#Rebel party leaders claim

[marta-bee]

Original source here; I saw it via @liberalsarecol here. I went a bit off and didn't want to piggyback on their post. (What is the etiquette in these situations? I'm never quite sure.)

They said "Walking away from Trump is healthy." To which I can only respond it's not only healthy, it's damned heroic. Star Trek and US politics thoughts below the cut.

I've been thinking about Damar (from DS9)'s character arc in the final season, and how it to relates to the people swept up in Trumpism. Liz Cheney, Gov. Mike Milley, but also just run of the mill conservatives. They all went along with this cult that is MAGA because it worked for them at some level, because it claimed to give power and voice to something they actually believed in (conservative principles of independence and freedom, an economy that let them support their families, being told who they were was something to be proud of). Not the values that resonate most with me, but I can see someone believing them and acting based on it.

Then came something that should be the bridge too far. The thing they couldn't support. Maybe it affected them personally, maybe it was just extremism beyond what they could swallow. Most people caught up in this movement have a point like that, but not all are brave enough to turn aside. Even if it means admitting they were wrong. Even if that leaves them without a party that represents their view. Even if they have to set aside their own policy preferences and vote for a Democrat because there's more important things at stake.

Which, as I said reminds me of Damar. If you don't know the show, it's built around a war between the various species of the Alpha Quadrant and the Dominion, a fascist regime from the other side of the galaxy. The Cardassians are a militaristic, duty-to-the-state heavy species that makes an alliance with them as a way to get military strength and influence. It doesn't work out so well for them. As Damar, a Cardassian military leader turned rebel terrorist, says:

Seven million of our brave soldiers have given their lives to fulfill our part of the agreement, and what has the Dominion done in return? Nothing. We've gained no new territories. In fact, our influence throughout the quadrant has diminished. And to make matters worse, we are no longer masters in our own home. Travel anywhere on Cardassia and what do you find? Jem'Hadar, Vorta, and now Breen. Instead of the invaders, we have become the invaded. Our 'allies' have conquered us without firing a single shot. Well, no longer.

The thing about Damar is he's no flower child or unblemished angel of a character. I can't remember offhand if he was involved in the occupation of Bajor, but given his background it's hard to imagine he wasn't involved in the occupation of somewhere. He shot Ziyal. it's his personal humiliation more than some grand moral awakening that ultimately drives him to rebel. And probably billions died because of how he tried to pursue power and gave the Dominion an Alpha Quadrant foothold. But when it came down to it he said no more, he gave up his pride and the way he'd woven his pride and position and future in with the Dominion, and he changed course.

I mean, I never thought I'd be cheering on a Cheney either. What a world.

My point is, it's hard to take that leap -- much more challenging than being on the right side of things from the beginning. And while it doesn't wipe away getting it wrong to begin with and all you did because of that, the changing course is still pretty heroic in my book.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi accused former leader Joseph Kabila of backing a U.S.-sanctioned coalition of rebel groups during an interview with a private radio station on Tuesday.

“Joseph Kabila boycotted the election and is preparing an insurrection because he is the AFC,” Tshisekedi said, referring to the Alliance Fleuve Congo, a political-military movement launched in December with the aim of uniting armed groups, political parties and civil society against Congo’s government. He did not provide any evidence to support his claim.

Tshisekedi’s accusation follows the U.S. announcement of sanctions against the AFC last month. Washington accused the alliance of seeking to overthrow Congo’s government and fueling conflict in the east of the country. It said the main member of the alliance, the renowned rebel group M23, is already under U.S. sanctions.

6 Aug 24

[mariacallous]

When U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was first elected in November 2016, many European countries rallied around German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the new leader of the free world. This time around, they will have to look somewhere else: The three-party coalition in Berlin under Chancellor Olaf Scholz has just collapsed after the Free Democrats—a small pro-business party—rebelled on the economic direction of the country.

The timing seems terrible after Trump’s reelection just the day before, which threatens to throw Europe and Germany into an era of instability. In reality, however, the crisis in Berlin could prove to be good news. The coalition of Scholz’s Social Democrats, Greens, and Free Democrats was the most dysfunctional, dithering, and divided German government in decades. The members of the coalition actively worked against one another on European Union affairs, Ukraine aid, China policy, and economic reform. With Trump returning to the White House, Germany and Europe cannot afford near-total paralysis in Berlin.

After the 2021 national election in Germany, the three parties declared “a new beginning” to break the reform stagnation of the Merkel era. Then, after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they promised a reckoning with Germany’s old business model, which had depended on Russia for cheap gas, China for growing exports and investment, and the United States for military protection.

Two years on, even the rosiest of optimists would struggle to see the glass of change as even half full. Rather than step up as a leader of Europe and the West, the coalition abdicated leadership in Europe, avoided pressing strategic decisions, and pursued narrow national interests first. On Ukraine, Germany can scrape together a passing record at best. Yes, it has been one of the biggest donors, leads in commitments for heavy weapons deliveries, ranks second in total aid to Ukraine after the United States (although only 15th by aid as a percentage of GDP), and has accepted the most voluntary Ukrainian refugees of any country.

However, Germany has no strategic focus or sense of urgency. Going against his coalition partners and contrary to his own claims of being in lockstep with allies, Scholz has continued to prohibit the delivery of German-made Taurus missiles, even after Britain, France, and the United States delivered their own long-range strike missiles. And support for Ukraine has been cut and deprioritized in the 2025 federal budget, with the German government disingenuously declaring that loans backed by the interest earned by frozen Russian assets would offset the cuts. This clever use of Russian assets was supposed to expand Western aid, not replace it.

For its own defense spending, Germany finally reached NATO’s minimum of 2 percent of GDP this year, but the special off-budget fund created to boost spending to this level will run out in 2027. How Berlin intends to finance defense in 2028 and beyond is entirely unclear; the coalition simply kicked that can down the road. Social Democratic Defense Minister Boris Pistorius—the most popular politician in Germany, which is why the unpopular Scholz has largely sidelined him—said that the 2025 budget does not provide the necessary funds to cover increased personnel costs, much less to invest in new capabilities. Germany’s discussion about restoring conscription to its depleted forces led nowhere beyond a voluntary option. Far from becoming a leading security player and the “best-equipped armed force” in Europe, as Scholz promised, Germany looks to be continuing business as usual.

In Europe, the Scholz government has been seen as the most unilateral, inward-looking, and uncooperative German leadership in a long time. Not only did Berlin unilaterally reintroduce border controls in a panicked reaction to right-wing populists surging in opinion polls following a series of violent attacks involving migrants, but the German government’s representatives at the European Union were also increasingly abstaining from votes because the coalition’s three parties had no unified position.

Broader European interests seemed completely absent from German calculations; for example, when Germany joined Hungary, Malta, Slovakia, and Slovenia to vote against imposing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. And Free Democrat Finance Minister Christian Lindner, whom Scholz fired on Nov. 6, was the first to say “no” to former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s proposal to increase European competitiveness with large-scale investments financed through joint debt.

With early elections expected by the end of March, it will be a new opportunity for Germany to assert leadership on these strategic issues. If a vote were held today, the most likely result would be a grand coalition of the right-of-center Christian Democrats and the left-of-center Social Democrats—with the former coming out on top and thus providing the chancellor. They collectively poll at about 48 percent of the vote. When Merkel, a Christian Democrat, was the chancellor, she ruled under this constellation for 12 of her 16 years in power, and although this time was marred by perceptions of inertia, a change of chancellorship could bring new strength to Germany’s foreign policy.

Friedrich Merz, the Christian Democrats’ party chairman and likely chancellor of a grand coalition, would finally achieve his life goal after having been pushed out from politics by Merkel two decades ago. On security, Merz has already signaled that he is more forward-leaning on Ukraine than Scholz. He publicly challenged Scholz to deliver Russian President Vladimir Putin an ultimatum: Stop attacking Ukrainian civilian infrastructure within 24 hours, or Germany will deliver Taurus missiles. Although Merz would need to follow up his rhetoric with action if and when he actually moves into government, a grand coalition could also provide new fiscal flexibility to underwrite defense spending and aid to Ukraine, since both parties could agree to loosen Germany’s fiscal restrictions, which Lindner and the Free Democrats opposed.

This would be the kind of leadership that Germany’s European partners have waited for since 2022, when Scholz proclaimed a Zeitenwende—or new era—in security and defense without ever following up. And that kind of leadership will be indispensable with war raging in Europe and Trump in the White House for a second term.

[just-animaxiz]

Fuck it - I'm gonna make these guys into reoccurring characters into RC9GN because they're underrated (Especially the leader)

Starting off with lore bits for:

Spike

He is the leader of not only the Punk Bots, but also the leader of Scrap City. Ever since he failed to defeat the ninja and thus scrapped away, he gained enough sentience to start rebelling against McFist and Viceroy, shouting out the way they mistreated the robots like that.

He is the least scrapped Punk Bot out there, and that is due to his self-taught experience with mechanical repairs. He then began to take whatever parts out there and used them to fix the other bots, gaining their respect for him and vice versa.

Spike, as designed, is a punk, so he fonds over Punk music and guitar - Fortunately, McFist dumped other materials such as magazines, old guitars, and other items into Scrap City. In the middle of the heap is an untouched shiny red guitar. Spike claimed it as his and named it, "Ruby Bolt.

During their imprisonment, Spike realized the heaps of cars and vehicles stacked up like ladders. To test his theory, he created a rope out of cable and started to climb the stack. It took him 12 tries before he finally made it on the wall. Looking down, Spike found himself at the edge of a long fall, so he lasso'ed the cable to a glued object, like an impaled stick or heavy pole, and climbed down.

Once he made it, he learned that no one came after him. He's free... But then he looked up at his mates and realized they're still trapped and too many escaping can lead to getting caught. So Spike devised a plan. He talked this out with the group, and using hacking skills and convincing, they pulled in outside help into it. At a precise time, Spike and his punk bots leave Scrap City. Then when the humans are occupied (At a grand party or very busy), the Punk Bots trashed down a McFist establishment.

While they trashed the area, Spike stole a few items for personal reasons, and when they came back to Scrap City, Spike used them as upgrades.

He made upgrades on himself - making him faster, stronger, and more agile than ever. Additionally, he made personal upgrades like having sharp teeth, a tongue piercing, and a cool new torso.

He also had stolen photos of not only Mcfist and Viceroy, but the Ninja too. He kept drawing personal threats for his revenge.

As much as everyone agreed to vandalize at a specific time, Spike would sometimes go out on his own to take a breather. Wearing long sleeves and a hood over his head, he hides himself from interacting with humans... Or McFist.

A person caught his eye - A young bright boy with purple hair and a red shirt, like his. He's enjoying a night out with his family, meeting up with his best friend, and talking about the girl he has a crush on... Spike wished he could've been that boy, instead of being a scrappy mistake.

Thorn

Thorn is the yellow punk bot, and personality-wise, he's the "I may be sweet but I'm not merciful" type.

He is Spike's Right Hand Man and he always inform Spike about upcoming events or news from the outside.

Thorn may not be as scary or threatening as his brothers, but he can be with his words alone. Spike taught him that!

When McFist dumped random trash into Scrap City, Thorn found an abandoned set of manga. That caused him to be addicted in different types like Shojo, Isekai, and Shonen. He would spend all night reading, learning small Japanese words.

It was until Skewer, the green Punk Bot, gave him a book he found about Japanese culture and their language. Thorn thanked Skewer for the gift and dedicated into learning about his interests.

Before Spike fixed him, Thorn used to be the most damaged. He lost his head a dozen of times, cannot run as fast, and he had a squeaky arm. Even after he's repaired, the squeak's still there. It made him feel like a repaired doll but they still have cracks on their face.

When Thorn joined his brothers out to vandalize McFist stores, he would sometimes steal manga, figurines, or Japanese books to fulfill his interests. He even made theories about Yokai and think they're real, so he showed respect whenever he passed by small statues or paintings.

He's not the type who just sees Japanese as a trend or media thing, but he truly respects their culture and wished to travel to Japan just to learn more and appreciate its beauty. He wondered if they would accept a broken doll like him over there.

When Thorn learns that the Ninja came from Japan, he wished to meet them during a fight so that he could ask them questions about their occupation, wanting to learn their moves and their history.

He would be the type to punch a jerk if they disrespect his interests or even embodies humiliation towards it. Like I said, he's sweet but not merciful.

Skewer

The scariest Punk Bot. Every bot, except for his brothers, feared him.

It's not his fault though; Skewer was made with the scary face by Viceroy and McFist, which made others back away whenever they felt like he's glaring at them.

Despite this, he's also the smartest. He helped Spike set up the upgrades and hacking. This is due because of the dumped items in the heap.

Skewer found a guide to hack and a manual to repair and rebuild. He also find trashed books from Math and science (Thanks Bash) and took them in for his research.

There, his intelligence became stronger than ever, storing data after data and using them for important tasks.

The data also led him to his fond of chess and checkers, which annoyed a specific chess-obsessed robot.

Even though he's smart, he still lives up to the scary bit - He's the frontman, the bulldozer, and the brute of the pack. Someone messes with him or his people, and they'll be skewered.

Bots cannot even tell what mood he's in, questioning if he gave them compliments or subtle threats.

When he and his brothers vandalized McFist Industries, Skewer made observant notes of everything. He noticed how Thorn would stare at a store with Ancient Japanese antiques, or how Spike gaze at a happy boy before he soberly looked away. Other times, Skewer made notes of seeing a red light on a camera, or hearing an annoying voice from a distance.

If they needed time, Skewer would purposely cause a destruction somewhere else as a diversion and make an escape route to go back to his brothers in time.

Skewer questions the Ninja's existence and purpose. He learned that they had been in Norrisville for several years, which is impossible for humans. (Wink) And he discovered from articles that the Ninja came in different forms, wondering if there's a deeper reason behind it.

He also wondered why McFist would go out of his way to built world-destructive robots just to destroy one Ninja. It doesn't make sense in his way.

Hope you enjoy some lore bits I made for them!

[kittenwithabass]

source

These are 2 slides from an instagram post by Gen-Z Aotearoa, a New Zealand (Aotearoa) based organisation of "Gen-Z activists". There are more slides not in the post, you can find them at the link above. ID in alt. I'm a member of gen z from Aotearoa and was about to apply to join their communications team just 15 minutes ago, right before I saw this post.

Anybody seeing this probably already knows/agrees with everything I'm about to say. This post claims that the Houthis are rebels and supports them, as well as Hamas and Hezbollah. How do I even begin to describe how much this pains me to see? The Houthis are absolutely not "rebels". They are a terrorist group. Their flag says curse upon the Jews, and since I know these people don't care about us, it also says death to America. How anybody can claim that the Houthis are rebels or freedom fighters when the exact opposite is true, when you can tell this is not true from knowing any single thing about them? I'm clueless.

And I absolutely shouldn't have to explain why Hamas are terrorists. Not after they violently raped and murdered over a thousand Israelis and kidnapped 200 more. Not after they killed my friend. They murdered my friend and filmed it while laughing. And this is just on October 7th; not even including all their atrocities before and after that single day.

It baffles me, really. How can a group that claims to be "activists," go and spout such lies? This helps no one. It doesn't help Palestinians, all it does is give you fake internet points and scare jewish people.

I'm Jewish. I'm proud to be Jewish. But I'm scared. Terrified. I've done everything I can to avoid being clocked: I stopped speaking Yiddish and Hebrew, I changed my phone contacts to English (they were all in Hebrew), I never tell anyone irl that I'm Jewish, I hide my siddurim when people come over. I'm white-passing enough. Surely there's no way for someone to clock me as Jewish, and yet. I'm so scared. I can't leave my house. All my friends don't care at best, cheer on Hamas at worst. I want to take down the mezzuzah on the front door. Even online I can't escape antisemitism, this is the first time I've used tumblr in days. My friend's favourite rapper is a nazi. I log onto instagram and the first thing I see is that post and my friend posting violent antisemitism on its story.

I don't know what the point of all this is. I think what I'm trying to say is, if you're an "activist," why are jews scared of you? Shouldn't you be trying to protect minorities?

And to be perfectly clear, this is an issue of leftist antisemitism. My country recently elected our most conservative government in decades. I am scared of them as a queer person. I am scared for my Maori and poc friends. I am not scared of them as a Jewish person. Who am I afraid of as a Jewish person? My friends. People I've marched with at pride. The leaders of the left leaning parties.

Listen to my goyim, and listen to me clear: SORT YOUR SHIT OUT.

[mirandasidefics]

How is ruhn danaan personality like? I never read cresent city b4

Oh boy, I will be as concise as possible without giving away too much of the plot(s) for the series as it stands now. My fic does deviate from the third book, but only mildly and mainly in relationship to the timeframes of each event.

*If you haven't read this series yet I highly suggest that you do, but if you don't want to read the books you can also check out the Crescent City wiki.

Per the wiki article on Ruhn's personality:

"Ruhn is often seen to be both funny and sarcastic, but also very protective of his friends and especially his sister, Bryce. He is kind, as seen with his treatment of his mother and the three sprites he has allowed to stay in his home. Ruhn is also an open-minded person, thinking beyond the traditional Fae beliefs, which has led him to accept Ithan and Hunt as well as to rebel against the Asteri themselves. He is disgusted by Fae hierarchies and politics. He also hates that everything he has is bankrolled by his father. Despite being trained to be a lethal, efficient killer, Ruhn doesn't enjoy being a warrior. His Starborn power is just about the only part of himself he likes."

My own additions to how I interpret his personality:

Ruhn is a survivor of childhood physical and psychological/emotional abuse at the hands of his Father, the Autumn King. I believe that as a result of not really developing healthy coping skills after leaving his father's villa, he turned to a form of escapism through self-medicating with alcohol and drugs. Earlier in the series he and his friends frequently indulge in the party lifestyle and many readers have expressed their dynamic reminds them of stereotypical college Frat guys. Ruhn still takes his job as the Leader of the Fae's division at the AUX seriously, but he also knows how to have a good time. Work hard, play hard.

While Ruhn may despise Fae traditions and politics, he still adheres to them (for the most part). He also isn't afraid to utilize/exploit traditions or the political field if it means protecting someone he loves. Basically, Ruhn knows how to the plan the game, but just hates having to do it. (There are times when he doesn't make the best decisions but that's for a different conversation). This is seen in the first installment House of Earth and Blood (HOEAB) when he claims ownership of Bryce, citing the Fae tradition of females being the property of their male relatives, thus Fae females do not have the ability to consent to any legally binding agreements or contracts without the approval and consent of said male relative. Its an absolutly archaic traditional that is rarely used, but still considered to have legal standing and must be followed. His actions in this instance are so surprising that even his friends are speechless and basically appalled at his declaration. But his enacting this tradition prevents Bryce from selling herself into slavery with Sandriel to save Hunt.

Ruhn can also let his irritation, anger and stubbornness get the best of him. There are times when his mouth moves faster than his brain and he'll say things that he doesn't really mean. This is also seen in HOEAB when he and Bryce think back on the fight that drove them apart for years. He does try to make things right and is genuinely remorseful when he realizes that his words and actions have caused unintentional harm. Its seen again in House of Sky and Breath (HOSAB) after he meets Agent Daybright and later finds out she is Lidia (aka the Hind) who is a notorious spy breaker/interrogator for the Asteri. He allows his shock and hurt from feeling betrayed and lied to, to fuel his anger towards Lidia and effectively shuts her out.

What I really love about Ruhn is that he is not afraid to be vulnerable and express his emotions with those that he feels the closest and most comfortable with. In canon, the only time (that I can recall) where he keeps his vulnerability somewhat in check is when he is trying to process the pull that he feels towards Lidia, whom he had considered an enemy for decades. In House of Flame and Shadow (HOFAS) Ruhn is able to process this and identify what Lidia is to him and his feelings for her. He is able to accept this and eventually find happiness with her.

In my fic however, Ruhn doesn't exactly get this opportunity, which deviates from canon in HOFAS. He has to do this processing without Lidia as she did not survive the rescue of Ruhn and Hunt from the Asteri dungeons (they were captured at the end of HOSAB).

While Ruhn greatly cares for Reader and genuinely loves her, he never got the opportunity to explore his and Lidia's dynamic. Thus, he hasn't been able to properly mourn Lidia which would allow him to fully give his heart to Reader. And Reader recognizes this before Ruhn does and encourages him to do this inner exploration of his feelings towards Lidia. She does express that she is willing to help in whatever capacity he feels comfortable, but she doesn't want to pressure him into sharing this journey with her if he doesn't feel comfortable being this vulnerable with her. She knows that just because she is able to be vulnerable with him, doesn't automatically mean he has to return that vulnerability with her for them to continue their friendship.

Reader genuinely wants Ruhn to grow for the sake of his own happiness and well-being, and not simply because she would benefit from the potential of a romantic and loving relationship with him. However, if they are to build and live a life together, the ability to have open communication and show mutual trust is part of a healthy and loving relationship. So if they are to become romantically (or sexually) involved, she does need for him to open up moving forward. Equality in a relationship is highly important for her.

This ended up being much longer than I thought it would be, so I will end it here. I love and adore Ruhn so much and could go on forever about how much I love him.

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Weird republicans cite "heritage" as a reason for flying the rebel flag and keeping statues of confederate leaders up. A flag that was flown by slave owning Democrats and statues of slave owning democrats...so your culture/heritage is slave owning democrats? Maybe we shouldn't be erecting monuments to slave owning democrats and flying a flag that was used as a symbol by slave owning democrats to wage war against the freeing of enslaved africans But who's fighting to worship the flag and statues. Not the democrats lmao weird how republicans call DEMOCRAT SLAVE OWNERS heros. The Virginia state flag has fucking sic semper tyrannis on it which was a quote from Wilkes Booth as he shot Lincoln. What is Virginia? A red state. Now why would a red state have a quote on their flag from a man who was a slave owning democrat and fighting against the man republicans claim to be the party of? You people seem to love Robert E. Lee. What was he? He was actually part of the whig party but they allied themselves with the Confederacy.

You're saying a lot of things and then pretending that every conservative agrees with them in the exact way you're describing. Kinda lame, bro.

[justforbooks]

Hassan Nasrallah

Ruthless head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah who led his movement for more than 30 years

Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, has died aged 64 in an Israeli bomb attack on the movement’s HQ in Dahiyeh, Beirut. His death came after 11 months of conflict between his fighters, based in Lebanon, and Israel.

On 7 October last year Hamas militants from Gaza entered Israel and killed more than 1,200 people. The next day Nasrallah ordered cross-border bombardments on Israel, and a limited conflict of attrition followed. This month Israel dramatically escalated matters by assassinating Hezbollah leaders, infiltrating the group’s security apparatus, hitting tower blocks and sabotaging pagers, walkie-talkies and arms silos, while rebuffing US calls for a ceasefire.

Over three decades Nasrallah, politically astute and often ruthless, transformed his Shia Muslim community, the largest yet most marginalised of Lebanon’s 18 sects – Muslim, Christian and Druze – into Beirut’s powerbrokers. His “party of God” also grew from a local militia into a disciplined body active elsewhere in the region.

Adored by supporters, Nasrallah was essential to Hezbollah’s success. His state-within-a-state runs schools, clinics, scout troops, support for farming, an alternative banking system, armed checkpoints, prisons, radio and TV stations and telecom networks.

Central to Hezbollah’s ethos is muqawama – resistance to Israel and its allies.

Hezbollah claimed credit when in 2000 Israel ended its 18-year-long occupation of southern Lebanon. The militia armed Palestinian factions during the second intifada of 2000-05 (the first having come in 1987-93); it trained Houthi rebels in Yemen and Shia factions in Iraq and Bahrain.

Nasrallah’s fighters became the most powerful non-state military in the Middle East. Hezbollah’s estimated 60,000 troops and 150,000 Iranian-supplied rockets eclipsed Lebanon’s national army.

In July 2006 Hezbollah fought a month-long war with Israel, with more than 1,100 dead on the Lebanese side, and more than 160 Israelis killed. Once hostile Sunnis hailed Nasrallah as the restorer of Arab pride. Their mood changed when in 2012 his forces joined President Bashar al-Assad and Iran in an internal Syrian war that killed half a million mostly Sunni civilians.

In October 2019 many Shia joined protests against him after gross mismanagement led Lebanon to the brink of bankruptcy. Foes blamed Nasrallah for overseeing the same corrupt political system he had once condemned.

Despite championing the Palestinian cause, Hezbollah did little to ease insufferable conditions for Palestinians in Lebanon. Then in August 2020, there was an explosion caused by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in a part of Beirut harbour under Hezbollah control.

The blast killed 218, rendered 300,000 people homeless, and caused billions in damage, leading demonstrators to hang Nasrallah in effigy.

Hezbollah had a turbulent role in other aspects of Lebanon’s domestic affairs. It was the only civil war militia that had been allowed to keep its weapons after fighting ended in 1990. Nasrallah became Hezbollah secretary general in February 1992, the day after Israel assassinated his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi.

He was re-elected in 1993 and repeatedly thereafter. Nasrallah rejected UN calls to disarm after Israel withdrew in 2000 and prevented Lebanon’s army from guarding the southern border.

In 2005 a car bomb in Beirut killed Lebanon’s former premier, Rafik Hariri. UN investigators named Hezbollah and Syria as likely culprits. Two months later massive “cedar revolution” protests forced Syrian troops out of Lebanon after 29 years of domination.

Yet Nasrallah choreographed a pro-Syrian alliance with Michel Aoun, a Christian former renegade general newly returned from exile in France. Hezbollah scored well in June polls, and two members joined the cabinet for the first time.

When Lebanon’s pro-western prime minister, Fouad Siniora, rejected Nasrallah’s demand for a blocking veto, Hezbollah shut down parliament for 18 months. In May 2008 Hezbollah gunmen crushed opponents in Beirut, Sidon, Tripoli and Aley – contradicting Nasrallah’s promise never to attack fellow citizens. Still, many Lebanese adored him for defying Israel and affirming their dignity.

Others resented his outsized influence. They said he was an Iranian proxy who killed enemies, including Shia intellectuals, brought starvation to besieged Syrian towns, and recreated the schisms of Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war. That conflict, and especially the Israeli invasion and occupation of 1982, inspired the young cleric to choose a political path.

However, the greatest impetus was Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. As the Lebanese analyst Saleh el-Machnouk put it, by 2020 Lebanon had become a “mafia-militia nexus [where] Iran uses Hezbollah as a subcontractor”.

Born in Bourj Hammoud, then a mainly Christian Armenian town, Hassan was the eldest of nine children of Mahdiyya Safi al-Din and Abdul Karim Nasrallah, a grocer. Hassan devoured Islamic texts while his siblings played football. When war erupted in 1975, the family fled to their ancestral village of Bazourieh, near Tyre. Hassan joined Amal (“hope”), the mostly Shia movement that opposed traditional elites, whether Shia, Sunni or Christian.

In 1976 the penniless 16-year-old left for the famous Iraqi Shia seminary in Najaf. Al-Musawi, a fellow Lebanese exile, became his mentor. After Iraq expelled Lebanese students in 1978, Nasrallah studied with Al-Musawi in Baalbek, in the Beqaa Valley, and joined Amal’s politburo.

By 1982 younger Shias such as Nasrallah were deserting Amal for Khomeini’s camp.

Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards based in Lebanon turned these radicals into Hezbollah. Its affiliates conducted suicide attacks in 1983 that killed more than 300 US and French peacekeeping soldiers. They later fought Amal and kidnapped westerners such as Terry Waite for the benefit of Iran.

In 1989 Nasrallah moved to Iran to study at the seminary in Qom. Back in Lebanon, in 1991 he grudgingly accepted the Syrian-backed Taif power-sharing accord that formally ended the civil war. A month after he became secretary general of Hezbollah, it was accused of killing 29 people at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires; in 1994 another assault on an Argentinian Jewish communal centre claimed 85 lives.

Hassan never stood for election; instead, the speaker of parliament and former rival, the Amal leader Nabih Berri, conveyed his views to the world. Nasrallah admitted Tehran was Hezbollah’s chief sponsor. Nonetheless, foreign intelligence claimed that the party benefited from narcotics traffic, an illicit diamond trade and millions more from expatriate tycoons.

Nasrallah cemented his image as a consensual national figure with Maronite Christian clergymen. He promised not to impose theocratic rule on a religiously diverse and often secular public and arranged for Hezbollah to contest elections between 1992 and 2022.

He displayed a dignified response when his son, Mohammed Hadi, died fighting Israelis in September 1997. Nasrallah helped Lebanon’s national army crush a revolt by Sobhi Tufaili, an anti-Iranian populist and first secretary general of Hezbollah, four months later. He tutored Al-Assad before the latter became Syria’s president in 2000. He also returned from Israel 29 Hezbollah captives and 400 Palestinian prisoners in 2004.

Often, however, the moderate facade would slip. Nasrallah praised Holocaust deniers and in 2001 reportedly called Jews “miserly and cowardly”.

In 2008 Nasrallah’s de facto deputy, Imad Mughniyeh, was blown up in Damascus. After that the leader avoided public appearances, and coordinated regional strategy with Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s external operations chief, himself killed by a US drone strike in 2020.

After another two-year shutdown of parliament, Hezbollah ensured that it elected Aoun as president in late October 2016. Following Lebanon’s economic meltdown, however, Nasrallah’s coalition lost its majority in assembly elections in 2022. That same year Hezbollah agreed a maritime and gas field demarcation agreement with Israel. But showing solidarity with Hamas after 7 October, and so displacing 65,000 Israelis in the north of the country, led to his death.

Nasrallah’s wife, Fatima Yassin, and their children Jawad, Ali and Mahdi, survive him; his daughter Zeinab died in the same blast as him.

🔔 Hassan Nasrallah, political leader, born 31 August 1960; died 27 September 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[eaglesnick]

“Beware of over concern for money, or position, or glory. Someday you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are." - Rudyard Kipling

Keir Starmer, the man who would be king, has been flexing his authoritarian muscle again.

A few weeks ago he suspended 7 left-wing Labour MP’s who voted for an amendment to the King’s Speech supporting the abolition of the two-child benefit cap.

Yesterday Diane Abbott accused Starmer of failing to support her after a Tory donor made racist comments including the statement that she “should be shot".

Diane Abbott claims Keir Starmer "treated her as a non-person."  (Metro: 17/09/24)

Given the UK has witnessed two political assassinations in recent years you would expect something better from the leader of the Labour Party, but no. Why is this? Why was Sir Kier Starmer so unmoved by a call to assassinate one of the most prominent and instantly recognisable members of his own party?

I have a theory. It is only a theory but worryingly Starmer seems to display many of the symptoms of what psychologists term the authoritarian personally.

One of the signs of this personality disorder is the need to dominate. These individuals have a strong need for order and control and often display an aggression and hostility towards those that oppose them. The authoritarian personality has zero tolerance for differences in opinion or dissent.

This may well explain why Starmer was so reluctant to support Diane Abbott. She is on the left of the Labour Party and by definition an “enemy” of  Blairite Starmer. This would also explain why Starmer has been waging war against the left ever since he was elected leader

“What the brutal purge of the Labour left reveals about Sir Keir and his Starmtroopers. The Labour leader has been even more ruthless in imposing his favoured candidates on local parties than Tony Blair or Gordon Brown” (Independent: 30/05/24)

The article concludes that Starmer “shows a seriousness about power and how to wield it” but gives no explanation as to why he is so ruthless and undemocratic in his use of power. I suggest that it is because he is authoritarian.

The authoritarian personality type genuinely sees themselves as superior to others. An example of this is Starmer’s condemnation of cronyism and sleaze in the Tory party while indulging in the same immoral practices himself.

Since 2019 Starmer has received £76,000 worth of personal free gifts from cronies, including concert and football tickets, designer clothes for his wife, and  "£18,685 worth of work clothes and several pairs of glasses". By failing to declare all of these “gifts” Starmer was in breach of the MP’s code of conduct. Despite the rules being breached No 10 issued a statement saying the Parliamentary Standards watchdog would not be investigating whether Starmer broke the rules or not.

The superior Starmer can break the rules but woe betides anyone else who does so.

Many psychologists believe that all of the negative traits displayed by the authoritarian personality stem from hate and the need to punish.

“A  research headline is that authoritarians are fueled by hatred and by a powerful need to punish. Much else that we have come to associate with authoritarianism flows from this basic hate-and-punish agenda."  (Psychology Today:  08/11/17)

So far Starmer has displayed little out-and-out hatred towards people but his  need to punish, which if the psychologists are to be believed stems from hatred, is more obvious.

Not  only have we seen 7 left-wing Labour Party MP’s suspended because they supported an amendment to one of Starmer’s King's Speech policies, but more recently, he has threatened the career prospects of his fellow Labour MP’s if they don’t vote the way he tells them to.

“Sir Keir Starmer has been condemned by a Labour MP after it emerged his whips have warned last week’s winter fuel payment rebels that their careers will be held back as a result of their actions.”  Express: 17/09/24)

The world is full of authoritarian dictators at the moment. We must not let Starmer become one of them.

[dailyanarchistposts]

I.8.10 Why did the CNT collaborate with the state?

As is well know, in September 1936 the CNT joined the Catalan government, followed by the central government in November. This flowed from the decision made on July 21st to not speak of Libertarian Communism until after Franco had been defeated. In other words, to collaborate with other anti-fascist parties and unions in a common front against fascism. This decision, initially, involved the CNT agreeing to join a “Central Committee of Anti-Fascist Militias” proposed by the leader of the Catalan government, Louis Companys. This committee was made up of representatives of various anti-fascist parties and groups. From this it was only a matter of time until the CNT joined an official government as no other means of co-ordinating activities existed (see section I.8.13).

The question must arise, why did the CNT decide to collaborate with the state, forsake its principles and, in its own way, contribute to the counter-revolution and the loosing of the war. This is an important question. Indeed, it is one Marxists always throw up in arguments with anarchists or in anti-anarchist diatribes. Does the failure of the CNT to implement anarchism after July 19th mean that anarchist politics are flawed? Or, rather, does the experience of the CNT and FAI during the Spanish revolution indicate a failure of anarchists rather than of anarchism, a mistake made under difficult objective circumstances and one which anarchists have learnt from? Needless to say, anarchists argue that the latter is correct. In other words, as Vernon Richards argued, “the basis of [this] criticism is not that anarchist ideas were proved to be unworkable by the Spanish experience, but that the Spanish anarchists and syndicalists failed to put their theories to the test, adopting instead the tactics of the enemy.” [Lessons of the Spanish Revolution, p. 14]

So, why did the CNT collaborate with the state during the Spanish Civil War? Simply put, rather than being the fault of anarchist theory (as Marxists like to claim), its roots can be discovered in the situation facing the Catalan anarchists on July 20th. The objective conditions facing the leading militants of the CNT and FAI influenced the decisions they took, decisions which they later justified by mis-using anarchist theory.

What was the situation facing the Catalan anarchists on July 20th? Simply put, it was an unknown situation, as the report made by the CNT to the International Workers Association made clear:

“Levante was defenceless and uncertain … We were in a minority in Madrid. The situation in Andalusia was unknown … There was no information from the North, and we assumed the rest of Spain was in the hands of the fascists. The enemy was in Aragón, at the gates of Catalonia. The nervousness of foreign consular officials led to the presence of a great number of war ships around our ports.” [quoted by Jose Peirats, Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution, p. 180]

Anarchist historian Jose Peirats noted that according to the report “the CNT was in absolute control of Catalonia in July 19, 1936, but its strength was less in Levante and still less in central Spain where the central government and the traditional parties were dominant. In the north of Spain the situation was confused. The CNT could have mounted an insurrection on its own ‘with probable success’ but such a take-over would have led to a struggle on three fronts: against the fascists, the government and foreign capitalism. In view of the difficulty of such an undertaking, collaboration with other antifascist groups was the only alternative.” [Op. Cit., p. 179] In the words of the CNT report itself:

“The CNT showed a conscientious scrupulousness in the face of a difficult alternative: to destroy completely the State in Catalonia, to declare war against the Rebels [i.e. the fascists], the government, foreign capitalism, and thus assuming complete control of Catalan society; or collaborating in the responsibilities of government with the other antifascist fractions.” [quoted by Robert Alexander, The Anarchists in the Spanish Civil War, vol. 2, p. 1156]

Moreover, as Gaston Leval later argued, given that the “general preoccupation” of the majority of the population was “to defeat the fascists … the anarchists would, if they came out against the state, provoke the antagonism … of the majority of the people, who would accuse them of collaborating with Franco.” Implementing an anarchist revolution would, in all likelihood, also result in “the instant closing of the frontier and the blockade by sea by both fascists and the democratic countries. The supply of arms would be completely cut off, and the anarchists would rightly be held responsible for the disastrous consequences.” [The Anarchist Collectives, p. 52 and p. 53]

While the supporters of Lenin and Trotsky will constantly point out the objective circumstances in which their heroes made their decisions during the Russian Revolution, they rarely mention those facing the anarchists in Spain on the 20th of July, 1936. It seems hypocritical to point to the Russian Civil War as the explanation of all of the Bolsheviks’ crimes against the working class (indeed, humanity) while remaining silent on the forces facing the CNT-FAI at the start of the Spanish Civil War. The fact that if the CNT had decided to implement libertarian communism in Catalonia they would have to face the fascists (commanding the bulk of the Spanish army), the Republican government (commanding the rest) plus those sections in Catalonia which supported the republic is rarely mentioned. Moreover, when the decision to collaborate was made it was immediately after the defeat of the army uprising in Barcelona — the situation in the rest of the country was uncertain and when the social revolution was in its early days. Stuart Christie indicates the dilemma facing the leadership of the CNT at the time:

“The higher committees of the CNT-FAI-FIJL in Catalonia saw themselves caught on the horns of a dilemma: social revolution, fascism or bourgeois democracy. Either they committed themselves to the solutions offered by social revolution, regardless of the difficulties involved in fighting both fascism and international capitalism, or, through fear of fascism (or of the people), they sacrificed their anarchist principles and revolutionary objectives to bolster, to become, part of the bourgeois state … Faced with an imperfect state of affairs and preferring defeat to a possibly Pyrrhic victory, the Catalan anarchist leadership renounced anarchism in the name of expediency and removed the social transformation of Spain from their agenda. “But what the CNT-FAI leaders failed to grasp was that the decision whether or not to implement Libertarian Communism, was not theirs to make. Anarchism was not something which could be transformed from theory into practice by organisational decree … [the] spontaneous defensive movement of 19 July had developed a political direct of its own.” [We, the Anarchists!, p. 99]

Given that the pro-fascist army still controlled a third or more of Spain (including Aragón) and that the CNT was not the dominant force in the centre and north of Spain, it was decided that a war on three fronts would only aid Franco. Moreover, it was a distinct possibility that by introducing libertarian communism in Catalonia, Aragón and elsewhere, the workers’ militias and self-managed industries would have been starved of weapons, resources and credit. That isolation was a real problem can be seen from Abad de Santillán’s later comments on why the CNT joined the government:

“The Militias Committee guaranteed the supremacy of the people in arms … but we were told and it was repeated to us endlessly that as long as we persisted in retaining it, that is, as long as we persisted in propping up the power of the people, weapons would not come to Catalonia, nor would we be granted the foreign currency to obtain them from abroad, nor would we be supplied with the raw materials for our industry. And since losing the war meant losing everything and returning to a state like that prevailed in the Spain of Ferdinand VII, and in the conviction that the drive given by us and our people could not vanish completely from the new economic life, we quit the Militias Committee to join the Generalidad government.” [quoted by Christie, Op. Cit., p. 109]

It was decided to collaborate and reject the basic ideas of anarchism until the war was over. A terrible mistake, but one which can be understood given the circumstances in which it was made. This is not, we stress, to justify the decision but rather to explain it and place it in context. Ultimately, the experience of the Civil War saw a blockade of Republic by both “democratic” and fascist governments, the starving of the militias and self-managed collectives of resources and credit as well as a war on two fronts when the State felt strong enough to try and crush the CNT and the semi-revolution its members had started. Most CNT members did not think that when faced with the danger of fascism, the liberals, the right-wing socialists and communists would prefer to undermine the anti-fascist struggle by attacking the CNT. They were wrong and, in this, history proved Durruti totally correct:

“For us it is a matter of crushing Fascism once and for all. Yes, and in spite of the Government. “No government in the world fights Fascism to the death. When the bourgeoisie sees power slipping from its grasp, it has recourse to Fascism to maintain itself. The liberal government of Spain could have rendered the fascist elements powerless long ago. Instead it compromised and dallied. Even now at this moment, there are men in this Government who want to go easy on the rebels. You can never tell, you know — he laughed — the present Government might yet need these rebellious forces to crush the workers’ movement … “We know what we want. To us it means nothing that there is a Soviet Union somewhere in the world, for the sake of whose peace and tranquillity the workers of Germany and China were sacrificed to Fascist barbarians by Stalin. We want revolution here in Spain, right now, not maybe after the next European war. We are giving Hitler and Mussolini far more worry to-day with our revolution than the whole Red Army of Russia. We are setting an example to the German and Italian working class on how to deal with fascism. “I do not expect any help for a libertarian revolution from any Government in the world. Maybe the conflicting interests of the various imperialisms might have some influence in our struggle. That is quite possible … But we expect no help, not even from our own Government, in the last analysis.” “You will be sitting on a pile of ruins if you are victorious,” said [the journalist] van Paasen. Durruti answered: “We have always lived in slums and holes in the wall. We will know how to accommodate ourselves for a time. For, you must not forget, we can also build. It is we the workers who built these palaces and cities here in Spain and in America and everywhere. We, the workers, can build others to take their place. And better ones! We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing this minute.” [quoted by Vernon Richards, Lessons of the Spanish Revolution, pp. 193-4f]

This desire to push the revolution further was not limited to Durruti, as can be seen from this communication from the Catalan CNT leadership in August 1936. It also expresses the fears driving the decisions which had been made:

“Reports have also been received from other regions. There has been some talk about the impatience of some comrades who wish to go further than crushing fascism, but for the moment the situation in Spain as a whole is extremely delicate. In revolutionary terms, Catalonia is an oasis within Spain. “Obviously no one can foresee the changes which may follow the civil war and the conquest of that part of Spain which is still under the control of mutinous reactionaries.” [quoted by Jose Peirats, Op. Cit., pp. 151–2]

Isolation, the uneven support for a libertarian revolution across Spain and the dangers of fascism were real problems, but they do not excuse the libertarian movement for its mistakes. The biggest of these mistakes was forgetting basic anarchist ideas and an anarchist approach to the problems facing the Spanish people. If these ideas had been applied in Spain, the outcome of the Civil War and Revolution could have been different.

In summary, while the decision to collaborate is one that can be understood (due to the circumstances under which it was made), it cannot be justified in terms of anarchist theory. Indeed, as we argue in the next section, attempts by the CNT leadership to justify the decision in terms of anarchist principles are not convincing and cannot be done without making a mockery of anarchism.

[rosejigglypuff76]

CRK Cookie Run Warriors AU - Cookie Character Showcase #3 (The Ancient Heroes)

While I'll be discussing about The Five Ancient Heroes for this next set, I'm also going to include two more cookies into this particular set 🍪

Made for the Cookie Run Warriors AU, a reimagining/alternate version of the original game being Cookie Run Kingdom ⚔️

From what will be showcased, these will be the chosen cookies for this list: 🎀

Pure Vanilla Cookie

Hollyberry Cookie

Dark Cacao Cookie

Dark Choco Cookie

Golden Cheese Cookie

White Lily Cookie

Dark Enchantress Cookie

Pure Vanilla Uchiha

Filled with a bright sense of wisdom and having such humble thoughts. This healing king always does his best to see the good in everyone, wanting to help them first before helping himself in any conflict.

Pure Vanilla is known as the King of Harmony & Truth, guiding cookies towards the path of light and healing their pain when they sought out for him. Known as the Leader Ruler out of the Ancient Rulers, keeping this friend group & team as close as they can ever be.

When Dark Enchantress Cookie started her attack onto the kingdom he rules over, Pure Vanilla still remains neutral about such conflicts such as this. Defending his team and his kingdom via healing them, but still trying to reason with the evil sorceress.

When White Lily Hayashi decides to duel against Dark Enchantress, she urges the other Ancients to flee. Pure Vanilla himself was unable to do just that, afraid for the sake of both cookies.

The other Ancients tried to get him out of the scene, but a sudden blast between both sides collided. Different fates happened to each Ancient during that moment of the Dark Flour War.

Attempting to head back towards the kingdom after waking up in the Raven Village, the Pure Vanilla Kingdom ended up being claimed by Dark Enchantress, filled with cookies that failed to evacuate the area being enslaved.

Choosing to disguise himself as Healer Uzumaki in order to not attract too much attention, helping the rebelling cookies that were either tormented by the now darkened kingdom or were rescued and wanted to help with the rebellion.

He can't let himself get caught, otherwise it'll be game over for everyone. Not just in the taken over kingdom, but also the whole of Earthbread.

~~~

Hollyberry Mistletoe

Often a lively and sunny cookie, hosting such grand and organized parties in her castle for everyone in her kingdom to enjoy once every three weeks. Always on a Friday Night to be precise.

Hollyberry has the title called the Queen of Acceptance & Passion, supporting everyone in the kingdom about their desired passion and ideals. Known as the party dragon of the group (despite not actually being a dragon), keeping the concept of joy and happiness with the rest of the Ancients.

During the duel between White Lily Hayashi and Dark Enchantress Cookie, Hollyberry tries to pull Pure Vanilla away from the duel in order for him to also escape with the rest as part of White Lily's wishes.

However a strong explosion happened during the duel, with Hollyberry having a more horrific fate. Or at least horrific to her people, as she's unaware of it herself.

Gaining amnesia from the explosion, finding herself in the Berry Jungle with no recollection of what happened moments before waking up. Despite this given situation, she still retained that lively personality as she became an enthusiastic huntress.

She dubs herself the Unnamed Huntress, as she's unsure who or what her role is supposed to be. Unbeknownst to her is that the kingdom she rules over is still searching for her.

~~~

Dark Cacao Watanabe

One calm and oddly mellow thoughts despite his cold appearance and looks, balanced out by the fact he's a neko-cookie hybrid. Training the cookies in the citadel for potential attacks and battles, but also having a reasonable amount of understanding and care towards both them and the inhabitants both in and out of the walls.

Dark Cacao is known for the role of the King of Hope & Resolution, training the cookies to become stronger while treating them with respect as he himself helps them as well. Known as the team manager of the Ancient Rulers, or simply known as Pure Vanilla Uchiha's right hand man, in charge of coming up with strategies to defeat the opponents all of them face.

When the duel between White Lily Hayashi and Dark Enchantress Cookie comes to a conclusion, the dark-haired king seems to be faring decently with his kingdom and the inhabiting cookies.

Dark Cacao still retains a good balance when he rules over the citadel, which is especially shown when he guides his son, Dark Choco Watanabe. Training him so he can become stronger, but also give him the perfect amount of love and affection.

Their father-son bond is very strong, which was made as clear as day when Dark Choco slash him in the chest after being fused with the Strawberry Jam Sword's power. Despite that cruel fight, Dark Cacao himself was able to pull through and got his son out of the curse sword's control that same night.

~~~

Dark Choco Watanabe

While he's calm and just, the young prince is a little bit serious compared to his father, alongside being a neko-cookie hybrid too. Following everything that Dark Cacao Watanabe taught him, both strength and love alike, becoming reasonably strong and filled with the equal amount of love from his father.

Dark Choco is classified as the Young Prince of Hope & Justice, having the equal amount of hope like his father and also filled with the sense of serving justice into Earthbread. Considered an honorary member of the team of Ancient Rulers, sometimes seen fighting alongside Dark Cacao and the others by both their sides.

Sometime after the Dark Flour War ended, Dark Choco found the Strawberry Jam Sword on a pedestal within the outskirts of the citadel walls. Pulling it out, accidentally getting his mind corrupted from the sharp weapon.

Despite attacking several cookies and slashing his father on the chest against his will, Dark Choco was able to fully regain control of himself. Because of the strong father-son bond that he had with Dark Cacao, he managed to break through the curse.

After everything that happened during that one night, the young prince's relationship with Dark Cacao was never severed. Both cookies still retain their strong family bond with one another.

From there, Dark Choco helps his father more as a double agent. Seen as an "exiled prince" working as one of the two high-ranked members of the Cookies of Darkness. Time and time again, the young prince himself will always head back into the Dark Cacao Kingdom to tell the higher-ups (his father included) about what he knows. All while still having time to bond with Dark Cacao.

Both Sea Fairy Kimura and Herb Kimura were the only cookies outside of the Dark Cacao Kingdom to be aware of this. Dark Choco wanted the latter to be aware, as they've been childhood besties that turned into boyfriends.

~~~

Golden Cheese Owari

She may be small and the youngest out of the Ancient Rulers, but the silly cheesy bird-cookie hybrid is very agile and a teasing little trickster. While she is a stickler for anything shiny, the bird woman still tries her best to be a great ruler for a kingdom filled with bird-cookie hybrids.

Golden Cheese has always been known as the Queen of Inspiration & Abundance, a playful flier too. Basically the main ambushing fighter, using her agile and decently strong shooting skills to fight for the rest of the Ancient Rulers.

When the war against Dark Enchantress Cookie was no more, thanks to White Lily Hayashi, Golden Cheese fared the most well out of the four remaining Ancient Rulers. With her tech-based city being protected by her three strongest and most loyal followers, especially thanks to the help of Burnt Cheese Jackal.

Both she and Dark Cacao Watanabe would discuss matters with each other, mainly to help one another in protecting both their kingdoms when needed. But there are other times where they try to find where Pure Vanilla Uchiha and Hollyberry Mistletoe are

During the recent months however Mozzarella Hyun has foreseen a sudden attack that Dark Enchantress Cookie will send out that will happen in the near future. As to keep her safe, she told Golden Cheese to temporarily go into a deep slumber in a sarcophagus that she modeled after the queen.

Golden Cheese was unsure at first, because while she enjoys her life now, she doesn't want to leave anything behind. Especially the cookies dear to her in her own kingdom. Mozzarella told her that she told the other two about it, and agreed to be put into a deep slumber too.

Fully convinced Golden Cheese gave her consent, and was put into a deep sleep the moment she was mummified and placed into the sarcophagus.

In reality however, Mozzarella tricked her. Wanting those in the queen's kingdom to stay in a place that doesn't have to endure such suffering again. There was never a near future vision of Dark Enchantress Cookie planning to attack.

From there, Golden Cheese was replaced with an ideal version of herself that Mozzarella made. Many citizens still thought it was the real queen, even Burnt Cheese believed so.

Smoked Cheese Taiyou is the only one that saw through Mozzarella's lies, and is trying to find a way to reopen the sarcophagus that Golden Cheese is trapped in.

~~~

White Lily Hayashi

Ruling alongside her older twin sister, Black Iris Hayashi. Very meek and sweet, wanting to learn more about what else that she still has to learn within Earthbread.

White Lily Hayashi is a younger of the Hayashi Twins, known as the Queen of Protection & Freedom. A timid mage that helps out the rest of the Ancient Rulers, always being the cookie who wants to do her best.

For quite some time, White Lily and Black Iris were doing research on the studies of the Witches, and how many cookies were created by them but very little of which have successfully escaped from the oven.

Dedicated to understanding about the Witches with the added concept of her wanting to free the cookies trapped within, White Lily became desperate and sought out to learn more.

One particular day, White Lily found the location of the Witch's House. Telling Black Iris about what she found, the twin sisters headed there together. Very little knew what happened once they ventured to the forbidden area. Aside from the fact that White Lily herself knows, but refuses to tell anyone what had happened.

During the Dark Flour War, before Dark Enchantress Cookie was about to take the 5 Soul Jams, White Lily managed to block the attack. Proceeding to duel against the evil sorceress and ordering the others to leave and evacuate.

During the concluded explosion, White Lily was sealed away in a magical green crystal which resides in Littleroot Hill. She was found by Team Friendship & Dough sometime after, while helping those in the aforementioned location.

It was revealed her kingdom and those inhabiting it had vanished after her duel against Dark Enchantress. And since she didn't want to label her as a villain, White Lily only told Herb Kimura as he was one of the few cookies that were around at that time (Herb was 10-years old when he witnessed White Lily and Dark Enchantress meeting).

Out of all the cookies that inhabit the now lost White Lily Kingdom, one young harmonic bard can be seen wandering all over Earthbread til this very day.

~~~

Dark Enchantress Cookie

An evil sorceress who was rebaked against her will by the witches. Trying to seek them out in order to strike them down and save the cookies within the oven.

Cruel and malicious about the Witches, wanting to show all of Earthbread what she witnessed and had envisioned. Seeking the goal to collect the Soul Jams of the other Ancient Rulers in order to fight off the ones who made her reborn into this horrific being.

However, she seems to have a soft spot for one cookie. That being White Lily Hayashi, her younger twin sister.

Originally known as Black Iris Hayashi, ruling a kingdom alongside White Lily. Known as the Queen of Knowledge & Liberty, very smart and open minded about everyone within Earthbread.

Black Iris helps her little sister on her research about the Witches, knowing that there are cookies created by them but very little were seen roaming around Earthbread itself. With the concept that they were made just to be eaten, compared to the cookies made by the Wizards and the Sugar Swan.

Deeply concerned for White Lily, Black Iris still supported and helped her out with her research. Unfortunately when they went into the Witch's House, Black Iris herself ended up falling into the Ultimate Dough.

Moments before she did, White Lily was about to be attacked by an indirect movement from the Witches at that given moment. But she pushed her out of the way and towards a safer spot that she wouldn't fall in, for the price that she sacrificed herself.

Black Iris was soon rebaked into Dark Enchantress Cookie, desiring to show Earthbread about her envision about the Witches. Feeling the desperate need to use the Soul Jams to seal away the Witches and seek out what her little sister had researched for the longest time.

She felt remorse at first, but decided to no longer feel it. As Dark Enchantress believes that she's doing what's best for the cookies in all of Earthbread with the idea to take down the Witch.

Her only regret: White Lily now sees her as a monster…

[randomnameless]

It's funny that the “dead siblings” aspect of Edelgard's backstory manages to, in spite of how under-developed and under-written it is, be so wildly contradictory that the only way for it to make any sense with the rest of what we know about her past is to assume that she made all that up in order to gain sympathy points from Byleth; it's almost certainly not what the writers intended, and i don't doubt for a second that Hopes contradicts that theory somewhere, but whatever makes Fódlan make more sense.

Apparently in Nopes they don't know they died or it's just a "rumour"?

Then what, they were all hiding or partying very far away, when their sister became Emperor, over Hans 2's claim? Seriously?

I don't really understand the obsession the devs had with making Adrestia a muddled mumbo jumbo -

we are told Ionius tried to centralise power on itself, the lolcalisation tried to erase it but we're in 2023 : Ionius wanted to get rid of the consort kin system, women feel like they can't inherit a thing, the Emperor (at least the one during the Southern Church incident) takes very badly any "revolts" and get rid heirs he doesn't like, personally appoints people, Ionius erased Hyrm (to the last blood descendant!) and sent his army and funky mages to Ordelia - outside of Adrestia!

Some nobles like to hear young women "sing" and if they can't pay for "singing lessons" they will pay for young men instead.

Adrestian Nobles, unlike their northern barbarian counterparts, stay holed up in their capital, and rarely return to their duchies/lands/territories.

The devs, from this, tried to paint a land where corruption is rampant, a sort of epitome of decadence complete with ASOIAF's "if you need to say you're the king chances are no one thinks you are the king" with Ionius's bids to centralise power on himself, in a nutshell : this Adrestia is rotten, the decadent version of the one sang about in praises or mentionned in old legends.

And yet, even if they describe the land as completely bonkers and everyone more or less is in for their own hide... Adrestian Nobles, the very same ones we're told hired Doro to hear her song, cannot be depicted too badly, because, hey, we're working with them.

Sure, we don't hear Leopold and Waldemar went to the brothel - i mean to the Opera - to hear popular young songstresses sing. But Leopold'n'Waldemar were depicted as corrupt nobles, only in for their money or own gain as the reason why they sided with Aegir to get rid of Ionius, and from what we know of Leopold, he wasn't picking roses and daisies in Brigid too.

And yet, because they magically became allies of Supreme Leader, all the issues that could be laid at the feet of Imperial Nobles, especially theirs as the most important nobles of them all, are... absent.

No one ever asks Leopold'n'Waldemar were are the other imperial children, or why they betrayed Ionius. No mention of Leopold, the Minister of War and a seasoned fighter, having personally trained Hans 2 or maybe acknowledging his talents as a warrior - or lack of compared to Supreme Leader's, no, nothing.

Asking Leopold why Caspar isn't his heir, even if he doesn't have a crest, since he shown great abilities to fight? No, never.

In the end, we see those crap nobles, but we never tell anything or do anything with them. Ionius was yeeted away in Nopes (maybe because including Ionius in the story, who was betrayed by Leopold'n'Waldemar, wouldn't have worked with the idea of making them Supreme Leader's allies) and Aegir is never given any voice to the chapter, or when he is, it's to be a living retcon - he wanted to take part, just like Leopold'n'Waldemar, in Supreme Leader's MAGA war, when he rebelled against Ionius who centralised power on himself? To MAGA? - because nothing should "taint" our vision of the heroine.

FE16 already teased Supreme Leader's version of the Insurrection being horse dung when Hanneman told Hubert he doesn't know what Vestra Sr rebelled, and how Vestra Sr rebelled because there was something, rather, someone, more important to him than eons of loyalty to the Hresvelg family.

Is it the same "reason" that made Arundel, when he was still Volkhard, put his niece to safety - in the kingdom !!! - with her mother, before being Slithered.

Those clues, complete with the Ferdie paralogue in SS - of course unavailable in CF - reveal that while Ludwig is a piece of slime, he isn't the piece of slime depicted by Supreme Leader (that'd be her Uncle) ; hell, all of Ludwig's actions (both in that paralogue and the experiments on the Hresvelg kids) were done by Thales, with Ludwig as his scapegoat.

So why? What is the truth behind the Insurrection, and behind Ludwig's role?

Is Adrestia deliberately "opaque" to make "the world look deeper" than it is, or because it's supposed to imply Mole People slithering around made the thing "way too complicated"?

Or is it because the more we learn about Adrestia - and what led to Ionius being deposed - the more we realise Supreme Leader's words are, at best, misguided, at worst, straight out lies?

But in the process of "muddling" everything, coherence and consistency was sacrificed, Hans 2 disappeared and the plot dgaf - heck people don't know what happened to the other imperial children, and no one every bats an eye at this, especially since the Emperor was not the first, nor the second in line (and Supreme Leader isn't supposed to be like Ashnard who might fed people who ask those questions to Rajaion, or just straight out tell them the truth before laughing).

I still believe they exist, but since Jugdral, the FE series had issues writing "missing royal siblings" having any signification to the plot - bar being a late hour "Falchion with legs" - even if I HC that Julia isn't killed when her unit dies in the 2nd gen because the Imperial Army recognises her and captures her to return her to Arvis (they rescue her from those Isaachian barbarians!)

And yet, again, compared to Glen, Hans 2's absence stings, and it's, again, an example of coherence and logic being sacrificed for the sake of parasocial relationships.

It sucks.

[yamineftis]

Tbh so far one of my main gripes with Mandalorian S3, which I do not hate but I'm massively disappointed with, is that it's yet to give me a good reason why Bo Katan should rule a third time aside her being a royal.

Like are they really saying she's the ONLY one who cares about retaking the planet? And that's enough to be the one?.

Like, when she was first reintroduced in the mandalorian as the heiress and then called a princess I thought the series would at least try to challenge this notion through exploring her past mistakes and why she is this way, but nope, you have better seen clone wars and rebels to know she's a well rounded character cuz we ain't explaining shit.

Like when the armorer accepted her in the covert for bathing in the waters and keeping the helmet on?... I just...that's not...how religion works, it's not a series of technicalities, it's about intent and devotion. Look at me in the eye and say that her diving to save Din's ass is the same as that pretty scene of Din reciting the words while baptizing.

Now I always defended the children of the watch and claimed they wouldn't be villains, so I was glad they were accepting of others, but one thing is accepting not everyone thinks like you and another is ignoring your own faith for plot reasons? I absolutely didn't think them not being villains would mean literally 0 conflict nfjajfjs. What happened with the armorer calling Bo a cautionary tale? What happened to "they strayed form the way and we lost our world", give us some tension please 😭.

And we couldn't even get to know how Bo felt about it all, she was just doing as told. How does she feel about joining the very people she scoffed at and called zealots? How did she feel to be wrong about them? Oh no wait she has to lead a war party bc foundling is randomly abducted. And this shows how good of a leader she is, ok you should lead Mandalore again bc you saw a dinosaur....what????.

I liked the idea of Din ruling because it'd be interesting to see him struggling to be something more, but I was ready to let that idea go cuz he didn't really want the dark saber. But after how Bo got it through a cop out, I kinda wish it stayed with Din. The sole fact that Bo can't even convince her nite owls to join her without the dark saber is very telling, and is made worse by the fact that we don't even know why they follow that rule so hard and then scoff at Din for being a "zealot".

I'm aware this all might be misleading and someone else might have to step up, but even if that's the case, the reasoning to get to this point has been just so poor and convenient, it breaks my heart because Bo is such a complex and interesting character, but they haven't explored HER at all, her stepping down would have much more impact that way.

All in all, I think the season has good ideas but they didn't make the characters part of them, just puppets moving along :/ and I'm still not convinced Bo should try to rule /again/.

[beardedmrbean]

Yaya Dillo Djerou died on Wednesday "where he had retreated, at the headquarters of his party. He didn't want to surrender and fired on law enforcement," said government spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah, who is also communications minister, said.

It came after Chad on Tuesday announced it would hold a presidential election on May 6, which both Deby Itno and Dillo -- who were cousins from the same Zaghawa ethnic minority -- planned to contest.

The prosecutor general earlier spoke of "dead including Yaya Dillo" without detailing the circumstances.

Roadblocks and heavy security were in place Thursday around the party's headquarters in Chad's capital where the army carried out the assault the previous day.

Dillo, who led the opposition Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF), was accused of having led an attack against the offices of the internal security agency overnight on Tuesday to Wednesday.

That came after the arrest of a PSF member accused of an "assassination attempt against the president of the supreme court".

Speaking to AFP on Wednesday, Dillo denied any involvement in the incident, denouncing the claim as a "lie" and politically motivated.

 'To physically eliminate me'   

"I wasn't present," he said.

"The desired goal is to prevent me, to physically eliminate me... to make me afraid so that I don't go to the election," Dillo said.

He also condemned the attempted attack against the supreme court president as "staged".

"Anyone looking to disturb the democratic process under way in the country will be prosecuted and brought to justice," the government said Wednesday.

Chad is France's last close partner in the Sahel region following the forced withdrawal of French troops from Mali in August 2022, Burkina Faso in February 2023 and Niger in December after military coups.

Dillo, 49, had been an armed rebel turned minister and finally an opposition chief considered a dangerous rival for his cousin.

He was a candidate for the presidency in 2021 against his uncle, Idriss Deby Itno.

He fled the country in February of that year after security forces attempted to arrest him at his home.

The commando-style raid left several dead including his mother and one of his sons.

Deby Itno was proclaimed transitional president at the age of 37 after his father, Idriss Deby Itno, was killed while fighting rebels in 2021.

Mahamat Deby Itno had promised to hand power back to civilians and organise elections within 18 months, but subsequently extended the transition by other two years.

The opposition has asked the transitional president not to run for office in the central African country, which the United Nations ranks as the second-least developed in the world.

He had told the African Union he would not run, but a constitution adopted in a December referendum allows him to do so.

[readwithnox]

7 LGBTQ+ Indie Books Releasing During Pride Month

Looking for some new books to celebrate? Check these out!

Paragon Seven

by Phoenix Ning

The gritty setting and angsty sapphic relationship of ARCANE meets the ensemble cast and discussions of power in THE ATLAS SIX where seven queer people of color with superpowers work together to overthrow an oligarchy in a federation of four sectors.

Twenty-two-year-old Mu Lanying is one kill shy from graduating as Skyleen Military Academy’s next valedictorian. After that, she will be crowned as the Laurel Scholar in a private ceremony held in the Chancellor’s Office. Within the Office lies a restricted archive that holds the truth to her mother’s death — an enigma that has haunted her for the past six years. But when Lanying is tasked with executing a revolutionary called Marigold, she fails the mission.

Twenty-four-year-old Lee Chaewon is no stranger to threats. In the past seven years, she had been a triple threat in the entertainment industry and a threat to the Skyleen Administration as a member of the insurgent quartet called Blossom Four. But now, the only threat haunting her is the lack of funds needed to treat her older sister’s terminal illness. When Marigold offers to cover the remaining cost of her sister’s chemotherapy in exchange for a favor, Chaewon takes the money and agrees to assassinate the upcoming Laurel Scholar.

During the Academy’s Commencement Parade, Lanying gains access to the restricted archive where she learns that her mother was executed for posing as the Chancellor’s mistress while spying on his inner circle. On top of that, her mother had passed on classified information to a network of rebels including Chaewon’s father, and the Administration is still hunting for surviving insurgents. When Chaewon fails to assassinate Lanying, the former learns that her father had also died under the Chancellor’s order. Enraged, the pair set out to locate surviving rebels in hopes of recovering the information that is worth killing for. The girls eventually find themselves leading a coup d’etat with five other people that will either end in bloodshed or usher in a new age.

Releasing June 1st, 2023—LGBTQ+ Fantasy

Add it on Goodreads

By Your Side: A Queerplatonic Short Story

By Margherita Scialla

Emma’s relationship ends abruptly when she comes across her boyfriend cheating on her at a party. Yet another failed relationship brings her repressed platonic feelings for one of her best friends to the surface once more.

Emma’s scared to voice her worries and desires, but even if she manages to bring up how she feels, how will Noah react to such a revelation?

Releasing June 6th, 2023 — Young Adult LGBTQ+ Fiction

Add it on Goodreads • Get it on Amazon

Trick

By Cara Nox

Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series meets V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue with a dash of Disney+’s Loki in this new adult urban fantasy.

WELCOME TO NEW ATLAS: A CITY WITHIN A REALITY JUST BEYOND OUR OWN.

Evie is a nobody. Spending her days in college classes and her nights studying, having a social life has never really been a priority. With her sights firmly set on the future to keep away her thoughts of the past, she loses her grip on the present when her world is ripped out from under her. And it’s all thanks to two mysterious strangers showing up on her doorstep, claiming that she can turn back time.

Cade is a notorious troublemaker. He’s never been afraid to throw around his name to get what he wants as someone who’s clawed his way to the top. But power is quick to change hands in this city, and when he chooses to blatantly disregard an order from his leader, his older brother, he’s tossed back down to the bottom again. He’ll be more than lucky to regain any sort of trust when everyone knows he’s one of the best spies there is, sliding in and out of shadows in the blink of an eye.

Ren is a bored teenager. Always labeled as the “golden child” or “gifted student,” he finds himself writing down cryptic messages and following strange leads, rather than putting on the same old song and dance for his family. Especially once he discovers his little stolen fragments of the future are starting to take a darker turn. Perhaps chasing the life everyone wants him to have isn’t necessarily in the cards for him, but there’s only one way to find out.

So when someone within the secret society known as the Custodians targets Evie for her power, the clock starts in the final sprint to hunt down the culprit. In order to uncover whatever hidden clues are lurking in the past, the three of them have no choice but to peel back the layers of obscurity built up between their factions to figure out why she’s being hunted and how they might be able to fix their bleak futures before it’s too late.

Just remember: time is nothing but a trick.

Releasing June 13th, 2023 — New Adult LGBTQ+ Urban Fantasy

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Scars & Secrets (Shield & Sorrow, Book #2)

by J.E. Ridge

Saving the kingdom was only the beginning …

Kings Archer and Silas successfully thwarted the plot to take over Arnsveld and Bellacosta. Now they’re struggling to maintain their tenuous relationship amidst dissenting soldiers, scheming nobles, and the trial of the century.

Valerian’s job is to neutralize the mage behind the plot without getting tangled in his sinister web. When Penn finds himself at the mercy of traitors, Valerian abandons everything to help him. Love and magic prove to be a deadly combination.

Releasing June 20th, 2023—LGBTQ+ Romantic Fantasy

Add it on Goodreads • Get it on Amazon

Hymn of Memory

By S. Jean

As the Divine of Blackburn, Morgan sends its departed souls into the afterlife. It’s a sacred job spanning generations of Divines before him, but there’s a problem: the process invites the dead’s memories inside and those memories quickly erode and erase his own. Before long, he fears he will completely lose who he is and no one seems to care.

Then Fin, a familiar face from town, sneaks into Morgan’s room to beg for a resending of his grandmother and Morgan quickly agrees, knowing it means an opportunity to escape.

As escape quickly turns into a road trip with Fin to replace the memories he’s lost, Morgan has to confront what it means if he never returns. Without him to send souls, they die completely, leaving a void in the world where nothing will live or grow. Returning, however, means he will lose himself.

And so, Morgan must decide if never returning and living his life as himself — not the Divine — is worth more than the souls he’s leaving behind.

Releasing June 27th, 2023 — Young Adult LGBTQ+ Contemporary Fantasy

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Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love

by Rita A. Rubin

A slice-of-life fantasy, perfect for fans of Legends & Lattes and Howl’s Moving Castle.

Jayce has little memory of life before entering servitude to the Dark Lord, and no hope of ever escaping. Until he meets Alexius, the knight with a heart of gold. He offers Jayce, his enemy, a chance to break free of the Dark Lord’s clutches, and Jayce is not about to let such an opportunity pass.

When the war comes to an end, Jayce finds himself finally free, with Alexius’s help, and surrounded by a new world of opportunity. And the prospect of a new love. The more time Jayce spends with Alexius, the more he finds himself falling for this knight in shining armour.

Releasing June 29th, 2023 — New Adult LGBTQ+ Romantic Fantasy

Add it on Goodreads

Unpainted

By Dan Fitzgerald

In the hermetic society of the Painted Faces, pale, unblemished skin is rewarded with station, wealth, and power.

Tera would almost rather go unpainted than enter into an arranged marriage with a total stranger, but that would mean giving up the only life she’s ever known. Not to mention her share of her family’s Pureline fortune.

She’s always thought love was a fairy tale and sex a joyless chore, but the alternative might be worse.

Enter Aven, a soft buttercup of a man, the kindest and most considerate person she’s ever met. A tropical honeymoon awaits, and with the help of her intimacy consultant, Tera is determined to make the best of this awkward ritual. Amid the island breezes, she and her new spouse form a bond neither of them knew they were capable of.

But trouble stirs beneath the polite veneer of the Painted Faces’ society, threatening to tear them — and their entire world — apart.

Releasing June 30th, 2023 — LGBTQ+ Fantasy Romance

Add it on Goodreads

Disclaimer: anything purchased through the links provided in this article helps me continue writing with compensation through Amazon’s affiliate program.

[reasoningdaily]

A long-simmering crisis over Haiti’s ability to govern itself, particularly after a series of natural disasters and an increasingly dire humanitarian emergency, has come to a head in the Caribbean nation, as its de facto president remains stranded in Puerto Rico and its people starve and live in fear of rampant violence. 

The chaos engulfing the country has been bubbling for more than a year, only for it to spill over on the global stage on Monday night, as Haiti’s unpopular prime minister, Ariel Henry, agreed to resign once a transitional government is brokered by other Caribbean nations and parties, including the U.S.

But the very idea of a transitional government brokered not by Haitians but by outsiders is one of the main reasons Haiti, a nation of 11 million, is on the brink, according to humanitarian workers and residents who have called for Haitian-led solutions. 

What is happening in Haiti and why?

In the power vacuum that followed the assassination of democratically elected President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, Henry, who was prime minister under Moïse, assumed power, with the support of several nations, including the U.S. 

When Haiti failed to hold elections multiple times — Henry said it was due to logistical problems or violence — protests rang out against him. By the time Henry announced last year that elections would be postponed again, to 2025, armed groups that were already active in Port-au-Prince, the capital, dialed up the violence.

Even before Moïse’s assassination, these militias and armed groups existed alongside politicians who used them to do their bidding, including everything from intimidating the opposition to collecting votes. With the dwindling of the country’s elected officials, though, many of these rebel forces have engaged in excessively violent acts, and have taken control of at least 80% of the capital, according to a United Nations estimate. 

Those groups, which include paramilitary and former police officers who pose as community leaders, have been responsible for the increase in killings, kidnappings and rapes since Moïse’s death, according to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program at Uppsala University in Sweden. According to a report from the U.N. released in January, more than 8,400 people were killed, injured or kidnapped in 2023, an increase of 122% increase from 2022.

Armed groups who had been calling for Henry’s resignation have already attacked airports, police stations, sea ports, the Central Bank and the country’s national soccer stadium. The situation reached critical mass earlier this month when the country’s two main prisons were raided, leading to the escape of about 4,000 prisoners. The beleaguered government called a 72-hour state of emergency, including a night-time curfew — but its authority had evaporated by then.

Aside from human-made catastrophes, Haiti still has not fully recovered from the devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed about 220,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless, many of them living in poorly built and exposed housing. More earthquakes, hurricanes and floods have followed, exacerbating efforts to rebuild infrastructure and a sense of national unity.

Since the earthquake, “there have been groups in Haiti trying to control that reconstruction process and the funding, the billions of dollars coming into the country to rebuild it,” said Beckett, who specializes in the Caribbean, particularly Haiti. 

Many armed groups have formed in recent years claiming to be community groups carrying out essential work in underprivileged neighborhoods, but they have instead been accused of violence, even murder. One of the two main groups, G-9, is led by a former elite police officer, Jimmy Chérizier — also known as “Barbecue” — who has become the public face of the unrest and claimed credit for various attacks on public institutions. He has openly called for Henry to step down and called his campaign an “armed revolution.”

But caught in the crossfire are the residents of Haiti. In just one week, 15,000 people have been displaced from Port-au-Prince, according to a U.N. estimate. But people have been trying to flee the capital for well over a year, with one woman telling NBC News that she is currently hiding in a church with her three children and another family with eight children. The U.N. said about 160,000 people have left Port-au-Prince because of the swell of violence in the last several months. 

Deep poverty and famine are also a serious danger. Gangs have cut off access to the country’s largest port, Autorité Portuaire Nationale, and food could soon become scarce.

Haiti's uncertain future

A new transitional government may dismay the Haitians and their supporters who call for Haitian-led solutions to the crisis. 

But the creation of such a government would come after years of democratic disruption and the crumbling of Haiti’s political leadership. The country hasn’t held an election in eight years. 

Haitian advocates and scholars like Jemima Pierre, an associate anthropology professor at Columbia University, say foreign intervention, including from the U.S., is partially to blame for Haiti’s turmoil. The U.S. has routinely sent thousands of troops to Haiti, intervened in its government and supported unpopular leaders like Henry.

In fact, the country’s situation was so dire that Henry was forced to travel abroad in the hope of securing a U.N. peacekeeping deal. He went to Kenya, which agreed to send 1,000 troops to coordinate an East African and U.N.-backed alliance to help restore order in Haiti,but the plan is now on hold. Kenya agreed last October to send a U.N.-sanctioned security force to Haiti, but Kenya’s courts decided it was unconstitutional. The result has been Haiti fending for itself. 

“A force like Kenya, they don’t speak Kreyòl, they don’t speak French,” Pierre said. “The Kenyan police are known for human rights abuses. So what does it tell us as Haitians that the only thing that you see that we deserve are not schools, not reparations for the cholera the U.N. brought, but more military with the mandate to use all kinds of force on our population? That is unacceptable.”  

Now that Henry is to stand down, it is far from clear what the armed groups will do or demand next, aside from the right to govern. 

“It’s the Haitian people who know what they’re going through. It’s the Haitian people who are going to take destiny into their own hands. Haitian people will choose who will govern them,” Chérizier said recently, according to The Associated Press.

Haitians and their supporters have put forth their own solutions over the years, holding that foreign intervention routinely ignores the voices and desires of Haitians. 

In 2021, both Haitian and non-Haitian church leaders, women’s rights groups, lawyers, humanitarian workers, the Voodoo Sector and more created the Commission to Search for a Haitian Solution to the Crisis. The commission has proposed the “Montana Accord,” outlining a two-year interim government with oversight committees tasked with restoring order, eradicating corruption and establishing fair elections.