuisance; you can't delete the "me" character which I've been wanting to do for a while. Can't add hexcodes.

Personal rating: 6/10. If you need an app that you can lock from unwanted visitors, if you don't mind and even prefer something simple, and if you don't care that the conversations might disappear, this app is a good choice.

2. Discord's PluralKit: A more avdanced discord bot with tons of settings and commands that was created specifically for systems. Allows you to add almost any information about your system memebers, even such things as birthdays. The way it works is, it "proxies" your messages with a certain command somewhere in the "normal" message, sends a message identical to yours from a bot created with the name you chose, and deletes your original message. Basically replaces a message from your account with a message from a bot you created earlier. Proxies are small commands that give the both a green light to do that, and they can be whatever you want them to be. Online bot.

Pros: Feels like different people are talking; allows you to track your switches; available on all devices; one system can be linked to multiple accounts, although you can't create multiple systems under one account; allows you to group alters together; allows you to restrict access to certain information from all users; allows you to add as many alters as you want; has a number of ways you can access the information you put in which would all be sorted and organized for you; autoproxy allows you to not proxy every message you sent; since you can't delete messages of other people on servers that are not yours, and the bot messages are not, in fact, yours, PluralKit allows you to react to the message with an emoji that deletes the proxied message; while you can't use it in DMs, you can set up commands in DMs with the bot; every memeber has a unique code, and so does the system itself, and it records when the member was created; can be exported to SimplyPlural.

Cons: Commands are difficult and complex, and so is the dashboard; can only be used on servers; sometimes offline as all bots are, though rarely; you can't use it anywhere outside discord (a con for those who don't use discord); I had instances where I saw people use it for roleplay which is also allowed; proxies are a pain; you'd need a guide to tell you why certain things are needed in it; you cannot reply to messages with gifs when using a proxy; when being exported to SimplyPlural it exports everything, so if you had 10 members on SimplyPlural and 15 on PluralKit, it's best to add those 5 manually than delete 10 new exported alters (I did it with 100+ alters by accident and it was a pain).

Personal rating: 9/10. Complex, difficult to figure out, but once you get ahold of it and how it works, you'd be amazed. Also a pain that you can't use it in DMs, but it's to be expected from a bot. And you can always create a server with just you.

3. Discord's Tupperbox: A discord bot created mainly for roleplay, but actively used by systems who cannot get along with PluralKit. A simpler bot, easy to use and figure out, most things can be done via dashboard, doesn't have the opportunity to add a lot of inofrmation. Online bot.

Pros: Simple; allows grouping alters; allows different tags for different members and groups, sometimes individually; way simpler commands, and most things can be added via dashboard; looks and works almost the same as PluralKit when in a conversation; available on all devices.

Cons: Can't add avatars via dashboard, only using the commands; can't add two alters with the same name (which you can do with PluralKit); people reported it glitching out and deleting members; mainly used for roleplay; gives a weird list of members via commands that is unusable in my experience; doesn't work out of discord.

Personal rating: 7/10. Perfect for people who just want to talk and not write down information about them with the bot, but the threat of members being deleted, especially as a larger system, is concerning. We mainly use it for OSDD-1a subsystems. It was also not created for systems, as far as I'm aware. I see more cons than pros.

4. Simply Plural: Another more well-known tool used and created for systems. Simply Plural is an app that allows you to create profiles of your members and add any information you'd like about them via custom fields. It has a chat feature, allows you to track your front and switch history, add friends, and many more. Supports endogenic systems (which is being mentioned not for discorse purposes but as a fact. Whether you find it good or not is up to you) and allows singlets to create profiles as well, although I don't know a lot about that part. Both offline and online app.

Pros (and a bit about the app): Backup included; tracks your switches and front, allows you to change exact time for them, too (24-hour clock down to minutes included); the polls feature works like polls on same Tumblr and everywhere else but specifically for your system memebrs; analytics provide information about who fronts the most, during what time of day they usually front; you and your friends can see each other's profiles, which is why singlets can also create profiles, which allows you to acces info about each other's systems; "trusted people" feature allows you to pick whether you want everybody to see your alters or not, or if you want outsiders to see your profile at all; provides resources and guides to plurality (which I personally haven't checked, but still putting it in the pros, if somebody thinks I shouldn't, let me know); has an app reminders feature; you can add as much information as you want; front history shows up in a person's profile; alters can add notes; alter groups are available; available on all devices, however, only as a website on PC; colors of your alters can be used in the chat to highlight names; hexcodes are available; "custom front" is a status you set with fronting which can be hilarious sometimes; connects to PluralKit in a number of ways.

Cons: The chat feature is a bit difficult to use, and first time I did, I freaked out because I couldn't get out of it (the trick is to go to "channels" and press "navigation", there you'll see the dashboard); friends can't communicate with each other; copy-pasting is hard on both mobile and PC; something about the interface and navigation irks me and our visually impaired self; notes have same visibility as the profile itself, which is inconvenient if you want your profile to be seen but not your notes; avatars can't be added via website.

Personal rating: 6/10. I don't like how it looks and works (probably due to being visually impaired and other issues), but if you manage to get the information in it, it's pretty accessible and thoughtful of what systems might need. Could be used as a tool to start working with your system rather than do it long-term.

5. Twinote: An app that is your "personal Twitter." Pretty sure it was created for the purpose of having fun rather communicating with alters. Offline app.

Pros: Backup provided; allows "private accounts" that other "users" can't see; can create as many users as you want, as many posts as you want; can upload up to 4 images; works almost like Twitter; has a chat feature; comments, retweets, likes are present; "lists" feature allows you to group users and see only their messages which could be used for "things only protectors sent" and such; storage shows all pictures used in the app, so you won't lose anything; tagging and following people is still an option, and following private accounts give that user an opportunity to be the only one seeing their tweets.

Cons: Can't upload videos; can't do much with anything other than posts and profiles, so trends and other stuff there is off-limits (as far as I know); you have to constantly switch between profiles for the chat feature; share button only shares the contents of the message; very easy to accidentally press the wrong button and delete a tweet by dragging it left (which I almost did a few times).

Personal rating: 7,5/10. I know it's probably annoying that I didn't just type either 7 or 8, but the reaosn why is cause I have mixed feelings about it from a practical point of view. We use it strictly to communicate what we did during the day as a small journal and just joke with each other, and it's incredibly funny in itself, but it doesn't allow you to write down a lot of information about your alters and has a character limit in profiles. So it's strictly for communication.

6. Notion: An app created as a dashboard for literally everything you could ever dream of. You can personalize it however you want and use it for whatever you want. Those who saw the post we made a while ago probably know the reason I'm mentioning it is due to a template that I linked here. Online app.

Pros: Can be used for literally everything without limits; available on all devices; big and has enough storage for a lot of information, text, projects, etc; can be designed however you want; a lot of useful templates for all life instances (even taxes); can be shared with people who also use Notion in a variety of ways (either only comment, only see, etc); can add your own custom covers and icons via both gallery and links; looks neat and doesn't mess with visual impairment for us; can add a page in a page in a page which can be used for diaries; links to different pages on other pages are also available; endless possibilities, I could rant all day.

Cons: Glitches on the phone a lot; certain things are allowed on computer and not on mobile and vice versa; all templates available only on PC; you need to have an account in order to use it; glitches if it's offline; sometimes deletes a bunch of text because of glitches, usually the triggers for it are writing a lot in it directly or erasing previous text a bunch of times; can't invite someone in your space, it would take too much storage; some storage needs to be bought, although, I don't know the limit (but there's a lot. Like, a lot)

Personal rating: 9/10. With all its antics, I love this app dearly, it's incredibly useful, and you learn to deal with the cons. It's the best one I've used for communication and information storage so far.

7. Texting Stories app: As ridiculous as it sounds, it could be used as a tool to communicate with your alters, especially in secret. We are fighting for our safety here, so I ask you to take this suggestion seriously. Could be used when you don't want to let anyone know you're a system and have noisy family members/relatives/etc who like to snoop through you personal devices, by using it, you can say you've just been doing a story. Offline app.

Pros: I believe you can add as many people as you want; can add avatars; different stories can be different days of the week; easy to use; easy to brush off as "just making stories."

Cons: Can't change colors, you need to pay for most things.

Personal rating: 5/10. Can be used for emergencies and communication only, although we haven't used it much.

8. Notes: Just the same plain old notes app on your phone that everybody has installed as default. Offline app.

Pros: Easy to use; can be easily lost within your other notes for privacy; used for literally everything you desire, even drawing; automatic backup.

Cons: Doesn't give you the ability to really present as separate people; doesn't have as many options as Notion.

Personal rating: 5/10. used it at some point just for communication, was cool, somple, easy, but nothing too big.

I hope this helped to put these apps in perspective. I do apologize for it being a bit all over the place, but I did attempt to make it coherent enough (I am currently in a psychotic state, it's difficult for me to communicate). And remember, there are always options to use a written journal rather than a digital one. If anything, it's better to keep both in case one gets lost. Who knows, maybe our parents asking us what we would do if the internet disappeared is actually a warning. /j /nm

-host

[athena-gundampla]

On G Gundam and Themes

I've started rewatching Mobile Fighter G Gundam recently, and starting it again from the first episode, it's striking how serious the tone feels.

G Gundam is often treated as quite a silly series, and it definitely is. The premise is over-the top - a free for all tournament between Gundams representing each of the countries that own a space colony, with the winner ruling over everyone until the next tournament. I think a lot of people's impression is that G Gundam is the show with the sillier designs, thinking of the Tequilla Gundam or the Nether Gundam (a literal windmill with arms and legs).

But amongst the silly Saturday Morning Cartoon tone that G Gundam embraces, there's also some pretty in-depth thematic elements that I think make it such an endearing show, and ground some of the silliness.

In the first episode, as the narrator sets the scene, he specifically mentions a "once beautiful Earth". When we land in Italy, we can see the immediate damage that our titular Gundam Fight inflicts - G Gundam hasn't just set its Gundam Fight on Earth for familiarity. Rome is in pretty rough shape - there's rubble everywhere, and the drop-pod we follow down has destroyed a major tourist spot. One of the responding police officers mentions the destruction the fights have wrought over the past 70 years. The colonies are free to exist in reliative luxury, with war apparently no longer existing - but that's a facade. The truth is, war has been exported back down to Earth, and turned into a sort of semi-regulated sporting event - and fie to those who still live there. In essence, Earth is one huge Global South, with the Colonies acting as a sort of collective imperial core.

The moment the idea of a Gundam Fight starting spreads, there's looting and panic as people try to escape the area of battle, and those with nothing to loose pick over what gets left behind. No matter who wins the tournament, its clear they wont particularly care about the destruction done down on Earth to achieve that end.

Our main character happens upon some kids trying to find tradeable items - one comments that the cash they've found isn't really worth anything. Their parents are dead, killed in one of the previous Gundam Fights. But I want to focus on their description of their nation's Fighter, because it reveals a few more things. If Italy has a Gundam Fighter, they have a space colony. But clearly there are still people living down here, abandoned in poverty and pollution while those who could afford it have reliative luxury, literally above them in the stars. Their fighter is described as opportunistic and mean - ever since he became the nation's representative in the colonies regulated proxy war, he "does whatever he wants". He's a bully, someone with power who uses that power to free himself from any responsibility, and clearly the sort of person who cares little for the destruction his fighting will cause to what is nominally his nation's capital.

"How can a guy like that represent our country?" "Because he's strong." - I think this response really exemplifies the core of what G Gundam is trying to say, behind the surface level extended tournament arc and various other anime shenanigans. Because the colonies are strong - because those with power wield it as a means to free themselves from consequences. While G Gundam doesn't always focus on this theme, I think it remains at the series' core, and it's why I don't think there can be a canon Gundam Fight after the 13th one of this series - because the Gundam Fight as a setting isn't just a setting that gives the series an excuse for cultural stereotypes beating each other up in a parody of Dragon Ball Z - it's a setting that recongizes and emphasises the consequences of governments exporting their conflicts "out of sight" to someone else's homes.

While G Gundam does kind of get away from this beginning when we get to all the Devil Gundam stuff (which itself stems from a sort of misled environmentalism reacting to the destruction of Earth), I feel like the ending where every nation comes together to fight as one, as cheesy and camp as it is, underlines our starting point - the Gundam Fight as a concept is flawed and harmful. The ending breaks from the format of the Gundam Fight, and it's not until the format of the Gundam Fight is left behind is the Devil Gundam actually defeated.

Sorry this came out kinda rambly, I hope someone more articulate picks this up and does a proper essay about it.

[syoemei]

a day later and im still thinking about peter lukas' episode. i think the lonely is such a fascinating fear, not just because of jonny's comments of it kind of becoming a proxy for depression, but because of peter's role as its main avatar in the show (*disclaimer that i've only watched up to s4 thus far).

side bar, i listened to a podcast where they defined "loneliness" as the distance between one's desired level of social connection and their self-perceived actual connection (hence how someone can feel lonely despite being surrounded by people). i know tma takes a bit more literal approach to "loneliness", such with the "not the power to make people disappear but rather the ability to go where no one else is" statement from the s4 q&a, but interesting to consider.

i think peter lukas, though he acknowledges this a bit in his statement, is a very specific manifestation of the lonely. is it a cop out to say it's a very privileged form of it? he himself acknowledges that his family comes from wealth and his mother paid for him to be able to run from home. but more than this, i think this contrast of peter wanting to be alone and yet needing humans to live in order to feed off their fear directly reflects the US' "white flight" phenomena to the suburbs in the mid-20th century. there's this WASPish need for silence and a creation of an in-community in suburbs, in contrast to the cities -- packed to the brim of people.

i know the tma's conception of loneliness also includes the loneliness people feel despite living in bustling city centers -- hell, peter creates that apartment complex to farm the people's loneliness. but i think my point is moreso exaggerated that he is the landlord in this situation. he is the one instigating and controlling the loneliness of the masses. but peter himself? he languishes in his upper class loneliness, isolated from the masses socially, but also economically. he wants the current social order to continue because it is his class that allows him his preferred form of loneliness (with respective agency) versus the loneliness of the lower class masses. he hates other people and yet needs them, just as the upper class needs the lower classes to be their capital.

i almost see this loneliness of the masses then not just as this social fear, but a reflection of the alienation people have to their work under late-stage capitalism. globalization, exportation of labor, the greater distance our goods travel to reach us -- all of this relates to the alienation we feel to each other. if loneliness -- to go back to the definition i brought up -- is our perceived lack, our hunger for, connection, then peter specifically draws on also our lack of connection to our means of production, as he himself is the benefactor of both social and economic detachment and lack.

i don't know if this was the intended meaning of peter lukas' story or the lonely as a whole, but that's where my mind went.

[tamamita]

do you think the houthis are a proxy of Iran?

The Houthis are not a proxy of Iran, because of two simple reasons: First, Iran state religion is Twelver Shi'a Islam and Ansar Allah belong to the Fiver Shi'a Islamic branch or (Zaidi Shi'a Islam), both of which contradict each other in the theological and political sphere. It makes no sense for Ansar Allah to allow Iran to have a stranglehold on the socio-political sphere of Yemen. However, their anti-imperialist values overlap, which is why they play a significant role in the fight against the US-backed settler state and its allies.

2. The Houthis are concerned with Zaidi revivalism, their ideological purpose is to revive the Imamate, which ceased in the 60s. In Zaidi theology, anyone who is a progeny of the Banu Hashim clan can become an Imam of the Zaidi Shi'as. Some Zaidis claim the wish to establish a democracy. Furthermore, Iran's political and clerical system is not well-received by other Muslim communities, even among Twelvers; if Iran attempted to export the system of Wilayat al-Faqih to Yemen, it would be a recipe for disaster, and would definitely catch the attention of the Gulf states. While the Iranian Twelvers and the Yemenite Zaidis make up the Axis of resistance, they do not always share the same geopolitical goals.

[darth-puma-vader]

The Biden presidency might have been the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the American people. A shocking investigation by the Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project has revealed that virtually every document bearing Joe Biden's signature during his presidency was signed by an autopen — except for one.

What makes this revelation particularly damning is that the only document confirmed to have Biden's actual signature was his letter announcing his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race. Let that sink in for a moment.

Remember when House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) revealed his discussion with Biden when Biden couldn't recall signing the executive order halting LNG exports? Now we know why — he probably didn't. The real question is: Who did? Who was running the country while Biden was not all there?

The evidence is overwhelming. We know that Biden's handlers desperately tried to prevent anyone from meeting with him one-on-one. Even Democratic insiders admit the truth. DNC fundraiser Lindy Li recently spilled the beans and acknowledged that Biden wasn't running the show; his staff, his wife, and Hunter were.

Thanks to the Heritage Foundation's investigation, we now have proof that Biden's signature was automated throughout his presidency — which raises serious questions about whether he was aware of what was being signed in his name at all. The Oversight Project rightfully points out that since Biden revoked Trump's executive privilege, we can easily determine who controlled the autopen and what safeguards, if any, were in place.

The implications are staggering. We essentially had a presidency by proxy, with unelected staffers wielding presidential power while the man himself was barely cognizant enough to read a teleprompter. This isn't just a scandal; it's potentially the biggest constitutional crisis in American history.

[rochenn]

Are you from the us? If not, how do you think our election results will affect you in your country (I’m assuming Germany??)

Yeah, I'm German :)

And man, this is a tough question. It's still too early to say, especially because some of Trump's campaign promises seem like his cabinet wouldn't let them slide entirely. But.

US import tariffs: horrible for the German economy (also for US inflation but that's not what we're talking abt rn). We're an export nation. The US is one of our most important trade partners. A trade war between our countries, with added complications from Chinese trade relations, could result in damages of around $180bn to the German economy (BAD. WE NEED SO MUCH MONEY RN. Which leads us to...)

NATO. If the US pulls out, Germany will be the most (financially) powerful member state. If the US stops Ukraine aid, we will be by far the largest donor. But we couldn't make up for any holes left by the US alone. We will have to up our defense spending even more, likely at the cost of social spending. That's bad. If we don't get a grip and end up failing Ukraine, there may be a very bad time in store for all of Europe and, by proxy, the whole world. So yeah. Money needed. And also German politicians who don't defend stupid zero-debt policies like it's their mother's honor, but that's a different topic

USAmerican political trends arriving in Europe. Election campaigns where vibes matter more than facts. Where the entire country is polarized. Anytime the Republicans are on some new backwards bullshit, without fail, German/European politicians will be using the same buzz words and having the same discussions a year later. I'm wary of abortion bans and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric with American talking points making their way over here. If I hear another German conservative yap about "Wokismus" I will blow up every statue of Otto von Bismarck in this country.

So, yeah! Mostly economic anxiety and a moderately terrifying prospect of going to war by the end of the decade. Some members of Trump's cabinet are staunch pro-NATO hawks, though, so we'll see about that.

[dailyspicyfigures]

Do you have any recommendations for sites to buy figures from? I looked into it and one site explained that Japan won't export directly so you have to go through a reseller, but the whole experience is weird to me and the focus on preorders reads as ripe for scams for a newbie

i personally use nin-nin game, just because ages ago i compared all of the most popular websites and nin-nin game was the cheapest for me and also i'm a creature of habit! they're a little slow to ship but their customer service is good so far so i'm happy with them.

to see more options, i'd say go to the figure's page on myfigurecollection, click on the "buy" option (top right corner) and there's a list of reputable websites that could have it for sale. when i say reputable i mean you won't get scammed, i don't necessarily mean all their customer service and shipping time and all that is great, i don't have enough experience for that so you'd have to google reviews. the most popular sites are probably amiami, solaris, nin-nin game, tokyo otaku mode and figuya.

it does happen that a figure is super exclusive or older/rarer and not available on these websites. i haven't had it happen to me with new releases/preorders, it's always listed on at least one site, but i do use a proxy site for older figures or to get a good deal on yahoo auctions. i could make a tutorial on how to use a proxy website, however i only have experience with zenmarket so it'd be a zenmarket tutortial. i'm not necessarily sure zenmarket is the best proxy, their fees might be a liiiittle high in comparision, however i've been using it since 2019 and again, i'm a creature of habit so i'm not changing that for a couple yen. let me know if you'd like that!

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Premier Doug Ford is pitching an enhanced energy partnership between Canada and the U.S. as part of a broader effort to stave off tariff threats from president-elect Donald Trump. Speaking at the Darlington nuclear generating station Wednesday, Ford outlined his vision for a "renewed strategic alliance" that he says would see increased exports of Canadian energy south of the border and a more integrated electrical grid. Ford said the proposed partnership would help North America obtain energy security as the U.S. "decouples from China and its global proxies.

Continue reading

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[masonjarhead]

The MiG-21, NATO Reporting Name "Fishbed", was designed as an interceptor fighter for the Soviet Air Force, and was adopted in 1959. Due to it being exported to almost every Soviet-allied nation, it became an icon of many Cold War-era proxy wars, most famously over the skies of Vietnam.

[mariacallous]

Following the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, U.S. President Donald Trump posted a message on Truth Social endorsing regime change in Iran. Since announcing a cease-fire this week that appears to be holding, he has walked that comment back. But the Iranian regime is under considerable strain and unlikely to emerge from the current Middle East war—including the decimation of its proxies across the region and a relentless 12-day Israeli bombing campaign on Iran itself—unscathed.

The demise or prolonged weakness of the Iranian regime would usher in seismic change in the Middle East. The story is not only about shifting geopolitics and the military balance of power. It is also about the demise of Islamism—both its political variant and violent jihadism—in the Middle East, of which Iran has been a key enabler.

Much of the power competition in the Middle East in recent decades has revolved around the spread of Islamism. This was sparked by the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, which made it a core mission to export what its founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called “sacred jihad” across the Middle East and beyond. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) nurtured jihadi groups abroad, providing Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and others with funding, training, and weapons to cement their role as instruments of Iranian soft and hard power.

A commonly used trope in understanding Islamism in the Middle East sees the rise of a Shiite Islamist regime in Tehran as spurring intense religious-ideological competition with Sunni Saudi Arabia. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the latter promoted and exported its own austere version of Islam, Wahhabism, to counter Iran’s spread of Shiite fundamentalism. As such, much of the public and policy framing of the Islamist phenomenon became woven around sectarian tension.

Although that perspective may have had some historical truth until the early 2000s, it is inaccurate today to put Iran and Saudi Arabia in the same basket. The two countries have taken diametrically opposite trajectories on Islamism since 2003—when al Qaeda launched attacks in Saudi Arabia—and especially since 2016, when the Saudi government set off on a vast social, cultural, and economic modernization program for the country. Until then, Iranian-Saudi competition over influence in the Middle East did contribute to the region becoming fertile ground for a wide variety of Islamist groups—Sunni and Shiite, armed and unarmed, national and transnational—which clashed with one another as well as with state authorities.

Iran, on the other hand, continued to fund, arm, and train armed Islamist groups—including Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas—as its main model of international influence. Tehran also continued to fuel Shiite-Sunni tension, not least by presenting itself as the patron of Shiite minorities in a Sunni-majority Middle East.

But the sectarian divide was never clear-cut. While Shiite Islamist groups are almost always loyal to Iran’s theocratic regime, some Sunni extremist groups are also aligned with it. Sunni jihadi groups such as al Qaeda and the Islamic State have always posed a threat to Saudi Arabia, seeking to overthrow the royal family and install a caliphate or Tehran-style regime. Seeing Islamism through the lens of Shiite-Sunni rivalry obscures Iran’s key role in nurturing various variants of Sunni jihadism.

Although Iran-sponsored jihadi groups such as Hezbollah have been active in international terrorism, transnational Sunni jihadi networks—armed elements of the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafi jihadis, al Qaeda, and the Islamic State—dominate discourse on jihadism. But there has been a tactical relationship between Iran and al Qaeda since the 1980s that is driven by shared animosity toward the United States and Israel. The U.S. congressional 9/11 Commission’s report concludes that Iran trained al Qaeda operatives in explosives and facilitated their transit to Afghanistan. The report also states that training in Iran and by Hezbollah in Lebanon likely enabled al Qaeda to eventually conduct the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

The transactional relationship between Iran and Sunni jihadis continues. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are both Sunni Palestinian groups. Although Shiite Hezbollah and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq have presented themselves as fighting the Sunni Islamic State, there has been tactical cooperation between all sides. Before the military defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in 2017-18, some PMF factions operating on the border between Iraq and Syria used to rent out highways under their control to Islamic State operatives by the day, as I found out on a trip to the region in 2018. Operatives from both sets of armed groups also collaborated in the illicit economy. According to other field contacts in the area, some Iran-backed factions fleeing Syria into Iraq during last December’s ouster of the Assad regime handed their weapons to Islamic State operatives in northeastern Syria before they left.

This tactical cooperation is made possible by both Iran’s and the Islamic State’s long-standing animosity toward Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group that defeated the Syrian regime and whose leaders now rule the country. Iran of course blames the group for the loss of its Syrian ally, and the Islamic State long fought HTS during the Syrian war. In its early years, HTS was affiliated with al Qaeda, and its members continue to embrace Islamist ideology. But its rise to power in multiethnic, multireligious Syria could only happen through distancing itself from its jihadi roots and embracing a more pragmatic political path. Under its new rulers, Syria may be moving toward Islamic governance, but full-on Islamist theocracy would be unacceptable to Syria’s Arab allies, on which Damascus depends for reconstruction funds.

Iran used the PMF’s battles with the Islamic State to increase its political influence in Iraq since these fights cultivated legitimacy for the PMF as national liberators from brutal terrorists. Similarly, Hezbollah used the excuse of defending Lebanon against the Islamic State to justify its intervention in Syria. The continued existence of the Islamic State, therefore, is useful for Iran, including as a tool against the current government in Syria. Islamic State attacks such as the suicide bombing inside the Mar Elias church in Damascus in mid-June benefit Iran’s desire to destabilize post-Assad Syria and create an opening for Iran to reestablish its influence there.

Sunni Islamist solidarity with Iran goes beyond violent jihadi groups. Following the Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt issued a statement in support of the Iranian regime. The statement claimed Islamic unity against Israel as the basis for common ground. This endorsement has historic roots: The theocrats who set up the Islamic Republic were themselves inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, whose writers and clerics created modern Islamism in the 1920s.

Its public support for Iran will further alienate the Muslim Brotherhood network from Arab states. This includes Qatar, which has been a longtime patron of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Sunni Islamist groups but—following its rift with a number of Arab states over its support of terrorist groups during the diplomatic crisis of 2017-21—has publicly distanced itself from these groups. Today, most Arab governments, from Morocco to the Gulf states, regard the Muslim Brotherhood as a political liability at best; countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates oppose it as a key destabilizing actor. The Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood did not endorse the Egyptian branch’s statement supporting Tehran precisely because it knows that Iran is a political liability in the new Syria, where it hopes to play a role.

With virtually no more political or financial support from Arab states, Sunni Islamism has already lost much of its appeal and authority in the Middle East. While individuals around the world may continue to send funds to Sunni Islamist groups, money without a political patron has limited impact. It is only Iran that continues to instrumentalize Sunni Islamism to feed Shiite-Sunni sectarian strife and foster instability—and, in the case of Hamas, legitimize the Iranian regime as a supporter of the Palestinian fight against Israel. Iran also continues to support Shiite groups such as Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen as part of its model of external influence.

Without Iran’s support, all those Shiite and Sunni Islamist groups would lose a major source of funding and weapons, which would in turn translate into political loss both domestically and regionally. In the Middle East, the Iranian regime is the Islamist phenomenon’s last lifeline. That lifeline is now much weaker. Were the regime to fall, Middle Eastern Islamism as we know it would fall as well.

[dandelionh3art]

President Putin understands the hypocrisy of the west and there is plenty of truth to back up his words.

I want to speak to the truth inside of you to understand the truth of Putins words. I will test your honesty now.

What was the last war the US fought on it's own soil? If you are honest you will answer the American Civil War.

This means that every conflict, fight, battle, skirmish and war since then was US troops in ANOTHER country. The insidious nature of US politicians, media and controllers is that they convince Americans that wars fought in other lands is FOR America and FOR freedom and democracy.

The hard truth is, Americans do not even fight at our own borders, but we die by the thousands and millions in other lands NOT America and for interests NOT American.

We as Americans destroy governments, stage coups, remove leaders, back color revolutions and launch proxy wars yet we preach to others of, "election interference," and, "democracy and freedom."

Many Americans are under the impression that the world hates us because we are so free, amazing and democratic. That the world is jealous. The truth is, the world hates America because we have a finger in EVERY pie the world over and Putin understands this.

I believe the world would welcome us as brothers, as allies and neighbors if only we exported products, dialog, conversation, patience, understanding and respect. Instead we export horrible entertainment, culture and war.

At what point did we assume we have nothing to learn from nations whom have existed for thousands of years?