starrupaste

[bossaura]

Asche & Warya & Qseng - European Gangster

[clarabowlover]

Sophia Loren In Gun Moll (1975)

Original Title: La pupa del gangster

[the-busy-ghost]

Minor throwaway sentence in a book on corruption I've just finished was talking about 1930s gangsters and about certain organisations in Chicago which the author stated were more ethnically diverse than the Italian mafia, and whose members were said to have included 'Irish, Welsh, Italian, and Jewish' gangsters.

Now call me sheltered but I've seen MANY Italian American gangsters immortalised in film, I've heard of the Jewish mob, and the police Irish American gangs but I have yet to see a movie about the Welsh mob. As a rule I don't go in for gangster movies but I feel there's an unfilled niche here and also I need more info.

[rotzaprachim]

Listening to one of the worst imitations of a Filipino accent I’ve seen on television

[wezg]

Review: Red Notice - How I Became Putin's No.1 Enemy - by Bill Browder

Review: Red Notice – How I Became Putin’s No.1 Enemy – by Bill Browder

There is irony in this tale as Bill Browder was following in his grandfather’s footsteps in some ways but was also radically poles apart. Browder’s grandfather had stood for Presidential election in the USA on a Communist ticket. Bill Browder was drawn to business possibilities behind the Iron Curtain and in the post Cold War, post Soviet Union Russia, Browder’s Hermitage fund became the biggest…

[silviakundera]

with the conclusion of Snowfall...

why do i enjoy Republican Era chinese dramas so much?

aesthetics! there is this blend of 1920-30s western fashion influences and traditional chinese garb & architecture that just pleases my eyes.

everyone looks very depressed & dangerous & sexy

chaotic period of transition - no matter if you're in the 1910's, 20's, 30's some absolutely wild historical shit was going down

cars and guns and gloves and swords. rotary phones!

dancing & drinking in night clubs, in glamorous pockets amid the violence & instability outside; a lil touch of mask of the red death vibes

end of empire themes, as a country tries to find its way after the end of the last imperial dynasty

there's those gangster, mob boss vibes from american and british dramas set in the 1920s, except everything is cranked up x100 because of general lawlessness; central government and law & order was a paper thin veneer over warlords

the start of WW2 from an entirely different perspective than the common narratives that I was exposed to growing up in the US (which is 99% stories about the european stage)

sino-japanese war / war of resistance material like Hidden Blade is fucking badass ok 🤷

in a time of resistance to occupation, colonizers encroaching, warlords fighting over cities, brewing civil war.... there are many different options of protagonists and unlikely "heroes" who are picking their battles and discovering what they are willing to fight for

Beautiful 👏 women 👏 in heels 👏and 👏 slinky 👏dresses 👏

Lots of revenge narratives. I love an over-the-top, bloodthirsty & destructive revenge narrative

Depending on the genre, there might be little or heavy politcal /patriotic discourse. But tbh none of the rah rah patriotism stuff distracts me much, because all the american and british produced stuff set around WW2 has rah rah patriotism & propaganda in it, so I just consider that part of the essential genre vibes. It's just another country's version. (Of course, others will have less patience when it becomes heavy-handed. YMMV.)

Dark & Gritty

Hidden Blade (film) - a masterpiece, if you enjoy dark WW2 spy films that play with narrative style and challenge the viewer to follow the story as it's woven. Had to review detailed historical context for the years in question, to be ready to consume. But worth it. I've watched it 3 times. 💀

Heroes (2024) - the very beginning era of this genre/the transition into repulican period. rocks fall, everyone dies. Primarily a tragic wuxia & pre-republican fusion. Excellent enough that I didn't mind the bleak storyline. 💀

Detective-ing

Miss S - adaption of 1920s Australian mystery procedural Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, staring Vengo! ML actor of Snowfall

Checkmate - Agatha Christie stories adapted to the setting & time period, plus bromance. I watched half the episodes w my brother, as we are both huge agatha christie fans. It was fun if you can be chill about adaption changes.

My Roommate is A Detective - for mystery & bromance lovers. Same actor duo as Checkmate.

Detective L - don't know much about this one tbh

Romance arc, with a somewhat happy ending for the 2 leads

Provoke - Gorgeous, glamorous, vibes vibes vibes all day long. Revenge and romance. ❤

Fall in Love - sons & daughters of warlords and their supporters get sexy and dangerous and decide even joining the civil war is better than the prior generation's bullshit. This is an objectively bad drama that I really enjoyed anyway (it helps that I skipped every scene for the 2nd and 3rd couples). This one turns v propaganda heavy at the end, if that bothers you. ❤

Arsenal Military Academy - military training hijinks w a side of cross dressing romance. Xu Kai and Bai Lu! It's soliders and japanese invasion et al, so be prepared for the standard patriotism. Comedy & drama. HE for the FL/ML but expect character death in this subject matter. ❤

Rookie Agent Rogue - Late 1930s spy drama with small romance side-plot. Expect the standard wartime patriotism, like with Arsenal Military Academy. The draw is the lead actress, the FL from Princess Agents, Minglan, Legend of Shen Li. HE for the FL/ML but expect character death in this subject matter. ❤

City of Streamer - Older woman seduces younger man who is the son of her revenge target. Melodrama with people serving looks. ❤

War of Faith* - Young man just wants to join the banking industry and have a subtextually gay relationship with his mentor in peace, but there's a civil war going on. Protagonist would like to be excluded from this political narrative, but ultimately is forced to pick a side. ❤🌈 *(Is it censored gay romance? No, not based on a gay novel. So not officially! But some viewers felt there was a subtextual romance storyline #shenlai ; YMMV. The happy ending is Untamed-esque; implied only)

many, many pulpy mini-dramas about revenge! warlords! ladies with pistols! (Miss Mystery, First Marriage, Maid's Revenge, etc)

Also... (happy ending not guaranteed)

Siege in Fog

Love in Flames of War

Couple of Mirrors - censored F/F 🌈

Stand by Me - censored m/m 🌈

Killer and Healer - censored m/m 🌈

Winter Begonia - censored m/m 🌈

[morose-marble]

Incoherent ramble bc I have the brain worms about Apo

I am very annoying and also unwell, which is why I have taken to scrubbing through a not-insubstantial amount of episodes from Apo's lakorns (without subtitles) to form some kind of picture of what kind of roles he was cast in while employed by channel 3, and sending screen caps to literally anyone with a messaging app in my immediate social circle (they are in hell, thanks for asking). So, now that I have run out of people to torment with my obsessive tendencies, I am left with posting into the void on good ole tungle dot com.

So far, it seems that Apo's bread and butter was a wholesome, boy next door, nong type character (this is based on quite shaky interpretations of Sut Khaen Saen Rak, Buang Banjathorn, Chaat Payak and Prakasit Khammatep) with some exceptions, such as Tiang in Chat Suer Pun Mungkorn, a hot-headed young gangster. These aside, I have not yet formed a comprehensive understanding of his profile as an actor, as I can't seem to get my hands on some of the dramas at all.

The aforementioned roles were all supporting ones, and I could only find episodes for one of his two lead parts, that of Pong Khun Boon Jirakit in Pra Teap Rak Hang Jai, an enemies to lovers story(?). His character sells artisanal traditional Thai silk(?) and ends up falling for a rich woman (Preeyakarn Jaikanta) down on her luck who needs to become independent and better herself as a person(?). Quite a straightforward premise. (He wears a bunch of plaid in the show, he looks uncomfortable.)

Now. What I have noticed about Apo's career in supporting parts is that the male leads he supports are very...narrowly masculine, in comparison to him. Apo has talked about having faced homophobia/general cishet discriminatory nonsense in the industry at that time, and flicking through these shows really illuminates how rigid the concept of a lakorn romantic male lead was (maybe still is, I don't know). Obviously, I gathered that lakorn gender roles were a tad more conservative, but I still struggled slightly with understanding why Apo was treated the way he was, bc I feel like he is relatively conventionally masculine (my european perspective impacts my perception of what constitutes normative gender roles, I know) to the point where picking up on any ~queer~ vibes would be a gays only event. However, I feel like I get it a bit better now.

Apo is very handsome. He is also beautiful in a way that a lot of these leads aren't. They are pointedly conventionally masculine, not necessarily hypermasculine, but going towards that direction, something that is emphasised by their role in the narrative and acting style. Lots of stoicism and displays of quiet suffering and anger. I know, it's very reductive to place gendered presentations onto a spectrum etc etc, but if one were to operate within rigidly delineated binary requirements for gender presentation that exist in media (and society, there's nuance), Apo does not quite fit the criteria of a leading man within the given parameters. Which is terrible, of course. I can absolutely understand why Apo got fed up with the industry and decided to leave it all behind.

Additionally, as pointed out above with the repeated archetypal character traits, I feel that he did not get to flex his acting muscles in the narratives of these shows, which is another thing he has commented on, though maybe not in those words exactly.

Thinking about all of this makes his recent successes with Kinnporsche and Man Suang terribly interesting and delicious. I recognise that narrativising a celebrity's experiences as an affective story like this is mad parasocial brain rot behaviour, but the idea of him taking something that he was disparaged for earlier on in his career (perceived queerness) and turning it into a factor of him surpassing that which held him back is very attractive in a story sense. Like, what a triumph?

I'm not sure if any of this makes sense or if this is completely old news to everyone, but for some reason I had to get it out somewhere. I'll probably read this back in the morning and cringe mightily.

Anyway. What an interesting time to follow his advancement and the changes in the Thai BL industry, namely the increased attention from the government. I have fears, but I don't know how to articulate them yet. Therefore, I will focus on enjoyment for the time-being.

[tetras-stuff]

I asked my sister who knows nothing about Resident Evil to look at pictures of the characters and describe what she thinks of them. Here is what she said for each character

Jill

- massive asshole

- a little gay

- needs a haircut and a shower

- shops exclusively at thrift stores

- she looks greasy

Chris

- gay

- bottom

- likes baking cookies

- has a nicki minaj American flag

- does the white girl dance to romans revenge in the club

- would ask the DJ to play ABBA at a rave

wesker

- OOO THATS A GAY MAN

- very homophobic but he's still gay

- loves the movie mean girls and watches it religiously

- he smokes candy cigarettes

claire

- "I'm not racist but"

- makes POV tiktoks unironically

- posts thirst traps thinking she's that girl

- peaked in high school

- mean lesbian

ada

- follows you round a puppy dog if she likes you, if she doesn't like you she's a mega bitch

- "I'm not like other girls"

- watches POV tiktoks unironically and religiously

- "I'm not even wearing makeup today guys omg stop 🙈"

- says she's goth because she listens to Arctic monkeys

Luis

- gay

- Italian

- "is he gay or european" but he's both

- extremely extremely gay

- loves lego batman but only lego batman

- a flirt

- loves fashion and fragrances

- gay

- looks like he comes from what we do in the shadows

ethan

- loves Ben shapiro

- would spit on a drag queen

- is so homophobic he has to be a bit gay

- thinks men are too feminine these days

Sherry

- Russian and thinks singing Russian songs is cultural appropriation

- doesn't care about male or female attention

- loves horror movies and chick flicks

- thinks she's different because she likes earl grey tea

jake muller

- would spit on a service worker

- shoplifts but only small things like pens

- steals all his clothes from dumpsters

- acts gangster

- a bit fruity

- paints his nails and is embarrassed so wears gloves

leon kennedy

- is the drag queen ethan spits on

- loved the barbie movie and has an "I am kenough" hoodie

- can't drive

- either really gay or an over the top ally who wears "my friend is bi I don't ask why" shirts to rallies

- dog person

- would have a giant dog and a tiny dog

- he's a romantic and goes all in for relationships

- unironically finds scary movies really scary

Carlos

- was bullied in school

- would sit through a chick flick with a girl

- really feminist but also a "wheres my hug at" guy

- posts about how much he hates Andrew tate on Instagram

- loves emo girls because he was bullied for being emo

- loves guns n roses

- loves girls who don't wash

[phoenixyfriend]

I’m actually interested on your thoughts on stewjon-or any other sci-fi or fantasy land- being “space!scotland”.

I’m Scottish, and it actually kinda turns me off of a fic? Like, it gives me an uncanny valley feeling?

Part of it is due to it, most of the time at least, leaning heavily on the English stereotypes of Scotland? Like. We’re not people who think and feel and integrate people from other cultures, we’re not our better social support and services than england, we’re not people who can enjoy the land *and* be modern people, no.

We’re tartan wearing redheads speaking in a “terrible accent” that can’t be understood, whispering about fae stories and superstition, simultaneously getting in fights in Glasgow and carving Glasgow grins, and huddling in stone huts playing bagpipes and carding wool.

It’s uh, dehumanising a bit. And I didn’t realise I had that big of a rant, feel free to ignore this I was just curious from how you were talking about the Moses!obiwan thing.

Context

That tracks! It's a wider problem that incidentally managed to get picked up and spread in a really unfortunate way by fandom, presumably in large part by Americans who Don't Know What They're Doing when they just want to, idk, fantasize about Ewan McGregor speaking in his natural voice.

I think a weird but important note is that, regardless of the Space Scotland thing, I don't usually see Stewjon portrayed, like... positively? It's a shitty background element (infanticide backstory with the barest explanation), a fantasy misogyny place (a lot of the royalty AUs, especially the omegaverse ones, and especially smut), or a general underdeveloped, low-tech, backwater nightmare (also usually used for the smut). I've seen combinations of all three, and it's a toss of the coin if the author includes the Space Scotland element in addition to the above.

(I've seen one or two that seem to take way more inspo from a mix of Imperial China and 17th century France, for instance, or just keep it vaguely European.)

Even the ones that I think try to do the Space Scotland thing respectfully, I can't really comment on because, uh, I'm not Scottish by any stretch and don't know what degree of what element is reasonable.

(I think I can sort of relate in terms of Serbian representation in Western media? Such as it is. Generally we get to be gangsters, sad orphans, an evil priest selling babies to aliens, vampire-inspired cannibals, or Belgrade gets to be a setting where there is literally not a single Serbian character. Not the same thing but I wanted to give some examples to explain why I feel I can relate when people talk about this sort of thing.)

[lunaspacks]

-- emma stone gif pack [commission]

{Commissioned by @austnbutlr​​ } click the source link for  217 gifs of EMMA STONE born in 1988, in Gangster Squad (2013). All gifs were made by me, 268x150, for RP use only. She’s of European descent, so, please, cast her accordingly. Please, do not repost in gif hunts, gif packs or any other media without my explicit permission, nor claim as your own.  Like or reblog if you end up using them. Consider buying me a ko-fi if you enjoy my packs. TW: violence, nudity, drugs, smoking, alcohol, weapons

[mariacallous]

TBILISI – Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president, has issued an urgent warning to the West that Russia is preparing to seize his country after this weekend’s election with the help of a billionaire oligarch who made his money in Moscow.

He believes the Kremlin aims to reimpose its authority over this key Western ally by falsifying results, cracking down on protests,and banning opposition parties to crush its fledgling democracy and send a signal to other former Soviet states.

“Russia is planning to seize another European country,” he said, in a warning passed to me in seven pages of handwritten notes from behind bars. “If Georgia is lost that would signify a huge loss for the West, its values and geopolitical interests.”

His ousting after nine years in office was by Georgian Dream, a party set up a few months earlier by the country’s richest man Bidzina Ivanishvili. The 2012 election marked the country’s first democratic transition of power.

Mr Saakashvili’s warning comes amid growing domestic and diplomatic fears that Mr Ivanishvili is stealthily steering this fiercely pro-European country back into Russian hands.

“When I warned the West about the threat to Georgia they thought I was provoking and rather crazy. Then my worst fears materialised and Russia militarily attacked my country,” wrote Mr Saakashvili, who also served as governor of Odessa in Ukraine.

“After I warned loudly about an imminent attack on Ukraine, even my friends in the West considered I was saying this because I was bitter about the attack on Georgia.

“When I warned the West that Ivanishvili was not just like any other politician but rather he was a direct Russian agent, they thought I was just trying to stay in power, which was never the case.”

Georgia’s 3.7 million people go to polls on Saturday in a vote that is widely seen as a referendum to determine their future: whether to continue with moves to join the European Union and Nato or slide back into Moscow’s control under Mr Ivanishvili.

The mysterious billionaire – who made a fortune in banking and commodities during Russia’s “gangster capitalism” period after the Soviet Union’s collapse – has been attacking the “global war party” that supposedly dominates the West while claiming his party will protect Georgia from the fate suffered by Ukraine.

Georgian Dream rejected sanctions on Russia after Ukraine’s full-scale invasion, to the fury of Kyiv, openly says it will ban rival parties, and earlier this year passed laws that mimic Vladimir Putin’s measures targeting LGBT citizens and silencing dissent.

Its controversial “Russia law” – which labels organisation with more than 20 per cent funding from abroad as “foreign agents” – sparked weeks of mass protests met with beatings and tear gas. Washington condemned it as a “Kremlin-inspired” law.

Mr Saakashvili believes Mr Putin is actively supporting Mr Ivanishvili to “fully return Georgia to Russia as a historical crown jewel of their empire” while shutting off the West from key energy and transportation corridors to Central Asia and Azerbaijan.

“It would also carry a huge symbolic meaning since Georgia was regarded as a bulwark of the Western influence in our region and a role model for reforms and success. Ending it would send a powerful signal to other potential Western allies.”

The former president says Georgian Dream plans to falsify election results, crack down hard on subsequent protests and then go on “a rampage” of banning rival parties, mass arrests and shutting down dissenting voices in the media and NGOs.

He also fears Mr Ivanishvili – who last month suggested Georgia should apologise for the 2008 war that led to seizure of its South Ossetia region, about 850 deaths and forcibly displaced 192,000 people – will carry out threats to put him and other leading members of his party on trial for resisting Russia’s invasion.

Mr Saakashvili wants to see the West urgently impose the sanctions being threatened against Ivanishvili and his close circle. “It is important to act now while it is not too late,” he said.

Mr Saakashvili’s concerns over election rigging and a subsequent crackdown are shared by opposition parties, think tanks and Western diplomats in Tbilisi. Russia’s foreign ministry is fuelling the tensions with suggestions that the US is preparing a coup.

Even Mr Ivanishvili’s ex-ministers and aides endorsed the fears. “Bidzina [Ivanishvili] ‘s primary concern has always been his own safety and wellbeing,” said Gia Khukhashvili, a former friend and adviser. “He made fatal mistakes that left him as Putin’s hostage.”

The economist believes that the billionaire, spooked by Russia’s attack on Ukraine, offered clandestine backing to the Kremlin. “When you declare loyalty to an empire, it sees it as a sign of weakness and Russia demanded guarantees of that loyalty,” Mr Khukhashvili said.

“If Georgian Dream stays in power, Russia will accelerate Georgia’s reintegration into the Russian Empire. Like Belarus, this process will intensify.”

He sees the election as a test for Moscow’s ability to take back lost nations while grabbing a crucial crossroads between East and West. “By controlling Georgia, Russia solves the problem of re-establishing the Soviet Union’s influence in the south,” he said.

The election is complicated by Mr Saakashvili’s legacy, however, since he remains a polarising figure in Georgia due to the rapid pace of his modernisation programmes and alleged human rights abuses in later years of office after Russia’s attack.

His appeal over his sentence was rejected in May by the European Court of Human Rights. There has, however, been concern over his health after hunger strikes and due to the lack of proper medical care. His mother now prepares all food for him in prison after claims that he suffered a poisoning attempt.

The former president told me that he was being deprived of his most basic rights. “I have no right to make phone calls or to meet members of parliament. I haven’t seen sun and have not been exposed to fresh air for more than three years.”

Tina Bokuchava, the chair of his United National Movement and leading opposition figure, hailed him as their country’s greatest visionary who “dared to imagine a brighter future for Georgian and dared to make it a reality”.

She said there was no longer any ambiguity over Georgian Dream’s pro-Russia stance and that their European future was at stake in this weekend’s election after success in shedding their “Soviet debris” and emerging as a democratic nation.

“Putin does not like democracies, especially successful democracies, on his doorstep. It represents a threat to his rule and undermines his authority.”

Georgian Dream claims it can advance into Europe while keeping Mr Putin at bay. Yet, even one party activist told me she was dismayed by its backsliding on Europe and pro-Russian rhetoric but feared speaking out due to concern over reprisals.

“I’m not going to vote for them,” she said, adding that she was scared their stance might lead to another war following post-election turmoil. “People will be killed senselessly and those in power will still look after their own interests.”

Georgian Dream denied it is subverting their nation’s future in Europe, rejected concerns over vote-rigging and insisted it would win the election easily – although its polls backing such claims are not widely viewed as credible.

This is just another election where people should decide whether they want peace and economic growth, said Nikoloz Samkharadze, a senior MP with the party, who said it was “complete nonsense” to accuse them of following Putin’s path.

“There is no evidence that in the last 12 years of Georgian Dream’s government, Georgia has done anything that would serve the interests of Russia in this country or in this region.”

Yet, this contrasts with the message sent to me from his jail cell by Mr Saakashvili ahead of this vital election. “The West should be aware and ready,” he concluded.

i has attempted to contact Mr Ivanishvili for comment.

[sprites4ever]

THE TRUTH ABOUT HAMAS

I need to spell it out again.

Hamas are not the Palestinian freedom fighters a lot of people want them to be.

The origin is the following.

Various peoples have laid exclusive claim to what they call the 'Holy Land' for millenia, and fought insane wars and committed genocides over it. Jews and Muslims are far from the first.

In recent centuries, Jews and Muslims used to live in peace in this place till WWI.

In WWI, the British Empire moved their armies over there and asked the Jews to let them pass through, so they could fight the Ottoman Empire. (The back-then powerful islamic empire that controlled modern-day Türkyie, Syria and the Balkans)

In exchange, the Jews would get the full right to live in the Holy Land after the British were done.

Problem is, the Brits promised the Muslims the same.

They both agreed, the Brits passed through and wrecked the Ottoman Empire.

After WWI, the Jews and Muslims rightfully asked whose land this was now, and the Brits, together with the French, devised the Two-State Solution, that half of the land would be the Jewish Israel and the other half would be the Muslim Palestine. It was agreed upon in principle, but both Jews and Muslims kept fighting and militarizing.

Modern-day Israel is NOT a European settler-colonial project, as Palestinians like to put it.

As explained above, the Jews and Muslims have both been there for a while.

However, modern-day Israel, founded in 1948, has become oppressive against Palestinians.

The justification for that was the Holocaust. European Jews, after WWII, said that they needed their own state in order to be safe from antisemitism, as over 6 million Jews had been murdered by the Nazis. (The Nazis had used the Jews as a scapegoat and portrayed them as a world conspiracy, in order to explain world politics to their supporters in a way that aligned with Hitler's insane ideology.)

Because of that, the Jews got incredibly defensive and any aggressive or oppressive idea from an Israeli leader was justified with "We need to protect our Jewish people!"

Whether or not it was actually justified didn't and doesn't matter to them.

Those aggressive and oppressive ideas include killing/expelling all the Palestinians, as motivated by the territorial conflict I explained earlier.

The other side of the current conflict and the reason Hamas exists and can inflict so much damage on Israel is the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In the 80s, Iran went through a religiously-led revolution against the military dictatorship. As a result, the so-called Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was established, and is under the command of religious leader and self-styled 'Supreme Leader' Ayatollah Khamenei. He's been ruling Iran with an iron fist for over 40 years.

The supposed republic and democracy of Iran is fake, as is typical for most dictatorships these days. Few dictatorships actually style themselves as such, they like to pretend that they're democratic. (Factually, the elections don't matter, the ballots are trashed anyways and the Parliament is a so-called 'Rubber Stamp Parliament', meaning a Parliament that only exists to give a faux-democratic justification for the dictator's orders by putting a rubber stamp on it.)

The IRGC is actually extremely unpopular in Iran, and most Iranians would prefer diplomatic relations with the West and the USA, over what they have now, which is diplomatic relations with russia and China. However, the IRGC's armed gangsters are so present and so ready to shoot a woman who's wearing her hijab (Islamic headscarf) improperly on the spot, that they can't do anything about it.

To justify his grip on power, Khamenei paints Israel as the archenemy of and constant threat to Iran, just like how Israeli hardliners, including the current guy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, paint Palestine as the archenemy of and constant threat to Israel.

However, the IRGC can't afford fighting Israel by themselves, since that would mean less armed gangsters in Iranian cities, enforcing the Ayatollah's will.

This is why Iran, using their ties with russia and China, as well as their wealth of and wealth acquired via crude oil production, has funded and armed various miltias in every other Middle Eastern country where they could do it.

They are:

Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and Kata'ib Hezbollah in Iraq

Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Lebanon

Hamas in Gaza (aka a Palestinian territory)

Ansar-Allah (aka Houthi rebels) in Yemen

These militias are under complete command of the Ayatollah and his disciples and exist to keep fighting Israel and their allies, especially the forces the US has stationed in Iraq and Syria during unrelated conflicts.

Iran has called this network the 'Axis of Resistance', which is a euphemism and an intentional attempt as gaslighting Jews.

The term 'Axis' comes from the alliance between Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan in WWII.

This name was chosen to bring back Jewish trauma and act like the Nazis were the ones resisting Jews back in the day, and to act like antisemitism is completely justified because Jews are supposedly always very evil.

The Syrian government forces (under control of military dictator Bashar Al-Assad) are also on Iran's side on account of being at war with Israel since 1948, but they factually can't do much since their forces are weak and engaged in a civil war with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a miltia funded by the US. The only reason Al-Assad is still alive is because of russian mercenaries who are protecting him.

Not all Islamic countries are on the side of Iran.

Lebanon is factually a republic and has a government, however, it is powerless and the country is de facto ran by Hezbollah, who control more businesses, media and soldiers than the Lebanese government.

Yemen is also technically neutral, and the ones attacking cargo ships in Palestine's name are not the Republic and government of Yemen, but the Iranian-funded Houthis, who control 1/4 of the country. It's been in a civil war for years, and neither the Yemeni government nor Houthis have achieved a breakthrough.

Jordan is a constitutional monarchy and generally neutral, only interested in its own security. They collaborate with Israeli and American forces wherever necessary.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrian, Kuwait and Oman are officially neutral and officially communicate a lot of soldiarity with Palestine, but are factually opposed to Iran and collaborate a lot with the US.

Hamas aren't the only Palestinian group trying to control the disputed territories of the Gaza Strip, West Bank and Golan Heights.

(The latter two definetly being occupied by Iraelis who have no right to be there)

The other group is the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is internationally regarded by many as the legitimate authority of Palestinian people.

They despise Israel similarly to Hamas, but unlike Hamas, are willing to attempt diplomatic solutions. (As long as the Israelis are, too.)

However, the PA is stupidly corrupt and has little in the way of armed forces.

Hamas are a radical Jihadist group who desire total control of all Israeli and Palestinian territories, and who arguably want to see Israel lose more than they want to see Palestine win.

Hamas were elected the government of Gaza in 2008.

Netanyahu actually supported them, precisely because he knew they were radicals, unlike the PA, who would give him a casus belli (reason for war) sooner or later.

Just like Khamenei, Netanyahu keeps war going to stay in power.

Hamas have developed urban and guerilla warfare tactics that serve as a perfect counter to the Israel Defense Force (IDF)'s modern military tactics, as they can inflict serious damage with what little old Soviet weaponry they get from Iran, without having to take Israeli troops, tanks and fighter jets head-on.

Yes, the Israeli war crimes are real.

However, Hamas actively positions their staff and military assets among their own civilians, because they know the IDF doesn't care about the civilians if they get to take out a Hamas commander or material storage in the process.

Hamas does this precisely to get Israel condemned further and to keep up the hatred for Israelis among Palestinians.

Like I said, they would rather see Israel lose than see Palestine win, and they care as little about the Palestinians as the IDF.

To Israel, Hamas is a casus belli.

To Hamas, Palestinians are fuel for the fire of war.

Behind this conflict are two old, power-hungry men in Tel Aviv and Tehran.

There is no good side to this.

[springsteens]

So many of my Slavic mutuals and non mutuals (+ me) admitting to be ashamed of their accent in English and it makes me so sad. I wish we didn't have this voice in the back of our heads that we come off sounding like prostitutes, gangsters, cleaning ladies or construction workers. I'm emotional today but I really wish it was different for us and that we didn't have to be ashamed of something like that while other European accents are seen as sexy.

[correlance]

Theory: Valentino was the famous 1920s actor Rudolph Valentino, the "Latin Lover".

Who was Rudolph Valentino?

Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed the "Latin Lover", was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred in several well-known silent films from 1921 to 1926, including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle, and The Son of the Sheik.

Valentino was a sex symbol of the 1920s, known in Hollywood as the "Latin Lover" (a title invented for him by Hollywood moguls), the "Great Lover", or simply "Valentino". His early death at the age of 31 caused mass hysteria among his fans, further cementing his place in early cinematic history as a cultural film icon.

Valentino was born in Castellaneta, Apulia, Italy…unable to secure employment in Italy, he departed for the United States in 1913. He was processed at Ellis Island at age 18 on December 23, 1913. Valentino never applied for American citizenship, and retained his Italian citizenship.

Arriving in New York City, he supported himself with odd jobs such as busing tables in restaurants and gardening. Around 1914, restaurateur Joe Pani who owned Castles-by-the-Sea, the Colony, and the Woodmansten Inn was the first to hire Rudolph to dance the tango with Joan Sawyer for $50 per week.

Eventually, he found work as a taxi dancer at Maxim's Restaurant-Cabaret. Among the other dancers at Maxim's were several displaced members of European nobility, for whom a premium demand existed…Valentino left town [in 1917], and joined a traveling musical that led him to the West Coast.

[…] With his dancing success, Valentino found a room of his own on Sunset Boulevard, and began actively seeking screen roles. His first part was as an extra in the film Alimony, moving on to small parts in several films. Despite his best efforts, he was typically cast as a "heavy" (villain) or gangster. At the time, the archetypal major male star was Wallace Reid, with a fair complexion, light eyes, and an All-American look, with Valentino the opposite; he eventually supplanted Sessue Hayakawa as Hollywood's most popular "exotic" male lead.

[…] With the Douglas Fairbanks type being the supposed epitome of manhood, Valentino was sometimes portrayed as a threat to the "All American" man. One man, asked in a street interview in 1922 what he thought of Valentino, replied, "Many other men [say they] desire to be another Douglas Fairbanks. But Valentino? I wonder…"

Women in the same interview found Valentino, quote, "Triumphantly seductive. He puts the love-making of the average husband or sweetheart into discard as tame, flat, and unimpassioned."

Some journalists were still calling [Valentino's] "masculinity" into question, going on at length about his pomaded hair, his dandyish clothing, his treatment of women, his views on women, and whether he was "effeminate" or not. Valentino hated these stories, and was known to carry clippings of the newspaper articles around with him and criticize them.

In July 1926, the Chicago Tribune reported that a vending machine dispensing pink talcum powder (face powder) had appeared in an upscale hotel's men's washroom. An editorial that followed used the story to protest the supposed feminization of American men, and blamed the talcum powder on Valentino and his films. The piece infuriated Valentino, and he challenged the writer to his choice of a boxing or wrestling match, since dueling was illegal. Neither challenge was answered.

Shortly afterward, Valentino met with journalist H. L. Mencken for advice on how best to deal with the incident. Mencken advised Valentino to "let the dreadful farce roll along to exhaustion" (i.e. "do nothing"), but Valentino insisted the editorial was "infamous", [and must be answered for in a one-on-one fight].

After Valentino challenged the Tribune's anonymous writer to a boxing match, the New York Evening Journal boxing writer, Frank O'Neill, volunteered to fight in his place. Valentino won the bout, which took place on the roof of New York's Ambassador Hotel.

Heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, who trained Valentino and other Hollywood notables of the era in boxing, said of him: "He was the most virile and masculine of men. The women were like flies to a honeypot. He could never shake them off, anywhere he went. What a lovely, lucky guy."

Mencken found Valentino to be likable and gentlemanly, and wrote sympathetically of him in an article published in The Baltimore Sun a week after Valentino's death:

"It was not that trifling Chicago episode that was riding him; it was the whole grotesque futility of his life. Had he achieved, out of nothing, a vast and dizzy success? Then that success was hollow as well as vast—a colossal and preposterous nothing. Was he acclaimed by yelling multitudes? Then every time the multitudes yelled, he felt himself blushing inside…the thing, at the start, must have only bewildered him, but in those last days, unless I am a worse psychologist than even the professors of psychology, it was revolting him. Worse, it was making him afraid…here was a young man who was living daily the dream of millions of other men. Here was one who was catnip to women. Here was one who had wealth and fame, and here was one who was very unhappy [in spite of that wealth and fame]."

[…] Valentino was also the "sex symbol" of his time in the 1920s. The sheet music cover for "Rodolph Valentino Blues" written in 1922, to quote the lyrics, "Oh Mister Rodolph Valentino / I know I've got the Valentino blues / And when you come up on the screen / Oh! You're so romantic, I go frantic at the views!

[…] [Prior to his death], Valentino was fascinated with every part of movie-making. During production on a Mae Murray film, he spent time studying the director's plans. He craved authenticity and wished to shoot on location, finally forming his own production company, Rudolph Valentino Productions, in 1925. Valentino, George Ullman, and Beatrice Ullman were the incorporators.

[…] Valentino once told gossip columnist Louella Parsons that: "The women I love don't love me. The others don't matter." He claims that despite his success as a sex symbol, in his personal love life, he never achieved happiness.

[…] In 1919—just before the rise of his career—Valentino impulsively married actress Jean Acker, who was also [romantically] involved with actresses Grace Darmond and Alla Nazimova.

Acker became involved with Valentino in part to remove herself from the lesbian love triangle, quickly regretted the marriage, and locked Valentino out of their room on their wedding night. The couple separated soon after, and the marriage was never consummated [on account of Acker being a lesbian]. 

The couple remained legally married until 1921, when Acker sued Valentino for divorce, citing desertion. The divorce was granted, with Acker receiving alimony. She and Valentino eventually renewed their friendship, and remained friends until his death.

[His second marriage to actress Winifred Shaughnessy, known by her stage name, Natacha Rambova—an American silent film costume and set designer, art director, and protégée of Alla Nazimova, his ex-wife's lesbian lover—ended far more poorly.

The two married in 1922, remarried in 1923, and divorced in 1925. Towards the end of their marriage, Rambova was banned from his sets by contract. The end of the marriage was bitter, with Valentino bequeathing Rambova one dollar in his will.]

[…] From the time he died in 1926 until the 1960s, Valentino's sexuality was not generally questioned in print. At least four books, including the notoriously libelous Hollywood Babylon, suggested that [Valentino] may have been gay, despite his marriage to Rambova. For some, the marriages to Acker and Rambova, as well as the relationship with Pola Negri, added to the suspicion that Valentino was gay, and that these were "lavender marriages".

Some claim that Valentino had a relationship with Ramón Novarro, despite Novarro stating they barely knew each other. Hollywood Babylon recounts a story that Valentino had given Novarro an art deco dildo as a gift, which was found stuffed in his throat at the time of his murder. It is believed that no such gift existed.

There were also claims that he may have had relationships with both roommates Paul Ivano and Douglas Gerrad, as well as Norman Kerry, and openly gay French theatre director and poet Jacques Hébertot. However, Ivano maintained that it was untrue, and both he and Valentino were heterosexual. Biographers Emily Leider and Allan Ellenberger generally agree that [Valentino] was most likely straight, [though others have disputed this].

There was further supposed evidence that Valentino was gay; documents in the estate of the late author Samuel Steward indicated that Valentino and Steward were sexual partners. However, evidence found in Steward's claim was subsequently found to be false, as Valentino was in New York on the date Steward claimed a sexual encounter occurred in Ohio.

[Valentino died on 23 August 1926, at the age of 31, due to complications from perforated ulcer surgery, resulting in sepsis (bacterial poisoning), a collapsed lung, and other fatal conditions.]

[taraljc]

So in the out of order haphazard rewatch, last night included Vendettas because we had just watched Lex crash his motorcycle in Awakenings and then I had to explain Vinnie (and Brenden and Margot and the jogger) and then I got to recount that one time at the first Earth 2 convention in New Mexico when during his panel someone asked Clancy Brown if he was doing more episodes of Gargoyles and he was all 'yeah no that's all finished now' and from the back of the room I was like 'Actually the episodes you did by voice patch from Albuquerque during production last year where you played Hakon, Wolf, and Brod the Eastern European gangster haven't aired yet but they are airing in the next 2 weeks,' and he was like 'thanks' and then there was this pause and he was like 'how do you know that?' and his e2 costar Jessica Steen was like 'That's Tara. She knows everything' and it's not like I do it on purpose. It just kind of happens.

(at dinner the night before, when I was being 300% nerdy fan girl Jessica was like 'You've seen more of my work than members of my immediate family' and I was like ... sorry? But she was weirdly cool with it and then we went on a trek to find a VCR at midnight so we could all watch the gag reel. That is also the dinner where I was sat next to Kirk Trutner who played one of the non-speaking extras in every episode and made a friend for life.)

ETA: holy shirtballs there are still pics online. only extant photo of tiny baby me as Joey's minder during autographs. Also apparently at one point someone sold one of the T-shirts that I designed on the internet. and in the picture with Kirk in the blue shirt I'm 98% certain I am the hand holding the glass of water next to Jeff.

[tlaquetzqui]

I just saw a thread attributing the cryogenic take that orcs are black people, to Warcraft.

Um.

Some of their dances are hiphop in WoW I guess? Occasionally some of their gag lines are hiphop-fan faux AAVE?

And…that’s it.

Everything else is still Asian steppe, from the Horde (Turkic ordu “HQ camp”) to the shamans (Tungus word for “priest”) to the single-edged cavalry swords and straight black hair.

Now trolls are black, specifically Caribbean, down to worshiping a real vodun loa, Bwonsamdi—phonetic transcription of Baron Samedi, the evil aspect of Papa Gede. (It would have been funny, but a bit politically risky, and confusing to many people, for that one ancient, scholarly troll nation, I wanna say Zandalari, to talk like Nigerians.)

And while Warcraft goblins actually are semi-Jewish, that’s actually for a relatively innocent reason: the sleazeball finance people that American media depicts, are often the same ethnicity as runs a lot of that industry here, good and bad. So their sleazeball accountants are Jews…just like a lot of the idealistic visionary artists whose dreams they crush for the bottom line. (“This Boston gangster is Irish, that’s racist!” That’s a wicked pissah insight, right there, ’cause so are his victims. Not a lot of Lepke Buchalters, in Winter Hill, ya retahd; not a lot of Warren Buffetts—he’s Anglo—running the business side of Hollywood.)

Also though? While most of the humans of Azeroth are English or German (because Warhammer Fantasy) and the dwarves are Scottish, the main Alliance elves? East Asian. Night elf shrines have fucking torii gates. And the draenei are like settled shamanic Asians, like Koreans or someone.

The European-coded (vaguely French-Italian) elves are the blood elves, the ones who joined the Horde…and enslaved a fucking angel to keep powering their white magic after their addiction to arcane spells turned them into amoral tweekers.