#house of saud

[deadpresidents]

Since these questions were sent at about the same time, I'm going to answer them together in the same post.

There's actually a great book that came out in 2020 about the geopolitical rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran that really heated up following the Islamic Revolution in Iran that overthrew the Shah in 1979 in favor of the theocracy of the Ayatollah Khomeini: Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East by Kim Ghattas (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO). It's one of the better books that I've read in the past few years and the ideal book to pick up if you're interested in the two most powerful Islamic nations of the Middle East.

Another good book that focuses on both countries is Andrew Scott Cooper's 2012 book The Oil Kings: How the U.S., Iran, and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO).

SAUDI ARABIA (I've read A LOT of books about Saudi Arabia over the past few years, so I could go on-and-on, but I'll try to limit myself to just a few recommendations!) •The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'ud by Robert Lacey (BOOK | AUDIO) •Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia by Robert Lacey (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) •Ibn Saud: The Desert Warrior Who Created the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by Barbara Bray and Michael Darlow (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) •The Siege of Mecca: The 1979 Uprising at Islam's Holiest Shrine by Yaroslav Trofimov (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) •Saudi Arabia in the Nineteenth Century by R. Bayly Winder •King Faisal of Saudi Arabia: Personality, Faith and Times by Alexei Vassiliev (BOOK | KINDLE) •Kings and Presidents: Saudi Arabia and the United States Since FDR by Bruce Riedel (BOOK | KINDLE)

IRAN •The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran by Andrew Scott Cooper (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) •America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present by John Ghazvinian (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) •The Iran-Iraq War by Pierre Razoux (BOOK | KINDLE) •A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind by Michael Axworthy (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) •Iran: A Modern History by Abbas Amanat (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) •All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer (BOOK | KINDLE) •Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam by Mark Bowden (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) •The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran by David Crist (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

I'll stop there for now. I could list scores of books because I'm fascinated by the history of both countries, their place in the world, and their relations with one another and with the United States. I probably read a lot more about Saudi Arabia and Iran -- and their leaders -- than most people would expect. So I have even more suggestions if you need them...but hopefully this is a good start!

[kacievvbbbb]

Okay so I’ve spent the last couple days on Twitter (@kacievvbbbb if you wanna join me 👀) just fucking yapping about my new found obsession with the idea that Mihawk not only reads but is an active and well loved contributor to the pirate smut genre all across the blues. And I just needed to bring this to tumble to get more thoughts on it.

Here are mine;

- he obviously writes under a pseudonym would be funny if it was an anagram of like Worlds Strongest Swordsman or something.

- he writes essentially y/n fanfiction but he is always the reader.

- he is heavily perfectionist about his detailing of things like bodice ripping and that has lead to many a fun night for Shanks as he discreetly tries to rest just how exactly a bodice ripping would look and feel. Or if this sex position is even plausible.

-this one was a combined effort between @Dior and myself but he writes all the lovers as much more of an active participant in sex than the pillow princess himself actually is and this is because he thinks he is putting in exactly the same amount of work into sex as Shanks is which is laughable.

-Benn features heavily in alot of these RHP smut books. Benn

-He mostly writes RHP smut but he will branch out to other pirates like Crocodile maybe Doffy 👀. This gives Shanks heart palpitations when he finds out all this smut has been written by Mihawk.

- Mihawk almost kills both himself and Shanks by drowning the first time he finds out that Shanks knows about his little hobby.

- Shanks regularly requests they try something from the book and Mihawk has to stomp down the urge to throttle him. But again Mihawk’s reader is a much active participant in sex than he is and he is not a fan of all this work he has to put in even though he enjoys the results. Shanks is highly amused.

- Shanks for the first time in his life becaomes an avid reader with a habit and this confuses everyone that doesn’t know what he is reading and suffers Benn greatly who does.

- Shanks is lowkey very into the stories where the “reader” has sex with other men. He starts setting plans in motion.

- Mihawk also collects a lot of pirate smut a lot of it is about himself as well and this is his equivalent to jerking off. His next favorite people to read about are of course Shanks, Cricodile he is ashamed of just how much Doflamingo smut he owns. Lowkey maybe some King smut too.

- a contribution from someone on Twitter tha I live is that he also grades said smut about himslef and then sends the notes to the authors.

- he pseudonym is well known and well lived in the community.

-this is infact where more than half of his riches comes from.

- yes he also does read marine porn. He steers clear of anything that even remotely mentions garp tho. His favorite marine to red about is Sengoku I don’t fucking know 😭. I can just imagine him seating in warlord meetings shipping Sengoku with random fucking marines and pirates as he is trying to talk about very serious business

- he sure write the well known and well loved “the red haired emperor & me” series which is published in Morgan’s magazine or whatever and Shanks always seeks him out no matter where he is and fucks him good and hard everytime a new chapter goes out.

- he continues to do this while at Cross Guild Buggy and Crocodile are non the wiser. His crocodile descriptions start to get more detailed a clown pops up every now and again in his writing Shanks might be on the verge of a heart attack.

- shanks is a little too invested in the situation some (Benn) would say.

[hymnsofheresy]

its so funny because i specialize in interfaith dialogue. but when it comes to interfaith work there are two sides of the coin. there is the most well known kind of interfaith work where you are working within a community to bring about a mutual understanding of different religious groups; essentially enabling people to form and create genuine relationships with each other.

and then there is like the diplomacy and corporate aspect of it. working either with governments to engage in dialogue so they either don’t kill each other. or alternatively, working with capitalists to make sure they can coordinate with oil barrons or whatever.

anyway, sometimes the lines between the two kinds of work is a bit blurry, and i don’t like it. especially when someone suggests i should work for the saudi royal family that they personally could get me a position in.

[13thpythagoras]

lol

it's literally going to tip over in the first windstorm or earthquake

engineering 101, if you're building a freestanding wall, and you, uh, actually want it to last longer than a few years, you need to make it curvy like J Lo!!!

[anokha-swad]

[darkclouud9]

Wahoohoo, I actually, house.

[msclaritea]

HBO Chief Casey Bloys Says “A Sameness Of Storytelling” Has Bogged Down Recent Superhero Outings – Deadline

"HBO and Max Content CEO Casey Bloys isn’t buying the notion that audiences have tired of major comic-book tentpoles, despite recent signs of a dropoff at the movie box office and some streaming outlets.

(That's what WBD is now hoping, after they helped to spread the toxic message, through trolls, of superhero fatigue, for years)

“I don’t know that it’s necessarily tentpole fatigue as much as it is a sameness of storytelling,” he said during a 2024 programming showcase in New York.

(What WB really objects to? Diversity, lack of realness. See Hyper violence, and clearly defined good & evil roles)

One of the shows to get significant billing at the event is The Penguin, which stars Colin Farrell in the title tole. The Batman helmer Matt Reeves is an executive producer of the Max Original, whose original spring 2024 launch will be delayed by the WGA and actors strikes..

(Another show surrounding a villain and using a mid actor)

DC is the main supplier of superhero fare on Max, but Bloys largely demurred during a press Q&A when asked for details about the state of the comic book corporate sibling’s production slate, including James Gunn’s new take on Superman. Thematically, though, he said DC definitely fits into his programming philosophy when it comes to keeping genre fare interesting.

(OF course he'd say that)

“I think the key, even within DC, is trying to tell different stories in different styles, to not try to do the same show over and over and over again,” he said. “I would say Peacemaker is a very different show tonally than The Penguin. So, there’s not a uniformity to the storytelling and I think that helps.”

Bloys volunteered a thought about a major rival. “Unfortunately, Marvel, as good as their shows are, there’s probably been a lot of them. That’s one of the advantages we have at Warner Bros. is it’s not just one set of stories. There’s a lot of stories you can go to.”

While Peacemaker, The Penguin and other shows in development are from the DC stable, Bloys said, the slate also features spinoffs from Warner Bros. films like It and Dune, with a Crazy Rich Asians spinoff also in the pipeline.

Let's see here:

Snyderverse, a mess

Wonder Woman 1984, flopped

The Flash, flopped

Black Adam, SO flopped

Aquaman, ABOUT to flop

In the tradition of sportsmanlike behavior in competition, Warner Bros Discovery would be booed off the court. Who the hell are they to give advice to Marvel?

I'd also like to bring up one more thing: Heath Ledger died as a result of playing the Joker. The psychological stress took such a toll on him, that that's when he went on prescriptions.

[the-offside-rule]

Lando Norris (McLaren) - Moving Home

Requested: yes

Prompt: Moving in with Lando x

Warnings: nope

Lando gazed at the picturesque English countryside as they walked hand in hand up the pebbled driveway. The prospect of moving back to England with his girlfriend, Y/n, was an exciting one. He had missed the rolling hills and the vibrant culture and in all honesty, Monaco had gotten been a bit boring after a while. He remember how he tried convincing Y/n to just move to Monaco and not worry about uni since he said he would take care of her forever, but she was not going to just give up on university that easily.

As they approached a house with a "For Sale" sign, Lando couldn't help but feel a spark of anticipation. The real estate agent, a friendly man named James, greeted them with a warm smile. "Hello there! You must be Lando and Y/n. Very lovely to meet you." James said, shaking their hands. Lando smiled. "Nice to meet you, James. We're looking forward to finding the perfect place." He said, holding his hand out for Y/n to take. "Well, hopefully this is it. It's truly a remarkable house." James saud as he led them inside the house, a grand property with a spacious garden and elegant architecture. As they explored the rooms, Y/n's eyes lit up at the features that matched her wishlist.

"I'll let you both have a look around yourselves. I just need to make a call." James said before leaving the room. "This is beautiful, but-" Y/n hesitated, glancing at Lando with concern. "It's quite expensive, isn't it? Almost 4 million pounds." Lando squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Don't worry, love. I want us to have the best. I'll take care of it." Y/n smiled, feeling a wave of warmth. "You're sure? It won't be too much will it?" Lando laughed. "Darling, I got paid 20 million last year. This place is not not much." They continued the tour, discussing how they would decorate each room and imagining their life in this idyllic setting.

Over tea in the cozy kitchen, they finalized their decision. Lando looked at Y/n with determination. "This is the one. I want you to be happy, and if it means a beautiful home in England, then it's worth every penny." Y/n's eyes shimmered with gratitude as they held each9thwrs hand on the table. "Perfect, I can get a payment plan started out for you if you'd like and then-"

"No, no, I have the money just tell me when you want it and I'll send it on over." The dealer was gobsmacked. He didn't exactly know how to react to this 24 year old saying he can just pay off his house whenever it is needed. "I mean, whenever you'd like to move in." Lando nodded. "Let me call my bank and I'll have the money sent over." Lando stood up, smoothenlling out his shirt and shaking hands with James. "Please doing business." Jame said. "I will call you to finalise everything." Lando placed his hand behind Y/n. "Of course, we'll be in touch."

A matter of weeks later, Lando and Y/n shared laughter as they tackled the mountain of boxes in their new home. "I hope our furniture isn't lost in this bloody cardboard." Lando quipped, holding up a lampshade. Y/n chuckled, setting a box down. "Well, at least we'll have a well-lit maze." Lando plopped down onto the sofa, completely exhausted from hoisting boxes around everywhere. "You okay?" Y/n asked sitting beside him. "Just tired. I honestly thought being a racing driver would prepare me for this, but these boxes are giving me a headache." Y/n leaned on his shoulder. "Well, maybe if you drove as fast as you unpack, we'd be done by now."

"Rude."

[chaiaurchaandni]

it is imp to remember that this is not about religion and the ethnic cleansing of artsakh proves this. all oppressive regimes are connected regardless of religion and that is why azerbaijan and israel have good relations. another example is saudi arabia having good relations with america and israel while also killing other muslims in yemen.

interestingly, like israel, saudi also uses religion to gain credibility (recently got holy mosque imam to give statement condemning boycotts and encouraging muslims to not be involved in the situation in palestine) and recruit muslim supporters from all over the world, while simultaneously killing/imprisoning muslim critics of the kingdom.

similarly, israel sells itself as a safe haven for jews and convinces jews around the world to migrate to israel while also simultaneously criminalizing antizionist jews all over the world, even suggesting that theyre not 'real jews' (reminiscent of takfirism which is a core part of saudi wahabi ideology) [ fun fact: the house of saud came into power in arabia with help from the british, just like the zionists in palestine! ]

oppressive regimes are directly connected and mirror each other in several ways. this is why liberation and resistance movements need to unite and work together across the world

[deadpresidents]

You have mentioned your interest in reading about Saudi Arabia and I share your interest, so I want to know if you think the crown prince will actually become king eventually?

Yes, without a doubt. The Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), is already the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and has instituted major economic, cultural, and religious reforms over the past few years that have dramatically changed Saudi Arabia. (Of course, he has also been responsible for some impulsive foreign policy disasters and brutal human rights violations.) With the possible exception of the Emirati leader, Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ), the Saudi Crown Prince is already the most powerful leader in the Arab world.

King Salman is still alive (at least he was a few minutes ago), so he is officially in charge, but the King is nearly 88 years old and it is believed that he has been in failing health for a while now. It's not unusual for there to be a de factor ruler while the Saudi King is still living, and in every instance that de facto ruler ultimately succeeded the King. King Saud was forced to hand over power to the future King Faisal because Saud was utterly incompetent and unfit to effectively rule the country. King Khalid, who had assumed the throne when Faisal was assassinated in 1975, handed the reins over to future King Fahd because his health was failing. Fahd suffered a massive stroke in the 1990s, and future King Abdullah stepped in as de facto ruler until he was proclaimed King upon Fahd's death. So there's a lot of precedent for the de facto ruler to eventually become King in his own right. MBS has taken about as much control over Saudi Arabia as possible while still respecting the position of his father, but he's undoubtedly the person calling the shots and he's seemingly (and, in some cases, publicly) sidelined any potential threats to his rule once King Salman dies or abdicates.

Unless there is some shocking turn of events -- and it would probably take nothing short of a revolution at this point -- MBS will eventually succeed his father as King. That will make him the first grandson of Ibn Saud, the founder of the modern Saudi state, to become King. Since the death of Ibn Saud in 1953, every one of his successors as King of Saudi Arabia has been one of his roughly 50 sons. And because MBS is still so young (he's only 38 years old right now), he will likely have the opportunity to rule Saudi Arabia and become the most influential leader in the Middle East for decades to come.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Sorry if this is a bad question, but do you think the Palestinians can keep their gains? I know this is an important win psychologically no matter what happens next, but is there any chance for changing the borders on the map?

Sorry if this naive or not relevant to the actual events

no its very relevant! Really too early to tell I think, at the absolute minimum I think this conflict could last several weeks, wouldn't be surprised if longer though. Either way the entire regional politic has already been changed forever, and I'm sure there will be defacto territorial change one way or another

Main factors/possibilities (rougly sorted in terms of my perceived importance/likeliness) imo:

A) level of coordination that Al-Qassam & other militants taking part have (idk what comms they'd really have available at this point, particularly with the blackout) as well as how robust logistical supply chains are for deliveries of weapons, personnel, and ammo, but to start out w 5,000 missiles in 20 minutes (though israel claims 2,500) definitely indicates a major degree of planning & coordination, probably months in advance if not more - so many contingencies were probably accounted for

B) how much Hezb'ullah enters the offensive, even pinning down a couple battalions around Sheba farm or the broader Golan heights can be a pretty pivotal, but if they actually are able to take territory that changes things significantly

B-2) how much non-muslim groups in lebanon accept hezb'ullah joining the offensive - israel can escalate here & potentially fracture the offensive by staging a ground invasion/aerial attack into Lebanon, as long as non-muslim groups read that as "because hezb'ullah instigated it" instead of as israeli aggression on them. I have no read on lebanese public opinion here so idk.

C) Whether the Syrian SAF steps up strikes against israeli occupational military targets in the Golan Heights in the next couple days

C-2) amount of explicit coordination between Hezb'ullah & SAF

D) how the situation develops in the West Bank - expect a lot of retributional violence by Israeli civilians here.

D-2) Abbas & his govt have already taken quite a strong stance where they dont quite endorse hamas' operation, but put blame squarely on Israel - if West Bank escalates decisively they might take a much stronger stance.

E) How many israeli political prisoners Hamas has taken (israel has admitted to 130, hamas says "more than dozens") - PIJ also claims 30, how important they are, & how many of their own civilians Israel is willing to potentially kill in order to achieve broader military objectives.

E-2) If Israel arent willing to do that, then that also means a lot of their vaunted air force is largely useless here & combat will largely take the form of urban street battles, which tend to favor irregular insurgent combatants (esp when the regular army is used to unquestioned aerial supremacy)

E-3) what happens during the land invasion of Gaza (said to happen in about 24 hours, and something that would be surprising if wasnt expected by hamas), which is likely prompted by the large number of detained political prisoners. If this ends without something that can be spun as a clear victory for IDF, then this will be a major demotivating factor against their international perceived strength & massively increase morale among palestinian militants & civilians

F) If gazans are able to make a land bridge to the West Bank, then things are going to escalate in a significant way. Sderot is right now the frontline here, about 20 mile straight shot

G) how much more of the barrier around the Gaza strip is able to be destroyed, particularly at checkpoints

I) if the Saudis officially announce a pause in normalization talks

I-2) if other factions in the House of Saud take advantage of the mass-unpopularity of normalization with israel among saudi citizen (ie not immigrant labor) population (~2% support support among saudi youth according to Arab Youth Survey 2023 https://arabyouthsurvey.com/wp-content/uploads/whitepaper/AYS-2023-WP_123_English.pdf - seems like a fair assumption this isn't limited to the young). Even absolute monarchies have limits in terms of unpopular choices.

H) how much of a united front palestinian refugees (across the region but in Egypt & Jordan in particular) are able to mount & what political ends they're able to force pressure on - Sisi has rhetorically genuflected to Israel being the one to provoke escalation while also condemning both sides, but Jordan's Abd'allah has pretty much stuck to both sides so far

H-2) If the youth survey is a good proxy, Jordan would likely be the one where the governing regime would have most difficulty avoiding taking a stand against israel (~6% in favor of normalization)

J) if Israel officially declares military operations against Iran, then that's going to be a major escalation path.

J-2) More likely imo will just step up operations particularly in Iraq against shi'a militants, not sure they'd really want to escalate in Syria at this exact moment

K) how long the Netanyahu-centered Unity Govt takes to form, especially how much Gantz tries to push himself into the center

L) How much the US/european politicians publicly supports israel rhetorically & with guns without public pushback (that's where posting can actually help, particularly politicians). Right now the political class has basically all fallen in line in support of Israel, so normalizing discourse in support of palestine does do something, particularly if it has quantifiable achievement like BDS (particularly S)

M) Now is also when israeli civilians protesting against the corruption of their government would make the most difference. Strangely the recurring protests have been canceled. lol.

Z (wildcard)) Ansar Allah (houthis) or other non-coalition yemeni militant groups start an offensive against the Israeli-UAE occupation of Socotra. UAE alone is still militarily powerful and islands have obvious defensive advantages but scrambling to coordinate a rebuff of Israeli military positions all that way away would definitely start to strain logistics

[tamamita]

Question: what does ‘wahabi’ mean and why do you use it?

Wahhabism refers to a movement within Salafism concerned with the purification of Islamic traditions. It was founded by a scholar by the name of Muhammed ibn Abdul Wahhab. Wahhabism is concerned with the idea of Islamic revivalism and restorationism. The idea that absolute monotheism must be cleansed from every impurity and theological assumption about God's Oneness in the sense that nothing can be attributed to God's Uniquess which upon would compromise Monotheism. Due to this belief, Wahhabism is concerned with eliminating innovations and beliefs in sainthood and saint veneration, which is held to be a form of idolatry, strictly ordering the destruction and desecration of Shrines and the likes.

Wahhabism considers any branch of Islam that does not adhere to Sunni Orthodoxy to be a form of heresy, professing that anyone who strays from their belief is an apostate by excommunicating them (=Takfir). This is why they're opposed to Shi'a Muslims, various Sufis and any Sunni Muslim that stray from their religious belief.

Like other Salafi schools, Wahhabists believe that Taqlid (=following a religious school) is discouraged, if not detested, and Islam must be investigated in the traditional and literalist sense rather than following the consensus. This means that any metaphorical and allegorical exegesis is rejected in favour of a literal interpretation of the Qur'an. For example, if God says "He sees the universe with his eyes", then it must be assumed that God have eyes in the most literal sense. Anyone who strays from this tradition falls into disbelief they claim.

Wahhabism have a historical alliance with the House of Saud , who which Wahhabism became the established state religion within the terroritories of al-Saud. Wahhabi clerics used their monopoly over religious authority to construct a puritanical religious culture by suppressing dissent and non-Wahhabi Muslims, even going so far as to ban travel to neighbouring Islamic countries. Madkhalism is a form of Wahhabism that upholds that Muslims must obey the ruler of a land they reside, thereby considering any dissent to be a form of deviancy, hence their strong support for the Saudi regime.

[maxiscoolongg]

"What! I cant do that!?"

💌; Chooch Bambalazi

Warnings: kissing, nothing other

—♡—

Parents day has finally came and I saw my mom and dad "MA! PA!" I yelled hugging them "Hello sweetie!" My mom said "Hey bud" my dad saud rubbing my shoulder "So ma, you know that boy" "Yes tell me tell me." "I'm dating him.." I said smiling "Omg! Sweets that's amazing!" She said hugging me again then Chooch came towards me "Ma pa, this is the infamous boy" I said as he put his hands around my waist "Nice to meet you Mrs and Mr l/n" he said to them "Lovely to meet you chooch I've heard so much about you" my mom said as I widen my eyes "Really?" Chooch said looking at her then me

—♡—

Once I met up with the guys my mom wanted a photo so we all put our hands around each other's shoulders the smilled, I got a photo and marked it.

(Pretend there is only 1 girl)

I gave my mom it as we had to go now, we did our course, we loaded our guns, we marched. Then soccer.

I suck at soccer and I didn't tryout so I just sat with my parents while they did it master Sargent started singing the national anthem, I looked at hash and gave him the thumbs up and smiled ge smiled back as the rocket shot up exploding something I chuckled so far its 1-0 chooch scored it obviously now its 1-1 liceman scored me and my mom looked at each other and rolled our eyes I walked over to the guys and they were talking about the plan "Hey where's ike?is he all set" Chooch asked us, I looked at ike and thumbs him up he did it back "Okay, now, are you sure you can get into licemans safe?" He asked me and hash

"Shit! Hash we don't got it" I yelled "shit" he said as we ran out "You get the pictures?" "We couldn't crack the code" I was gonna say something else until we heard "This ones for you uncle Vaughn" then bam the rocket blew the the house abd safe up "Fuck! Oh my God! Let's go!" I yelled hugging hash and Oliver "Oh my God! They are gone!" Oliver yelled in relief I walked to chooch and kissed him he put his arms on my waist and I put my hands on his neck

—♡—

4 weeks later

Right now I'm in hashs car sitting on chooch lap with Oliver's and candy's car infront of us. Me and chooch were in passger side and Rodney was driving the other two were in the back standing up, I turned around and laughed at them as I kissed chooch passitonly "Get a room!" Rodney said sarcastically "Your just jealous you don't get nothing" chooch said to him as his hands rested on my lap, Rodney starting reversing as we saw a guy on the street soon candy backed up to. The guys gave Oliver a bsg then lifted his hat up Oliver's eyes widen as he saw liceman he yelled "DRIVE CANDY DRIVE!" She starting driving as Oliver threw the bag we followed em'

THE END.

[rlyehtaxidermist]

On the topic of fantasy pet peeves, or rather fantasy criticism pet peeves, I see a lot of people make a big deal about "lazy worldbuilding" when a kingdom shares the name of either its ruling dynasty. This isn't exclusively a charge levied against media of East Asian origin, but it certainly shows up there a lot.

Now this was very unusual in medieval Europe. Most European countries are derived from tribal names: the Franks became France, the Danes became Denmark, the Angles became England, the Poles became Poland, et cetera. (Though often with a fair bit of migration.) Many others come from their provincial designations under the rule of larger states: Roman Hispania became España; Habsburg-era "pays d'embas", "lands down there", was translated literally into Dutch as Nederlanden.

Pre-medieval kingdoms - most notably the Merovingian and Carolingian Empires - were referred to by their ruling dynasties, but this came to a pretty significant end because of the Germanic tradition of partitive succession. Lands were divided between the heirs instead of passed to a singular successor, leading to a single dynasty ruling multiple different realms - most notably for Carolingians, who in two generations went from controlling most of Western Europe as a unified Frankish Empire to five kingdoms who were often at war with each other.

Needless to say, the rule of several hostile kingdoms by the same nominal dynasty quickly put the kibosh on any sense of dynastic naming in Europe, and tribal names came to dominate as things were formalised in the medieval period. Not so for much of the rest of the world. (Or Liechtenstein.)

Almost every major Arab state took its name from the ruling dynasty, which spread to many non-Arab Muslim realms such as the Ottoman Empire (named for the ruling House of Osman, also called the Ottomans), the Ghaznavid Empire (ruled by the Ghaznavid dynasty), the Timurid Empire (ruled by, surprising no one, the Timurid dynasty)...

Likewise, China is pretty much exclusively described historically in terms of its dynasties, who traditionally picked a new name for their state and government when they came to power. While there was a general idea of a territorial "China" (Chinese Zhongguo, often translated as "Middle Kingdom"), it was only rarely used compared to the dynastic titles. (As far as I'm aware, only the Qing ever really used it in an official context to refer to themselves, and even then the official name was still "(Great) Qing".)

Indian historiography is a bit split; the Maurya and Gupta Empires are referred to by their dynasty, but also as dynasties of a territorial/tribal Magadha Kingdom. The Pala Empire is solely named for its dynasty, but was the successor state of the Gauda Kingdom, named for its territory.

The Aztecs were primarily defined in terms of their city-states, but the Mayans were split between city names and dynastic ones at the time of the Spanish invasion. (Or at least they seem to be; it's hard to find good sources on the etymology of Mayan principalities in English.)

(I'd put in a note about the Incan Empire as well; "Inca" in Quechua essentially means "king" or "nobleman", so a literal English interpretation of "Incan Empire" would be "Emperor's Empire". The endonym for the Incan Empire translates to something like "union of four provinces", with two of the provinces being ethnonyms and two being directional. One of the directional ones might be both, and it's unclear which came first. Honestly, you could do another post about this just for directional names...)

So yes, "King X of the Kingdom of X" is a completely normal thing. Hell, we have two countries that do it today - Liechtenstein (ruled by the House of Liechtenstein) and Saudi Arabia (ruled by the House of Saud). (Both of them are absolute monarchies.)

[momo-de-avis]

tens conhecimentos de como o turismo afeta the housing market em Portugal? tava a procura de um apartamento e Jesus Cristo, quem que raios tá a viver num T0 a 850 por mês, será que vou mm ter que viver no cu de Judas e comprar um carro para conseguir viver sozinho? depois lembrei me do turismo e e pá não me digam que os preços das rendas são o que são pq são para ordenados de outros países... anyways ya sabes se isto tem haver com o turismo ou to a imaginar coisas

Tem mais a ver com a emigração de expats, mas o turismo também.

Em primeiro ponto sao os AirBNBs. O AirBNB aumenta o valor de mercado de uma casa, e o que acontece por exemplo em Alfama (onde há casas sem canalização), é que renovam uma casa inteira e dividem aquilo tudo às postas para por lá 3 ou 4 quartos a alugar, e depois alugam assim aos 100-300 a noite. Com a especulação do aluguer a curto-prazo, as rendas à volta aumentam porque o local fica valorizado. Em contra partida, as pessoas são despejadas pelos senhorios porque os senhorios percebem que a Dona Elisete que vive lá há 57 anos e paga a renda simbólica de 45€ porque é pensionista faz menos dinheiro que 37 Shannons que lhe vão alugar a merda do apartamento por uma semana ao longo de um ano por uns 500€

Depois há os expats. Os expats vê, para cá porque temos sistema de saúde e o custo de vida, pra eles, é barato. Com os vistos gold ficavas isento de quase todos os impostos (epa agr nao me lembro o que especificamente) durante uns 5 anos. Agora pensa assim. Isto era tudo nómada digital, o que significava que trabalhavam para empresas estrangeiras que lhes pagavam 3000 ao mes, mas desses 3000 uns 0 vão para os nossos impostos. Quando muito, pagam IMI porque decidiram comprar cá casa. A questão é que o que tu achas um valor impossível de sequer considerar pagar em renda, pra eles é uma pechincha.

Uma vez uma gaja perguntou-me quanto é que custava uma casa em alfama (renda) e eu disse-lhe que estava a chegar aos 3000€ em certas casas. A gaja responde-me "ah, isso nao é muito" ao que eu lhe disse que o nosso ordenado mínimo é 760€ e ela nao soube muito bem como reagir.

Lembro-me de outra que estava a dizer a outra cliente que a renda ser 900-1000€ é super barato. e 900-1000€ deve ser uma casa na Amadora, se tanto. Porque em Lisboa boa sorte.

O turismo, em si, não é mau. Se o pessoal ficasse em hotéis e deixasse de alugar a merda do AirBNB até seria melhor, porque o mal está aí. E depois o outro problema são expats fazerem vídeos no tiktok a dizer que tem de vir pra portugal porque cá o custo de vida é barato e NAO PAGAM IMPOSTOS COM VISTOS GOLD!!!!!! e depois vao pro serviço de saude publico usar aquela merda e eu é que tenho de o pagar. Esse é o problema

Nao querendo desvalorizar o nosso caso, que acho que está crítico, está assim em todo o lado. A especulaçao imobiliária está fora do controlo em todo o mundo e espero que a bolha rebente em breve

[collapsedsquid]

After 9/11, President George W. Bush and his team argued that a nonstate actor like al-Qaeda could not have pulled off the attacks alone, and that some country must have been behind it all. That state, they insisted, was Iraq—and the United States invaded Iraq. In a savage irony, they may have been right after all about state support, but flat wrong about the state. Should we now invade Saudi Arabia? The answer is no. The Saudi Arabia of 2001 no longer exists. The country is still capable of criminal action; witness the case of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, victim in 2018 of a team of Saudi murderers in Istanbul. But the Islamic extremism that coursed through central institutions of the Saudi state appears to have been largely exorcised. Few countries in the world have been so consistently misunderstood by the U.S. as Saudi Arabia, though, so that judgment is necessarily a provisional one. [...] Why there wasn’t much more of a response from the monarchy won’t be fully understood until the royal archives are opened, assuming that internal discussions were even recorded. But it does seem, in general, that the house of Saud ruled but did not govern; governance was typically for commoners. Without inquiring closely into the day-to-day operations of the religious and foreign-affairs ministries, the royals could not have had a clear idea of what was being done in their name, including the deployment of Saudis with diplomatic visas for the purpose of attacking the kingdom’s strongest, most reliable transactional partner.

If only king Fahd knew!