#in a country run by military dictatorship that is

[sassydefendorflower]

I've just realized something about General Olivier Mira Armstrong.

Finally, I've come to understand the reason why she hates Mustang so much - and why she still respects his men.

Olivier Armstrong is a military woman down to her very core. In that she is an interesting character because she is in many ways complicit with the military dictatorship ruling Amestris while also condemning it. She's a political moderate, a mediocre politician, a fierce warrior, and a great leader.

We don't know much about General Armstrong outside of her military career - and her relationship to her brother. We know she's the only female general in the upper brass, we know she's been nicknamed "The Northern Wall Of Briggs" and "the Ice Queen", we know she cares greatly for her soldiers... and she despises cowards.

Now how does she define a coward?

That's were things are starting to get interesting. Because General Armstrong called her brother a coward multiple times because he failed to do what was right in Ishval - but, important to note, it wasn't the heinous acts themselves that she condemned (though it is implied that she does indeed condemn them) but the fact that her brother didn't follow his own principles. He didn't abandoned the Amestrian army to fight for the people he had sworn to protect even though he wanted to. He just went home. And that's what makes him a coward in her eyes.

This aligns with everything else we see about her. She calls Mustang a "sniveling coward" multiple times and notes his lack of a backbone. And yet her dislike of him doesn't seem to run as deep as her disappointment in her brother. Some of that might just be that Alex is family and that means personal relationships do indeed play a role... but some of it is probably the very simple truth that Mustang is trying his best to make up for what he did.

He also failed in her eyes, following orders he knew were wrong, but where her brother fled, Mustang had the strength to stay and look his victims in the eyes as he killed them.

Mustang's team on the other hand did something that General Armstrong very much appreciates: they chose Mustang and his goals the same way the men of Briggs chose her.

Mustang might be a coward and a fool in her eyes, but she can respect the choices his team made.

There is one scene near the end of the show that showcases that beautifully. In episode 58 (or 57) Izumi and General Armstrong get the general to confess the brass' plan to sacrifice the Amestrian people in front of a bunch of soldiers and - after hearing their own death sentence uttered by a commanding officer - the soldiers are unsure how to proceed.

And Armstrong gets angry at them.

Because they are simply following orders. They were killing her people and condemning her country - simply because of some orders that they never learned to question.

And in General Armstrong's eyes that's the actually unforgiving act. Killing and slaughtering for the army is not something she has any problem with (as evident by the Briggs soldiers bloody takeover during the Promised Day) but it needs to be an act of conviction. Looking away and hiding behind orders is what Armstrong sees as cowardly.

It's what Mustang did in Ishval and what his men failed to do when they followed him willingly. It's what Alex couldn't see through, but Olivier made sure her soldiers knew before joining her.

She wants to change Amestris and it's military, not because she's an idealist like Mustang, but because she wants a military in which each soldier is responsible for the people they kill.

It's fascinating because General Armstrong doesn't have the moral high ground - she doesn't see the military as rotten the same way Mustang does, and she doesn't see killing as wrong the way Edward does. She doesn't even contemplate her own kills with shame the way Hawkeye is prone to, or judge the system as harshly as Izumi does.

But she does have a strong moral core as a character, one that would perhaps even agree with Kimblee's famous quote: "Look straight at the people you kill; don’t take your eyes off them. Do not ever forget them because they won’t forget you." - and if you don't agree with an order given? It is your duty as a soldier to defy it.

That's why she can trust her men to plan a coup without her being there to lead them - because she knows every choice they make will be one they can live with. Just as every order they follow is one they can justify.

She is an interesting character because she questions the system while endorsing it - and that puts her at odds with both the military complex and Mustang and his team. It achieves complexity in what could very easily have been a simply narrative.

Olivier Mira Armstrong hates cowards - but she respects those who stand up for their believes, even if those believes defy her.

[tomorrowusa]

« All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of an autocratic state. There is a bad man at the top. He controls the army and the police. The army and the police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents. But in the twenty-first century, that cartoon bears little resemblance to reality.

Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy but by sophisticated networks relying on kleptocratic financial structures, a complex of security services— military, paramilitary, police—and technological experts who provide surveillance, propaganda, and disinformation. The members of these networks are connected not only to one another within a given autocracy but also to networks in other autocratic countries, and sometimes in democracies too. Corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled companies in another. The police in one country may arm, equip, and train the police in many others. The propagandists share resources—the troll farms and media networks that promote one dictator’s propaganda can also be used to promote another’s—as well as themes: the degeneracy of democracy, the stability of autocracy, the evil of America. »

– Journalist and historian Anne Applebaum at Substack quoting from her soon to be released book Autocracy, Inc..

You can read several more paragraphs from Autocracy, Inc. at the Substack link above. Her book will be published on the 23rd; if you're within distance of Washington, DC she will be doing a free book reading and Q&A on Friday July 26th at Politics and Prose. She's a good writer and speaker. I've read two of her previous books and can vouch for their quality.

The war in Ukraine is not some remote conflict that idiots like J.D. Vance or Neville Chamberlain might dismiss out of stupidity. Ukraine is just one arena in a worldwide clash between liberal democracy and kleptocratic tyranny.

[bunthebreadboy]

i saw a fanart on pinterest when i decided to change my entire phone theme and i can’t get it out of my head.

the art was just after the zuko and ozai agni kai. zuko was knocked out, iroh was getting ready to take him and leave, and azula just came in and said “i took care of it”. if anyone knows what i’m talking about and has it saved or knows the og artist pls lmk!!

anyways. it got me thinking about an expansion of this au (that i will never write because i have neither the patience nor the time to do that) that (unsurprisingly) results in disasterlesbian!azula

so hear me out on this one. there would need to be an entire plot. like. what’s aang going to do??

azula killed ozai by electrocuting him. it’s the first time she discovers her lightning bending. it looks like he had a heart attack in his sleep. (don’t get too wrapped up in the details. azula’s a prodigy she can be overpowered for a bit)

why did she kill her dad? she’ll swear up and down that it was because “he really should have picked on someone with a better fighting ability than zuzu. honestly, it’s stupid he didn’t lose his honor after frying my pathetic firebender of a brother to a crisp.” it’s actually because she kind of sort of loves zuko. she will NEVER admit that.

iroh becomes fire lord, albeit a bit reluctantly. he spends the next three years attempting to end the war, stop the spread of propaganda in the fire nation, and deal with his niece and nephew bickering all the time.

so aang comes out of the iceberg. meets katara and sokka. katara convinces him to take her to the north pole because he’s the avatar, he still should probably master all four elements war or not. all of the traveling is the same (except zuko chasing them) until they get to omashu and king bumi is like “what’s up my dude, welcome back. we’re recovering from a war, so you should probably learn politics and how to not offend anyone while you master the elements!!”

(“there was a WAR?!?!!!” -aang, probably)

so now aang does a deep dive into all of the nation’s politics while also training. katara doesn’t really attend his meetings, but sokka’s a total nerd and is sat for every single one. first is waterbending at the north pole. insert canon things but add in a meeting with arnook.

this is where we introduce the REAL enemy, because the enemy can’t be the gaang attempting to learn international law at 12, 14, and 15 years old. during the full moon someone assassinates the moon spirit! (sorry yue, i love you but you still die in this au…)

so after mastering waterbending the gaang heads to the earth kingdom. they meet toph and she joins. they head to ba sing se, which, after trying to talk politics with the king, they realize is still completely unaware of the war. while in the earth kingdom, we get a name for the big bad. the dai li. after realizing that ba sing se is basically a military dictatorship, the gaang escapes and head to the fire nation.

that’s where zuko, azula, and iroh get reintroduced. aang and sokka consistently come back from meetings with the royals complaining about “oh my god, the princess is such a bitch. seriously, how is she allowed to help run this country??”

katara eventually goes with the boys to a meeting to get them to shut up. toph makes fun of her for being a people pleaser, but katara will do literally anything to get her brother and best friend to stop yapping about the same topic at her every. single. day.

azula (disaster lesbian) doesn’t say a single word throughout the entire meeting. sokka and aang walk out feeling like they were in the twilight zone. katara shows up to more and more meetings. why? definitely not cause the princess is sort of kind of somewhat cute intriguing.

insert azula’s gay awakening crisis here. she eventually starts talking at the meetings, but she’s only ever nice to katara lmao. katara does realize that azula’s an actual genius, though. she decides that the two of them could probably like, take over the entirety of ba sing se in a day if they tried hard enough. but of course that is purely hypothetical.

so one day a meeting gets interrupted by a literal dai li assassin trying to kill aang. he barely escapes the resulting fight.

so the dai li send more assassins. and even more assassins. until finally zuko gets fed up and is just like “alright i’m tired of dealing with these guys. can we please go kick their leader’s ass??”

that is how azula and zuko end up joining the gaang. and how azula can eventually lay siege over ba sing se (even if she reluctantly gives it back when katara tells her to).

—

other misc key points:

- azula and katara get together right before they fight with long feng. it happens cause katara notices that azula is nervous (nobody else would be able to tell) and so she’s like “zula. you’ve got this. we’ve got this” and kisses her lmao

- toph and azula are best friends, to katara’s obvious dismay

- the second azula calls zuko “zuzu” in front of sokka he immediately starts rolling on the floor and laughing. katara has to make sure his lungs are okay afterwards

- zuko: “im literally not gay??” sokka: “yeah, and toph can see”

- toph regularly comes back to wherever the gaang is staying with bags of money. she knows how to find every single illegal fighting ring in the world.

- this is a loooooong term plot. since there’s no reason to worry about the comet it can take place over many years. which also means that katara and azula literally pine for each other until they’re like 20 and everyone around them, especially (and surprisingly) aang, is like “oh my god make it stop”

[sap-woods]

well, why not exactly like south africa? why not like any other arab country where muslims and christians and atheists and hindus live side-by-side just fine? why not like the diverse western nations that finance your state's existence? what exactly about palestinians is so Inherently Evil And Irredeemable (bc that is honestly how you sound) that they would not have the humanity and morality to treat people like people?

it's always the same fear of the day after. white south africans are alive. white american colonisers are fucking thriving. same in australia, in new zealand. immigrants to arab countries lead entire lives there. why not like any of them?

What an exhausting, insulting question... that truly has nothing to do with anything I said. I was speaking about Hamas and leftists who support their aims to dismantle Israel, not the Palestinian people.

I have never said that it’s impossible that Muslims, Christians, Jews, (and Samaritans, Druze, etc.) will live side-by-side. They already do, in Israel. There is discrimination, but they do indeed live side-by-side. What I said was that it will not happen under Hamas rule. Which is an objective fact. The Gaza strip, by the way, is currently 98% Muslim.

I also never said that Palestinians are “inherently evil and irredeemable,” nor did I imply it. You lie in order to paint me, as an Israeli, as hateful. I am not. I spoke only of Hamas. Your conflation of a militant terrorist group with civilians is unfortunate. Hamas has proven time and time again that they do not have the humanity to treat people like people. I said nothing of the Palestinian people.

While I owe you nothing, I'll have you know that I am absolutely in favor of steps towards a peaceful solution and mutual recognition of both nations. I think it is outrageous that there are Palestinian detainees held without charge. I find the number of deaths in Gaza an unacceptable collective punishment. I am supportive of cultural and economic efforts towards reconciliation (e.g., bilingual Arab-Jewish schools and summer camps, joint activism efforts, organizations that promote dialogue and cross-cultural events, shared efforts to help victims of violence, cultural exchange and language learning initiatives). I think the current government is a disaster. I want to see a world where Jews, Christians, and Muslims—and Samaritans, Druze, and Baháʼís—live in peace together in that land. The fact that you saw me saying that Hamas would enact genocide if given the chance (which is true) and interpreted that as me saying Palestinians are “inherently evil” (which I did not say) is truly sad.

The reality is Hamas is not a resistance group. It is an Islamic ultranationalist militaristic dictatorship that has kept its citizens as prisoners by stealing international aid and running military operations to commit war crimes from under schools and hospitals. It is a terrorist group that rapes, murders, and tortures civilians, including children and infants. Peace in the region will not be possible without a demilitarized Gaza. Hamas rule is incompatible with peace. If you support Hamas, you support the violent expulsion or genocide of Israeli Jews from our homeland. You can (and should) be in support of Palestinian self-determination. This belief is also incompatible with support for Hamas. Israeli war crimes do not absolve Hamas's war crimes.

Another thing I find interesting is that you refer to a dismantled Israel as “another Arab country,” and in the same breath claim that Jews would continue to live there. I wonder, was it a coincidence that you failed to list Jews in your list of religions living side-by-side, or are you aware that there are very, very few Jews living in Arab countries today? In case you are unaware, the absence of Jews from the Arabian peninsula, the Mesopotamian region, and North Africa is a result of diasporic Jewish minorities fleeing, being expelled, and/or being ethnically cleansed. Prior to that, they lived with second class status (dhimmis) under Islamic rule. As an Israeli Jew, I cannot set foot in many Arab countries today. Is that your version of coexistence?

And let us be clear: The remaining ethnic minority groups do not live in peace in the Muslim-majority countries of the region. The examples are endless. The genocide of the Yazidis by the Islamic State. The Houthi persecution of Yemenite Jews and Baháʼís. The displaced Christians from the Syrian civil war. The Middle East is rife with examples of radicalized religious extremists being entirely incompatible with coexistence with minority groups.

Yet, in your list of co-existing religions, you picked Hinduism: a minority religion that, while practiced in some Middle Eastern countries, is not indigenous to the region. Perhaps you did this in ignorance. Perhaps it was an attempt to support your point that some immigrants and migrants can indeed lead reasonable lives in Arab countries (e.g., Indian expats in the Emirates or Saudi Arabia), as ethnic minorities with a homeland to return to. Needless to say, it's an irrelevant and feeble attempt to claim that religions currently coexist well in the Muslim-majority countries. As a whole, they do not.

Let's talk about your list of colonizers next. White South Africans being alive has nothing to do with Israel. White people thriving in the USA, Australia, and New Zealand have nothing to do with Israel. Those examples are particularly bizarre anyway, as, excepting South Africa, you’ve picked countries where the colony essentially remained in place and became the ethnic majority. But none of these colonies have anything to do with Israel, because Israel is not a colony.

Jews are indigenous to Israel. We are one of a small number of indigenous Levantine ethnic groups who call that land home. The word colony requires a context we do not have–a colony for what country? What existing country is expanding territory? We are a 4000 year old nation, many of us displaced by the Romans, and who, after 2000 years of oppression and genocide both in the diaspora and in our homeland, won our independence from the occupying force in power at the time: the British. We have nothing to do with European colonizers. You cannot colonize your own homeland.

Again, that does not mean I support the Israeli government or the IDF's actions. I fully believe Palestinians also deserve self-determination in our shared land. Our status does not change the Palestinian story. It does not undo their suffering. The situation in Gaza is untenable and an outrage. Our status does not change the inhumane conditions that Israel, along with other countries (like Egypt) have placed on the population of Gaza.

But Jews being indigenous to the region matters—because the context to understand Israel is not one of colonizer-colonized. Ours is an ethnic conflict in the context independence after a long history of many colonial powers (British, Ottoman, etc.), a wider political context of Arabization and oppression of ethnic/religious minority groups in the entire Middle East, as well as a global context of hatred of Jews and Arabs, and of Western meddling.

It also matters because it highlights the fact that Palestinians are our cousins—both because many Palestinians are likely decedents of Jews, Samaritans, etc. who were Arabized and forcibly converted Islam—but also because the Arabs are our cousins too. It is important to remember that this is an ethnic conflict, and not a situation in which one group can "go home." We have to find a way to coexist. Hamas is not that way.

Is “leading a life,” as you say, enough? Well, we wouldn't be able to, under Hamas. They have made that clear. But even if a Hamas-led state made room for dhimmi-status Jewish Israelis, then no, it would not be enough. (Remember, it is not even enough for many Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship to live under our state with full rights.) Self-determination is important. Maintenance of language and culture is important. Statehood matters, for both Palestinians and Israelis. I do not believe we are ready for a fully unified state. Perhaps we never will be. But whatever the solution, it is imperative that both people have self-determination in their homeland.

And be it a unified democratic binational state, a single federal government with autonomous cantons/states that govern themselves, a "two states, one homeland" two state confederation, a fully-realized two state solution, or any other solution: the violent—and yes, evil—Hamas regime can play no part.

[odinsblog]

“It was December 1993, and I was sitting in my flat in Moscow, watching what must have been one of the first ever election night results shows on Russian television for a Parliamentary election.

It was an unusual spectacle, to say the least. Politicians, pundits and Russian officials were sitting around drinking champagne. And then this happened: On came an astrologer to deliver his celestial political forecast.

Looking back, it was quite appropriate really, because 30 years ago, Russians had stars in their eyes about freedom, democracy, and their country's future. That night, as well as electing a new parliament, the Duma, Russians also approved a new constitution. The constitution which, many years later, Vladimir Putin would change through a referendum to give himself the chance of twelve more years in power.

For a Russian election these days, you don't need astrologers or fortune tellers or crystal balls. I can tell you now pretty much what the result of next March's Russian presidential election will be. Vladimir Putin will win, and with a landslide.

There are several reasons for my confident prediction.

Russia's current political system is Putin's political system, his rules, his election. And although his will not be the only name on the ballot, his opponents are unlikely to include Mr. Putin's most vocal critics, arch rivals, and serious contenders. The president's most high profile opponents have either been poised, fled into exile or been put in prison. What's more, the Kremlin controls television. Vladimir Putin receives lots of airtime, and on tv, he's much praised, never criticized. Handy that, when you're seeking reelection.

And there's another reason he'll do well.

Meet Alexander. Alexander is a young tv reporter from northeastern Russia. At Vladimir Putin's end-of-year press conference recently, he stood up and declared, ‘We all support your decision to run in next year's election, because you've been in power for as long as I can remember.’ There are many Russians like Alexander who simply cannot imagine anyone else in the Kremlin, not because they idolize Vladimir Putin, they just see no alternative to him. I've often heard people here say, ‘Well, if not Putin, who then?’ The Kremlin has engineered that. It has cleared the political landscape of any potential challenges to the man who has ruled Russia as president or prime minister for nearly a quarter of a century, to make sure that those two words, that little question, ‘who then?’ is left unanswered.

Even the war in Ukraine and what are believed to be huge Russian military losses, don't appear to have sparked disillusionment in Russia's President and Commander-in-Chief.

It was Putin's decision to launch the full scale invasion, but some Russians believe that at a time of war, it is their duty to back their leader without questioning his motives or the consequences.

Crucially, the other thing you find a lot of here is indifference. Many Russians don't seem to care who's in power in the Kremlin. They just hunker down in their town or village and try to get through life as best they can. Indifference, too, benefits Vladimir Putin.

For all these reasons, his fifth election victory isn't in doubt.

But what I find much harder to predict is Russia's future. These are very dark times. Darkest, of course, for Ukraine, but for Russia, too. You can feel aggression in Russian society building. You can see repression growing, and you can see a leader who is determined, whatever the cost, to emerge from this war the winner.”

—Steve Rosenberg, BBC's Moscow correspondent, on Russia’s short lived democracy turned autocratic dictatorship

[athenawasamerf]

What's life in Egypt like?

This is a very vague question so I’m not sure how to answer, really. It’s kind of tense these days, anyway.

Ig the day to day is pretty typical. I’m not exactly the average citizen, most of my time is taken up with med school so I don’t explore or go out as much as I should. I live in Alexandria, and I love it here. Coastal, the old section of the city is beautiful, lots of greenery. It’s pouring down rain all through winter, driving is near impossible because everyone is fucking insane (which is typical for Egyptian cities lol), it’s pretty densely populated, the food is phenomenal. We have a ton of museums and historical sites, and the library of Alexandria is pretty rad. The economy is shit and getting shittier, we’re under a military dictatorship (again but worse than last time), inflation is insane and the country is in a ton of debt to the point that the central bank of Egypt has stopped all foreign currency transactions on debit cards, and credit cards have a foreign currency limit of the equivalent of $250/month.

From a feminist perspective, it’s not the best place to be. Alexandria is better than most of the country, but I still get harassed regularly. Egyptian men are paternalistic and have a weirdly entitled attitude towards all women, we have in-jokes in feminist circles about the fruit vendor from down the street being mad at you for coming home late. Tbf I’m fairly open about my feminist opinions and that hasn’t caused me any trouble, and basically all my friends and acquaintances know that I wear a hijab in front of my family and take it off at school/when I’m out with friends, and 4 of my cousins know about the hijab thing as well. Dating culture is fairly normalised in Alexandria, so everyone in my circles including two of my cousins know about my love life (but not my sexuality). In some places of Egypt, I’d be honour killed for any one of these things, so I’m grateful to be where I am. There’s still a line of chauvinism running in the country, though that’s the least of our worries as feminists. I have a post about marriage and divorce in Egypt under my Egyptian feminism tag if you’re interested in learning more about that aspect.

From an LGB perspective, unfortunately the little progress we’d made in the late 00’s and early 10’s has been receding quickly. We’d gotten to a point of live and let live in some areas, but the introduction of trans ideology in the west caused a massive recoil in perception of LGB people here, and there’s been a crackdown on LGB-sympathetic ideas. Every time it’s brought up, you get a look of disgust and ‘they’re teaching kids to change their sex’. It’s going to take massive amounts of time and effort to repair this damage.

And finally, from a religious perspective, well. Not much has improved re acceptance of atheism or non-abrahamic religious beliefs. Egyptian law technically protects your right to freedom of belief, but, crucially, not your right to freedom of expression of religious belief. National ID cards must have your religion listed on them, and the only options are Muslim/Christian/Jew. Contempt of religion and ‘violating Egyptian family values’ laws are pretty strict and are used to prosecute everything from girls dancing on TikTok to blasphemy. I don’t see this improving any time soon, though foreigners (non-Arabs) are given some leeway.

I hope I’ve covered the most important points, but please feel free to reach out if you have more specific questions!

[wearelatinamericanrockers]

El Cuarteto de Nós are a Uruguayan Rock band made in 1980 and still running.

They first started by making most of their albums of being satires of society and dark humor, all through "Alberto wolf" to 2004 "El cuarteto de nos" and went into inactivity, until coming back in 2006 "Raro" and onward to be more experimental and weird.

They've been nominated once in the grammy latino, their most famous songs are "Ya no sé qué hacer conmigo", "Lo malo de ser bueno" and "El Hijo de Hernández". Los Prisioneros was a Chilean Rock band first made in 1979 and became the most influential and impactful 80s band of that decade.

In the beginning, they developed a new wave sound with punk nuances to later approach synth pop in their garage. they became known for their songs full of content and social criticism, which served as inspiration to awaken a generation that was being oppressed by the military dictatorship, who used these songs as a fight against the regime of Augusto Pinochet.

This caused censorship of the band in the main media, until the early 1990s. Despite the veto, they had great unprecedented commercial success, which crossed borders in countries such as Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Coinciding with the transition to democracy, the first breakup and restructuring of the band occurred: early 1992, when the band broke up.

Their most famous songs are "We Are Sudamerican Rockers" (Despite being banned in its home country), "Tren Al Sur" and "Estreches del Corazón".

Shakira is a Colombian Indie rock musician, she started her career in 1990 at the age of 13.

I decided to give her a chance since shes niche with her small fanbase of 68.......... point 7 million listeners, shes also a furry. <3

Famous songs of her are "Inevitable", "Pies descalzos, Sueños blancos" and "Te aviso, Te anuncio" propaganda below;

[geisterland]

The promised Brazil in WW2 post! I did verify some information, but this is actually mostly based on my previous knowledge (from a Brazilian perspective)  and my visit to a museum on this topic, so I always encourage searching about it yourself! :D This will be more general facts I find interesting than a complete look into our participation, as that is a bit complicated to speak about in a short post. But let's get into it, shall we?

So, the thing about Brazil's participation in WW2 is that it actually came in sort of late. We only started fighting in late 1944 in Northern Italy, after the fall of fascism there, but we technically declared war back in 1942.

The two reasons we entered the war (after a period of neutrality in which we still had a commercial relationship with the main three Axis countries as well as the Allies) were...

Getúlio Vargas' government striking a deal in which the USA would build military bases on our territory in exchange for them investing in our metallurgical industry (long story);

The German sinking of six commercial Brazilian ships (Baependi, Araraquara, Aníbal Benévolo, Itagiba, Arará and Jacira), which ended up killing 607 people, civilian and military alike.

Once we actually entered the war, I would say that our most important ally within the... Allies was the USA - with Brazilian soldiers (the Pracinhas) even serving in the US Fifth Army. We filled very important gaps, and eventually, once the USamericans turned their efforts elsewhere, we played a very important role in the fight against the Nazis in Italy.

A thing to note was actually the sense of connection that a lot of Brazilians had with Italy. Many of the soldiers drafted (and those who volunteered) were of European descent, with a sizable chunk being Italian, so they were both fighting for their homeland and for their ancestors' homeland. Not only that, but the Pracinhas were treated warmly by the Italian citizens, which nurtured an even stronger emotional bond and sense of duty.

The main battle fought by FEB (The Brazilian Expeditionary Forces) was the Battle of Monte Castelo - was a very important defense point for the Nazis - which lasted for three months and was considered the largest battle in the history of the Brazilian Army. Brazil also participated in the Battle of Castelnuovo, Montese, Collecchio, and Fornovo di Taro.

A big thing to mention is that there were actually Brazilians on both sides of the war. Which actually contributed to the psychological warfare by the Nazis to try and convince the Pracinhas to desert - there was even a radio program transmited by a Brazilian woman from Santa Catarina to try and reach that goal, although most of the propaganda was done through leaflets that would appeal to the conditions the soldiers were enduring (such as the extreme cold).

Interesting tidbit about the cold: the Pracinhas would stuff straw in their boots, especially when it was cold, which actually led them to have fewer cases of Trench Foot than the USamericans.

Women in the Brazilian Army acted as field nurses, about 73 iirc going to serve in Italy. I will attach a picture below of some of them.

At this time, Brazil was actually in a dictatorship, which restricted even what the Brazilians could write in letters back home. They were encouraged to never say anything negative, and even if they did, their letters would always be read to check for it. Interestingly enough, once the war was ending and the Pracinhas would come home, people began seeing more and more similarities between the way things were being run by the Vargas' regime and the nazifascists... Hm...

Let's get to the last thing I want to talk about this night - the symbols used by our soldiers!

The main one you may have seen around is the Smoking Cobra. But what does it mean? See, there was this popular phrase within the country that "if Brazil enters the war, the cobra will smoke", something akin to "when pigs fly". And so, when we did join the war, this symbol was used as a sort of cheeky nod to the saying. The Pracinhas had a really good sense of humor.

And the less known, but in my opinion just as funny, symbol for our Aviation group. Which was based on two things: the phrase "Senta a Pua" which was already used in the airbase of Salvador to tell people to hurry up, and the ostrich, a symbol based on soldiers' jokes that they needed an ostrich's stomach to handle the food the USamericans gave them on the boat ride over lmao. I put both symbols below.

And I believe that will be all for now! There's still a lot to be said, and a lot that I will want to talk about at some point, but for now, I hope you enjoyed this little snapshot I gave you. ^_^

[transthadymacdermot]

Left image my art of Thompsons; right image a detail from "The Prince of Orange landing at Torbay" by Jan Hoynck van Papendrecht

Wip intro: Fire, Famine, & Slaughter

Genre: steampunk? kind of? but make it 17th century instead. also kind of similar to asoiaf in that it's spec fic but based heavily on a real historical event. oh and they have ice age fauna in this world too also

Progress: 1st draft

Content warnings: it's a story abt religious wars and all that implies. lots of death and gore and people being horrible to each other over pointless doctrinal disputes. etc

Ten years ago the citizens of the Commonwealth, a world power in a a seventeenth century-inspired steampunk (ish) alternate universe, rose up under the leadership of a rogue politician to kill their king. What followed was over half a decade of brutal military dictatorship, civil war, famine, plague, and general unhappiness for the population. Now the king has been secure in his restoration -- a move which has proved more popular in some sectors than others -- for four years, but lies on his deathbed, and his only successor is a cousin who worships an outlawed god and seems, to many, on the verge of plunging the country back into the chaos it fought so hard to escape.

When a former regicide hellbent on toppling the current regime accuses one of this new king's most controversial advisors of murdering a well-liked lord, war seems closer than ever. Republicans in the shadows, royalists ready to go to war, the aristocracy pulling knives over land, but the Commonwealth's parliament consoles itself with the fact that, after all, this tyrannical heretic of a king and his horrible advisors are but an anomaly -- the crown prince, who is a bit odd but who they all know and love, is nothing like that. Right?

Will shamelessly admit that this story is an attempt to write something which is to the glorious revolution as asoiaf is to the wars of the roses 👍 narrators under the cut; complete character list yet to come. title a placeholder I pilfered from a Coleridge poem ☝️

Marcus "Marc" Waring, Earl of Talbott -- (he/him) a dispossessed and very angry aristocrat from the Commonwealth's colony-member of Hieburne, who quite literally lost an arm and a leg in the civil war. A master swordsman and known manipulator.

John Thompsons -- (he/him) a regicide, pamphleteer, and vicious sectarian only alive for his intimate knowledge of and groundbreaking research on the mysterious ancient tech which keeps the Commonwealth's capital running. #1 hobby is destablising the monarchy; #2 hobby is psychologically tormenting Talbott.

Elizabeth Knox-Clifford, Duchess of Danforth -- (she/her) one of the most powerful aristocrats in the Commonwealth, first woman to be a member of the King's Closet (group of his closest advisors), dedicated to the stability of the country no matter what that requires.

Eleanor "Ellie" Foxe -- (she/her) a mildly unwilling member of a plot to systemically kill the entirety of Parliament in order to restore the absolute monarchy of the Commonwealth's past. Fanatically devoted to her cause and rather cutthroat, but more willing to negotiate than other members of the plot.

Joffre van Andrey -- (he/him) a visitor from the Commonwealth's ally the Risckan Confederacy, and advisor to the the king there, who just so happens to be the brother-in-law of the Commonwealth's own king. A very serious man who tries to do the right thing but usually has his schemes blow up in his face </3

[yourwakingnightmares]

Roy Mustang is an amazing character, and a great example of what humans are capable of doing to survive.

So to start with, the big question is... Is Roy a good person? Can Roy be redeemed for what he did in Ishval? How can we look at what he did, and still think he’s a good man?

The answer is three-fold.

First, we have to understand the setting. Luckily for us, very, very few of us live in a military state, or even a police state. Unluckily for Roy, he does. The military runs Amestris. There’s very little Roy can actively do to avoid his fate, without getting everyone he loves killed... and for what? What difference will his dying a heroic death make? He’ll still be dead. His loved ones will still be dead. And someone else will come in, and the Ishvalans will still be dead.

Which ties into the second part: Roy has people he cares about. In a military state, anyone can be executed. Roy, being in Ishval, would be all too aware of how easy it is to declare someone an enemy of the state, and execute them. His aunt and his ‘sisters’ would be killed, and very few people would even bat an eye.

And lastly... Roy was raised in Amestris. One of the ways that dictatorships and police states work is by indoctrination. For Roy, up until that point? Amestris would’ve been absolutely in the right. He’s heard about the evil terrible people who want to destroy Amestris. He’s heard about the terrible things people will do to his people if left unchecked.

One of my grandmother’s best friends was a German immigrant we’ll call Sonja. Unfortunately, she’s been dead for nearly a decade now, but when I was in high school, she told me a story.

Her father was a proud German soldier. When the war started, he proudly served his country. But within a few years, whenever he would come home on leave, he would turn the picture of Hitler -kept on the mantle -around, so he didn’t have to look at it. And she told me she remembered being ashamed of her father; how could he do such a thing? It wasn’t until she was an adult, and the family had moved to America, that her father explained it to her.

He saw the concentration camps. He knew what was happening. And he knew what was happening to the Jews would happen to his family if he spoke out. He knew what would happen to his wife, three daughters, and two sons if he dared object to what was happening. The only thing he could do was turn around a picture, so he didn’t have to stare at the face of the man who controlled his fate.

Even knowing that he just doing what he had to do to keep his family safe, Sonja said her father lived with the guilt of that the rest of his life. That he was constantly donating money to synagogues, sending money to Jewish families in their neighborhood. When he was 49 years old, Sonja’s father committed suicide, unable to live with what he had done any longer.

Roy isn’t a ‘bad’ guy; he’s a guy doing whatever it takes to survive, and try and keep his family safe. It doesn’t make him a hero, to be sure. It doesn’t make him a good guy. It makes him a human being, put in a terrible position, doing the best he can to struggle through.

[yellowocaballero]

sakuragakure would totally destroy pleasure island from pinocchio. first of all it's for all genders (tho technically the land of toys from the og book was...), second of all it doesn't rely on cheap pleasures like drugs and no school, and third of all it doesn't turn kids into donkeys. good job sakura and obito 👍

Love this deep cut. I think the Naruto's children's story version of Pinnochio would involve an island where the kids run off to live in fantasyland where they all get to be ronin samurai and they have to learn a valuable lesson about obeying their military dictatorship and following all orders and sacrificing their lives for their country.

Of course, Obito's idea is less "a world where children will be perfectly happy" and more "the children will create a perfect world that will replace the imperfect one and create World Peace (TM)." Sakura was very invested in creating Biztown (if you know what Biztown is). If Sakura had the opportunity to coup Pleasure Island she really would do a great job. Give this girl military dictatorship over everywhere, it will never end badly.

[tomorrowusa]

Ho-hum. Another day, another unexplained death of a Russian businessman, current/former official, or dissident.

It's true that Igor Kotelnikov was on the sketchy side – he was in pretrial detention on a bribery charge. But he was 52 which is still below Russia's plummeting life expectancy. No cause of death was released by official sources.

Somebody up top may have been worried about Kotelnikov's upcoming testimony and decided to silence him once and for all. After falling out of windows, dying while in custody under mysterious circumstances seems to be a favored way for the dictatorship to get rid of people it doesn't want around.

A Russian businessman charged with bribing senior Defense Ministry officials on behalf of suppliers has died in pretrial detention, according to a member of the country's human rights council. Igor Kotelnikov, 52, died on July 8 after feeling unwell in the Moscow pretrial detention center, Yeva Merkacheva said. She did not give a cause of death but said he had been held in a part of the center that has tough conditions. "Rights defenders, examining the pretrial detention center, repeatedly noted that these cells are packed with people. [The cells] are small, hot in warm weather, cold in the winter. In addition, some detainees sit there all day," Merkacheva wrote in a column for the popular daily Moskovsky Komsomolets. She said that Kotelnikov's death was not the first in such cells and that other detainees have committed suicide. Kotelnikov allegedly operated as a middleman in the bribery scheme that rocked the ministry earlier this year, leading to the arrest of former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov and two other businessmen. Kotelnikov denied the charges.

The Russian defense establishment is notoriously corrupt. Kotelnikov probably knew a lot about the sleaze.

According to the Telegram channel CHEKA-OGPU, officials from the Federal Security Service (FSB) visited Kotelnikov in detention on several occasions to encourage him to finger Ivanov. The channel claimed that when Kotelnikov refused, the FSB officials began pressuring him and later moved him to a punishment cell. CHEKA-OGPU is reportedly close to Russia’s security services. According to the Telegram channel, prison doctors said Kotelnikov should not be held in a punishment cell due to chronic illness and had him sent back. However, prison officials, allegedly under FSB pressure, had him returned, CHEKA-OGPU said. Ivanov, who oversaw the military-industrial complex for the ministry, was arrested in April on charges of taking more than 1 billion rubles ($11.4 million) in bribes from contractors. Ivanov, whose family flaunted its wealth, has denied the charges.

A reminder that this régime is admired by many Republicans in the US who are hoping for a Putin victory in Ukraine – despite the endemic incompetence and corruption in Russia's military. Russia is their model for how to run a country.

[mariacallous]

On April 25, 1974, a left-leaning military coup overthrew Portugal’s 48-year dictatorship. The uprising, known as the Carnation Revolution, represented the country’s pivot to democracy after decades under António Salazar’s oppressive rule and a boost for women’s rights. In 1976, a new constitution afforded equal rights to men and women. More recently, in 2011, Portugal signed the Istanbul Convention, a treaty addressing violence against women and domestic violence; it was ratified in 2013. But as is often the case with gender, Portugal’s laws and norms do not sync up. “Some things are the same as they were before the 25th of April,” journalist Fernanda Câncio said. “Machismo is one of them.”

As a Portuguese American woman, I’ve rubbed against that machismo for as long as I can remember. During a visit to Lisbon last summer, I was reminded yet again of the country’s confining gender roles as I hosted a visiting American. During lunch one day, an older friend described the ex-girlfriend of a mutual acquaintance, saying, “Ela é muito atrevida.” The American, who didn’t speak Portuguese but had a keen ear for gossip, asked what was said. Here I fumbled: The direct translation is, “She’s very sassy,” but “precocious,” “bold,” and “cheeky” were also trotted out. Though all are technically correct, they missed the point. Finally, I offered “boundary-pushing,” but even then my translation failed.

Part of the problem is that atrevida means something different when applied to a woman than a man. For a man, as with the word’s English counterparts, the gendered atrevido easily serves as a compliment. But any Portuguese speaker would have known the comment at lunch was not kindly meant. The woman we were discussing, my friend had intimated, was a troublemaker who pushed against norms, perhaps even for pleasure. As such, she is best avoided.

I asked Anália Torres, a sociologist at the University of Lisbon and the director of its Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies, to articulate my misgivings. “The word atrevida for a woman is not positive,” she said. “It is different when applied to a man. For a woman, you’re implying that she is too forward, that she has a flirty personality. It means she says things that are a little provocative, in the sense that she is offering herself. It has a sexual implication.” For a man, Torres said, “it is not negative. It can mean he says things that are provocative but he is amusing. It implies he is bold, has a sense of humor, and is open.”

In considering the negative connotations of atrevida, and especially its sexual dimensions, I wondered if concern over the label might help explain why the #MeToo movement has floundered in Portugal. Since the movement took off seven years ago, very few Portuguese women have put their names on sexual harassment allegations that detail abusive acts while naming the perpetrators outright.

Perhaps because of this, few investigations have run in the Portuguese press. While one could assume there aren’t many #MeToo stories to report—as a Portuguese man suggested to me—a host of anonymous complaints have surfaced that suggest otherwise. In fact, Câncio said, she was recently investigating sexual harassment claims against a famous media personality. Despite looking into credible allegations for months, she gave up on the story when none of the five women interviewed were willing to go on the record. “If I didn’t,” she said, “I’d be at risk of defamation.” The reason for their silence? Fear.

Last spring, Câncio helped break Portugal’s most significant #MeToo story yet with an article that named Boaventura de Sousa Santos as the professor accused of sexual harassment by anonymous former students at the prestigious University of Coimbra. Santos admitted to Câncio that he had been accused but said the allegations had no merit. Days later, two other women—one from Brazil and one from Argentina—went on the record and shared their stories in detail. No Portuguese women joined them in speaking out with specifics. (This year, the university released a report on its investigation into allegations within the department where Santos served as director emeritus.)

In my own #MeToo reporting in the United States, I’ve also encountered reluctance from women when it comes time to go public. But the explanations I’ve received pertain mostly to concerns of professional blacklisting or legal jeopardy. While the process is not simple, I never felt that any woman was concerned with being thought of as atrevida in the Portuguese sense. I have spoken to well over 100 women, and societal perceptions were not raised. That is not the case for Câncio. “Of course I think women are worried about how they’re going to be perceived by society,” she said. “They don’t want to be talked about.”

She understands their reluctance. For 36 years, Câncio has reported on gender issues in Portugal, and she believes that women’s silence around #MeToo reflects their standing within the country. “The feminist movement never really took off here,” she said, “especially compared to what’s happened elsewhere in Western Europe or even right next door in Spain.”

One reason for the lag may relate to Salazarism, which, until the 1974 revolution, was enshrined in the nation’s laws. Anne Cova, who, along with António Costa Pinto, co-wrote the chapter “Women and Salazarism” in Political and Historical Encyclopedia of Women, explained that the ideology is based on the motto “Deus, pátria e família” (God, Fatherland, and Family). Women, she and Pinto wrote, had limited freedoms when Salazar was in power, and only a few—such as widows and heads of family—had suffrage. Married women, Cova wrote in an email, were especially powerless and were “prohibited from working in the judiciary, in diplomacy, and in public administration.”

According to the European Institute for Gender Equality’s 2023 Gender Equality Index, Portugal still ranks below the average European Union member state. A separate 2014 survey, conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, found that from the age of 15 onward, 24 percent of women in Portugal experienced physical and/or sexual violence, and 9 percent reported stalking.

In 2017, the same year #MeToo took off in the United States, a different story made headlines in Portugal. That year, a male and female judge in an appeals court in Porto, the country’s second-largest city, upheld a light sentence—15 months of suspended jail time and a fine—for an assailant who violently beat his ex-wife with a nail-spiked club. The Washington Post reported that he coordinated with the woman’s former lover, who kidnapped and held her down during the attack. In their ruling, the judges wrote, “Adultery by a woman is a very serious attack on a man’s honor and dignity,” adding that “society has always strongly condemned adultery by a woman and therefore sees the violence by a betrayed, vexed, and humiliated man with some understanding.” Reuters, which also reported on the case, provided context: “Ultra-orthodox patriarchy—one of the cornerstones of the fascist dictatorship of Antonio Salazar up until the 1974 revolution—still survives in parts of Portugal.”

Fifty years have passed since the Carnation Revolution and seven since #MeToo forced an international reckoning on the pervasiveness of sexual harassment in the workplace. To ensure that the goals of Portugal’s democratic revolution come closer to actualization, perhaps it is time for atrevida to finally serve as a compliment, just as it does for men in Portugal. After all, change requires boldness, and it won’t come for Portuguese women until the descriptor is embraced.

[hero-israel]

one fringe and somewhat-less-important-than-the-wholeass-war-israel-is-currently-in thing im worried about is that. the political climate surrounding israel both on and offline- where, after an inhumanely evil slaughter of over a thousand israeli civilians in a single day by an outspokenly antisemitic arab terror group, the survivors are being viciously mocked and jeered by the left and witnessing their country being dragged to the hague on false charges of genocide by *south fucking africa*- might result in a sharp veer towards the right-wing movement, at least among the younger generations. i know Netanyahu had an incredibly shaky and slim supporter base even when he was elected and the closest thing I've seen to spoken support to him has been people saying he, and his party, should all just resign (as opposed to being shot dead, for example) but, even then, this kind of shaky, fearful, uncertain time has historically been the kind that has allowed shitty far-right heads of state to rise to power like trump, Bolsonaro, several military dictatorships, and even facists like mussolini. (and also that one other guy... but i shan't compare anybody to him)

this is a relatively petty thing to focus on as a gentile on the other side of the world, but i am *not* a fan of the idea of a historically queer-friendly state like Israel (even if they overstate their own achievements in that area) going in that direction.

then again, I'm not there. am i just spewing shit or do you think something like that is going on?

Netanyahu and his allies would be wiped out in an election, nearly all Israelis hold them responsible. AND Israelis may very well end up voting for other right wingers. It would still be a major improvent. From a national functioning standpoint, there is a big difference between President Mike Pence and President Mike Lindell. We should only be so lucky as to have Israel be upgraded to a government run by Ayelet Sheked and Avigdor Liberman. As is, the polls say it would go to Gantz and Lapid, who are pretty moderate by Israeli standards.

[collapsedsquid]

Villarruel has campaigned for what she calls “complete memory, a broad vision of human rights” that includes the victims of guerrilla actions against the dictatorship and the shelving of the dozen cases for crimes against humanity that are still open in Argentina. While Milei promises a radical change in economic policies, including dollarization and the closing of the Central Bank as a remedy to inflation, Villarruel champions a conservative revolution against abortion, sexual diversity and gender equality policies that have placed Argentina at the forefront of these rights in Latin America. Denialism of the dictatorship is the main banner under which Milei’s running mate is marching. Villarruel used to visit former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla in prison, and through the Center for Legal Studies on Terrorism and its Victims promoted the recognition of crimes against the repressors. In 2015, a judge prosecuted her uncle, former intelligence officer Ernesto Villarruel, for alleged kidnappings in the clandestine detention center of El Vesubio. The “cultural battle” that Villarruel promotes mercilessly attacks one of the few consensuses in Argentine society on the 40th anniversary of democracy. The trial of the military heads of the dictatorship during the government of Raúl Alfonsín initiated a process of historical reparation that, with its ups and downs, remains an example in Latin America. Today in Argentina, 1,200 agents of the dictatorship have been convicted and 17 trials remain open, according to the latest statistics of the Human Rights Secretariat. Villarruel considers those convicted to be victims of a “dictatorship of a single way of thinking” promoted by the left. At the top of her list of enemies is the 93-year-old president of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto. Villarruel has in the past called her “a rather sinister character who, with that good granny look, has justified terrorism.” Carlotto said Tuesday that the idea of closing the ESMA museum was the attempt of “an unhinged woman who thinks she is a queen who can erase and insert [into memory] whatever she wants.” “History is not going to be erased because that is what the [human rights] organizations and the Argentine people are there for,” Carlotto told Futurock radio.

Everything is a dictatorship except for actual dictators, who are fine.

[ultimate-worldbuilding]

Government Worldbuilding

Description

Type Of Government (What is the system of government? Democracy? Dictatorship? Something else? Is it a matriarchy or patriarchy?) 🔗[List of forms of government]

Power Source and Power Structure

(How can someone beccome powerful? What do they need? What do people value in a political leaded?)

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Socioeconomical (How big is the gap between rich and poor? Is there a class system? Different levels of citizenship? Is there slavery? Is social mobility easy or hard?)

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Taxes (What is the system or taxation? What is the monetary system?)

Immigration

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Leaders ( What titles / formalities are used? Does the leader have special protection (Kingsguard, secret service?) [🔗Government types/titles name generator]

Groups (Are there professional guilds / institutes/ etc? How do you get into a professional guild? What benefits do you gain from being a member of a guild?)

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