#Ethnies of the world

[dailyanarchistposts]

Benoist and the European New Right

Besides Third Position fascism, the other major ideological influence on the National-Anarchists is the European New Right, especially the thinker Alain de Benoist. National-Anarchists have adopted his ideas about race, political decentralization, and the “right to difference.”

Benoist founded the think-tank GRECE, and has spent his life creating an intellectually respectable edifice for a core of fascist ideas. Like Southgate, Benoist loudly proclaims that he is not a fascist, but scholars such as Roger Griffin disagree. Griffin says that the New Right “could by the end of the 1980s be credited with the not inconsiderable achievement of having carried out a ‘makeover’ of classic fascist discourse so successfully that, at least on the surface it was changed beyond recognition.”[32]

Benoist extended the notion of an alliance of European nations with the Third World against their main enemies: the United States, liberalism, and capitalism. But against the fascists who desired a united Europe under a super-state, Benoist instead calls for radical federalism and the political decentralization of Europe. Roger Griffin describes this vision as:

The pluralistic, multicultural society of liberal democracy was to give way, not to a culturally, coordinated, charismatic, and, in the case of Nazism, racially pure, national community coterminous with the nation-state, but to an alliance of homogeneous ethnic-cultural communities ethnies within the framework of a federalist European “empire.”[33]

Benoist also incorporates many sophisticated left-wing critiques, sometimes sounding like a Frankfurt School Marxist. Today he denounces capitalism, imperialism, liberalism, the consumer society, Christianity, universalism, and egalitarianism; he defends paganism, “organic democracy,” and the Third World. He questions the role of unbridled technology and supports environmentalism and a kind of feminism.[34] He also rejects biological determinism and embraces a notion of race that is cultural.[35] Southgate follows practically all of these positions, which are not necessarily present in Third Position.

Because of these views, the European New Right is very different from the U.S. New Right, whose Christianity and free market views are anathema to the Europeans. The Europeans are closer to the paleoconservative tradition in the United States, and connect with The Rockford Institute, publisher of Chronicles.

Benoist’s main intellectual formulation is the “right to difference,” which upholds the cultural homogeneity and separateness of distinct ethnic-cultural groups. In this sense, he extends the anti-imperialist Left’s idea of ��national self-determination” to micro-national European groupings (sometimes called “the Europe of a Hundred Flags”). The “right to difference” has influenced the anti-immigrant policies of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front in France, and a number of GRECE members joined this party, even though Benoist himself rejects Le Pen.[36]

Benoist has also influenced U.S. White separatism. Usually based around the demand for a separate White nation in parts of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, this became a popular idea in White Nationalist circles starting in the early 1980s.[37] This decentralized regional perspective was matched by decentralized organizational schemas which emerged at the same time. Louis Beam advocated “leaderless resistance,” and the “lone wolf” strategy for far-right terrorism,[38] while Christian Identity Pastor Bob Miles started referring himself as a “klanarchist.”

Inverting language, Benoist claims that he is an antiracist. Racism, he argues, is a function of universalistic ideologies like liberalism and Marxism, which purportedly wipe out regional and ethnic identities. He says “Racism is nothing but the denial of difference.”[39] But Taguieff, a keen observer of the European Right, identifies a “phobia of mixing” at the core of this form of racism. It is part of the “softer, new, and euphemistic forms of racism praising difference (heterophilia) and substituting ‘culture’ for ‘race.’”[40]

The influence of these New Right ideas on the National-Anarchists is explicit. In Australia, the National-Anarchist group is for all practical reasons coextensive with “New Right Australia/New Zealand” and at one point they claimed that “New Right is the theory, National-Anarchism the practice.”[41] In Britain, Troy Southgate has been involved in New Right meetings since 2005.[42] But while Benoist claims that he does not hate immigrants, repudiates antisemitism, and endorses feminism, the National-Anarchists show what New Right ideas look like in practice: crude racial separatism, open antisemitism, homophobia, and antifeminism. The “right to difference” becomes separate ethnic villages.

The New Right also has had a limited influence on elements of the Left intelligentsia. In the United States, the influential journal Telos (known for disseminating Western Marxist texts into English) moved rightward in the 1990s as its editor showed sympathy for Europe’s New Right and published Benoist’s works.[43] It continues to publish Benoist, and explores the thought of Nazi legal theorist Carl Schmitt. Many Leftists now consider the once venerable journal anathema.[44]

[nicklloydnow]

“Force, not diplomacy, has decided the course of this conflict since it first flared up during the era of former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. (Some would say it originated well before, in the early twentieth century.) In 1988, the Karabakhi Armenians tried to break away from Soviet Azerbaijan and join Soviet Armenia in a dispute that developed into armed conflict. In the 1990s, the Armenians prevailed on the battlefield, occupying large parts of Azerbaijani territory and driving hundreds of thousands of inhabitants from their homes. In 2020, the Azerbaijanis reversed the situation, recapturing their lost territories and taking parts of Karabakh, too.

(…)

Diplomacy resumed, with the European Union, the United States, and Russia all negotiating between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The competing mediators made progress on bilateral issues, but the Karabakh issue remained unresolved. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan agreed, along with the rest of the world, to recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity (including Nagorny Karabakh), but the vital question of the inhabitants’ rights and security remained unresolved.

The Karabakhis’ fate was probably sealed in April, when Azerbaijan established a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor. This de facto blockade deepened in the summer, and the situation became desperate for tens of thousands of people remaining in Karabakh (estimates range from 50,000 to 120,000) who began to run out of food and medicine.

There is a geopolitical game here. A small Russian peacekeeping force was established in Karabakh in 2020. Moscow, which has always wavered between and manipulated both sides, had presented itself as the protector of the Karabakhis. President Vladimir Putin publicly told them his peacekeepers would guarantee their safe return from Armenia and continued residence in their homeland. But the Russian soldiers stood by as the checkpoint was set up on the Lachin road earlier this year, fracturing trust held in the peacekeeping force.

The context is that after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Armenian government began to pivot toward the West, and Azerbaijan—with which Russia shares a land border and an authoritarian model of government—looked like a more valuable partner.

(…)

The military offensive on September 19 caught Western officials by surprise, which became more understandable when news broke that Russian peacekeepers simply stood down and let the assault happen. The impression that there had been a side deal between Moscow and Baku deepened when Russian officials blamed Pashinyan and his pro-Western tendencies, not Azerbaijan, for the fighting.

(…)

In the darker European order of the past decade, where normative values and a multilateral framework have been devalued, Azerbaijan cares less about statements of condemnation from Western governments. The key thing is almost certainly the support of two regional powers and neighbors: the full backing of Türkiye and deliberate equivocation from Russia, which looks more concerned about keeping its military base on the ground in Azerbaijan and humiliating the government in Yerevan than in ensuring the rights of local Karabakh Armenians.”

“Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh agreed Wednesday to disarm and discuss reintegration with Azerbaijan following a swift but deadly assault by Azerbaijani forces, a capitulation that signals the end of decades of ethnic-Armenian rule in the enclave and the rapid decline of Russian influence in the former Soviet Union territories.

The terms of the cease-fire lay groundwork that could bring to a close the autonomous rule by the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was won from Baku in a bloody yearslong war after the fall of the Soviet empire.

(…)

“Russia’s leverage is much weakened by what’s happening in Ukraine. We see the Armenians moving away from Russia and Azerbaijan having a relationship with Russia that is more on its own terms,” said Thomas de Waal, an expert on Nagorno-Karabakh and senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, a Brussels-based think tank.

(…)

Azerbaijan says it plans to take back the enclave—which sits inside its borders but is populated almost entirely by ethnic Armenians who have ruled since the 1990s under the terms of a peace deal brokered by Russia. Skirmishes in the years since erupted into conflict in 2020 when Azerbaijan reclaimed areas around the territory. That battle ended, again with Russian arbitration, guaranteeing Armenian separatists control over Stepanakert and supply routes from Armenia, policed by Moscow’s troops. But peace has remained shaky with Armenia’s leaders complaining that Russia is no longer able to enforce the deal, distracted by its war in Ukraine.

A senior Azeri official said Baku had advanced on the enclave while Russia’s troops and arms are tied up in Ukraine. Baku had told Russia about its intentions ahead of time, the official said, but Moscow failed to act in part because it seeks regime change in Armenia. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has increasingly criticized Russia’s capabilities as a guarantor of security and worked to forge stronger links with the West.

(…)

Russia, which still has a military base inside Armenia, has seen its influence steadily wane in the South Caucasus, a territory crisscrossed by oil-and-gas pipelines where the U.S., Turkey and Iran all vie for influence. Earlier this month, U.S. forces began joint military exercises that saw 175 Armenian soldiers training for 10 days with about 85 soldiers from U.S. Army Europe and Africa Command outside the Armenian capital of Yerevan.

(…)

The Azeri offensive is the culmination of a nearly yearlong effort to cut Nagorno-Karabakh’s links to Armenia through a de facto blockade that has led to shortages in food, fuel and medicine. In recent weeks, Azerbaijan gathered its forces around Nagorno-Karabakh.

(…)

Azerbaijan’s moves to weaken the enclave violated the terms of the 2020 cease-fire clinched by Russia, and Russian peacekeepers’ inability to prevent them caused Pashinyan to repeatedly criticize Moscow’s role as a guarantor of stability while it is bogged down in its invasion of Ukraine.

The criticism has caused a chill in Russian-Armenian relations and Moscow has broadcast scenes of protesters demonstrating outside Pashinyan’s office in central Yerevan this week. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that his country’s peacekeepers were working in the region, and Russian commentators have placed blame for Nagorno-Karabakh’s capitulation squarely on Pashinyan’s shoulders.

Analysts say that Moscow is now looking to capitalize on any weakness in Pashinyan’s government in the hopes that one of the opposition parties, which it works with more closely, could come to power as a result of rising disapproval among Armenians over the integration of Nagorno-Karabakh into Azerbaijan.”

“Officially, the 1,700-square-mile territory is part of Azerbaijan and is known by its Russian name, which translates to “mountainous Karabakh.” But to Armenians and the Armenian-majority population of the region, it’s known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a de facto independent state that has been outside of Azeri rule since 1988.

For centuries, Muslim Azerbaijanis and Christian Armenians, both of whom call the region home, clashed over who should control it. Russian rule began in 1823, and when the Russian Empire dissolved in 1918, tensions between newly independent Armenia and Azerbaijan reignited. Three years later, Communist-controlled Russia set its sights on the independent states of the Caucasus region and began incorporating them into what would become the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

At first, it was decided that Karabakh would be part of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (S.S.R.). Though historians differ on the reasons, the initial incorporation of Karabakh into Armenia is thought to have been a plan to ensure Armenian support of Soviet rule. But the Soviets’ new Commissar of Nationalities, Joseph Stalin, reversed the decision. In 1923 Nagorno-Karabakh became an autonomous administrative region of the Azerbaijan S.S.R., even though 94 percent of its population at the time was ethnic Armenian.

(…)

As the Soviet Union disintegrated in the late 1980s, the long-dissatisfied ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh petitioned to become part of the Republic of Armenia. Azerbaijan responded by trying to crush the separatists in 1988, and clashes intensified in the region. In 1991, both Azerbaijan and Armenia declared independence from the U.S.S.R., and the regional clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh flared into full-out war.

As a result, more than a million people became refugees, and around 30,000 people, including civilians, were killed. Both sides engaged in ethnic cleansing during the Nagorno-Karabakh War—the Azerbaijanis against ethnic Armenians, and Armenian forces against ethnic Azeris. Despite the brutal humanitarian toll, negotiations between the sides repeatedly broke down.

In 1994, the newly independent nations of Armenia and Azerbaijan signed the Bishkek Protocol, a ceasefire brokered by Russia that left Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan. But though the fighting ceased, the two sides could not agree on a peace treaty.

For the last two and a half decades, Armenian and Azerbaijani troops have been divided by a contested “line of contact” laid out in the Bishkek Protocol. It has become increasingly militarized over the years, and has been called one of the world’s three most militarized borders. The Council on Foreign Relations says that given the close positioning and limited communication between military forces stationed there, “there is a high risk that inadvertent military action could lead to an escalation in the conflict.”

That’s of even greater importance because of the conflicted nations’ powerful allies. Azerbaijan is supported by NATO member Turkey, while Russia supports Armenia, making the area a potential conflagration zone. While Nagorno-Karabakh is small, the geopolitical stakes are high due to its proximity to strategic oil and gas pipelines, and its location between the powerful regional forces of Russia, Turkey, and Iran.”

[hasdrubal-gisco]

after some delay here’s my commentary on the draghi whitepaper. cut for length - 7min read

something that was nice to see mentioned, even though it was only a passing remark was that europe is an old money continent. as the report does, i will also contrast the EU with the US and china. in europe, money is largely managed by the state and large banks. the states are entrenched, and feel no pressure to maintain legitimacy, and have therefore allowed themselves tremendous inefficiency and poor results. massive amounts of public money are then handed over to semi-public companies (energy, construction, healthcare) with little to show. banks in europe on the other hand are incredibly conservative (heavy preference for government bonds and fx), and their lack of risk-taking is significantly stifling growth opportunities. for all the pro-social policies, the healthcare and unemployment and paid leave, european workers are further from capital than both their american and chinese counterparts. quickly for contrast, in the US much more money is put into the pocket of workers both in absolute and relative terms, and money put aside for retirement/long-term savings is spread out over a greater number of less large banks/other asset management companies (credit unions, unions, hedges, etc.). it’s an attitude problem which you probably cannot legislate your way out of. china manages money an entirely different way but with the same attitude as americans, and for exactly that reason, even though europe has the infrastructure set up for china-esque investment in development, it again lacks the attitude.

the cost of energy in the EU was already covered in the whitepaper, but it bears emphasis that this is entirely deliberate and self-inflicted. russia did not cut off the European natural gas supply, the EU did that of its own volition with the purported goal of hurting the Russian economy. the sanction package (including separate US and UK sanctions on russia) which forced the sale of assets from foreigners to russians at bargain prices due to short deadlines basically undid the privatization of the 90s – there are short term pains but this potentially sets up Russia for 50 years of growth as much less money is extracted out internationally. green energy incentives are a coat of paint on more government handouts going to the same energy companies as before to “support their pivot.”

to complain about resource dependence is also moronic of the EU to do – another thing that’s totally self-inflicted. an unwillingness to exploit your own resources is not the same as a lack of them. the reason the EU won’t extract its own resources is the same as it lost a lot of its industrial capability in the post-wwii consensus – profit seeking. more important than the lower cost basis of labor abroad, was the drastically lower risk of organized resistance, through either engagement in the political system or strike. by having production (either extraction or refinement) abroad, it protected the established businesses from having to compete with worker self-interest (which lead to the disappearance of worker self-interest as a political pursuit !). i think the lithium in serbia should be mined, as should the lithium in germany, the oil in romania, gallium in france and so on. The problem is that it’ll give mine and oil refinery workers an iota of bargaining power which they’d use to demand a raise in standards. uh oh ! as always, import is the benefit of trade, and export the cost of it. as soon as they stop being retarded about this, europe can easily hit its stride as it probably has the best labor force in the world – painfully underutilized. remember the criticism of capitalism is about its inefficiency, not that it’s mean.

regarding security, you either have to make a federal eu army or keep sovereign national armies – in either case the yoke of america has to be broken. would be very cool if there was some kind of late 19th/early 20th century multi-ethnic empire whose military structure could serve as inspiration for a hypothetical eu army. oh well ! obviously industrial capability to supply this is currently nothing. real 90s kids remember when europoids still made phones with companies like nokia and alcatel, who, surprise surprise had ties to defense technology. bring back the military-industrial complex.

in terms of industrial strategy – it has to be said europe’s industrial capability is not gone entirely. europe still makes the machines that make the machines, the auto/train/airplane industries are there, europe makes most of its own medication under its own licenses. notice how these are all 20th century industries – and as analog moves into digital, the glorious combustion engine becomes electromagnet, you run into things the eu does not but could make. the reason manufacture in china is so cheap is less to do with the cost of labor (which has risen dramatically over the last 25 years) but the already existing infrastructure for manufacture. if you wanted to make a piece of electronics (for example a combination pager-bomb) it is very likely you can find a manufacturer for the plastic casing, circuit boards, lcd screen, etc all within one city if not one industrial park, which drastically cuts your costs as it minimizes transport and storage for intermediate components. this is the benefit of economies of scale, this is the lauded efficiency of a planned economy, and this is what europe has denied itself.

to draghi’s innovation gap, and proposal for more centralized eu support for r&d – this would require the germans and german-derivatives at the ecb/eib/etc. to take some risks particularly in areas they wouldn’t look normally (ie east of berlin, actually east of hanover because even germany doesn’t invest in berlin/east germany). once again this is tied to the attitudes of capital markets, you must either spread it out wider between competing entities (US) or hard five-year-plans and an iron gut (china).

digitalization would help immensely, every state in europe would benefit hugely from cutting the number of government employees in half, and drastically lowering their average age. keep the spending the same and just double the salaries. It makes no sense to have 50-year-olds who don’t know how to scan be bureaucrats and clerks. the 27-year-old polyamorous baristas of bratislava must be made to maintain debian databases.

the average company in europe is running american software on chinese hardware in order to make something stupid (designer handbags or shipping insurance) to sell to americans and the chinese. no reason for this to be the case.

[pandanscafanfiction]

SCREAMING, CRYING, THROWING UP!!! 😭❤️❤️

The sweetest person in the world, @ethniee, randomly popped in my inbox to gift me a hand-drawn picture of my most cherished OC, Johanna Marie (Hufflepuff) 😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️ I love it so so so so so so much!!!! This is the last thing I expected and was really nice to receive. This girl is a blessing and an art goddess!!GODDESS, I SAY!!!

AND LOOK!!!! She also drew a silly scene from our OCs' RP!!!! 🥺🥺😭😭❤️❤️❤️💀

You can expect a drawing from me in return ASAP!! I swear it to you, Ethnie!!!! ❤️⭐️👍🥺

[arionaleilani]

to be blunt:

if you do anything less than condemn israel, if you do not call this ethnic cleansing and genocide of palestinians exactly what it is, you’re a horrible piece of shit human being and i want nothing to do with you. if you’re “neutral” then you’re ignorant and also a piece of shit human being. there is nothing neutral about genocide. there is nothing neutral about illegal occupation. there is nothing neutral about collective punishment. there is nothing neutral about ethnis cleansing. there is no neutrality here.

you condemn israel and it’s heinous actions or you’re a massive fucking cunt. it’s not antisemitic to condemn israel—just ask the actual literal survivors of the holocaust who are making that very clear as they march for palestinian freedom and liberation. ask the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of jewish people attending marches demanding a ceasefire.

there is a MASSIVE difference between judaism and zionism. if you do not condemn israel and its actions, you are a zionist. that is not up for debate.

may the world never forgive you for it.

[ausetkmt]

Everyone would love to know all of the deepest aspects of their personality to know exactly how and where they fit in the world. Every day, someone is coming up with a new tool, test or quiz to gain insight into who we are.

One such personality test is the Blob Tree Test, a psycho emotional test developed by the famous British psychologist, Pip Wilson.

What is the Blob Tree Test?

Wilson, an expert in emotional intelligence and experiential learning, created the test to help children, young people, and adults become aware of their feelings and emotions to find what kind of person they are.

The intent of the Blob Tree Test is to help people to maximize their own potential and achieve balance in life.

TikToker Moses "SloowMoee" Cox explains how the test is performed:

RELATED: People Who Can Find The 'T' In This Brain Puzzle Test Within 10 Seconds Are Gifted

Cox starts by putting up a picture of several blob figures sitting, laying, or dangling from or around a tree. Each has a number ranging from 1-21 on its chest.

The tree represents a familiar place or setting such as school, your place of business, your family, or a group of friends. The blobs, on the other hand, are representative of various emotions and feelings.

Viewers are instructed to pick two numbers: one that they like, and another that they are not so fond of.

Keep the numbers of each blob person selected top of mind. Now it’s time to determine what the numbers you chose mean.

What do your results mean?

Cox explains the results quickly, so you might need to pause the video to take it all in. Or, take a look at the image below. Then, scroll to find out what your results determine.

Photo: YouTube/Bright Mind

RELATED: Try This Simple Test With Your Fingers When You Can't Decide 'Yes Or No'

Really, you are picking the figures that you identify with, and the ones you would like to become in the future. So, though Cox breaks it down to liking or disliking a figure, the blobs simply are indicative of parts of ourselves we would like to improve on versus our ideal state.

According to Cox, numbers 1, 3, 6, or 7 mean you are extremely determined.

Numbers 2, 11, 12, 18, and 19 tell you that you are the go-to person in your family and that you truly value the people you love.

Picking number 4 is a testament to how hard you are willing to work. You are not deterred by people who are smarter than you.

Choosing number 5 doesn’t bode well. It indicates that “you may be tired often,” according to Cox. He attributes the fatigue to possible health or emotional issues.

People who pick 13 or 21 tend to keep to themselves and are considered the "loner" of the groups they are in. They are afraid of being around others.

Number 8s are dreamers and have an active imagination. They are creative and always come up with new ideas that everyone can get excited about.

People who picked 10 or 15 don’t need much to be content. They are happy with what they have and find value in simple things.

Number 14s, according to Cox, are “depressed” and “emotionally drained.” The image he shares suggests they need to find support in the people around them.

Selecting 20 means that you are a natural-born leader with high self-esteem. People listen to you, but Cox warns against the tendency to keep them at arm’s length.

Number 16 tells you that you are provided one sided support, while 17s are the ones who want to be spoiled.

Lastly, number 19s are generally happy people with a positive outlook on life. They tend to focus on the good and let go of negativity.

Related Stories From YourTango:

RELATED: Only 1% Of People On The Planet Can Pass This Vision Test

What is the Blob Tree?

What is the significance of the blobs, you might ask? It’s fairly simple and goes back to our first method of understanding the world: body language.

The blob people are non-distinct, with no gender, age, race or ethnicity. Because of that, everyone can identify with what their positions are saying without considering any other biases.

The blobs symbolize deep emotions without using a single word. They are not right or wrong; rather, they are feelings left to the interpretation of whoever is perceiving them.

The emotions that come up will be different from person to person, and rightfully so. They are meant to bring forth discussion, allowing us insight into one another.

Depending on who you talk to, you will find varying interpretations of the body language exhibited by the blobs. And that’s exactly what the point is.

RELATED: The Quick Mental Test That Separates Intellectuals From Average Thinkers

More for You:

NyRee Ausler is a writer from Seattle, Washington, and author of seven books. She covers lifestyle and entertainment and news, as well as navigating the workplace and social issues

[horpyna]

this is all even more frustrating, when you know that wars in Europe were going on for the last 30+ years now but because they were happening in Eastern Europe – which apparently wasn't seen as Europe by these people up until 2022 – or Central Asia; those wars were dismissed by Western world. Wars all perpetuated by russia by the way.

Abkhazia war 1991-1993 – russian-backed separatist troops annexed Abkhazia and installed a defacto russia's puppet government. Abkhazia is still controlled by them to this day.

Transnistria conflict 1992 – russia-backed separatist troops annexed a chunk of Moldova's territories and created a puppet government there. The occupation continues to this day.

First Chechen war 1994-1996– russia attacked Chechen Republic of Ichkeria that wanted to exist USSR in accordance to the 1990 law about equality of all republics. The First Chechen War became one of the largest armed conflicts in modern history, and the Battle of Grozny became the largest battle in Europe since the end of World War II. russian troops level Ichkerian capital Grozny and may other cities to the ground. Military attack was accompanied by ethni cleansing, terror, torture and executions of civilians. Ichkeria won this one and came out independent.

Second Chechen war 1999-2009– shortly after the First Chechen war there followed the second bc no one properly condemned russia or held it accountable. And since russia doesn't like losing they went on a second round. the war lasted for 10 years. Horrible tortures and executions of civil chechens and prisoners of war continued. Ethnic cleansings continued. This time russia won, occupied Ichkeria and installed there another puppet government. The occupation continues to this day.

Russo-Georgian war 2008 – russia and it's puppet Abkhazia backed Ossetian separatists in annexation of Southern Ossetia. It is considered the first European war of the XXI century. As a result of this war, Ossetia and Abkhazia were proclaimed russian territories. All together russia annexed 20% of Georgia's territories and is still occupying them to this day.

Russo-Ukrainian war 2014-today – need no explanation. After the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine russia annexed Crimea via illegal referendum. Then created and backed separatists of so called 'Donetsk and Lugansk people's Republics'. In 2022 russia launched full scale invasion that's going on to this day. This was is officially lasts for 10 years. russia disregarded Budapest Memorandum(1994), and later Minsk agreements(2014 and 2015) and continued launching air attacks on Ukraine during so called 'cease-fire'. The world failed to condemn and hold russia accountable once again. there was no boycotting or proper sanctioning.

Intervention in Syria 2015-today – russian backed Assad government in Syrian civil war and was the one who bombed schools, hospitals and humanitarian convoys. The lack of response to russian previous actions left them capable of committing more atrocities in othe countries.

As you can see, the wars been here all along. It was just too comfortable for the Western public to look the othe way and pretend that if it's not happening to them then it's not real, and it's totally okay to buy russia gas, even though the huge chunk of money from that will 1000% go on more bombs to be dropped on civil ukrainians and syrians.

And it's additionally disgusting to see these morons write walls of text about "ooooh ukrainians apparently are not like syrians at all, they are civilised and actually european and white! ooooh i suddenly feel so bad for them now! sob". Mf wake up the same big brother that bombed syrians was bombing us too, and is bombing us now. We are not different, we are the victims of the same fucking aggressor and it's name is RUSSIAN FEDERATION. Im not exaggerating, russian pilots who were captured in Ukraine were confirmed to have bombed Syria as well [1] [2].

And yes, it definitely shows where is the countries geopolitical position and interests. Because it took us ca. 10 years to prove the West that we are not just some land that russia can occupy whenever it likes. And all of a sudden they saw fellow europeans and not savage who live in huts and ride hoses to work and have phones and A/Cs abd car etc. And it's still not enough for them to cut the ties with russia completely. It's still not convincing enough to stop paying for russia's bullets and missiles that they will be killing us with. its still not good enough to stop selling russia parts and details for missiles and ammo. And it was not enough when russia intervened in Syria or when russia went to war with Georgia, or when russia leveled and destroyed Ichkeria etc. It's not enough bc the West still values russia geopolitically more than russia's victims.

It's also because despite pretending to be above it, i think the west has never really gotten over it's colonial past. Colonialism is in the foundation of the Western world, and the lack of compassion and consideration for colonies is not a bug, its a feature. And in reality, it's much more easier for Western countries to relate to russia then to the victims of it's aggression bc most of them don't understand the perspective of being colonised.

Also, that's to the notion that all refugees are also poor. Suddenly they've noticed it with ukrainians. But who told them, that syrian refugees that arrived to Germany or UK or France weren't middle class too? How do you know they didn't have big assets or property in their home country? They had to abandon everything, leave it behind and go and live in a foreign country and different culture on what they managed to grab with them. By publishing those articles people just show that they can only empathize with refugees if they look like them – white, european and middle class. Bc otherwise it's too far from their reality.

Anyways, the West racist and xenophobic, but they like to pretend they actually not. The war finally go to close to them so they have to face the subject at hand too. It no longer a thing that only happens far away to brown people in the Middle East or black people in Africa, its happening on a 'white continent' not, which means they can be next any moment. Also, it shows absolute lack of pattern recognition, because apparently victims are only those, who's aggressors we might potentially be afraid of too.

not that either is a good thing but there is a small cosmic sort of irony to appreciate in the way that the russian invasion of ukraine and the most recent nakba happened so close together and how they through comparison made it undeniably clear how much the definition of war crime and genocide and atrocity &etc depends on the geopolitical interests of the imperial core

[buxberg]

Elle a attiré l'attention internationale en 1992 avec la comédie My Cousin Vinny, pour laquelle elle a remporté l'Oscar de la meilleure actrice dans un second rôle

Elle a également reçu divers autres prix.

Marisa Tomei est née le 4 décembre 1964 à Brooklyn, New York.  Elle est une actrice américaine et a reçu de nombreux prix, dont des nominations aux Oscars pour un BAFTA, deux Golden Globe Awards et trois Screen Actors Guild Awards.

 Elle s'est fait connaître en tant qu'actrice dans l'émission dérivée de Cosby Underworld en 1987 après son travail sur la série télévisée As the World Turns.

Elle est née à Brooklyn, New York, États-Unis, le 4 décembre 1964 et est âgée de 58 ans en 2022.  Elle est américaine, italienne, ethnie blanche.  De plus, son signe du zodiaque est le Sagittaire.

Marisa Tomei est née à Brooklyn de Patricia Addie Tomei (mère), professeur d'anglais, et de Gary A. Tomei (père), avocat.  Elle a un frère cadet, l'acteur Adam Tomei, qui a été en partie élevé par ses grands-parents paternels.  Ses parents sont tous deux d'origine italienne.  Elle est diplômée du lycée Edouard R. Murrow en 1982.

Tomei a grandi dans le quartier Midwood de Brooklyn.  Là-bas, elle a été fascinée par les spectacles de Broadway que ses parents amateurs de théâtre l'ont emmenée voir, et elle a été attirée par une carrière d'actrice.

 Elle a fréquenté le Andris Hadde Junior High School où elle a joué Hedy La Rue dans la production de l'école de How to Succeed in Business Without Trying Too Hard.  Après avoir obtenu son diplôme du lycée Edouard R. Murrow en 1982, elle a fréquenté l'Université de Boston pendant un an.

[papirouge]

Regarding the last post you reblogged (American Christians not caring about Middle Eastern Christians); back when my country of origin finally revolted against the communist government a lot of western protestant churches started sending missionaries to convert people away from Orthodoxy. Not a lot of people wanted to convert so my parents have stories of missionaries offering to only financially support the poor who were willing to convert.

What's mind boggling is that these prots looked at all of the faithful who were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, killed, sent to labour camps in Siberia purely for being religious and that wasn't enough for them to see us as brothers and sisters in Christ. Not that they could do anything against the communist government but it's funny that they suddenly cared for people's souls when THEY wouldn't have a chance of being persecuted for their beliefs.

"not that they could do anything against the Communist government" but don't Usamerican evangelicals have a pathological hate boner against Communism though? I mean, Communism have a know beef with religion as far as I know. Those protestants had the opportunity to match their action to their beliefs and take stance against communism and help their Christian brothers against Communism anti Christian dictatorship, amirite? 🙃

Anti communists always stroke me as pathological cowards, anyway. Like how can you be so obsessive and scared of some hollow political movement that hasn't been a thing since decades? 💀 This screams persecution complex and paranoia (there's no wonder they love labeling "communism" literally ANYTHING remotely critical of capitalism or liberalism: to make the threat of Communism bigger than what it actually is)

I always said that when God backed up people, they could really change the world. That's how Ghandi or MLK defeated the biggest empire of their generation by their non violent yet radical world changing actions. I genuinely believe God was behind the abolition/civil rights movement. That's what Romans 13 is actually about and that so little Christians conflate with passivity against government evilness (tbh very few people properly understand Romans 13)

Missionary selectively offering financial support has also one of the reasons colonialism worked so well in Africa btw. By offering "privilege" to specific ethnies or group accepting their offer for conversion they bred division and resentment between people. Stupid rightoids/racialist like to act like ethnic wars as the evidence that races aren't meant to mix/migration flux being the devil, but when you have a brain and look more thoughtfully into History you'll notice there are always economic/political reason to ethnic wars. 2 of the most powerful countries of the world are China and Russia and they are both constituted of a variety of ethnicities (because they took the radical political actions to fight against this division - whether people like it or not, Communism greatly helped on that aspect) yet it doesn't stop them to thrive. Don't say that to racialists and race essentialists - but I digress.

American evangelical are 99% of the time full of it, and my tolerance to their antics is becoming lower by the days....

[babyawacs]

@all @world #dasdingmit #staatsbuergerschaft #und #ethnie #oderauch #expat #krrrrram .@deutschland @deutschland @bild .@bild .@sz @phoenix_de ‎they made a criminal controlsystem which cleanses itself every 5years or 10 and turns  e v e r y o n e guilty to suredoesnot want or enable thatthey canlive too easily as freepop ulation but turns allguilty and exterminates cleanses thesystem oftheworst allalong and principally anyone every 5years i think //// ‎#dasdingmit #staatsbuergerschaft #und #ethnie #oderauch #expat #krrrrram  was fuer viele zurecht nur gedoens ist: man kann auswandern. und dort seine. kultur und sprache behal ten. pflegen. aber...dann kriegtman auchnoch kinder. und dann. eigene schulen und so das. schon istman

@all @world #dasdingmit #staatsbuergerschaft #und #ethnie #oderauch #expat #krrrrram .@deutschland @deutschland @bild .@bild .@sz @phoenix_de ‎they made a criminal controlsystem which cleanses itself every 5years or 10 and turns e v e r y o n e guilty to suredoesnot want or enable thatthey canlive too easily as freepopulation but turns allguilty and exterminates cleanses thesystem oftheworst…

[fightfil]

My view (as a Jewish person) is this:

Jewish self-determination and Jewish ethni-nationalism are different things. Israel has always fallen on the ethno-nationalistic side of that coin, which is bad.

You can definitely be anti-zionist without being anti Jew.

Israel is a continuation of the colonialist project started by European countries that culminated in British governance over the region for decades leading up to the second world war.

The only path to a lasting peace is a country founded on collaborative principles between Israeli and Palestinian peoples that do not prioritize any people or religion over another.

Our history of persecution, genocide, and expulsion does not excuse the creation of a nation-state that perpetuates violence to other groups. We (as a collective Jewish people) need to be able to find and model a society that can protect us and everyone else from that type of sectarianism

I'm really.... I'm really at the point where I can't see being against the concept of a state of Jewish self-determination as a gentile as not stemming from antisemitism. Jewish people were kicked out of their homeland and then spent hundreds and hundreds of years as second-class citizens or worse in other countries, rarely if ever legally full citizens, constantly getting chased out or expelled over and over again as governments and gentile populations changed their mind about letting them in their country.

How can you justify not wanting a population like this to have a country of their own where they don't have to worry about the government or population waking up one day and deciding "it's time to kick the Jews out (again)"? Hundreds and hundreds of years of gentile political debates over "are Jews citizens?" where the answer keeps being "no, not really."

"But in an ideal world, things wouldn't be like that and they'd be able to live safely wherever they want!"

Yeah, well we're sure as fuck not living in that ideal world and a lot of you saying stuff like this are doing jack shit to try and make that ideal "safe for Jews" world either so this rings extremely hollow.

And the crazy thing is I've seen people over the years act like they're so understanding and supportive of concepts like Black Americans creating their own self-determined state and with the treatment of the base concept of Israel I'm saying a bunch of those people are either lying completely or (maybe worse) were genuine but specifically don't believe in Jews having rights.

And that's how it always ends up. Nothing extends to Jews. You all understand and sympathize with horrible oppression leading to extremist elements in oppressed groups but you never believe that about Jews. Extremist Jewish elements aren't a result of hundreds and hundreds of years worth of violent oppression, they're proof of the degeneracy of Jews (yes that wording is super fucking intentional), proof that we can't let them have rights, that we can't let them have one single place where they have any genuine power, proof that they need gentile oversight, that they want to conquer and rule the world, that they were the secret super oppressors the whole time.

Are there problems with Israel? Hell yes, welcome to the whole fucking world. No state's hands are clean. And the Jewish population of Israel has hundreds and hundreds of years of trauma and oppression coloring the various political atmospheres in it. If you refuse to acknowledge that while acknowledging it for every other type of historically oppressed group other than Jews, you're antisemitic. This intense scrutiny of Israel not given to any other country is antisemitic. This intense scrutiny of Jews not given to any other oppressed group is antisemitic. This historical revisionism where Jews were happy, well-treated second-class citizens who suddenly turned ungrateful towards their benevolent gentile rulers is antisemitic.

Shame on every single one of you.

[thegenealogy]

1 Chronicles 6:31-47. "The Temple Musicians."

"Listen to the Light, the silent Charioteer of God."

*Note David reigned circa 1000 BC. The Ark of the Covenant is not mentioned until around 500 BC when the Torah and the Books of the Tanakh started to take shape.

31 These are the men David put in charge of the music in the house of the Lord after the ark came to rest there. 32 They ministered with music before the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, until Solomon built the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. They performed their duties according to the regulations laid down for them.

Music is said to be the place of the Holiest of Holies. Music with musicians are expected even during routine services in which Jewish persons participate.

Mystics speak of the song of the universe, what Pythagoras called “the music of the spheres.” This is what Psalm 19 means when it says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands . . . There is no speech, there are no words, where their voice is not heard. Their music carries throughout the earth, their words to the end of the world.” Beneath the silence, audible only to the inner ear, creation sings to its Creator.

As for their liturgical value of music and musicians, here continues the Book of Chronicles:

33 Here are the men who served, together with their sons:

From the Kohathites: "The Congregation."

Heman, the musician, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel,

Heman= faithful

Joel=foolish or determined

Samuel= Name of God

34 the son of Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Eliel, the son of Toah,

Elkanah= God has acquired

Jeroham=He is pitied, he will obtain mercy

Eliel=My God is God

Toah=to open the ears (from Nephtoah, to open the ears to the clouds)

35 the son of Zuph, the son of Elkanah, the son of Mahath, the son of Amasai,

Zuph=the honeycomb

Elkanah=God has acquired

Mahath=grasping

Amasai=Yah has borne

"The Faithful obtain the mercies of God through the opening of the ears, the entrance to the honeycomb, where God is borne. There the foolish find what God has hidden in the creation, all of which is but shorthand for His Holy Name."

36 the son of Elkanah, the son of Joel, the son of Azariah, the son of Zephaniah,

Elkanah= God has acquired

Joel=foolish, determined

Azariah=Yah has helped

Zephaniah= what Yah has hidden, "shorthand of Yah"

37 the son of Tahath, the son of Assir, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah,

Tahath=beneath, support

Assir=captive, bound one

Ebiasaph=The Father Gathers, My Father Has Gathered, Father Of Gathering

Korah=to be bald or frozen

38 the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Israel;

Izhar=He will produce oil

Kohath=bald or frozen

Levi=connected

Israel=to Israel

"The Captive of God, who are gathered to Him, no matter how daft will produce oil of myrhh, and become connected to Israel."

39 and Heman’s associate Asaph, who served at his right hand:

Asaph son of Berekiah, the son of Shimea, 40 the son of Michael, the son of Baaseiah,[g]

Asaph=gatherer collector

Berekiah=blessed by Yah

Shimea=he has heard a rumor

Michael= "Who is God?"

Baaseiah=the Work of Yah.

"To hear the Rumor and question who is God is to do the noble Work of God and channel the Black Gold, the Iodine of God."

the son of Malkijah, 41 the son of Ethni, the son of Zerah, the son of Adaiah,

Malkijah=Yah is the king

Ethni=one of the perennial

Zerah= the dawn

Adaiah=Yahweh has adorned

42 the son of Ethan, the son of Zimmah, the son of Shimei, 43 the son of Jahath,

Ethan=perennial, perpetual

Zimmah=scheme, plot

Shimei=renown

Shahath=to bow down

"Yah is God, the Perpetual Dawn, who bows down to Him, to scheme and plot alongside Him becomes famous, he becomes renowned."

the son of Gershon, the son of Levi; 44 and from their associates, the Merarites, at his left hand:

Merarites are "bitter strong" but not like fried hamburger mustard smell under the armpits, but like myrhh, which might also be the source of our black gold or iodine, (see below). Bad smelling Merari would be anathema to the explanation of their duties in the Torah:

The duties of the Merarites were to take care of the framework of the tabernacle: pillars and sockets of the tent as well as the surrounding court (Numbers 3:36-37).

No bad smelling pillars or sockets, s'il te plait.

Ethan son of Kishi, the son of Abdi, the son of Malluk, 45 the son of Hashabiah,the son of Amaziah, the son of Hilkiah,

Ethan=perpetuity

Kishi=snaring of yah

Abdi=servant of Yah

Malluk=the king

46 the son of Amzi, the son of Bani,the son of Shemer, 47 the son of Mahli, the son of Mushi, the son of Merari, the son of Levi.

Amzi=strong, strength

Bani=building structure

Shemer=guard, dregs

Mahli=sickness, entreaty

Mushi=touchy, ambulant

Merari=bitter strong like myrhh which symbolizes the use of the intellect.

Levi=connected

"Who is ensared by the God Yah becomes strong like Him and entreats the world."

This section pertains to the ways we are connected to God, made captive to him through Transmission. Transmissions include music, meditation, dedication, work, all that is done to yoke oneself more deeply to the Torah God has assigned to us during this life. Understanding of this how one modifies an ordinary life of misunderstanding into the brilliant life of a Jew.

Transmission begins with the channeling of iodine, a metaphor for the Hebrew character yodh which has a complex gematria associated with it:

The tenth letter of the alef-beis—and also the smallest—is the letter yud.

On the simplest level, the design of the yud is a point: a dot which represents G‑d’s essential power; the one G‑d Who is indivisible. Furthermore, the yud looks like a flame that soars ever higher, representing the soul of a Jew yearning to unite with G‑d.

Additionally, the yud represents the method by which the blessing descends from G‑d to His people. The letter yud when spelled out is י-ו-ד. The yud represents a seminal drop, the concentrated power of G‑d. The vav represents a descent, for its form is that of a chute—and through this the bless­ings of G‑d travel downward to our world. The dalet, having height and width, represents the physical world, signifying how G‑d’s blessings are manifest in every aspect of nature. This teaches us that G‑d’s blessings don’t only reside in heaven. They flow down to this corporeal world and endow us with physical health, sustenance and success.

Perhaps this is why the first letter of each of the three pas­sages of the Priestly Blessing begins with the yud:

יברכך ה' וישמרך—May G‑d bless you and guard you.

יאר ה' פניו אליך ויחנך—May G‑d shine His countenance upon you and be gracious to you.

ישא ה' פניו אליך וישם לך שלום—May G‑d turn His countenance toward you and grant you peace.

Furthermore, every letter of the alef-beis begins with the yud, a point. This illustrates the inherent spirituality of every letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and that the Torah and G‑d’s teachings are all for the sake of the Yid, or Jew.

SO, to acknowledge one's hereditary alliance with the God of Israel is to forsake a life that has been schemed into failure by others and channel one's remaining hours in the accomplishment of something extraordinary that enlightens the world through the transmission of the essence of God. This is what is meant by the practices of the Temple Musicians.

[witchesoz]

The Nome King: The Magic of Oz

The Nome King makes one last appearance in the « original fourteen », the fourteen Oz books L. Frank Baum wrote (before his publishers continued the “canon” by forming what is known today as the Famous Forty).

The Nome King’s last appearance is in “The Magic of Oz”, the thirteenth book of Oz, actually published one month after Baum’s death (the final of his Oz books, “Glinda of Oz”, will be published the next year). Since it was released in 1919 the imprint of World War I was still quite present – the book in fact was dedicated to “the children of our soldiers, the Americans and their allies”.

The novel opens up with the Aru family. The Arus are part of the “Hyups”, one of the minor ethnies of Oz. At the eastern edge of the Munchkin Country is Mount Munch, a big, tall hill touching the Deadly Sandy Desert (noted to exhale poisonous fumes that can exhaust even the birds flying above it). The Munchkins never went up Mount Munch, because the sides are too steep to climb, and so they lived in perfect ignorance of the Hyups, who live at the top of Mount Munch (the top being saucer-shaped, broad and deep). The Munchkins might ignore everything of the Hyups, but the Hyups are not ignorant of the world, despite never leaving their mountain. Indeed, Glinda is aware of their existence, and when Ozma of Oz published a decree according to which no one was allowed practice magic in her dominions (except Glinda and the Wizard of Oz – no mention of the Witch of the North, who by this point had been entirely forgotten by Baum), Glinda sent an eagle to inform the Hyups of the decree. Among them lived Bini Aru, a Sorcerer. He had never seen Ozma of his life, but he knew that she was the ruler of Oz, so he obeyed the law: he destroyed most of his magic tools and powders, stopped practicing magic… but there was one thing he could not destroy. A new way to practice transformation, a thing unknown to any other Sorcerer that Bini discovered on his own (the narration note that it is ignored by the Wizard of Oz, Glinda, Dr. Pipt and old Mombi). [Note that in earlier books, Baum had established that transformation belonged to the wicked and evil forms of magic – it was performed by Mombi, the Nome King, Mrs. Yoop, but Glinda was for example against it and refused to do any transformation, even for the sake of Oz. Though later Baum abandoned this rule by having the Wizard of Oz and the Good Witch of the North perform transformations.] This method is easy: a simple word. “Pyrzqxgl”. You just need to know the exact way to pronounce it. Say out loud who you want to transform into what (the spell only works on people like humans or animals) and then pronounce the word, and it will be done. This is basically a magical revolution because usually transformation requires big rituals, long incantations or other powders and herbs. So Bini Aru wrote the word and how to pronounce it underneath one of the floor boards of his bedroom.

Now, Bini Aru had a wife, Mopsi Aru, a famous huckleberry-pie maker, and a son, Kiki Aru. Now Kiki Aru is a boy (yes, despite the name) and a frustrated one. He wants to go down Mount Munch to explore the world, but since there is no way to do so, Kiki grew up frustrated, which made him “cross and disagreeable”, which resulted in him refusing to participate or help in the Hyup community, which then resulted in people not paying attention to him, which only made Kiki more unhappy. A vicious circle, you could say. One day, the Hyups held their traditional annual festival (where the adult men play music and tell fairy tales, the adult women cook feasts, and the youth dance and sing – yes I am just thinking now about the implications of an isolated community grouped together for so long, and yes, this is messed up. Let’s continue). Kiki Aru, being the antisocial kid he is, refuses to participate in the festivities and stay at home while his parents go (and even in the years before he just stood outside watching everything without dancing or singing). Exploring his father’s bedroom he discovers the loose floor board and the magic word. Too happy to finally find a way to escape Mount Munch, he learns the word by heart and turns into a hawk. But he immediately realizes that he cannot explore Oz, because either Glinda or the Wizard of Oz would discover he illegally used magic and would punish him for it (yeah, many readers have pointed out how Ozma’s ban on magic book after book turned Oz into a kind of soft and “kind” dictatorship where precious resources like magic are kept by the rulers and their close friends).

So Kiki Aru simply goes out to explore the world outside of Oz.

Now… we get a quick tour of the different realms outside of Oz. Most of them are actually lands and kingdoms that Baum created for other, non-Oz books – but it has been years now since Baum has turned all of his books into a shared universe through crossovers (it was his attempt to attract readers to his less-successful side works. It failed.) This tour also allows for yet another retcon of the geography of the Ozian continent (to which Baum never gave any official name, though later authors tend to use the name Nonestica). Across the foul and poisonous Deadly Sandy Desert is Hiland and beyond it Loland (ruled by John Dough, the Gingerbread Man). Remember, in previous works it was the land of Ev that was located East of Oz. Now it’s not. North of Loland you have Merryland, ruled by a wax doll, and following the curve of the desert you find the Kingdom of Noland (located North of Oz). There Kiki Aru turns back into a boy and rests at the house of a couple, who welcome him, give him dinner, a bed and breakfast. Then he turns into a white dove (noticing that he goes much faster and sees more as a bird): he checks the capital of Noland, then flies west to the Kingdom of Ix, and still going west he finally enters the land of Ev (so… Ev is either on the North-West either West of Oz now). Of course, all the lands visited prior were cameos of non-Ozian Baum works. Anyway. There, Kiki Aru has a harsh discovery: the inns of Ev only give bed and food to people with money. And Kiki has no money, since in Oz money is not used (yeah that’s another big topic that deserves its own presentation). Kiki Aru so simply decides to steal money – taking the shape of a magpie, he steals gold from an old man. He is shamed by a talking sparrow, who tells him that magic is “wicked and unlawful” and that stealing is a “greater crime” – to which Kiki answers that he doesn’t care, that he didn’t know he was being wicked, and that if he was he is glad to be, because he hates good people. In fact, he concludes he always wanted to be wicked but never knew how. (Yeah, this boy visibly has more problems than we thought).

Hearing this, someone laughs and tells him “That’s the spirit! Shake my hand!”. You can guess who it is. An old man with a fat body and a big round face… Yep it is Ruggedo. His description is again slightly changed by Baum: now his limbs are said to be “thin”, his long flowing white beard has been replaced by “bushy white whiskers”, he wears dull-gray and tight-fitting clothes with pockets stuffed to the max, and finally it is mentioned his white hair forms a point at the top of his head, all things that Baum actually added to match with the illustrations of the book, not so much with his original depiction of the Nome King (he even adds the fact that Ruggedo is “crooked” and thus cannot stand straight, another element found nowhere else). Now, if you remember, last time we saw him Ruggedo had been stripped of his role as the Nome King by the Great Jinjin and Quox the dragon, but had been pardoned by the new Nome King Kaliko and was welcome back in the Nome realm if he behaved good – in fact, Ruggedo was now an humble and sorry man(creature?), it was even implied that his power and wealth where what made him cruel and greedy, and that once deprived of it all he realized how useless it was to be a bad person. Here? FORGET EVERYTHING IT NEVER HAPPENED! Or rather, it happened, but half. You see, we could thing that Ruggedo was kicked out by Kaliko because he reverted to his bad habits, but no, Ruggedo explains that he was actually forced to abdicate (which he affirms is a synonym for “being kicked out”) by the people of Oz, who harassed him for no good reasons, since he was a “good King (at least for myself”). He even explains that the rule of the “I could take as many things as my pockets could hold” was something the Ozians imposed upon him – no mention of how it was actually said by a dragon, or a punishment of the Great Jinjin, one of the most powerful Fairies in existence.  The Nome King becomes good pal with Kiki, explaining to him the values of gold, jewels and the like. He also tells him that in all of his wandering he brooded and thought long and hard about the vengeance he wanted to inflict upon the Ozians, coming up with a plan to become King of Oz. But before he reveals it to Kiki, he proposes him a bargain: he will offer the boy all the jewels, gems and precious metals he has in his numerous big pockets, in exchange for the secret of his transformations. Kiki is not stupid, so he refuses, not wanting to tell the secret word for anything in the world. The former Nome King threatens to denounce the theft of the gold to the inn-keeper Kiki paid the night prior; and Kiki simply answers that he will turn into a lion, tear the inn-keeper to pieces before he can say anything to anyone, and then fly away where no one will find him. [Yep, this boy has SERIOUS problems]. The Nome King is impressed, and offers to share his conquest with Kiki, making him the ruler of Oz while the Nome will be his Prime Minister, in exchange for the secret, but again a refusal. Ruggedo succumbs to one of his famous “anger-crisis” where he chokes and jumps up and down and loses all control, but Kiki just laughs at the sight. Ruggedo attempts a new bargain: he abandons (or at least fakes abandoning) his project to rule over Oz, saying he only wants revenge. He will conquer Oz and let Kiki rule it as its king, and in exchange Kiki will give Ruggedo the magic of Glinda and the Wizard, enough magic to allow Ruggedo to regain his Nome Kingdom. Kiki thinks it over, not accepting but not refusing either. Ultimately, Ruggedo slowly but surely manages to get Kiki on board with his plan (because Kiki is searching for the wealthiest and most beautiful of the lands existing, and everywhere he goes people say Oz is the most marvelous and beautiful countries of the continent).

Here is what Ruggedo’s plan is. It is true that if they went in Oz, they could easily be noticed by Ozma with her Magic Picture – but the Magic Picture only shows Ozma what she wants to see, and if she never knew they crossed her borders, she won’t search for them. Then there is the matter of Glinda’s Book of Records, which notes down everything people do in Oz the minute they do it. And here is the secret: people. The Book does not record the activities of beasts or animals. Ruggedo wants Kiki to turn them both into animals to avoid Glinda’s detection. Then, they will go to one of the thick and wild forests of Oz: there live savage and cruel animals, who never bothered the people of Oz, but merely according to Ruggedo because they had no leader urging them to – and this leader will be him. He will rally all the savage and wild animals of Oz under one rebellious army, and turn them into the Emerald City, promising the animals to turn them into humans as a reward, and to punish the humans by turning them into animals. Thus, Ruggedo and Kiki would take power in Oz. Kiki and Ruggedo agree to work together on the plan – though Ruggedo is keeping his eye on Kiki to find his transformation secret, planning to turn him into wood to burn the minute he finds it, while Kiki knows Ruggedo is not trustworthy and plans to turn him into a marble statue the minute they conquered Oz.

[At one point, Ruggedo mentions that all of his magic tools to perform transformations were taken away by the Ozians, and that he could not fight them because they had eggs. He mentions that if a Nome touches an egg, he is ruined for life. Should we remind him that he was hit by two eggs in the face in Ozma of Oz? At the same time, it was Roquat, not Ruggedo, though the two are the same…]

The two villains settle for the Forest of Gugu. Located at the “central western” part of the Gillikin Country, it is the biggest forest of Oz, adjoined in the east by rugged mountains “covered in underbrush and small twisted trees”. It is home to most of the wild beasts of Oz, and a place where no human lives and where they rarely visit – the bigger beasts live in the forest per se, the smallest in the underbrush of the mountains. Animals, like people, cannot die in Oz (yeah, that’s the late rule), but being animals they are still wild and aggressive and they would tear each other apart – if not for the laws. Indeed, the animals, despite wild, still have a kind of “civilization”. They have laws, that forbid all fighting between animals (though they still do so from time to time, resulting in beasts with missing eyes, ears or limbs). The laws are made by the forest’s government: its king, the yellow leopard named Gugu (he baptized the forest after him), and his three counselors, Bru the Bear, Loo the Unicorn and Rango the Gray Ape (all are noted to be fierce and ferocious beasts, reaching their high ranks because they are more intelligent and feared than the other beasts).

[Just on the note of the rule, Baum has an annoying habit to precise that no one can be killed or die in Oz, since the fairyland is free of death and sickness. But he still says that people and beasts can be “destroyed”, though it is very hard to do so. The exact difference is quite unknown, but basically I guess he implies you can be turned into sentient dust or goo if you are not careful. However, this book introduces a neat twist to the rule: no Ozian is sure if this magical protection extends to visitors from non-fairy lands, such as Dorothy or Button-Bright. Hence why the Ozians will do everything they can to protect them, because they can, maybe, die.]

To appear even more ferocious and powerful than the locals, Ruggedo and Kiki decide to turn into a mix of several animals: heads of lions, bodies of monkeys, wings of eagles, tails of wild donkeys with golden knobs at the end. They call this species Li-Mon-Eags. They arrive when the “four lords of the forest” ended a meeting about a huge fight that happened in the morning between Chipo the Wild Boar, Arx the Giraffe and Tirrip the great Kangaroo. Ruggedo claims that they came to warn the forest that the people of Oz plan to enslave the animals and turn them into beasts of burden. Gugu answers that for ages the people of Oz have let them alone, nor friends nor enemies, and they know that if they enslaved them they couldn’t make beasts of burden out of them – Gugu concludes the weird newcomers are telling lies. His Unicorn counsellor however believes them – which allows Ruggedo to propose the “turn them into animals” deal. That is received very coldly, because the beasts don’t care much about the “nice things” people have. However, asked to prove their power, Kiki turns the Unicorn into a “fat, chubby little man dressed in the purple Gillikin costume”, and finds it much funnier than being a unicorn. The other beasts are not convinced and decide to do a great gathering of all the beasts of the forest to put it under the decision of a vote.

And boy is there a lot of beasts in this forest… wolves, foxes, hyenas, lynxes, monkeys, pumas, jaguars, tigers, lions, bears, bisons, wild donkeys, zebras, unicorns, rhinoceri, hippopotami, elephants, walruses… Ruggedo presents them the “threat” and his “plan”. Some beasts answer yes we’ll do it, other no we don’t, some stay silent… the opinion is split. A loud debate begins… until suddenly Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz appear, riding the Cowardly Lion and Hungry Tiger. This disturbed deeply Kiki, who is afraid of the Wizard and tired of Ruggedo treating him as a magic slave, so he begins to randomly use the word – turning the Wizard into a fox and stealing his magic black bag ; turning Dorothy into a lamb, the Lion is turned into a little boy in Munchkin costume. Ruggedo, understanding that Kiki’s panic is ruining everything, tries to stop him but is turned into a goose. The Hungry Tiger, noticing it, tries to stop Kiki but is turned into a rabbit. And then Kiki, who is attacked by the animals of Gugu, turns the king leopard into a fat Gillikin woman, which results in the animal fleeing into one huge stampede, not wanting to be transformed. Kiki, having stolen the “Black Bag” where the Wizard keeps his tools of enchantment, tries to use it – but he has to admit that, being no sorcerer or magician, he actually doesn’t know how to use or make the tools inside work, so he just abandons it on a branch and flies away.

Ruggedo, now a goose, helps the other searching for the missing bag of magic (whose tools can break the transformation enchantment easily – sigh, do you remember back in the second book when transforming back someone needed grand and long rituals? Those were the good times), pretending to be a random animal that was transformed, but then tries to find Kiki Aru and leaves them – that’s when they discover the Goose was another one of the “magician beasts”. Ruggedo is at this point furious at Kiki for spoiling his plans, but also dreadful afraid – because goose can lay eggs. You get the idea. He finally finds back Kiki, who actually didn’t fly too much away. Kiki is pondering what to do, because yes the Nome was rude and overbearing, but he knew how to plot, plan and scheme, while Kiki is not wise, so he took time to ponder what to do now, surprised at himself by his own crazy reactions. [Have I mentioned before that this boy has problems?]. Ruggedo, realizing that the boy is actually not the brightest light, decides to manipulate him with kindness and forgiveness: Kiki returns him to his Li-Mon-Eag form, and they discuss a new plan: Ruggedo wants Kiki to turn the fifty monkeys of the forest into giant soldiers with sharp swords, that he will then force to attack the Emerald City. Kiki points out that the swords are no good since no one from Oz can be killed: Ruggedo answers that they can be cut up into little pieces, and these living pieces scattered everywhere. [Yep, Oz became a horror show]. Kiki agrees and starts turning the monkeys, one at a time, into giants – to do so he goes away, so that Ruggedo doesn’t hear the word, but unknown to him the Wizard-Fox crawled nearby and hears everything. The Wizard immediately turns Kiki into a hickory-nut and Ruggedo into a walnut – well he tries a first time but fails because he pronounces the word wrongly, but the second time it works. The Wizard also undoes all the enchantments of Kiki.

After that the book forgets all about them for a long time, until the very end, once Ozma’s birthday party is done (yeah it is another minor plot point). Ozma, learning of what happened, refuses to let two living beings in the shape of nuts and asks the Wizard to give them back their original form (they still don’t know their real identities). The Wizard advises against it, because the two were powerful magicians, knowing a word of transformation whose great power can’t match those of the Wizard or of Glinda’s. But Dorothy comes up with a solution: upon transforming them back, the Wizard only needs to make them extremely thirsty too, and they will put near them a cup filled with the Waters of Oblivion, so that they will drink from it and forget everything. It works with Kiki Aru – and everyone is surprised that it is a young boy and not a dreadful magician. Since he had his entire memory erased, to the point he doesn’t even knows what a “boy” is, Ozma and co decide to keep him in the Emerald City and teach him all the ways of goodness. And… that’s it. We never hear of Kiki again, he never comes back, and we never know what happened of his parents back in Mount Munch.

Then, they reveal the identity of the second magician as Ruggedo – who also gets his mind erased. This time, the characters acknowledge that they did force him to drink of the Waters of Oblivion once, and that it worked into erasing his evilness, but according to them he “learned back” all the “wicked ways” when he was sent to his original home of the Nome Kingdom. So as to avoid this, they decide to keep Ruggedo in Oz, and just like Kiki, teach him the ways of goodness – and thus the former Nome King found a “new home, peaceful and happy” and passed his days in “innocent enjoyment”.

The end.

[geoazie]

Those aesthetics are part of a serie. Aesthetic of the ethnies of the world ! Caucasian ethnies part 1 !

The Chechens are a northeast caucasian people inhabitants of the region of Chechnya, officially in Russia. They speak chechen. They are Sunni and Shafi’i muslim. There are around 2 millions of them.

The Dargins are a northeast caucasian people inhabitants of the region of Dagestan, officially in Russia. They speak dargin. They are Sunni muslim. There are around 700 000 of them.

The Avars are a northeast caucasian people inhabitants of the region of Avaristan, officially in Russia. They speak avar. They are Sunni muslim. There are around 1.3 millions of them.

The Tabasaran are a northeast caucasian people inhabitants of the region of Tabasaranstan officially in Russia. They speak the tabasaran language. They are Sunni muslim. There are around 150 000 of them.

The Ingush are a northeast caucasian people inhabitants of the region of Ingushetia, officially in Russia. They speak Ingush. They are Sunni muslim. There are around 500 000 of them.

The Circassians are a northwest caucasian people inhabitants of the region of Circassia, officially in Russia. Most of them live in Turkey, thought. They speak circassians dialects for around 20 % of the people, otherwise they speak turkish or russian. They are Sunni muslim. There are around 4 to 8 millions of them, with 1 to 5 millions of them in Turkey, and 710 000 of them in Russia.

Here it is ! Those aesthetics are part of a serie. We will cover most of the biggest ethnies of the world. Just for fun !

[identityarchitect]

[ID1: A screenshot of a post by testosteronetwunk, reading "i can't wait for the ideological deconstruction of the racist notion that all jews around the world regardless of culture, language, place of origin, ethnicity etc are "all one ethnic group" like it's just the most self evidently ludicrous thing. i think that could also be a stepping stone in the path to deconstruction the idea of nation-sates in general.

like when zionists say "jews are actually not supposed to live in germany because we belong in palestine because of the nature of our ancient blood" like that's what the nazis said too. that's literally what the nazis believed and now it's just everywhere.

german jews are not foreigners in germany. ukrainian jews are not foreigners in ukraine. syrian jews are not foreigners in syria. to believe otherwise is a repackaged blut und boden ideology is hiterlite thinking".

The entire post has a filter over it that makes it appear to be underwater.

ID2: Four screenshots of keshetchai's response to this post. The first screenshot says:

"This post seems to conflate ethnicity with nationality in some weird ways. The whole "our blood blah blah land" thing — like, yes. Rejecting ethni-nationalism is a good thing, and I agree there. Jews don't need to be ethno-nationalists. Likewise, (nationality)-jews are not inherently foreigners in perpetuity because they are Jewish.

That's because ethnicity shouldn't be conflated with nationality, and just because an ethnic group has an originating homeland doesn't mean we have to be ethno-nationalists in response to that.

The reason why there is no ideological deconstruction of the "racist" idea that "Jews are an ethnicity" is because of a few things. To briefly summarize:

Ethnicity is not the same thing as race

Ethnicity is not the same thing as nationality

Ethnicity is not genetic

People can belong to multiple ethnic groups simultaneously

Ethnicity is a broad category, socially defined — and there's basically no definition which could not apply to the broad category of being Jewish. Literally one of the universal key defining factors of "ethnicity" is a group that internally recognizes some kind of identity that would constitute a "people," or a social grouping with shared or distinctive traits or origins.

It's more accurate to say that Judaism is an ethnicity with many sub-groups, sure. You can even see the Jewish ethnic-divisions page on Wikipedia!

But like, no I don't think you can explain an ethno-religious people without the ethnicity part. You can try and argue that the concept or term "ethnicity" is in itself, bad, and has a fraught history but I'll point out that at this point the cats sort of out of the bag, and idk I don't really think it would get rid of the concept being talked about.

Like personally I am Jewish but I'm also Mexican-American (Chicana)/Mestiza and I'm not going to stop talking about my ethnicity and heritage. I don't see any reason to inherently treat my Chicana culture/identity/ancestry as a sign I'll be an ethno-nationalist (for which nation, lmfao??). So I fail to see how this argument works. Identifying with an ethnicity doesn't inherently make you an ethno-nationalist.

Implying that acknowledging an ethnicity is inherently reinforcing a nation-state is also ridiculous.

It should be obvious but like: the Nazi argument of ethnonationalism is that a nation should be unified by one ethnicity — that the nation itself is defined by a singular shared ethnic identity. And yes, many Israeli nationalists are ethno-nationalists and that's bad. But that's not the flaw of the concept of ethnicity. The cause and effect here is backwards: it's actually a flaw in how a modern nation-state gets defined, and a flaw of nationalism. An ethno-nationalist works from their nationalism to incorporate their ethnic identity.

Basically again: I'm ethnically Chicana. I'm ethnically Mestiza. What nation would this make me inherently nationalist for, when my ethnicity is literally the result of colonialism, when border fluidity and recency of those borders defines that background? When being "mixed" defines a culture that is no longer wholly just an indigenous people. When my family says "border hopped us"?

The rest of the logic also doesn't really hold water to me. I don't stop being Mestiza because I can't speak Spanish. That's uh, not how "shared language" works. I don't actually have to speak the shared language! It's still part of my cultural background. It's still a heritage language for me! Likewise, Hebrew is a cultural-background language for all Jews, regardless of whether or not you speak or read it personally. You don't have to be "literate" in your ethnicity (ethnic culture, traditions, religion, language, narrative of peoplehood, etc) in order to be that ethnicity."

The second screenshot (a continuation of the first reblog) reads:

"Having an ethnic identity doesn't mean you will become an ethno-nationalist as the end result. Identifying with it doesn't mean that. Being a nationalist, however, will definitely lead people to becoming ethno-nationalists. Ethnonationalism is an issue because it tries to conflate nation with ethnicity and ethnicity with nation as one singular thing, rather than agree that a nation can be a multi-ethnic society.

Being a syrian-Jew doesn't mean you're a foreigner in Syria, it means Syria is a nationality and being Jewish is not a nationality. Jews who want to oppose Jewish ethno-nationalist ideology don't need to throw out the concept of ethnicity in order to reject the conflation of nationality and ethnicity. Ethnic groups might have shared historical or contemporary geographic origins or ties to a homeland while in existing diaspora, but like… That doesn't mean your ethnicity is dependent on nationalism in order to survive as an ethnic identity.

In point of fact, the Jewish ethnic identity has survived explicitly after devastating and repeated losses of a Jewish state in the levant. The very phrase diaspora is first recorded in the Greek Septuagint Deuteronomy 28:25 (admittedly in the threat of a curse) and again in Psalms 147 (by our counting, 146 in the Greek). Surviving identity beyond and outside of just a nation-state is a fundamental part of the Jewish ethnic identity imo. Also: Doikayt/non-zionism specifically focuses on the cultural part of ethnicity rather than a nation-state as a "glue" of the Jewish people.

But like, for that to be true, you're still saying there is an ethnic identity involved.

Idk I just have more faith in Jews and Jewishness than to assume acknowledging our identity exists is racist. Ethnicity specifically can transcend AND is not dependent on both race and nation-state so like…

I think it's probably more self evidentially ridiculous to think of Jews as an ethnic group when you think ethnic identity is inherently ethno-nationalist. Like I see why you would think this is absurd or ridiculous if you started from that premise, but also that premise suggests either that a) ppl are working from a place of first accepting that ethnonationalists are, in fact, the ones who are defining ethnicities and ethnic group belonging or b) that people don't actually know what ethnicity means.

A sort of aside: yet again, the Septuagint translation gives us a huge sense of how intertwined we are with the very concept of ethnicity. The phrase goyim is translated as ta ethne, as in "the nations" (peoples!). In a biblical sense goyim is sometimes referring to peoples outside of the tribe of Israel, and sometimes just means generally all peoples/nations. "Nations" in the ancient sense doesn't correlate to modern nation-states or modernist nationalism in any sense, so I am saying nations/peoples to make that clear. The peoples are goyim, which are, in Greek, ta ethne. In a very literal sense if we as Jews are a singular people (goy, in the biblical sense!) then we're an ethnos. It gets used later specifically to mean gentiles (and then later non-christians) but like…"

The third screenshot begins with testosteronetwunk's reblog, reading "have u considered reading my post before you replied."

keshetchai reblogs, saying:

"Yeah I did read your post in its entirety (which is obvious from the specificity and depth of my reply!) and it led me to believe you don't actually understand what the word ethnicity means.

Because again: we can reject ethnonationalism without rejecting the idea that Jews are an ethnic group. That's not laughable, absurd, or in support of Nazi ideology/thinking."

They include a screenshot of testosteronetwunk's tags, reading "read the invention of the jewish people by shlomo sand and learn for once in your life about how the concept of jewishness as an ethnicity grew out of european ethnonationalisms".

Their reblog continues:

"If you got this understanding of ethnicity from Shlomo Sand, then he also doesn't understand what the word ethnicity means! His MA was in French Studies and his PhD was on Georges Sorel & Marxism neither of which makes him an expert on sociology or anthropology specifically re: ethno-studies or any of ancient history any more so than literally anyone else.

Like actually now that you explain where you got this from, I see how you ended up here. My criticisms remain the same, and I actually feel more justified in them than before because I know exactly how his work is received by other scholars/historians.

I'm trying to be nice here, but if you're saying this argument is something you got from Shlomo Sand then I would like to gently inform you that you probably shouldn't be surprised that if you reference someone whose work is hotly contested and who has received LOADS of pushback for the things he's said on this topic, that people might continue that trend.

He's made similar facile comparisons to Hitler and Nazism and has received vocal pushback from the very specialists he was talking about!

I've mostly avoided reading anything by Shlomo Sand because the man has a reputation of extremely questionable scholarship, poor historiography, and a willingness to ignore facts! His book is heavily criticized and it's poor scholarship — of a caliber I would never take seriously or rely on to make the arguments you want to be making!

The blatant made-up history he writes is something I care about given that I trained in history and worked as a historian.

The book The Invention of the Jewish People is rife with bunk conspiracy! Idk if you knew that but like, it is! It's a derided book, most people don't take it seriously. So I don't recommend being informed by it.

If you go to Wikipedia there are ELEVEN citations just for the sentence "it has generated heated controversy."

I've read more jstor articles on the problems with Shlomo Sand than I'll ever waste time actually reading his book. The fact that he wrote and fully bought into the Khazar Origin hypothesis despite a COMPLETE lack of any evidence for it is…like the first of many many reasons why I don't respect him, his work, or anything he says. Just like I don't respect people who try to claim that somehow ancient Egyptians paddle boated across the Pacific Ocean all the way to mesoamerica to influence the olmecs and build the pyramids there. Because it's a conspiracy theory and sheer fantasy without any real evidence.

Like yeah Shlomo Sand sure wrote that book!

Have you looked at what any other academics or reviewers have said about it?:

"grab(bing) at the most unorthodox theory" in a field and then stretching it "to the outer limits of logic and beyond"

"…pure fantasy."

"bizarre and incoherent"

"denies the existence of the central positions in Jewish historical scholarship."

The book is an attempt to "drag history into a topical argument, and with the help of misrepresentations and half-truths to adapt it to the needs of a political discussion."

"messy polemic – helter-skelter, tendentious and ill-informed,"

Sand "rightly insists on the relevance of the ancient past to contemporary politics, but his distortions are an obstacle to a full understanding of the modern Israeli-Palestinian predicament."

"The exact opposite of the truth"

"so intellectually shoddy that once, not very long ago, it would have been flunked as an undergraduate thesis by any self-respecting professor of history."

Oh this one on Wikipedia is one of my favorites lol the whole thing:

Professor Michael Berkowitz from University College London wrote: "With a little critical distance, it is possible to criticize this book as a far cry from a ‘real’ work of scholarship. It is flimsy, haphazardly built, slap-dash. There is no foundation in archival research, and Sand does not seem to have fully read (or understood) many of the secondary works on which his thesis relies. He apparently has never heard of Aviel Roshwald and George Mosse, who are among the first names that should spring to mind in any consideration of Jews and nationalism... Perhaps the fundamental problem with this book, which also applies to the above-mentioned works of Goldhagen, Piterberg, and Mayer, is that the thesis runs way ahead of the supposedly dispassionate investigation (despite Sand's protest to the contrary), and therefore the book assumes the character more of a legal brief than a scholarly monograph".

Because yes it's this important:

a very comprehensive definition of the term Ethnicity for anyone curious!:

“Hutchinson and Smith’s (1996:6–7) definition of an ethnic group, or ethnie, consists of six main features that include:

a common proper name, to identify and express the “essence” of the community

a myth of common ancestry that includes the idea of common origin in time and place and that gives an ethnie a sense of fictive kinship

one or more elements of common culture, which need not be specified but normally include religion, customs, and language

shared historical memories, or better, shared memories of a common past or pasts, including heroes, events, and their commemoration;

a link with a homeland, not necessarily its physical occupation by the ethnie, (bold mine) only its symbolic attachment to the ancestral land, as with diaspora peoples;

a sense of solidarity on the part of at least some sections of the ethnie’s population.”

Summarized in an article titled: Defining Ethnicity in The SAA Archaeological Record, Sept 2004."" /end ID]

can’t reblog the original for reasons that will become obvious but i had to have @keshetchai’s incredible and informative response on my blog.

so this was the original post:

and here is the reply:

here’s a link to the reblog.

[wazafam]

By BY THOMAS GIBBONS-NEFF AND NAJIM RAHIM from World in the New York Times-https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/world/asia/afghanistan-helicopter-crash-militias.html?partner=IFTTT The crash occurred in eastern Afghanistan, where security and militia forces have been in a tense, and sometimes violent, standoff since January. At Least 9 Dead in Afghan Helicopter Crash, After Clashes With Local Militia New York Times