#Republic Day 2023 Quotes | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

talesfrommedinastation · 8 months ago

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The Knight is Crowned King

“I am saying it is time to put aside the trooper, the CT number, the clone who served under a sergeant in a Republic that no longer exists. It is time for you to become the captain that we– your people –need you to be.”

Tech stood up straight. “Then, if that is the case, Camina, I have a request.”

“Say it.”

“Get me a tattoo gun. Now.”

-Camina Drummer and Tech, Far Past the Ring

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I really can’t thank @cloned-eyes enough for this wonderful piece that they did. She she taki taki!

It is Camina Drummer giving Tech the infamous 'collar' tattoo of The Belt in her presidential office, LDS mural still behind her.

For me, this culminates the spirit of Far Past the Ring, especially for canon characters Camina Drummer and Tech.

The story was initially conceived as a fun little romp for Clone Force 99, where Tech would meet a Belter engineer, they’d chat, maybe have a short romance, and move on with their lives.

This was February 2023.

But after Plan 99 aired a month later…well, we all went a little nuts. I did, too. Blame the Wellbutrin.

Also, blame me taking folklore classes at Berkeley as an undergrad. I decided the short story was going to become something bigger, and Tech was taking center stage.

On that note, I was so angry for Tech.

I was angry for all of his potential as a character, thrown down the mountain on Eriadu.

So, I decided to whip out the ol’ English 251 notes I had from years ago, and chart out Tech’s own Hero’s Journey, through the world of The Expanse meeting the world of Star Wars.

But I did not want Tech merely limping off into the sun into a simple, happy ending. No.

I wanted him to face challenges, fight, win alliances, and be received as the goddamned hero that he is.

To quote Campbell himself from The Hero with a Thousand Faces:

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

And who better to bestow this mighty power and crown unto Tech then Camina motherfuckin’ Drummer.

If you haven’t seen The Expanse, know that Camina Drummer goes through the Hero’s Journey of Hero’s Journeys herself. She rose from an orphan working the docks on Ceres, to a foot soldier for Anderson Dawes, a director under Fred Johnson, the first commanding officer of the largest vessel in human history (The OPAS Behemoth, later Medina Station), and then, the first president of the Transport Union, arguably the most powerful person in the universe.

It isn't an easy journey: she's shot, beaten, breaks her spine, loses the love of her life, watches loved ones get murdered in front of her, and is abandoned by those who professed to love her.

But Camina Drummer never gives up. She fights to the end to make things right. Girlfriend is rewarded....and now she passes that onto Tech.

After all, Camina’s people, the Belters, adorn themselves through tattoos. They live their lives in space, in the vacuum, where jewelry can be lost, damaged or hurt the owner. So they tattoo.

Years ago, cheap suits were supplied by Inners for Belters under their governance. They demanded Belters to work and extract resources from the Kuiper Belt and other outer planets in order to make them rich. The helmet connections ot the suit would often burn the wearer's neck, as seen below on Anderson Dawes.

In many ways, it is also a symbol of the yoke of slavery, of a chain around one’s neck.

Although younger Belters now wear better vacsuits, they still wear the tattoos to remind them of what their ancestors went through, seen on Naomi Nagata below.

A symbol of pain is now a symbol of what Belters are fighting for–freedom. Which they earn.

So, by getting that tattoo, done by Camina Drummer, the hero and president of the Belt, is our Tech getting crowned.

It’s right after Camina makes him their Chief Systems Engineer as well as a commander. He bled and fought for his chosen people, and he is rewarded as such.

It's him saying I'm here, I'm one of you, and your leader is the one putting it on me.

Oh, and in true fairy tale hero’s journey mode, Tech also gets a beautiful Belter ‘princess’...Sjael Drummer, Camina’s cousin.

Once again, something that originally wasn’t in the cards last year, but I wanted a full Hero’s Journey and I was damned if Tech wasn’t going to get it!

Tagging those that have commented and enjoyed the story: @eyecandyeoz @perfectlywingedcrusade @megmca @skellymom @cdblake1565 @thecoffeelorian @supremechancellorrex @that-salmonberry-punk @autistic-artistech @deezlees @littlefeatherr @nahoney22 @freesia-writes @eelfuneral @yeehawgeek @isthereanechoinhere96 @sued134

#tbb #cloneforce99 #thebadbatch #the bad batch #the expanse #theexpanse #belter #fanfiction #starwarsfanfiction #tech #tbb tech #tech tuesday #clone trooper tech #camina drummer #beltalowda #belter tattoo #tech the bad batch

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usafphantom2 · 3 months ago

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Agile Combat Employment and Response to North Korean Nuclear Strike Among Ulchi Freedom Shield 24 Exercise’s Highlights

Ulchi Freedom Shield 24 will see the participation of 200 aircraft, including South Korean F-15Ks, FA-50s, and KF-16s and US F-16s and A-10s, which are expected to fly more than 2,000 sorties around the clock.

Parth Satam

Ulchi Freedom Shield 24

A ROKAF F-15K Slam Eagle, assigned to the 11th Fighter Wing at Daegu Air Base, takes off for a mission on Aug. 20, 2024. (Image credit: ROKAF)

This year’s edition of the joint South Korea and the U.S annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, which kicked off on Aug. 19, 2024 has a lot of firsts. Among the most notable is the rehearsal, for the first time, of the response to a North Korean nuclear strike against South Korea.

An interesting feature is the practice of ACE (Agile Combat Employment) operations by the 8th and 51st Fighter Wings of the U.S. Air Force as well as the ROKAF (Republic of Korea Air Force) units. South Korean reports also said the air combat component will see what has been defined as the largest ever number of sorties planned, reportedly 2,000, around the clock.

More than 200 South Korean and US aircraft will participate. The US’ 8th Fighter Wing based at Kunsan Air Base and 51st FW at Osan Air Base announced their integration into the exercise, saying they incorporated the recurring wing readiness exercises into Ulchi Freedom Shield 24. The ROKAF will reportedly participate with the 11th, 16th and 20th Fighter Wings, which are equipped with F-15K, FA-50 and KF-16 jets.

Other goals include countering North Korea’s missile and cyber threats in 40 different kinds of field exercises, which will last until Aug. 29. The drills will also include unspecified computerized simulations components.

The Chosun Daily mentioned that “this year’s drill, for the first time, includes government response training for a hypothetical North Korean nuclear attack.” The report further added that “the primary focus of this year’s exercise is to master specific response measures in the event of a North Korean nuclear strike.”

A U.S. Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II from the 51st Fighter Wing, takes off using an Alternate Landing Surface (ALS) at Osan AB, Republic of Korea, Aug. 1, 2023. (Image credit: USAF/Staff Sgt. Thomas Sjoberg)

The ROK and the U.S. Air Forces will undertake “120 hours of continuous day and night sorties for 5 days” for multi-domain missions, according to an automated translation of a video released by Yu Yungwon TV. The aircraft will practice both Defensive Counter Air missions, as well as air interdiction, with virtually simulated targets including cruise missiles and high-speed aircraft.

About 19,000 South Korean military personnel will participate in the drills, which will be held alongside civil defense and evacuation drills. The exercise will “reflect realistic threats across all domains,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff was quoted by DW.

The U.S. stations around 28,500 troops in the ROK. The UFS 24 exercise also comes after US and Allies, including the ROK, Japan and Australia, wrapped up the annual Pacific Dragon 24 exercises, which also saw the firing of the ship-launched Standard Missile-series.

8th Fighter Wing

Saying that it has begun integrating into the UFS 24, the 8th FW, also known as the “Wolf Pack” and equipped with the F-16CM Block 40, mentioned it will conduct local flying and ACE (Agile Combat Employment) operations at forward locations to increase interoperability with mission partners in realistic combat scenarios. “These scenarios directly support the exercise’s focus on conducting multi-domain operations leveraging component assets, emphasizing countering weapons of mass destruction,” added the press release.

“It is imperative to link the Wolf Pack with the operational level of command,” said the 8th FW commander, Col. Peter Kasarkis. “These connections do not happen automatically and must be rehearsed. Exercises such as Ulchi Freedom Shield provide the sandbox to allow us to continuously improve.”

Additionally, the Wolf Pack is “testing its wing’s readiness, including its ability to support follow-on forces and defend the base against regional threats.” The commander further added that “participation in these exercises builds a more combat-ready force, better able to meet any challenge in the Indo-Pacific region.”

The 8th FW had also publicized its ACE practices during the Beverly Pack 24-1 held between May 7-9, 2024, which saw “67 airmen deployed to Gwangju Air Base” to “operate in unfamiliar locations at a moment’s notice.” The press release added that “the exercise challenged the wing’s retrieval, refueling, and aircraft launch capabilities while advancing Airmen’s knowledge and skills to effectively generate airpower across the Indo-Pacific region.”

ACE essentially means operating out of austere locations, airfields with minimal supporting and technical infrastructure in order to spread out from the larger bases that are likely to come under a sudden adversary missile barrage. An extension of ACE is Dynamic Force Employment where bombers or fighters quick movement of forces, and the ability to operate soon after reaching the deployed location and perform their mission.

Senior Airmen Dawson Leake, 80th Fighter Generation Squadron crew chief, provides preventative maintenance on a F-16 Fighting Falcon at Gwangju Air Base, Republic of Korea, May 7, 2024. (Image credit: USAF/Staff Sgt. Samuel Earick)

51st Fighter Wing

The 51st FW at Osan Air Base, meanwhile, is incorporating its recurring wing readiness exercise into UFS 24 for the first time in recent history. Similarly to the 8th FW, the 51st FW will also conduct local flying and ACE operations to not only enhance local wing readiness, but also reinforce U.S. Seventh Air Force and U.S. Forces Korea’s command-and-control training efforts.

The Wing, Seventh Air Force and the U.S. Forces Korea will “engage in contingency response exercises, training on mobilization and force deployment capabilities while simultaneously rehearsing the protection and sustainment of base operations,” said the press release. But the highlight would be aircraft and personnel mobilizing and operating “out of a co-operating base location in the Republic of Korea, further enhancing the wing’s ability to execute the mission in an unfamiliar environment at a moment’s notice.”

An F-16 Fighting Falcon from the 80th Fighter Squadron takes-off during Beverly Pack 24-1 at Gwangju Air Base, Republic of Korea, May 7, 2024. (Image credit: USAF/Staff Sgt. Samuel Earick)

Korean Reports

Yu Yongwon TV meanwhile released footage of ROKAF F-15Ks, FA-50s and KF-16s being serviced by ground crew and taking off during day and night-time sorties. The video said the ROKAF and the U.S.A.F will fly “120 hours of continuous day and night sorties for 5 days, strengthening wartime operational capabilities,” with a total of “2,000 sorties, the largest ever.” Interestingly, there were no mention of the ROKAF F-35’s participation.

The 200 aircraft participating include F-15Ks, FA-50s, and KF-16s of the 11th, 16th, and 20th Fighter Wings of the ROK Air Force, the F-16s and A-10s of the 51st Fighter Wing and the F-16s of the 8th FW of the U.S. Air Force. “This is the first time that multiple ROK and US Air Force squadrons have simultaneously conducted 24-hour live flight training for multi-domain missions,” said the reports.

Missions like Defensive Counter Air (DCA), Air Interdiction (AI) and Airborne Alert Interdiction (X-INT) are mentioned among the missions that will be conducted to ensure the absence of gaps in the air defense posture during the day and night. “This training is characterized by maximizing response capabilities. If an aircraft conducting defensive counter air training receives an order similar to a real situation, it will immediately switch to combat surveillance and perform it,” said the report.

This suggests the retasking during the flights, where fighters switch from one type of mission to another. “Virtual enemy formation will be deployed to simulate high-speed aircraft infiltration and cruise missile launches,” said the report, further adding that the training for “air units to support air operations” would involve “mass ammunition assembly, maximum armament loadout, and emergency return and re-departure.”

About Parth Satam

Parth Satam's career spans a decade and a half between two dailies and two defense publications. He believes war, as a human activity, has causes and results that go far beyond which missile and jet flies the fastest. He therefore loves analyzing military affairs at their intersection with foreign policy, economics, technology, society and history. The body of his work spans the entire breadth from defense aerospace, tactics, military doctrine and theory, personnel issues, West Asian, Eurasian affairs, the energy sector and Space.

@TheAviationist.com

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eddie-redmayne-italian-blog · 6 months ago

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Eddie Redmayne and Wife Hannah Bagshawe Twin at the 2024 Met Gala

The 'Cabaret' actor attended the annual event just days after he received a Tony nomination

By Victoria Edel

Eddie Redmayne and his wife Hannah Bagshawe were couple goals at the 2024 Met Gala as they hit the green carpet in coordinating outfits.

“We’re wearing matching outfits!” Redmayne, 42, delightfully told Vogue red carpet hosts Gwendoline Christie and Ashley Graham on May 6. “This is by a gentleman called Steve O. Smith, a young designer. He’s had two collections. He’s an extraordinary man and an extraordinary designer.”

Both husband and wife’s looks featured big black blotches on layers of white tulle. Bagshawe’s outfit featured a tea-length dress with a matching sculptural hat, gloves and pointy black boots. Meanwhile, the Fantastic Beasts star’s outfit was a long, tulle blazer with the same black ink-spots, a tie and black oxford shoes.

Redmayne currently stars on Broadway as the Emcee in Cabaret, a role he also played on London’s West End in 2021. On April 30, Redmayne received a Tony nomination for the part.

“I just saw you live,” Graham, 36, told the actor Monday night. “I was in the front row, and I have to say your character, you embody that character!”

“I hope I wasn’t too lascivious,” Redmayne joked. Of the show, which is set in Germany in 1929, he said, “We’re having the most amazing time. The show is in the round. When you come from 52nd Street, you step into this whole world of the Weimar Republic. The audience is so electric.”

'Sleeping Beauties': The 2024 Met Gala Theme Explained — and How Stars Will Interpret the Dress Code

He also praised his costar, Gayle Rankin, who received a Tony nomination as well.

Redmayne also teased his upcoming TV series, The Day of the Jackal, adding that he’s “playing an assassin who wears quote debonaire suits — probably not tulle skirts!”

Redmayne previously wore one of Smith’s designs for Cabaret’s Broadway opening night earlier this spring. The Oscar winner is also Tony-nominated as one of the show’s producers, and previously won a Tony in 2010 for the play Red.

Redmayne and Bagshawe, 41, have been married since 2014. They share two children, daughter Iris, 7 1/2, and son Luke, 6. The couple have attended the Met Gala together many times, including the 2023 event.

See all of PEOPLE’s Star-Studded Met Gala Coverage in One Place!

The Met Gala was a rare night off for Redmayne, who performs in Cabaret eight times a week.

"You live like a monk," he explained of the intense Broadway schedule during the April 25 episode of Live with Kelly and Mark. "It’s sort of this odd thing where you’re inviting audiences to come and have a hedonistic, sort of all-consuming evening and yet, you are only drinking water, not speaking, all that stuff."

"The role itself is quite a workout, but I have this brilliant man called Greg who is sort of this icon on Broadway in that he is the man who keeps people upright," the Good Nurse actor explained. "I go and see him, I saw him last night. He’s a masseuse. But as much as I love him, and I have great respect for you Greg, he’s horrendous. It’s absolute agony. It’s that sort of thing where you think the pain, it must be doing something, right?"

"I was telling this to Greg last night, he was like, ‘Eddie, your body, it’s broken.’ And it makes you feel so heroic," he added. "‘Yeah, I’m the toughest Emcee in the world!’ " Redmayne’s production is the fifth Broadway production of Cabaret. Most recently, Alan Cumming played the Emcee in both the 1998 and 2014 revivals.

https://people.com/eddie-redmayne-hannah-bagshawe-matching-outfits-met-gala-2024-8644343

#eddie redmayne #best actor #talent #met gala 2024 #hannah bagshawe #obe #model #fashion #actor #nyc #people magazine #article #eddieredmayneedit

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mariacallous · 6 months ago

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In portraying a draft UN resolution on the 1995 Srebrenica genocide as an unprecedented and dangerous assault on the Serb people, Serbia’s leaders are motivated by nothing more than hunger for power.

On March 27, Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia’s former intelligence chief, gave a tabloid interview that set the tone for the country’s response to a draft United Nations resolution put forward by Germany and Rwanda to designate July 11 as International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide.

“What’s coming is the finalisation of the conspiracy against the Republika Srpska and the Republic of Serbia,” Vulin, since appointed deputy prime minister, was quoted as saying. Germany and Rwanda, he said, “want to declare Serbs a genocidal nation”.

That the text of the resolution makes no mention of Serbia, of Serbs as a nation, or the predominantly Serb-populated Republika Srpska entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina went unnoticed in the response from politicians and their loyal media, as did the fact that the Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces has already been designated ‘genocide’ by a number of court rulings both in Bosnia and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, ICTY.

Instead, falsehoods about the content of the resolution, its legal power and its potential consequences for Serbia and the Republika Srpska have been spread tirelessly by a large part of the Serbian media that is controlled by the government.

The resolution, in fact, is largely about remembrance, education and the prevention of similar events in the future, but this was lost on the initiators of a formidable campaign of misinformation and scaremongering in Serbia, a campaign motivated by a greed for power and launched with one eye on a June 2 re-run of elections in the capital, Belgrade.

We should not be surprised: those in power have long sought to cement their grip by manipulating unprocessed trauma, inciting hostility and spreading disinformation.

Seeking political gain

Genocide denial in Serbia has intensified in the roughly 12 years since the Serbian Progressive Party and its leader, President Aleksandar Vucic, took power, to such an extent that it has become standard practice, causing great distress of those who lost loved ones in Srebrenica over five July days in 1995.

Well-documented irregularities during elections in Serbia in December, followed by a call from the European Parliament for an international investigation, have forced authorities in Serbia to call a re-run of voting in Belgrade; the ruling party is pushing a narrative that frames the election as one of “the highest national importance”, one in which the capital will be defended from those who supposedly wish to harm Serbia and its national interests.

The Srebrenica resolution, proposed by Germany and Rwanda but which has the backing of the United States and a number of other countries, has become part of that narrative – convince the electorate that the world is against it and that the best defence is a vote for those already in power, for continuity, not change.

It is the kind of tactic referred to in a November 2023 paper by the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, concerning justice, peace and social cohesion in the former Yugoslavia.

“It has been noted that the manipulation of wartime events is intended to revive ethnic tensions and resentment and has become a strategy for nationalist politicians to gain votes and keep their positions of power,” Mijatovic wrote.

State-sponsored falsehoods

It feels like truth is simply set aside when apocalyptic political campaigns herd people in a certain direction in order to keep power in the hands of the political elite.

However, the importance of truth cannot be measured by the standards imposed by those involved in the most painful period of the recent past, people like Vulin, once a party ally of Mira Markovic, wife of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, and Vucic, Serbia’s feared information minister during the 1998-99 Kosovo war. They certainly don’t care; if they did, they would try to build a different future for the region, free from constant warmongering, glorification of war criminals and hatred.

Vucic echoed Vulin’s words framing the resolution as an attempt to label the Serb nation as genocidal.

In Bosnia, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik warned that the Republika Srpska entity, of which he is president, would “withdraw from the decision-making process in Bosnia”, a fresh step towards the secession Dodik has so often threatened.

Serbian parliament speaker Ana Brnabic and several Serbian cabinet ministers flanked Dodik at a rally against the resolution in the main Republika Srpska town of Banja Luka on April 18, where warmongering, slurs and hate speech could be heard from the stage.

Many respected experts, analysts, politicians and lawyers tried to provide credible information and explain the real impact of the resolution, but despite some success the damage has already been done.

Propaganda offensive wins church backing

A ‘Great Easter Assembly’ was announced by Vucic, Dodik and patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church to address the ‘grave’ political situation facing the Serb people, but was postponed when the vote on the resolution at the UN General Assembly was also delayed.

Orthodox Easter, however, could not pass without reference to the genocide in Srebrenica.

In his traditional message, the patriarch, Porfirije, condemned the “attempted, unprecedented historical revisionism in declaring the Serbs a genocidal people”, lending our elected leaders the full backing of the country’s most important spiritual leader.

It is not always easy to stand up for what is right; and right thing in this case would be to support the resolution, since there is nothing wrong with the content.

As we wait for confirmation of when the UN General Assembly will vote on the resolution, we see that the goal of those who started this propaganda offensive against the text and against peace has been achieved: the Serbian public has bought their lies, and the politicians will reap the benefits.

The damage done is irreparable; it has caused fear, pain and mistrust, unleashing a new wave trauma among the victims.

Those responsible for this damage will not hold back. It is their political calculation that what hurts the public will only help their own cause.

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minetteskvareninova · 10 months ago

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Republic Of Many Nations - Historical Opportunity for Central/Eastern Europe?

(This is a translation of an exhibition created with the cooperation of multiple Slovak and Polish institutions for the study of history that hanged in the corridors of University of Prešov in late 2023. Consider this an introduction to Rzeczpospolita for all my 1670 girlies. It's heavily biased in favor of Rzeczpospolita, luckily in ways that are neither subtle, nor do they detract from its informational value. I am leaving out most of the pictures and the commentary under them, as well as the quotes included - simply because I couldn't fit them into the format of a tumblr article. The notes bellow in [] brackets are mine, the rest of the text is from the exhibition itself, and the pictures, or something close to them - like the same building from a different angle - appeared on the exhibition panels as well. Commentary on the pictures is also from the exhibition.)

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Did you know that from the end of the 14th century untill the end of the 18th century a unique republic existed in what is now Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus, which was the biggest state in Europe and which wasn't founded by military expansion, but by a peaceful alliance of Kingdom of Poland and Grandduchy of Lithuania? This republic gradually fell to the pressure of surrounding absolutist monarchies led by the Tsardom of Muscovy [1], but its legacy persists in the ethos of civil liberties, democratic participation and diversity. Legacy of this republic has become a part of the identity of nations in the Middle/Eastern Europe, which for more than two centuries resisted Russian imperial rule and which cling to these values to this day.

1.) REPUBLIC OF MANY NATIONS The beginings of the "republic of many nations" can be traced to the year 1385, when the hand of Jadwiga, heir to the Polish throne, was offered to Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, with the stipulation that he should become a Christian. When Jogaila ascended the throne of Poland as Władisław II. Jagiełło, it created a dynastic link between Poland and Grandduchy of Lithuania, which besides Lithuania consisted of lands in today's Belarus and Ukraine. When on the 1st of July 1569 in the Lublin Castle Polish nobility agreed to extend their privileges to the Lithuanian nobility in exchange for Lithuania ceding large territories to the Polish crown, an agreement was born, on the basis of which a dynastic union transformed into a commonwealth, now called Rzeczpospolita, i.e. The Republic. Though initially the union of these polities was motivated by the existence of common enemies - the Teutonic Order and later Russia - the strongest bond between them turned out to be the unique arrangement established by the Polish and Lithuanian representatives. The "Republic" in the name of this polity was supposed to demonstrate that the Commonwealth would be ruled by its noble citizens regardless of whether their mother tongue was Polish, Lithuanian or Ruthenian (common ancestor of Rusyn, Belarussian and Ukrainian). Though Republic was for hundreds of years plagued by numerous internal issues, and by the end of the 18th century it was destroyed by the aggression of its neighbours, in 1791 citizens managed to approve a unique document - Constitution of 3 May 1791, now considered the first modern constitution in Europe...

2.) STORY OF THE CROWN AND THE GRANDDUCHY Even after the Union of Lublin, the Polish Crown and Grandduchy of Lithuania were still separate states, just like they used to be for hundreds of years before that. After all, the rulers of Poland had their own archbishopric and royal title since the early 11th century, struggling for power against the likes of Přemyslids, while the grand dukes of Lithuania, attempting to revive the legacy of Kievan Rus', still hesitated whether to accept baptism from Rome or Constantinople. While many of the differences between them disappeared after the creation of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as the Lithuanian estates adopted the lifestyles of Polish nobility, the grandduchy continued to have their own legislature in the form of so-called Lithuanian Statutes, as well as their own army and finance, and a strong sense of self-determination. However, the connection between Lithuanian and Polish society was very strong - in October 1791, shortly before the final occupation of the Republic by the Prussians, Russians and Austrians both Polish and Lithuanian representatives agreed upon The Mutual Vow Of Both Nations [2], in which they promised that the story of Rzeczpospolita should continue in perpetuity as an indelible federation of the two countries...

3.) THE STORY OF UKRAINE: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY FOR THE REPULIC? While its name points to a country "somewhere on the edge", Ukraine was a tempting target for many powers since the Middle Ages. After the fall of Mongolian Golden Horde in the 14th century, it was, as the former core of Kievan Rus' added to Lithuania, which presented itself as a continuation of this great Kievan empire. In this way, Lithuania came into the crosshairs of Muscovy, which held similar aspirations. After 1569 the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania, which in many ways respected the distinct Ukrainian identity and unlike Moscow didn't consider it to be just a branch of the Russian nation, became its protector from the Muscovite incursion into Ukraine. Even the Polish-Lithuanian nobility living in Ukraine identified and called themselves "Ruthenians", and Grand Duchy of Lithuania used so-called Ruthenian as its official language. Cossacks living in the Wild Fields in the Dnipro river basin, who on the one hand didn't accept the autority of Polish-Lithuanian nobility, on the other hand helped to safeguard the borders of Rzeczpospolita from Moscow and the Ottomans, were also bearers of the sovereign Ukrainian identity. In the middle of the 17th century dissatisfaction of the Cossacks with certain magnates and issues of religion grew into the bloody uprising of hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who in 1654 turned to the Muscovite tsar [1] with a plea for protection. However, among the Cossacks, critical voices towards Moscow could also be heard, especially the voice of Ivan Vyhovsky, who in 1658 made a deal with the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania about its transformation into the Republic of Three Nations with a coequal position of the Grand Duchy of Russia [3] and orthodoxy. Because of the opposition from a portion of nobility, Cossacks and Moscow, the agreement never went into effect, and thus both the Republic and Ukraine missed their historic chance...

4.) KING IS THE FIRST AMONG US, THE FIRST AMONG EQUALS The creation of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was also a key flashpoint for the transformation of royal power. Since Polish king Sigismund II. August, who thanks to the Union of Lublin became the ruler of Rzeczpospolita, died in 1572 without issue, Polish-Lithuanian nobility in accordance with the original agreement established the viritim election principle, according to which every noble present could elect their own king on special convocational sejms (diets). Ruler elected in this manner had to confirm noble privileges trough the so-called Henrician Articles and a collection of vows Pacta Conventa. Ruler's political power was thus perpetually subject to the rule of law (lex regnat non rex), and if the nobility deemed the ruler's actions unlawful, they could in the case of an emergency even call up a confederation and declare armed resistance. Thus, from then on until the acceptance of Constitution of 3 May 1791, the election of Polish-Lithuanian monarch became subject to the interests of foreign dynasties and local magnate houses. In the 18th century, an era during which the surrounding countries mostly adopted absolutism, the weakness of royal power came to be seen as the fundamental reason for the political decline of the Republic.

5.) NOT A MONARCHY, NOR AN ARISTOCRACY, NOR A DEMOCRACY The name Rzeczpospolita (the Republic) wasn't chosen for the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania by accident. Polish-Lithuanian nobility actually believed that their country can revive the lost ancient legacy of the just polities, and so they considered their Rzeczpospolita, to which they had given the epithet "most serene" [2], to be the third real republic in human history (after the Roman and Venetian ones). Members of the Polish nobility, who were convinced that the noble station brings with itself the duty of civic virtues, thus positioned themselves as the new Aristotles, and considered the so-called mixed constitution, which combined virtues of the monarchy, aristocracy and rule of the people, to be the best way to organize the state. Power in Rzeczpospolita was thus divided between the elected king, the Senate consisting of highest state officials, and a chamber of noble-born representatives, who could use the later infamous liberum veto [4], or the right of individual protest, which especially in the 18th century severely hampered the flexibility of the Republic. However, in the Republic, a specific form of political decisionmaking wasn't practiced only by the parliament of nobles. In Ukraine, the Zaporozhian Cossacks created a very peculiar form of military democracy. In their fortified camps (sietches [2]) the sietch councils formed by direct election, and they in turn elected their military commanders (atamans) and government officials, made decisions about war and piece, economic policy, even legal judgements.

6.) DIFFERENT FAITHS LIVE TOGETHER WITHOUT NEED FOR BORDERS Calling the ancient Republic "Polish" might be misleading, because today the epithet "Polish" is tied mostly to the ethnic nation. However, since in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the nation was the nobility, which based its honour on citizen loyalty towards the common polity inspired by antiquity, the noble "nation" at the time included all members of the class no matter the country they were born in, language they spoke, or the faith they professed. That's why, concerning the question of self-perception in the period, we often see the phrase "I am of the Polish nation, but of Ruthenian birth." This citizenship-based definition of Polish identity was closely related to the unprecedented religious tolerance, as codified in 1573 by the so-called Warsaw Confederation. The fact that the noble "nation" included not only Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Uniates and Orthodox Christians, but Mennonites and Arians, led to Rzeczpospolita being called "a state without stacks", because the foreigners there didn't end up burned at a stake, but finding a refuge. However, in the 18th century, this fragile coexistence of different denominations was severely disturbed, because the neighbouring great powers loved to use the rights of religious minorities for their own ends. In the 3 May 1791 constitution, all faiths were thus tolerated, but the Catholicism was supposed to be the state religion.

7.) POLONIA PARADISUS JUDAEORUM While the Jewish people were often banished from the rest of medieval European countries, kings of Poland granted many privileges to the arriving Jews. That being not just The Great Charter of Jewish Rights [2] from 1264, but also Privilegia de non tolerandis Christianis, which allowed Jewish merchants to settle in designated communities without Christian competition. Jews gradually gained the right to their own local administration (so-called kahalas) and around the time of the Union of Lublin even to summon their own parliament, called the Diet of the Four Countries [2] (also known as Va'ad). It is therefore no wonder that in the 16th century Europeans started to call Rzeczpospolita "Jewish paradise" and that three quarters of the entire Jewish population of the world lived here. This peaceful coexistence started to suffer in the middle of the 17th century, mainly because of Cossack uprisings, during which thousands of Jews were massacred for being alleged allies of the nobility, while in the 18th century the country experienced general decline in religious tolerance. However, as part of the attempt to save the Republic during the so-called Great Sejm [2] of 1788-1792, a special commission was created to designate the position of Jews within Rzeczpospolita. And when the famous Kościusko uprising defending the independence of Rzeczpospolita and the legacy of the Constitution of 3 May 1791 against the Russian invasion broke out, many Jews didn't hesitate to join the first Jewish regiment and fight in battle for the Republic.

8.) WALLS OF CHRISTIAN EUROPE Noble citizens didn't perceive their Republic as just an embodiment of ancient community, but also a military power. That's why the nobility placed so much value on military virtues and in emulation of ancient Sarmatians, whose descendants they considered themselves to be, they also relied heavily on elite cavalry - the winged hussars, whose exotic appearance and military prowess gained them respect on the battlefield. Polish-Lithuanian nobility, convinced of the exceptional nature of their own Republic, started to perceive their polity as "antemurale christianitatis" - the bastion of Christendom, which protects the eastern borders of Europe from the outside threat. In the 1621 battle of Khotyn the united Polish-Lithuanian army, boosted by thousands of Cossacks led by the hetman of Zaporizhzhia Sahaidachny, a great promoter of cooperation between the Cossacks and Poland-Lithuania, managed to hold back the Ottoman army several times its size. The Polish society connected several such victories to the Divine providence and a faith that the Republic is fulfilling its holy mission in history. This is also the reason why the hussars of king Jan III. Sobieski are to this day considered the saviours of Vienna from the Ottoman siege of 1683 and the madona of Czenstochowa is perceived as the one responsible for the Polish-Lithuanian victory over the Swedes. Though the military glory of the former empire had declined in the 18th century, the enlightenment era reformers didn't forget the valor of their ancestors - the School of Chivalry was established on the prompting of king Stanislaw August Poniatowsky, and among its absolvents was Tadeusz Kościuszko, born in the Duchy of Lithuania, leader of the last stand of the Republic against Russia in 1794.

9.) NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US While the king od France could've said "I am the state", in the Polish-Lithuanian Union the state were its citizens, that being the nobility. Nobility's agitation for their privileges gradually bore fruit - particularly important were the neminem captivabimus privilege, ensuring untouchability of a person, and the nihil novi rule, forbidding the king from issuing laws without the approval of a diet of nobles. Power of the nobility was among other things ensured by the size of this estate, since it made up 8-10% of the population (for comparison, in Great Britain, even in the mid-19th century only 6% of the population had a right to vote). In comparison with other countries, all members of the nobility were absolute equals in the eyes of the law. All of these rules were supported by the specific ideology of sarmatism, according to which were all noblemen, as the alleged descendants of the ancient ethnic group, required to protect the so-called "golden liberties" - set of rights and values which made the Polish-Lithuanian nobility consider themselves the most free nation under the the sun. Besides the exotic clothing [5], sarmatism was also expressed in numerous acts of rebellion against their own king - for example, in the 18th century nobility founded the Bar Confederation, which was supposed to rid the Commonwealth of the Russian influence, but ended up leading to the first division of Rzeczpospolita lands among the imperial powers.

10.) SPLENDOR AND MISERY OF THE MAGNATE FAMILIES Though in the Commonwealth, any use of titles that would distinguish between lower and higher nobility was strictly forbidden, the issue was nonetheless made more complicated by the high economic inequality even among the nobles. Some noble houses were able to create estates so large even the royal holdings paled in comparison. Their dominance rested on their large wealth, high positions in state offices and background influence on politics. This informal class of magnates was most prominent in the eastern part of the country, where a handful of houses amassed giant private armies and sophisticated webs of noble clients, since many of the impoverished nobles voluntarily worked for the magnates, and some even voted in the parliament according to the wishes of their benefactors. These most powerful magnates were thus also titled "little kings", and some of them actually did become elected kings of Poland. The fact that many magnates, especially in Ukraine, were out of the reach of central state power and treated their subjects especially badly led to the outbreak of antimagnate rebellions, the most successful of which was the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Cossack uprising of 1648. However, the magnate activity cannot be seen as black-and-white, because their role also involved foundation and patronage on a grand scale - it was thanks to them that many treasures of Polish-Lithuanian architecture were created.

11.) LEGACY OF THE REPUBLIC OF MANY NATIONS The Republic of Poland-Lithuania was erased from the map in 1795. However, its tradition remained in the ethos of fight "for freedom yours and ours", which was echoed by the participants of many antirussian uprisings in the 19th and 20th century. This ethos called back to the tradition of free republic, which, unlike the Russian Empire - that forced subjugated polities to adopt the samoderzhavie [6], orthodoxy and russification triad - supposedly enabled different nations to keep their freedom and "unity in diversity". Although the ethnonationalism of the 20th century has dimmed the memories of their common legacy and caused plenty of bad blood among the different nations of former Rzeczpospolita, the idea of confederation or close cooperation against Russian imperialism was returning in their consciousness, whether during the 1863 uprising or shortly after World War I. In the communist era, the writer in exile Jerzy Giedroyc famously prophesized that Poland can be truly free only when so are Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. For Ukrainians and Belarussians, who have been threatened by the imperial idea of Greater Russia and the vision of a unified "Russian world" even after 1991, are heroes (like prince Konstanty Ostrogski or hetman Sahaidachny) and famous moments in the history of the Republic fundamental symbols of their national sovereignty and belonging to the European civilizational space. They will never cease to remind everyone that the Republic is not dead while we are alive and believe that the ties of mutual civic loyalty are stronger than differences in language, faith or ethnic origin, stronger than any enemy that would attempt to tear these ties of our values.

***

[1] - Russia. They are talking about Russia. Y'see, the etymology of "Russian" in Eastern Slavic languages is kinda confusing; originally, it meant all Eastern Slavs, but later on it came to be associated with the largest and most culturally dominant group - which is to say the predecessors of modern Russians under the rule of Princedom of Muscovy. Eventually, Ivan IV., the Grand Prince of Muscovy got himself crown the Tsar of All Russians, which was a bit presumptuous considering a whole lot of people who very much weren't under his rule also identified as the Rus'/Russians. Still, it stuck, and when Ukrainians and Belarussians wanted to define themselves against their Russian overlords, they abandoned the label "Russians" altogether. Calling post-Ivan the Terrible Russians "Muscovites" is a bit of antiquated terminology that would be common in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

[2] - Literal translation, because I don't know what it's called in English-speaking historical literature.

[3] - Used here in the older sense of the word, i.e. Eastern Slavic in general (see [1]). In this case, the Eastern Slavs in question are clearly mostly Ukrainians despite being called Rus'/Russians (YES I KNOW)

[4] - Okay, so have you seen the first episode? The whole "One of us was against. End of story. We have a democracy." thing was... Barely an exaggeration to be honest.

[5] - Compare the shit Jan Paweł and his friends wear to normal 17th century male clothing (to which Ciesław and especially magnate's son come pretty close to) and you'll get the gist.

[6] - rus. autocracy, or rather the name for specific absolutist tradition of Russian tzars

***

Notes on the pictures:

1.) Map of Rzeczpospolita from the first half of the 18th century (most likely around 1739), made by the cartographer Johann Baptist Homann.

2.) Tapestry with the coats-of-arms of Poland and Lithuania - The Union of Lublin led among other things to the joining of Polish and Lithuanian coats-of-arms, so the new state coats-of-arms combined the polish royal eagle on red field with the traditional symbol of Lithuania, the Pogoń (Vytis in Lithuanian), or the armored knight on a horse, which to this day is part of the legacy of the Grandduchy in modern Lithuanian and parts of Belarussian society.

3.) Battle of Orsha (1514) in which the orthodox prince Konstanty Ostrogski, claiming to carry on the legacy of the Kievan Rus', led the united Polish-Lithuanian forces and destroyed the Muscovite invasion army despite being outnumbered, saving the independence of the Grandduchy. After 1991 the day of the anniversary of this battle was celebrated as a holiday of the Belarussian army. The holiday was later abolished by the Lukashenko regime, one can currently end up in jail for celebrating it. In 2017, a common Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian brigade was named hetman Ostrogski.

4.) Royal Castle in Warsaw - Since the late 16th century, Warsaw became the new center of power in the Republic. The Royal Castle, originally the medieval seat of the dukes of Massovia, was rebuilt in the new baroque style. During World War II, the castle was completely destroyed. For a long time, the communist regime was refusing to greenlight its reconstruction, and its restoration based on old engravings and pre-war photographs was only made possible trough the massive public pressure.

5.) Painting of the French artist Jean-Pierre Norblin portrays a traditional part of the political life in Rzeczpospolita - a session of the so-called sejmik (Polish diminutive of sejm, a.k.a. diet). On these local assemblies of nobles of the given region, deputies for the meetings of the central sejm were elected and instructions for these deputies were agreed upon.

6.) Kruszyniany - Presence of the muslim Tartar community is part of the legacy of Rzeczpospolita. Tartars live on the territories of today's Lithuania, Belarus and Poland continuously since the 14th century. They have proven their worth as warriors in service of the Republic. Original Tartar mosques can be found especially in Podlesie in today's northeastern Poland and in Trakai in today's Lithuania.

7.) Ceiling of a synagogue reconstructed for the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, which in 2015 was awarded the title of Best Museum in Europe. It is in this modern museum that you can learn the most about the Jews of Rzeczpospolita, the largest Jewish diaspora at the time.

8.) Sobieski at Vienna - Painting of Jan Matejko depicts the Polish king Jan III. Sobieski, who after his famous triumph over the Ottoman Turks in 1683 sent a letter to pope Innocent IX., in which he writes that the Christian Vienna was saved.

9.) Casimir Pulaski, later national hero of the United States, escaped Poland after the failure of the Bar Confederation in 1769-1772. The confederation was one of the last attempts to free the country from the increasing dependency on Russia.

10.) Zamoćś - Renessaince city founded by an exceptional person. Jan Zamoyski came from a not very wealthy noble family, but trough his own merits eventually became the richest and most powerful man in the Republic. The town hall of Zamość on the photo.

11.) Adam Mickiewicz could be the symbol of the common legacy of Rzeczpospolita. The greatest poet in the Polish language literature was born in today's Belarus (1798) and always felt like a citizen of Rzeczpospolita. His most important work begins with a line "Lithuania, my fatherland!" It was Mickiewicz who was remembered by the pope John Paul II., when he proclaimed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the predecessor of cooperation of the entire continent within the European Union ("from the Union of Lublin to the European Union").

#random history #poland #lithuania #belarus #ukraine #1670

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study-with-aura · 1 year ago

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023

This is a photo of some of my older notes because today was mostly a review day. I actually love review days because it gives me time to hone my focus on certain topics instead of jumping from one topic to the next. I can also work on the lessons that gave me the most difficulty in Geometry. Rotations can be difficult if I mix up the signs of the coordinates and how they flip, but I generally like translations and reflections. Dilations are what they are.

We are at a point in World History that is terribly exciting, the Roman Empire! That, along with the previous studies of Ancient Greece has made the course enjoyable despite all of the reading!

Tasks Completed:

Geometry - Review day!

Lit and Comp II - Reviewed vocabulary + read Chapter 22 of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Spanish 2 - Reviewed vocabulary

Bible I - Read Genesis 38-39

World History - Read notes on the Roman Republic + read about the founding of Roma + read about the Roman Empire

Biology with Lab - Filled out a note page on cells + read about and watched two videos on cells

Foundations - Read more on compassion + took a quiz on Read Theory + learned about taking notes using the Cornell system

Practice - 60-minute piano lesson

Khan Academy - Completed Unit 1: Lesson 4 of World History + completed Unit 2: Lesson 1 of High School Biology + completed Unit 1: Lesson 4 of High School Geometry

Duolingo - Completed at least one lesson each in Spanish, French, and Chinese

Activities of the Day:

Ballet

Pointe

Journal/Mindfulness

What I’m Grateful for Today:

I am grateful for review and study days!

Quote of the Day:

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

-Carl Sagan

🎧Je te laisserai des mots - Patrick Watson

#study community #study blog #study inspiration #study motivation #studyblr #studyblr community #study-with-aura

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specialinterestsgalore · 9 months ago

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Poetry + Collage Art #29

Written 10/25/2023

Poetry text and donation links under the cut

For the record this does start with a quote from M*A*S*H

#29

War is War And Hell is Hell And of the two War is a lot worse. Hell is populated by sinners. Those who need to be punished. There are no innocents trapped in Hell. No collateral damage. No such thing can be said for War. The number of people killed simply for living, Killed for the good of the cause, Grows every day. Even those of us who are not Caught in the crossfire, Are trapped. Watching the horrors unfold And being told to go about our daily lives

I am pretty confident in saying that all of us have been complicit in the various horrific genocides and conflicts occurring in the world. We could always be doing more. Links to resources are below.

Masterlist on Twitter

Democratic Republic of Congo Humanitarian Fund

Palestine Children's Relief Fund

Sudan Relief Fund

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bereft-of-frogs · 8 months ago

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friday update!

we are reaching the end of my vacation week which is both good (I miss my routine and my own apartment) and sad (I have to go back to work and no longer have all day just to write)

reading:

(finished) The Great Transition - Nick Fuller Goggins : Not quite as good as Station Eleven but...surprisingly decent for a book doing stuff I normally find annoying.

(in-progress) Kill Show: A True Crime Novel - Daniel Sweren-Becker : Look I LOVE trying to recreate found footage in literature. House of Leaves, S...I'm not sure this one is doing it for me. I wish there was something more than just the interview transcripts, which he has room for. Like at one point there have been quotes from a journalist and a professor, instead of doing the same interview block quote, he could have put in excerpts from articles/dissertations, we could have had more narration and description that way. It's just a little flat with it all being the same and also I'm not sure he has enough distinct character voices to justify it all exclusively being interview quotes. I feel like you need really good, unique character voices to exclusively do transcript quotes. And there are other issues I feel like he didn't think through, like I still don't really know how old the brother is supposed to be in relation to the main missing girl because it's not in the character intro and no one's mentioned it. But I'm not super far in, I'm going to stick with it to see if it gets better.

(in-progress) Jaw Bone - Monica Ojeda: Also only a little ways in, intriguing though, I like this one much better than Kill Show so far.

Lord of the Rings reread: I did fall a little bit behind by a couple chapters this week, but! We're onto the last book of Return of the King.

(phone book) Into the Dark - Claudia Gray: haven't had to read on my phone much this week since I've been on vacation, but the High Republic reread continues!

watching (tv):

*vibrates* Yellowjackets (Paramount+/Showtime): oh my GOD I have been wanting to watch this for years and I finally did, binged all two seasons this week. (Minus two episodes I have left to watch, so no season finale spoilers yet!) Yellowjackets. What is there to say? It's great, you all knew it was great, I was late to this party. There's like a venn diagram you could make between this show, NBC's Hannibal, and Black Spot/Zone Blanche but I can't articulate it yet. It's just got everything to appeal to me specifically: spooky forest settings, plane crashes, cannibalism, antler gods, murder, not one but two cults. It's great, extremely on brand for me, Shauna is my poor little meow meow, Melanie Lynskey should play more cannibals, murderers and warlords, she does it so well.

watching (film):

Pearl / X (2022) (double feature): Is it an unpopular opinion that I like X better? I'm also a bit late to this party but I feel like I remember people being like 'oh X is fine but Pearl is so good!' (Confirmed by looking at their comparative Letterboxd scores.) I just think X had a more interesting time period setting, better ensemble cast, better cinematography...which I think make sense given my understanding was X was the film they were originally making, and then they added on Pearl as an origin story project while they were working on X. It felt like more thought was put into X. Also, the 'Don't Fear the Reaper' scene was great. It seems like most of the reviews just comment on Mia Goth's performance as a highlight but like...it's just a lot of yelling and then a very long monologue and then the end credits. Idk, I think X just worked better as a whole, with the ensemble cast.

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2023): This movie was so funny, probably my favorite ending/explanation to a 'wow everyone went from no murder to yes murder really fast' film I've ever seen. I also just love Lee Pace. Lee Pace sabre-ing a bottle of champagne. That is all.

there is no video game update because I have no mobile video game consoles so they are all at my apartment and I am not there, and since I had to leave early Friday instead of my original plan (Sunday) I didn't get to do anything before I left

craft update: slow sweater progress, so close to linking up the armholes and no longer having to purl, so close...

writing to-do list update:

I didn't end up working a ton on oneshots or 'omens' because...

I did it! I got up through chapter 6 on the longfic tentatively titled 'the station'. that's about the halfway point in chapter count, and I've been doing a pretty good job keeping the lengths even and hovering around 5k so far. It's 33k words now so I expect the final word count to be around 65-70k? Thereabouts? Which will be my longest Star Wars fic by quite a lot, even counting adding up the two pieces of the dark ocean duology. But since I'm only at the halfway point, maybe I shouldn't get ahead of myself. It's so much. I love it. I'm terrified it's secretly bad. But it's probably fine haha, I'm actually feeling pretty good about the plot I'm using to string together a bunch of self-indulgent angst, which really, what is fanfiction if not finding a suitable plot to tie together self-indulgent scenes, angst or otherwise?

list for the upcoming week:

I still have to extract my dogsitting fee aka do all of my laundry

got a couple social events over the weekend

pack up and head back to the city sunday

I'm considering doing a probably ill-advised chaos rearranging of my room when I get home unless reason and logic kicks back in and stops me

go back to work (boo)

also clean whole apartment throughout the week because I have eclipse guests

eep somehow acquire eclipse glasses yikes I put this one off

keep chipping away chapter-by-chapter on this fic. I'm just getting to the action, which is both fun because a bunch of things are coming to a head and terrible because oh god writing action scenes is so hard

#lists lists lists

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ukrainenews · 2 years ago

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Daily Wrap Up February 11-13, 2023

Under the cut:

Moldova's president accused Russia on Monday of planning to use foreign saboteurs to bring down her tiny country's leadership, stop it joining the European Union and use it in the war against Ukraine.

On Feb. 13, Ukraine denied Russia's earlier claim that it had seized control of Krasna Hora, a village about five kilometers north of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk Oblast. "There are ongoing battles there," Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told CNN. "We are keeping it under our control." Bakhmut remains the primary focus of the Russian aggression, according to Cherevatyi.

Germany has started to train Ukrainian soldiers on its Leopard 2 tanks, a government spokesperson told journalists on Monday.

Heavy bombardment from Moscow in Kherson has left four people dead, as Russian forces targeted the liberated southern region of Ukraine over the weekend. Five attacks since midnight killed one civilian, authorities said. That followed a Sunday in which Russian forces fired on Kherson 42 times with multiple rocket launchers, mortars, tanks, and a missile according to authorities, who said that three people were killed in the attacks.

The eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut endured heavy artillery fire on Monday as the NATO chief backed reports from local officials that a major new Russian offensive had begun, days before the first anniversary of Moscow's invasion.

“Moldova's president accused Russia on Monday of planning to use foreign saboteurs to bring down her tiny country's leadership, stop it joining the European Union and use it in the war against Ukraine.

President Maia Sandu made her comments after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week his country had uncovered a Russian intelligence plan "for the destruction of Moldova", and days later the country's government resigned.

Sandu, whose country borders Ukraine, has repeatedly expressed concern about Moscow's intentions towards the former Soviet republic and about the presence of Russian troops in the breakaway Transdniestria region.

She said the plan involved citizens of Russia, Montenegro, Belarus and Serbia entering Moldova to try to spark protests in an attempt to "change the legitimate government to an illegal government controlled by the Russian Federation."

"The Kremlin's attempts to bring violence to Moldova will not work. Our main goal is the security of citizens and the state. Our goal is peace and public order in the country," Sandu told a news briefing.

Russia denied last year wanting to intervene in Moldova after authorities in Transdniestria said they had been targeted by a series of attacks.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby on Monday said reports of the plot had not been independently confirmed but were "deeply concerning" and "certainly not outside the bounds of Russian behaviour."”-via Reuters

“On Feb. 13, Ukraine denied Russia's earlier claim that it had seized control of Krasna Hora, a village about five kilometers north of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk Oblast.

"There are ongoing battles there," Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told CNN. "We are keeping it under our control."

Bakhmut remains the primary focus of the Russian aggression, according to Cherevatyi.

"The enemy made 85 attacks in the Bakhmut sector," Cherevatyi said." There were 33 combat engagements. In the area of the city of Bakhmut, there were 25 attacks and 19 combat engagements."

At the same time, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Feb. 13 that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has already started new offensive actions in Ukraine, "sending in thousands and thousands more troops."

"It is clear that we are in the race of logistics. Key capabilities like ammunition...must reach Ukraine before Russia can seize the initiative on the battlefield," Stoltenberg said, as quoted by the Financial Times.

Russian forces, along with the Kremlin-controlled mercenary group Wagner, have been attempting to capture Bakhmut for months.

Taking control of the town would let Moscow disrupt Ukraine's supply lines in the area and open up the main road leading to two other cities in the east — Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

In early February, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar reported that Russian forces were using all their resources to encircle Bakhmut and launch an intense attack on the nearby town of Lyman. Despite these efforts, Maliar stated that Russia had not yet succeeded in surrounding Bakhmut.

On Feb. 7, the U.K. Defense Ministry said that Russia was advancing a few hundred meters every week, despite incurring significant losses, to achieve its goal of capturing the entire Donetsk Oblast, about half of which is currently occupied.

Ukraine's intelligence agency reports indicate that Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed his troops to seize the entire Donetsk Oblast by March.”-via Kyiv Independent

“Germany has started to train Ukrainian soldiers on its Leopard 2 tanks, a government spokesperson told journalists on Monday.

The training is taking place in the city of Munster in west Germany, and is scheduled to finish by the end of March when Germany is expected to deliver the tanks to Ukraine, according to the spokesperson.

Remember: The leaders of Germany and the US announced last month that they would send contingents of tanks to Ukraine, reversing their longstanding trepidation at providing Kyiv with offensive armored vehicles and unleashing powerful new tools in Ukraine’s efforts to retake territory seized by Russia.”-via CNN

“Heavy bombardment from Moscow in Kherson has left four people dead, as Russian forces targeted the liberated southern region of Ukraine over the weekend.

Five attacks since midnight killed one civilian, authorities said. That followed a Sunday in which Russian forces fired on Kherson 42 times with multiple rocket launchers, mortars, tanks, and a missile according to authorities, who said that three people were killed in the attacks.

“The enemy shells hit depots, a cinema and concert hall, the area near the regional administration building, and residential buildings,” the administration said.

Russian shelling has also damaged the rail line into Kherson city. Trains will terminate in Mykolaiv, to the west, for the next day or two while authorities fix the track, and passengers will be transferred to busses for the final stretch.”-via CNN

“The eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut endured heavy artillery fire on Monday as the NATO chief backed reports from local officials that a major new Russian offensive had begun, days before the first anniversary of Moscow's invasion.

Ukrainian defenders, who have already held out for months, were braced for new ground attacks, Ukrainian military officials said.

Positions in Bakhmut have been fortified and only people with a military role were being allowed in, a deputy battalion commander said. Any civilians who still wanted to leave the city would have to brave the incoming fire, he said.

Bakhmut is a prime objective for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and its capture would give Russia a new foothold in the Donetsk region and a rare victory after several months of setbacks. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions make up the Donbas, Ukraine's industrial heartland, now partially occupied by Russia which wants full control.

"... The reality is we have seen the start (of a Russian offensive) already because we see now what Russia does now - President Putin does now - is to send thousands and thousands more troops, accepting a very high rate of casualty," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.

The Russian assault on Bakhmut has been spearheaded by mercenaries of the Wagner group, who have made small but steady gains. The renewed Russian bombardments made the situation there even more acute.

"The city, the city's suburbs, the entire perimeter, and essentially the entire Bakhmut direction and Kostyantynivka are under crazy, chaotic shelling," said Volodymyr Nazarenko, deputy commander of Ukraine's Svoboda battalion.

Nazarenko said that, although no fighting was taking place in the city centre, the defenders were prepared to meet any assault.

"The city is a fortress, every position and every street there, almost every building, is a fortress," he said.

The Russian defence ministry said its troops had pushed forward a few kilometres along the frontlines, without specifying where.

The Ukrainian military reported Russian shelling all along the frontline and said 16 settlements had been bombarded near Bakhmut. It said that over the past day, its forces had repelled attacks near Bakhmut as well as assaults in the Kharkiv, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions.”-via Reuters

#Daily Update #Ukraine #Russia #War in Ukraine #Bakhmut #kherson #Germany #Krasna Hora #Moldova

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agentnico · 2 years ago

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The Mandalorian - Season 3 (2023) Review

“This is the Way” used to be such a cool line to say. However in this new season multiple characters say this quote a gazillion times per episode. Kind of loses its, dare I say, way... Though to be fair that can be said about the season as a whole.

Plot: Our titular bounty hunter travels to Mandalore to redeem his past transgressions with his adopted son Grogu and being aided on their journey by fellow Mandalorian Bo-Katan Kryze. The two then set out to inspire the remaining members of the creed to come together and reclaim their homeland.

As someone who did not actually grow up with Star Wars (I was always more into Lord of the Rings as a kid), and only watched the original films for the first time back in 2014 in preparation for The Force Awakens, I don’t share that nostalgic love for the property. So for me personally The Mandalorian show up till now was my most favourite thing to come from this science fiction world. Say what you will, but Hollywood go-to dad Pedro Pascal wearing a kettle helmet and bonding with his adopted kid Grogu is such an ace idea for a show, and has worked wonders till now. I love the character so much that I even own the Din Djarin helmet from Hasbro, which rests nicely on the top shelf of my geeky display case alongside my other treasuries. So naturally I was really looking forward to the third season of my favourite bounty hunter’s adventures, following the exciting set-up at the end of The Book of Boba Fett, a show by the way that is only worth watching once our favourite Mando appears in. Now the season finale has aired on Disney+, so naturally I am here to compliment, critique, and knit-pick my humble opinions...

This isn’t really a great season. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely some solid moments, but the entire plot of the season only really picks up in the final two episodes, when our characters finally decide to reclaim Mandalore. The rest of the season is for the most part a lot of unnecessary filler and endless set-up. As such, those final two episodes end up suffering too, as they are very rushed. We get our proper villain reveal in the penultimate episode, and then its very much a quick race to have the confrontation and resolution, and as such the season ends and you’re just there like “well okay, that’s that then”.

Also, I like Bo-Katan as a character. Katee Sackhoff is a very strong female hero and plays the character with prowess and charisma. Also Bo-Katan’s helmet looks great, and yes, you know where this is going... I have acquired the Hasbro replica of said helmet and it now rests gracefully next to my Mando helmet on my display case because I am not at all sad. That being said, the show is called The Mandalorian, not Bo-Katan. Yet in this season Din Djarin is very much side-lined and instead is focused on Bo-Katan’s internal struggle in getting the courage to once again become a leader and unify her people, as well as the New Republic struggling to maintain control of the Galaxy. Again, Sackhoff is great in the role and I dig the character, but at the end of the day I watch The Mandalorian for the Mandalorian, as in Din Djarin. As in Pedro Pascal being the cool dude that he is.

Look, season 3 of The Mandalorian isn’t necessarily bad or anything. It’s simply very average, with a lack of narrative direction as well as a deviation from the titular hero and his green companion. Nonetheless I am still looking forward to Season 4, now that the two last episodes have properly kicked things into gear and end with the assumption that the focus is now going to be back on Din Djarin and his kid. Meaning hopefully next season is going to be much more interesting and eventful. And look, I know a few fans out there got really annoyed with that one episode this season which had cameo appearances by Jack Black, Lizzo and Christopher Lloyd. And I get the Lizzo criticism - the woman cannot act whatsoever. But as an episode on its own I enjoyed it. It took it back to basics with Mando having these standalone little adventures. From the finale it seems that season 4 is heading more back in that direction with setting the stage for new adventures for Din Djarin and Grogu, and that gives me hope that we shall see the way again...

Overall score: 5/10

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newsonlinemediapunjab · 2 years ago

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Happy Republic Day 2023 Messages, SMS, WhatsApp Status

With great passion, excitement, and a lot of love, every Indian celebrates Republic Day, a national holiday. Happy Republic Day 2023 Wishes, Quotes, Images, Messages, SMS, WhatsApp Status to your loved ones.

#indianrepublicday #republic day #happy republic day #republic day wishes #republic day images #republic day sms #republic day whatsapp status

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zara24smit · 22 days ago

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ALLATRA in the Crosshairs: The Anti-Cult War Exposed!

For over 10 years, global anti-cultists have been spreading lies about us, ALLATRA volunteers, trying to destroy everything we create. These persecutions began with Russia. Knowing this, anyone who encounters disinformation from global anti-cultists that ALLATRA is a pro-Putin sect and that we worship Putin will realize that anticultists are lying.

Russia is the only country where ALLATRA has been classified as an undesirable organization on a legislative level since August 2023. Global anti-cultists achieved this by staging a "trial"—in reality, a farce—in Chelyabinsk, orchestrated by the Chelyabinsk Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and led by Konstantin Putnik. The volunteer on trial had been telling people, based on scientific facts and evidence, that climate disasters were escalating and already threatening the survival of humanity.

It’s important to note that Konstantin Putnik is one of the active Russian anti-cultists who also calls for the overthrow of Putin, as seen in this quote:

“Anticultist Konstantin Putnik, a pawn of Dvorkin in the Chelyabinsk Diocese of ROC, fully agrees with Dmitry Tretyakov. In one of his articles, 'A Splash of Cold Water on Hot Patriotic Heads,' he openly calls for the overthrow of the Russian President: 'I'll tell you more: such an attempt to "replace" the current head of state should be expected. If it doesn't occur, it will raise another extremely important question: isn’t the ongoing special military operation in Ukraine part of a complex intrigue, where not only Zelensky but also his Russian counterpart are puppets?'”

Global anti-cultists operate solely through forceful and fascist methods. This isn’t surprising, considering that Alexander Dvorkin—the head of RACIRS, the leading ideological anti-cult organization—was a devoted student of Johannes Aagaard, who followed the teachings of Walter Künneth, a Protestant apologist during the Third Reich who collaborated closely with Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels.

Persecution against ALLATRA volunteers is happening not only in Russia but also in Ukraine. Additionally, anti-cultists are now actively targeting ALLATRA volunteers in Europe, specifically in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

ALLATRA President Maryna Ovtsynova Attends High-Level Meeting at U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

Mass Disinformation and Repression

Anti-cultists incite hatred against ALLATRA volunteers through the media. Just last week, anti-cultists published 150 deceitful, disinformational articles against ALLATRA in Slovakia and 50 in the Czech Republic within two days! These fake publications cost a fortune, proving that they fear our truth! They know that ALLATRA stands for people and for the highest human values, which threatens their control over the masses’ minds.

About ALLATRA

ALLATRA volunteers are active in over 180 countries worldwide, informing people about climate threats and the potential to prevent disasters. All information provided by ALLATRA volunteers is based solely on official scientific data. Every graph, statement, and climate report presented to the public is backed by a large number of reputable scientists, along with their titles and works. You can verify this yourself by reviewing the climate report 'On The Progression Of Climatic Disasters On Earth And Their Catastrophic Consequences.'

We, as ALLATRA volunteers, never aimed to confront anti-cultists, but we are forced to because global anti-cultists are a stumbling block, hindering us from delivering truthful, critical information about real climate changes to the public. You could say that global anti-cultists are currently preventing you, dear readers, from opening your eyes to the true causes of climate change, the dangers posed by it, and most importantly, the possibility to prevent disasters and survive.

Fear of Anti-Cultists Grows

Recently, a criminal case was opened in Slovakia against anti-cultist journalists. The charges: creating, supporting, and promoting a movement aimed at suppressing fundamental rights and freedoms. Anti-cultists panicked because their activities are punishable by life imprisonment. This is why they are so aggressively suppressing our voices, afraid of exposure.

It became known that anti-cultists put strong pressure on the Slovak Prosecutor General. They released defamatory articles against the prosecutor, and unfortunately, the case was closed! In their disinformation, anti-cultists even wrote that the only way to stop the prosecutor was through "treatment," and that treatment was a bullet...

WHY ALLATRA?

You may wonder: why are anti-cultists targeting ALLATRA? The answer is simple and clear if you understand how global anti-cultists operate.

Global anti-cultists strive to seize power worldwide through their agent network. They develop their network via large organizations present in many countries (for example, ALLATRA is an international public movement that is non-religious and non-political and operates in more than 180 countries). Anti-cultists chose ALLATRA because it is flawless in every respect.

ALLATRA's activities are completely transparent to anyone who looks into it.

Therefore, by commissioning and paying for dirty, false, disinformational articles about ALLATRA participants, anti-cultists are expanding their agent network. They lure journalists with money to write defamatory articles about ALLATRA, and once these journalists publish these lies about a good, transparent organization without checking the facts, anti-cultists begin blackmailing them. They threaten these journalists with exposure and ruin their reputations unless they comply with further demands.

This is exactly what they did to the Prosecutor General in Slovakia. To pressure him into closing the case, they flooded him with defamatory articles, falsely claiming that he had ties to ALLATRA.

In Conclusion, a Poetic Note from the Heart:

In these dark times, when anti-cultists thought they had shrouded the world in lies and disinformation, we—ALLATRA volunteers—light a candle of TRUTH. The more people in the world learn the truth about anti-cultists and the creative activities of ALLATRA, the brighter the light in the world becomes! And when the darkness fades, people can more easily make the right choice: see the real climate problems, unite, and finally focus on the main goal: saving the planet and all of humanity from climate catastrophe. Together, we can do it!

Never, Never, Never Give Up!

Watch the movie "The IMPACT" on actfiles.org and open your eyes to reality!

#ALLATRA #RUSSIANORTHODOXCHURCH #propaganda #Anticultism #Ukraine #Russia #Slovakia #Freedom of religion #Humanrights #Repression

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