#US Army in Asia

[cid5]

Operation BUSHMASTER I, 19 Nov 1965 troops of the 1st Inf Div awaiting pickup

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇲🇸🇾 🚨

💥US ARMY RELEASES VIDEO OF AIR STRIKES TARGETING THE ISLAMIC RESISTANCE IN SYRIA💥

The US Army released the video of the recent air strike against the positions of the resistance groups in the north of the city of Al-Bukamal located in Deir Ezzor province of Syria on Nov. 12th, 2023.

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[rhk111sblog]

A Scenario which I think will happen if President Bong Bong Marcos (PBBM) doesn't change his current Foreign Policy towards the South China Sea (SCS) is the Philippines will eventually lose Ayungin Shoal in 2024, and the Philippines could retaliate by trying to cut off Economic Ties with China which will result in Hardships especially for the ordinary Filipino on the Street

[timesofocean]

As China’s 'encirclement' of Taiwan continues, US warship sails through South China Sea

New Post has been published on https://www.timesofocean.com/as-chinas-encirclement-of-taiwan-continues-us-warship-sails-through-south-china-sea/

As China’s 'encirclement' of Taiwan continues, US warship sails through South China Sea

Istanbul (The Times Groupe) – Beijing conducted joint flights of jets and naval frigates on Monday after a US warship sailed through the disputed South China Sea.

People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said it “organized naval and air forces to track and monitor” the US Navy destroyer USS Milius that “illegally trespassed into waters near China’s Meiji Reef in Nansha Islands in the South China Sea on Monday.”

Earlier on Monday, the 7th Fleet of the US military in Asia-Pacific deployed its Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69) in the South China Sea.

On April 10, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69) asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands, consistent with international law.

Read more: https://t.co/BcOAXsufuO pic.twitter.com/PNyja70Vbv

— 7th Fleet (@US7thFleet) April 10, 2023

The fleet said it “asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands, consistent with international law.”

“ After completing the operation, USS Milius exited the excessive claim area and continued operations in the South China Sea.

Within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef, the United States conducted normal operations. Mischief Reef, which is submerged at high tide in its naturally formed state, is not entitled to a territorial sea under customary international law, according to the statement.

During the US warship’s voyage, China continued its three-day “military sword” exercises around Taiwan.

According to the Chinese daily Global Times, the PLA Navy Shandong aircraft carrier group was in waters east of Taiwan island where Chinese sorties, including those of J-15 carrier-borne fighter jets equipped with live missiles, took off and landed.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said its air defense units “remain on high alert for contingencies, steadfastly maintaining their posts 24/7, showing that we can and we will defend our skies.”

Taiwan detected 70 PLA aircraft and 11 PLA naval vessels around the island nation earlier today, 35 of which crossed the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan’s southwest and southeast air defense identification zones (ADIZ).

“And we will never give up our beliefs,” Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said on Twitter.

Neither the median line nor the ADIZ are recognized in Beijing.

In response to Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen’s 10-day trip to Central America last week, US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy hosted Tsai Ing-wen for a meeting in California.

[niveditaabaidya]

Kherson Can Be Taken Over By Ukraine. #kherson #ukraine #kyiv #eu #europ...

[sayruq]

Today was a big for the resistance. It seems people were right, they were waiting for Biden to leave so they can respond to the Ah Ahli Hospital massacre (the tweets below are arranged from the earliest reports I saw to the latest in order to show the coordination between different groups in different countries and the escalation)

Like I said, a big day for the resistance

And I see no signs of things slowing down

The Palestinian resistance has a list of objectives for this operation including damaging Israel's economy, forcing Israel citizens to flee the country, and slowing down immigration to Israel in the long term (because that leads to new settlements)

In other news, Biden's bloodlust was enough to disgust an arms dealer.

Several of his staff have also expressed discomfort with the administration's choices the past few weeks

Nonetheless, American troops have been told to prepare for deployment

The past few days I've been pointing out how Russia has gone from pro Israel to carefully neutral to increasingly critical of Israel and now we have this.

I'm so glad that Israel has continued to shoot itself on its foot by isolating itself from Russia and China

Russia is actively intervening to ensure that America and its allies can't use the Black Sea to counter the resistance in West Asia which is a big deal

So far, all signs are pointing to a regional conflict

This has to be a huge blow to Israel seeing so many countries, even a NATO nation, coming together to ensure that it can't annihilate Palestine.

More importantly, it shows that Palestine does not stand alone.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Houthi militants who continue to attack merchant ships in the Red Sea are doing China "a big favor" by challenging American supremacy, a professor at Beijing's top military academy said this week.[...]

"It means the Houthis have turned their original blockade of Israel into a blockade against the West," Xiao Yunhua, a professor at the People's Liberation Army National Defense University said on Monday in comments posted to Douyin, TikTok's Chinese cousin.

From Beijing's perspective, the Houthi's threat to the security of international shipping lanes represents an opportunity to double down on China's rail links from Asia to Europe, according to Xiao.

"It is precisely our international strategy to sever U.S. hegemony, undermine American sea power and promote global multipolarity," he told his 500,000 followers. "In a way, the Houthis have done us, China, a big favor," Xiao said.

>do nothing

>win

22 Dec 23

[northern-passage]

No Pride with Genocide!

You have probably seen the grotesque images of jubilant Israeli soldiers holding the pride flag on top of our scorched Gazan lands infiltrating social media feeds last week. The Israel State cynically publishes on its Twitter account, “The first ever pride flag raised in Gaza,” as it proceeds with its genocidal crusade and its concomitant Zionist propaganda campaign. We view these images with immense feelings of frustration and uttermost disgust, and we see through their despicable tactics of weaponizing homophobia and queer violence for colonial means. The following are notes from Queers in Palestine, elaborating on what such imagery tries to accomplish and what underpins their production:

1. Zionist Colonization is Anti-Civilization 

Colonial and Imperial powers have long used their fabricated lies of “civilization,” “rights,” and “democracy” to justify their plunder, military rule, and capitalist accumulation. We learn this from global histories of European colonization across Abya Yala, Asia, Africa, Turtle Island, Aotearoa, and Australia. The Zionist colonization of Palestine is no different. Oftentimes, the pretext of all of these bloodied invasions is that the “civilized” world is invading racialized communities to bring culture, education, and liberalism and instill it in societies it deems barbaric, immoral, and uncivilized. The images of the LGBT flag supposedly claim to bring rights and liberties to Gaza, but unironically, the soldier stands on top of the debris of hopes, dreams, and human remains of Palestinians he himself and the army he serves bombed moments before. The flag merely stands to reaffirm the simulacrum of colonization, death, white supremacy, and destruction. 

2. Israel Erases Palestinian Queerness

The images of the Israel Pride Flag and the other with the text, “In the name of love” send a clear message: Israel will not allow queer liberation unless it’s through its settler-colonial genocidal project. To that, we say No! We queer Palestinians have a vibrant, diverse liberation movement that is part of the Palestinian anti-colonial movement. For decades, we have been tirelessly working on carving up and maintaining a space for Palestinian queer life amongst our communities and not despite them. We are everywhere: in schools, streets, prisons, hospitals, and at the forefront of every confrontation in every corner of Palestine, from the river to the sea. What we are working towards is a Palestine liberated from colonialism, patriarchy, and capitalist exploitation.

3. Queer Opacity in Times of Hypervisibility

In a time when Palestinians are being prosecuted without trial, student movements shut-down and students in universities suspended and detained, and solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians at large are attacked and criminalized, visibility has proven itself to be a frontline of resistance against the erasure of Palestinians worldwide. In Palestine, Israel’s surveillance apparatuses hunt any expression for Palestine’s right to exist as grounds to attack, incarcerate, and murder Palestinian life. This over-fixation on the supposed lack of Palestinian queer visibility steers the attention from Israel’s campaign against all Palestinians – workers, activists, students, feminists, queers, and otherwise. Israel and its allies dangerously decontextualize the violence queers suffer from its historical colonial roots, and dissociate it from the impacts of current settler-colonial violence. This is an attempt to portray Palestinian society as unsafe for queers to legitimize the annihilation of our people, and in turn our annihilation as queers. Under Israel’s surveillance & police state, visibility, opacity and invisibility are survival and resistance tactics we use interchangeably, and aren’t always a matter of choice. None of us is safe under settler-colonization.

4. These Images Endanger Queer People Worldwide

The Pride Flag has long been hijacked and homonationalised. It represents a narrow and limited understanding of gender and sexuality and excludes the myriad of sexualities in the colonized world. This homonationalism renders colonized sexual and gender attitudes illegible to the liberal gaze and forces us to speak a language that compromises our experiences. Under nationalist and colonial regimes, our bodies and sexualities will always be regulated. What the pride flag has come now to represent is a commercial, imperialist, and white supremacist sexual ideologies, and this, in turn, puts us queer people in danger. This homonationalist project hinders our fight against anti-queer violence within our communities because our identities and sexualities are constantly being hijacked by the empires and colonies that brought destruction upon us. We need to reject such associations that only strengthen queerphobia in colonized societies, especially during this time in Arab and Muslim communities, when the soldiers and armies that are destroying our homes and killing our parents, siblings, friends, and children are doing so in the name of LGBT rights. 

5. Colonialism & Empire are Anti-Queerness

In the past, colonial projects sought to eliminate any sex-gender organization systems that fell outside of the European binary patriarchal model of man-woman. We learn this from the British criminalization of the Hijra in South Asia, or British and French social organizing efforts to enforce a binary sex-gender system in Yoruba Land, or Portuguese and Spanish efforts to eliminate “two-spirit” indigenous North Americans – deeming all uncivilized in need of external civilization. This was also the case in Palestine under British-Zionist military occupation, as same-sex relations and other diverse gender practices became criminalized and demonized. All the current laws in Gaza that criminalize queerness are, in fact, British and are upheld by Zionism. However, it becomes evermore absurd that rhetorics of bringing queer liberation to Palestine have been now hijacked by Zionists and, for the most brutal reasons, in service of annihilation of Palestinian life and mass destruction. We, Palestinian queers, position our movement for liberation alongside anti-colonial and anti-racist movements globally, and we stand firmly in objection to any attempt to hijack our movements, or exploit our bodies.

In the name of revolutionary love, a love which fuels our struggle for liberation and yearning for freedom, rooted in our love for our communities and our land; we tell you, there is no pride with genocide, and there is no pride in settler-colonialism.

Our pride can only come through true liberation for all, for us and for all the peoples fighting worldwide.

A Liberatory Demand from Queers in Palestine | Pinkwashing - Decolonize Palestine

[matan4il]

Proportionality in war does not mean what so many of you seem to think it means.

Proportionality in war doesn't mean that an army fighting another military force is standing with their hand on a stopper, counting the dead and waiting for the moment when the number on both sides is equal. Not a single war in history has been fought like that, and it is an insane double standard, that people talk about Israel as if this is how it's meant to fight. In WWII, there were way more German civilian fatalities than there were American or British ones, and NO ONE says the Americans and British carried out a genocide of the Germans, just because the impact on the civilian populations was dissimilar. No one looks at that war and says, "The allies should have totally stopped before defeating the Nazis, once the number of German civilians killed was bigger than their own."

(and all this holds true whether we're talking about a regular army fighting another, such as in most wars, or whether it's this case, where we see Israel facing in this war in Gaza a terrorist organization, that is made up of tens of thousands of armed fighters, with proper military training, backed by tens of thousands of rockets, using even more people as human shields, booby trapping entire residential areas, digging an entire underground network of tunnels and bunkers stretching for miles, dedicated solely to terrorism, and having collaborators from other terrorist organizations in that territory and outside it fighting with them, plus members of that terrorist organization attacking from outside the war zone)

Proportionality in war means that an army's impact must be proportionate to the size of the threat. Not to the number of casualties, to the size of the threat.

Just like when we talk about the allies' response to the Nazis in WWII, we do take into account more than just how many people actually died in the war the Germans started, we take into account what would have happened, had Nazi Germany been successful in conquering even more countries, or reaching even more Jews to exterminate, as the Nazis planned to (demonstrated by, among other examples, their special death squad geared to kill the Jews in Israel had they managed to occupy it, the pressure they placed on the Japanese to get rid of the Jews living in East Asia under Japanese rule, and the lists of Jews to be arrested first in places the Nazis were planning to occupy, but thankfully failed to, including the UK, the US and Canada).

Since Hamas is an extremist terrorist organization, that has repeatedly stated it targets all Israelis and Jews, and has acted accordingly, that means that when Israel is fighting to dismantle Hamas, the threat it's trying to remove is the one posed to:

9.8 million (as of Dec 2023) people threatened in Israel, Jewish and non-Jewish alike (as demonstrated in action on Oct 7, when Hamas murdered Israeli Muslim Arabs as well, for being affiliated with the Jewish state)

about 8.4 million Jews living outside of Israel and targeted by Hamas (as demonstrated in action when Hamas terrorists were arrested last month for intending to carry out terrorist attacks on Jewish targets in at least 3 European countries)

Every single Gazan who might be killed due to Hamas. As Hamas has gotten Gazan kids killed building its terror tunnels, killed Palestinian kids by recruiting teenagers as terrorists, killed Gazan civilians when using them as human shields, killed Palestinian women and Palestinian queers by allowing (even condoning) "honor killings," killed Gazan protestors, killed Gazans affiliated with opposing political parties, and as Hamas is seemingly hellbent on waging this war to the last Gazan, when they didn't have to start it by attacking Israel on Oct 7, and they could have saved so many of their people by surrendering and ending it, all 2.1 million Gazans can be seen as endangered by Hamas

In total, this would mean that there are currently 20.3 million people in the world directly threatened by the very existence of Hamas.

By fighting Hamas in Gaza, Israel is currently actively defending 20.3 million people!

(obviously, minus the 30,000 Hamas terrorists)

That's before we start counting Palestinians outside of Gaza (because yes, Hamas exists and operates in other areas as well, as I mentioned above, and if it's seen as victorious in Gaza, that will strengthen Hamas outside it, too), or what it would mean for the entire Middle East region, or even for the whole world, if the moderate countries in this area see that the extremist terrorist tactics of Hamas are successful at stopping a democratic state from protecting its people.

THAT is the size of the threat. And THAT is what Israel's war impact is in proportion to.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[call-me-strega]

Dc x Dp Prompt #14: The Valentines Day Debacle

“debacle • \dee-BAH-kul\ • noun.

1 : a tumultuous breakup of ice in a river 

2 : a violent disruption (as of an army) : rout

3 a : a great disaster b : a complete failure : fiasco.”

~ It was Valentine’s Day and Jason regrets agreeing to go on this date.

Weelll, kind of, but not exactly.

This “date” was actually a covert-op with three caped chaperones because he, Steph, Tim and Cass were all on cases that ended up being the same case.

Steph and Tim had caught wind of some allegedly magic potions becoming popular among college students used to help students score dates with their up coming Valentines. There weren’t any outright love potions but confidence boosters, things to increase your attractiveness, luck boosters, thing to get people in the mood. They had been investigating into it to make sure this wasn’t secretly a drug ring but found it to some real magical bullshit. They’d located the source’s lair/lab where they brewed the potions but not the potion brewer themselves.

Cass had been in Hong Kong when she caught wind of one of her targets following rumors of a witch who specialized in potions to grant small boons and bewitching charms. After dealing with her target she started tracking down the witch to find out her goals and intentions. She followed her trail across Asia, Europe and a good portion of the eastern seaboard before her path led her to Gotham.

Jason was investigating some upper middle class chick that started hanging around the alley trying to get in with the prostitutes and drag queens(and only succeeding in making them suspicious). She met several young men who abandoned the gang allegiances too trail after her like puppies. His investigation showed she was also circling Gotham elites and was in search of gossip on two things: people looking for love and a beau for herself.

They had been going over their cases at a team meeting when they realized their 3 targets were all the same woman. Between the four of them they pieced out she was some new age witch, descendent from an older family line looking to get rich and in a relationship. Her potions weren't really actively harmful but her use of them to gain the upper hand in business deals and amass a following of boytoys she decided weren’t hunky enough for her but would do as muscle was.

Tim and Steph knew she was planning on selling her potions at the Valentine’s/Winter market place in Robinson Park coming up. Jason and Cass knew she was looking to net some more followers while they were there so the plan was simple. One of the guys would go undercover to try and get recruited while the others stayed nearby for back up. They’d try to get some information out of her and if the need for it arose, to take her into custody and hand her off to the Justice League Dark. They’d already talked to Zatana to have her ready to come to Gotham should things go awry and gotten a charm from her to prevent them from getting put under her control.

Oh if only this didn’t go so wrong.

Unfortunately for Jason, he matched their little witch’s tastes to a tee. Thus, he was the one stuck being dragged around market under the guise of having agreed to a date with her. She dragged him around, made him pay for her things, tried to use his stature to intimidate others and was generally rude to the other patrons and staff. Oh, Jason despised her but grit his teeth and pretended to play nice. Cass was investigating her stall and Steph and Tim were tailing them.

Finally over the comms he heard the team confirm Cass had found the info she was looking for and he could finally ditch little miss witch. He broke it to her that he thought this wouldn’t work out and her eye just twitched. She must have tried to charm him because she asked him to stay with her and become her main beau, which he soundly refused. This set her off on a rage as she screeched over how her charm didn’t work and how Jason would have been perfect if she’d been able to get him under her thumb. He tried to back off when she lashed out with a magic rope insisting once she captured Jason he’d be the perfect leader to her adoring little boyfriend army.

So yeah she was more psycho than anticipated.

Spoiler and Red Robin began to swoop in for the rescue which only served to enraged her further. That’s when the team learned that she was talented in more than just potions. She used her magic to start awakening magical creatures in the park surrounding them. Nymphs shed from trees and little snow golems formed and began attacking RR and Spoiler.

Black Bat had run over to extract Jason when the witch noticed her. She shrieked in outraged proclaiming if she couldn’t have Jason no one else would and that he could become fish food for the frost creatures of Far Frozen before picking him up with a spectral vine and slamming him through the frozen lake into a swirling blue portal. Cass tried to go after him but the witch quickly engaged her with too much feral rage to realize she was outclassed in hand to hand against Black Bat. By the time Steph and Tim fought off the nymphs and golems it was too late. Whatever whirling portal had been in the lake closed and Jason was no where to be found.

As Jason pushed through the ice he had one final thought before he felt himself black out: ‘Worst Valentine’s Day ever.’

~ The first thing Jason felt when he came to was cold. He was still submerged under icy water. It was chilled him to the core but was almost soothing in a way. As if cooling of a burn. As is opened his eyes the world seemed to move in slow motion. He was still underwater surrounded by chunks of ice. He could make out sounds of distorted yelling as the world seem to get even slower.

Suddenly he felt something grab his collar and place itself under his arm. Jason was unceremoniously hoisted out of a frozen river and laid out on a river bank. He let out a harsh cough and his head got dizzy. He tried to regain his wits long enough to see who pulled him out.

It was large figure, maybe an inch or two taller than his 6 foot, with the bulk of a viking and the looks of one too. The man appeared to be around the same age as Jason, possibly older, and very concerned. He had messy white hair that was tied(or braided? Jason’s vision was still blurry) in the back. He was wearing armor made of some sort of hide leather and a dark gray metal (iron?) and covered in snow-white furs.

Jason stared at his savior trying to get his wits about him, willing his vision to clear. That’s Jason felt a warm fur cloak wrap around him as the man said something Jason wasn’t able to comprehend. He let out another harsh cough and felt himself being picked up in a princess carry. His rescuer moved incredibly fast for someone carrying a man of Jason’s stature. However, the motion did not help with the dizziness or the cold. Jason shivered, curling towards his “heroic knight” and pulling the cloak tighter around himself. This spurred the man to go faster.

Finally, everything stopped moving and Jason felt himself encompassed in warmth. Several more furs were wrapped around him and he was laid down to rest. At last Jason’s vision cleared enough to see the other man’s face properly. He had a rugged face and a strong jawline. He had a small scar near his eyebrow and round eyes with light eye bags beneath them. He had a straight nose and bow-shaped lips.

Jason felt the world slow down again and realized he’d soon pass out from the cold. The man lifted Jason’s head and slipped a pillow underneath. A rough hand gently pushed the wet hair out of his face and caressed his cheek. Jason stared into the man’s eye. They were kind, gentle, and such a vibrant green they seemed to glow. The man gave him a small smile and the last thing Jason heard before falling asleep was a soothing voice telling him “Rest, we will take care of you.” And with that Jason felt himself relax and fell asleep.

~ When Jason came to the first thing he saw was a 20-something-foot tall yeti with an icy cybernetic arm looming over the foot of his bed.

He promptly screamed and fell out of bed.

A vaguely familiar voice called out from another room.

“ FROSTBITE! I thought I told you not to scare him!”

In walked the man that had saved Jason from an icy death. Upon closer inspection now that he wasn’t dying the man seem 10 times as beautiful than Jason remembered. He almost seemed to have this ethereal glow to him. The man continued to admonish the yeti who just laughed heartily and continued on with whatever task he was trying to complete. The man turned his attention to Jason, smiling at him in apology and lifting him back into the bed.

“ I’m sorry about Frostbite. He won’t admit it but I think he gets a crack out of scaring his patients,” He said with a placating chuckle. His mirthful eyes met Jason’s puzzled ones and he continued on as he began to fiddle with few thermoses, seemingly searching for one in particular.

“ You must be quite confused. I don’t exactly know how you ended up here but this place called the Far Frozen. I felt a pulse of magic near the river and went to investigate and ended up fished you of the water. You were nearly frozen so I brought you back to village where you could get warmed up and medics like Frostbite could help you before the actual frostbite set in.”

He chuckled at his own joke before placing a cup in Jason’s hands.

“ It’s soup, drink up. It’ll help you get warm.”

Jason hesitantly took a sip of his soup. It was surprisingly good! He continued to sip his soup and Jason observed the man. He had a rather muscular build Jason noticed, staring at the man for no other reason than assessing if he’d be a potential threat (and for absolutely no other reason). Danny finished closing up his thermos and continued to speak.

“ I promise once Frostbite treats you for any illness or injury. I’ll help you get home. -Oh where are my manners” he held his hand out for Jason to shake. “You can call me Phantom.”

“ Call me Jay,” he replied, taking Phantom’s hand and a glance at his biceps. Phantom pulled away and stood up.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to resting. I’ll come back later when Frostbite gives you a check up and we can talk about how you got here and how to get you back” He turned and began to walk out before turning his head back one last time and waved. “I’ll see in a bit Jay.”

Jason watched him go and fell back into bed having finished his soup. As he pulled the furs and blankets back over himself he thought ‘Well maybe it’s not the worst Valentine’s Day ever.’

[bluewinnerangel]

FITF Tour exit songs

- NA LEG - Uncasville: Tina Turner - The Best

Gilford: The Smiths - This Charming Man

Laval: Petula Clark - Downtown

Toronto: Bryan Adams - Summer Of '69

Cuyahoga Falls: The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony

Sterling Heights: Shed Seven - Chasing Rainbows

Cincinnati: The Killers - All These Things That I've Done

Columbus: R.E.M. - The One I Love

Indianapolis: Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

Maryland Heights (St. Louis): Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode

Kansas City: Van Morrison - Moondance

Milwaukee: Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now

Chicago: Earth, Wind & Fire - September

Minneapolis: Sinéad O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U

Council Bluffs: Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)

Sioux Falls: Don McLean - American Pie

Seattle: The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Vancouver: The Police - King Of Pain

Troutdale: Elvis Presley - Always On My Mind

Berkeley: INXS - Never Tear Us Apart

Los Angeles: 2Pac - California Love

Las Vegas: The Killers - Human

Phoenix: Spear Of Destiny - Liberator

Irving: The Doors - Hello, I Love You

Austin: Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag

Houston The Woodlands: The Police - Walking On The Moon

St. Augustine: The Police - Every Breath You Take

Hollywood: Elton John - Your Song

Tampa: Pat Benatar - Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Atlanta: The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want

Nashville: Duran Duran - Hold Back The Rain

Charlotte: Lou Reed - Perfect Day

Raleigh: Van Morrison - Moondance

Columbia: Commodores - Easy

Boston 1: Boston - More Than A Feeling

Boston 2: Pixies - Here Comes Your Man

Philadelphia: Sinéad O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U

Asbury Park: Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In The Dark

New York: Queen - We Are The Champions (dj elf asked a fan to pick between this one and David Bowie - Heroes)

- EU & UK LEG - Hamburg: Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

Copenhagen: Queen & David Bowie - Under Pressure

Oslo: Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends

Stockholm: The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

Helsinki: Elvis Presley - Always On My Mind

Tallinn: Smash Mouth - All Star

Riga: AC/DC - Thunderstruck

Kaunas: Elvis Presley - Can't Help Falling in Love

Krakow: Iggy Pop - Lust For Life

Łódź: Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop

Vienna: Oasis - Supersonic

Ljubljana: The Killers - Smile Like You Mean It

Budapest: Bloc Party - Helicopter

Bucharest: Foo Fighters - My Hero

Sofia: Rage Against The Machine - Bombtrack

Bilbao: Pixies - Where Is My Mind

Lisbon: White Lies - Farewell to the Fairground

Madrid: Editors - Munich

Barcelona: At the Drive-In - One Armed Scissor

Turin: Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way

Bologna: Bloc Party - Helicopter

Luxembourg: Pixies - Where Is My Mind

Antwerp: Queens Of The Stone Age - My God Is The Sun

Paris: Biffy Clyro - Bubbles

Amsterdam: Blur - Song 2

Cologne: The Libertines - Can't Stand Me Now

Prague: Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl

Berlin: The Cure - Friday I'm in Love

Munich: Fatboy Slim - Praise You

Zurich: The Strokes - Last Nite

Dublin: Inhaler - These Are The Days

Sheffield: The Killers - Mr. Brightside

Manchester: The Smiths - This Charming Man

Glasgow: The Snuts - Gloria

Brighton: Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated

Cardiff: T. Rex - 20th Century Boy

London: The Libertines - Can't Stand Me Now

Birmingham: Boyz II Men - End Of The Road

- ASIA & AUS LEG - Jakarta: Iggy Pop - Lust For Life

Melbourne: Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl

Brisbane: The Temper Trap - Fader

Sydney: Oasis - Rock 'N' Roll Star

- LATAM LEG - Panama: Hard-Fi - Living for the Weekend

San Juan: Pixies - Where Is My Mind

Rio de Janeiro: Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box

Like last time the plan is to keep editing this post as tour goes on - 2022 LTWT here

Apple music playlist here

[gothhabiba]

The immediate impact of the Israeli occupation was to exacerbate unemployment: service jobs for the Egyptian army and UN forces vanished, trade with Egypt halted, and the port was closed. Moreover, since the combined GNP of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was only 2.6 percent of the Israeli GNP in 1967, they faced inevitable integration into the Israeli economy as the occuption continued. Furthermore, Israeli policies increased the Strip's dependency. These practices included permitting only certain Gaza products to be sold within Israel, flooding the Gaza market with Israeli goods, restructuring Gaza's agriculture, and encouraging Arab laborers to work in Israel.

The Balance and Composition of Trade. After only one year of occupation, 72 percent of Gaza's imports came from Israel; no imports were allowed from Egypt, and 1 percent of its imports came from Jordan (the balance came from Europe). This represented a dramatic shift, since all the prewar trade had been either directly with Egypt or with Europe and Asia through the Gaza port. [...]

A decade later the shift in trading patterns was even more pronounced. [...] 91 percent of imports came from Israel, and nothing was imported from Jordan or Egypt. [...] Dates, strawberries, and vegetables were also sold to Israel, and local industries engaged in subcontracting for Israeli firms.

Agriculture and industry were both hard hit by Israeli competition. Israeli eggs, poultry, and even vegetables sell at lower prices than local produce, and virtually all canned and bottled goods come from Israel. [...]

A 15 percent excise tax and soaring inflation erode the profits of merchants and factory owners. Gazans have no way to hedge against inflation, since the Israeli shekel is the only legal tender on the Strip.

Restructuring Agriculture. Israel has prevented farmers from exporting to Israel any items that compete with Israeli produce and has imposed restrictions on the planting of certain crops. As a result, the output of melons, onions, grapes, almonds, olives, and fish has decreased. Farmers need permits to plant trees and vegetables.

[...] The government has encouraged production of some specialized crops, such as strawberries and dates. Farmers in Beit Lahiya village say that they were ordered to grow strawberries and would otherwise have been prevented from using their land and well. These strawberries are marketed exclusively through Ashkelon port by the Israeli export firm Agrexco. No permits, however, have been given to farmers to plant such crops as mangoes and avocados, which are also grown in Israel.

Arab Labor in Israel. In 1970, 10 percent of the Gaza labor force was employed in Israel, but at present approximately 40 percent (35,000 persons) work there. This includes 25,000 workers who are registered with the official labor exchange and another 10,000 who work illegally. The high unemployment within the Strip and the fact that wages inside Israel were five times those in the Strip made such employment irresistible.

[...] Even those holding regular jobs face difficult conditions. For example, it is illegal for them to remain inside Israel from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. But employers and workers collude in circumventing the law so that the workers will not have to spend several hours every day commuting. Farmers let laborers sleep in huts, abandoned buses, or even in the open under the orange trees. In town, workers jam into hostels, sleep on construction sites, or spread out on the floor in restaurants. There have been cases of disasters when workers locked into factories at night were unable to escape when fires broke out. [...]

The overall impact of Israeli economic policy is to turn the Gaza Strip into a large labor camp. The Strip is a source of cheap labor for Israel and its internal economic base is continually eroded.

– 1985. Ann M. Lesch, "Gaza: Forgotten Corner of Palestine." Journal of Palestine Studies 15.1, pp. 43-61. Emphasis mine.

[lesbianchemicalplant]

But The Wind Rises declines to challenge mainstream Japanese society’s distortions and denials of its wartime atrocities. Worse, it echoes Japan’s morally dishonest stance that it was a victim, rather than a perpetrator, of a global war — a whitewashed version of history that the film now imports to every country where it plays. Consider the first scene. Jiro is a young boy; in his dreams, he heads for the skies in a wooden aircraft. A constellation of black dots appears above him, soon revealed to be a hangar’s worth of missiles and bombs. They dangle from a zeppelin embossed with the Iron Cross. The explosives fall on Jiro, reducing his plane to splinters. The rest of the film is suffused with this fear of German aggression, and it’s an ethically mendacious choice of a bogeyman on Miyazaki’s part. In The Wind Rises, the alliance between Germany and Japan — the original Axis of Evil — is conveniently forgotten, as scene after scene shows the Japanese bombarded by Teutonic suspicion, condescension, and hostility. Reframing the Japanese as the victims of Nazi racism deflects attention from the heinousness of the Japanese Imperial Army. But Miyazaki’s elevation of his own countrymen as morally loftier to the Nazis is only credible when the viewer forgets (or is unaware) that the Japanese military justified killing 30 million people across Asia with its own ideology of ethnic superiority. The Wind Rises continues this blame evasion throughout, evincing an ideal of pacifism while positioning Japan as the target of Chinese and American assault. We see Japanese planes downed by a Chinese foe in a mid-film reverie — a shockingly insensitive image given that Japan was invading China during this time, not the other way around. Later, an American bomber floats above a graveyard of burned-out aircraft over the defeated Japanese empire. In contrast, no Japanese pilot is ever seen shooting at an enemy, even though Jiro’s most famous invention, the Zero plane, was designed and used solely for military purposes. The consequences of his work — that is, corpses — are likewise absent. In the film, Jiro never expresses sympathy for the people his people killed. His grief is strictly reserved for the deaths of his planes. His preference to mourn his Zeros, rather than the planes’ victims, illustrates his soft-handed callousness. The bloodlessness of the film contributes to its whitewashing of an incredibly bloody history. No surprise, then, that The Wind Rises has already created an uproar among South Koreans (who haven't yet seen the film),  arguably the biggest recipients of Japan’s 40-year colonial cruelty (1905-1945). The Wind Rises’ specious pose of self-victimization will and should disgust the living survivors and their descendants in the myriad other countries Japan invaded during World War II: China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia; the list goes on. It’s hard to believe that, were The Wind Rises set in an interwar Germany and focused on an idealistic dreamer who just wanted to design the world’s most beautiful U-boat and didn’t care a whit about the concentration camps, it would receive a similarly adoring reception here in the U.S. (At the time of writing, the film enjoys a 82 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has appeared on several best-of-year lists.) One would hope that critics who aren’t suffering from Japan’s culture of mass delusion about its war crimes would take into consideration the warped version of history Miyazaki has to accommodate and, to a large extent, perpetuates.

(2013)

[whencyclopedia]

Ptolemaic Army

The army of Ptolemaic Egypt was a well-organized fighting force trained in Hellenistic warfare. The Ptolemaic dynasty used their considerable wealth to maintain a large standing army of professional soldiers. Some troops were paid in money, and others were given farmland in exchange for service. In wartime, military expenditure could represent more than three-quarters of national spending.

The Ptolemaic army's earliest members were mostly foreigners who immigrated to Egypt to serve the Ptolemaic dynasty. These soldiers and their descendants established Greek, Persian, Thracian, and Jewish communities in Egypt. Over time, their numbers were replenished by Egyptian conscripts trained in Greek tactics.

Origin, Recruitment & Ethnic Composition

Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 BCE) conquered Egypt in 332 BCE as part of his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire. After the death of Alexander the Great, his general Ptolemy I made himself king of Egypt. Other parts of Alexander's empire were divided between the rest of his generals in the Wars of the Diadochi. The army of Ptolemy I was originally composed of 4,000 soldiers left in Egypt by Alexander, along with thousands of mercenaries.

In Asia, of those who had shared in the division of the satrapies, Ptolemy took over Egypt without difficulty and was treating the inhabitants with kindness. Finding eight thousand talents in the treasury, he began to collect mercenaries and to form an army. A multitude of friends also gathered about him on account of his fairness.

(Diodorus Siculus, 18.14.1)

The core of Ptolemy I's original army was Macedonian. Persian and Egyptian troops left over from before Alexander's conquest were absorbed into this army. As the Hellenistic kingdoms waged perennial territorial wars with each other, they replenished their armies with large numbers of soldiers and mercenaries. Seasoned, professional soldiers had an advantage over new conscripts, and could command high wages.

In terms of bargaining power, soldiers were in a strong position vis-a-vis the rulers, since the latter were in a harsh competition for resources and territory in the decades following Alexander's conquest. Each ruler needed both to hire well-trained soldiers and to prevent his rivals from hiring them.

(Fischer-Bovet, 167)

Ptolemaic recruiting officers (xenologoi) traveled throughout the eastern Mediterranean to enlist mercenaries, and captured enemy troops were also sometimes conscripted. After the Battle of Gaza in 312 BCE, 8,000 prisoners of war were sent back to Egypt and given plots of land in exchange for service. However, the surviving evidence indicates that most recruits traveled to Egypt on their own initiative, either by themselves or in small groups. These people were drawn by Egypt's wealth and the possibility of becoming landowners or ranking officials in the Ptolemaic government. From the 3rd century BCE onwards, new recruits were increasingly conscripted from within Ptolemaic territory. These troops were raised in Greece, Cyrene, Egypt, Cyprus and Syria.

Most recruits in the early Ptolemaic army were from Macedon and mainland Greece. Significant numbers of Thracians, Carians, Persians, and Jews served as well, particularly in the cavalry. The descendants of these troops typically continued to serve as soldiers. Egyptians were another major component of the Ptolemaic army, especially in later periods when they were conscripted en masse. The exact ethnic composition of the Ptolemaic army is unknown because ethnic names were sometimes used to denote rank or language instead of ancestral origin. Galatians and Nubians also served in more limited numbers.

Continue reading...

[w975x]

where did shinichiro go during his stay in the philippines?

an. an interesting (and really quick) insight into the story between japan and the philippines included in tokyo revengers! inspired by this @tokyo-daaaamn-ji-gang's post. i saw as i did my research that some people already knew where it was, but without further explanation as to why or any add-ups, so i'll bring what i know to tumblr! cw: tr spoilers, big analysis post, mentions of war & rape

so! manila. mostly known because that's where mikey asks takemichi to meet him in the future and unfortunately dies in one of the bad timelines (chapter 116, black dragon's arc).

but why manila?

that's a fairly easy question. the answer is given three chapters before: this is where shinichiro found the parts for the twin babu bikes. mikey clearly says he wants to go there in the future, probably because that's one of the last places he can associate with his big brother and hasn't been to yet.

the follow-up question is: what was shinichiro doing there?

the manga doesn't give us a clear answer. since izana is half-philipino, we can assume he went there to get more information about his brother's roots: who was his real mother? did he have a family who knew about him there?

this is where things get interesting. because while that was a nice gesture, shinichiro had surely no idea on where to start. his father was dead, karen kurokawa was nowhere to be found and grandpa sano is a useless old hag who never ever served the plot (confirmed by where shinichiro went because it didn't make much sense), leaving him without any info he could use to start looking for izana's potential relatives.

so he turned to a place he knew in the philippines: the corregidor island in manila's bay.

why would shin know about the corregidor island? surprising answer: world war two.

i did not know about it until i did some research for this post (!! you can call me uncultivated), but japan occupied the philippines (among other countires) during the world war two. i did a good amount of research, but i struggled understanding it all (esp because i find wikipedia's navigation confusing on the topic), so i just copy-pasted some parts that hopefully, if my selection is good, explain globally what happened. if you are interested on the topic, i do recommend you to do your own research.

the philippines campaign, also known as the battle of the philippines or the fall of the philippines, was the invasion of the american territory of the philippines by the empire of japan and the defense of the islands by united states and the philippine armies during world war ll.

the japanese planned to occupy the philippines as part of their plan for a "greater east asia war" in which their southern expeditionary army group seized sources of raw materials [in malaya and the netherlands east indies]. captain ishikawa shingo, a hard-liner in the imperial japanese navy, had toured the philippines and other parts of southeast asia in 1936, noting that these countries had raw materials japan needed for its armed forces. this helped further increase their aspiration for colonizing the philippines.

the battle of the philippines resulted from the invasion of the philippine commonwealth by the empire of japan in 1941-42 and the defense of the archipelago by filipino and american troops. this battle resulted in a japanese victory.

(see: battle of bataan). after the flight of the philippine government and the end of the battle bataan on 9 april 1942, the japanese controlled the entire northern part of the philippine archipelago, with the exception of the island of corregidor. the capture of the island was also the condition for the japanese to ensure control of manila bay.

(see: battle of corregidor). corregidor (which included fort mills) was a u.s. army coast artillery corps position defending the entrance to manila bay, part of the harbor defenses of manila and subic bays. it was defended by 11,000 soldiers. some could reach corregidor via the baatan peninsula, where they had escaped the japanese attack. the 59th regiment was able to repel japanese air attacks, shooting down numerous planes. the older stationary batteries with fixed mortars and immense cannon, for defense from attack by sea, were easily put out of commission by japanese bombers. the american soldiers and filipino scouts defended the small fortress until they had little left to wage a defense. on december 29, 1941, the japanese carried out a strategic bombing raid on corregidor, destroying the hospital. until the end of april, the filipino and american defenders of the island resisted attacks by japanese aircraft, which inflicted 614 bombings on them, for a total of 365 tons of explosives. from april 28, the bombings increased in intensity. beginning on may 1, japanese artillery also began firing from bataan. early in 1942, the japanese air command installed oxygen in its bombers to fly higher than the range of the corregidor anti-aircraft batteries, and after that time, heavier bombardment began.

the capture of corregidor marked the final victory of the japanese in the philippines, but contributed, like the battle of bataan, to cost them precious time, handicapping their strategy in the pacific ocean region.

4,000 of the 11,000 filipino and american prisoners were then paraded by the japanese in the streets of manila. several thousand were sent to labor camps (see: baatan death march) and numerous women were forced into sexual slavery by the imperial japanese armed forces (see: comfort women and asia women's fund)

corregidor was recaptured in another battle in 1945, during the liberation of the philippines. a pacific war memorial was later built on corregidor, commemorating the resistance of american and filipino soldiers.

first of all, i really reccomend you the asia women's fund digital museum for information related to comfort women—if it something you can stomach. second of all, i think it's a great addition that wakui included a reference to this in the manga, even if it is in such a discreet way. the corregidor hospital (specific place where takemitchy finds mikey) is very much drawn the same way as it looks in real life, but it is specified nowhere in the series where this is or why this place is chosen, and yet it holds a very important role in japanese history.

(pics from dailytakemitchi on twt, og post + google maps location)

though it is true that japan is known for not recognizing it's war crimes (see: nanjing massacre); certainly here an apology to the philippines was made, but only seventy-two years after the incident, so this issue was most likely very taboo by the time shin went there (which must have been between the time period where he met izana in the orphanage and their fight. judging by shin's haircut (we are working with very little information here ok but he didn't had his punch perm when we see him fiding the bikes so i believe it is around the time he askd mikey if he would like to have an older brother), i'd say 2000-2003ish, when izana was in juive. thanking the gods for this izana's timeline post btw, i actually need one with everyone's tls please-). philipino people were, from what i have understood, a pretty consequent part of the population in the 2000s for the reasons i mentionned just before. wakui must have met a few in his bossozoku days, and from them comes izana. i really like the fact that every one of the inclusions in the manga come from his real-life experience, it adds a lot to his whole universe!!

so yeah, if shin came there, it is probably because he did some research by himself on the philippines &this ended up being one of the first places that came up and catched his attention. like i said, it is likely that he went to the philippines looking for izana's relatives, but it strikes me as weird that he went there since the corregidor island has nothing but ruins to offer. maybe he just did some tourism on his way.

this whole trip didn't end up giving him any more information on izana's family. we don't actually know if izana's mother was in the philippines; karen does say that he is the son of her ex-husband and a filipino woman, but she herself is american and lives in japan. important to note that the ex-husband in question is not makoto sano! i personally had a hard time understanding that(oᗜo;)

this place is said to be haunted by the ghosts of filipino, american and japanese soldiers who died there, especially in the hospital. as for today, it is possible to visit the location, and there are vlog-type articles of people who went there, some quick youtube summaries and a few videos like "spending the night in this haunted island😱😱"

aaand this is pretty much all i had to say about this!! i haven't adressed the twin bikes because it'll be for another post. this post might not be much, esp taking in consideration how much time i took to post it(ᵕ—ᴗ—) but i had fun writting it! hopefully this post will find it's public. if you are still here, thank you so much for reading the whole thing!! i'll be posting some more tr posts like this one, so stay tuned. ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )