#Tweets for Tibet

[miku-earth]

Tibetan Miku ! by scuffed_gyaltse

[korrasera]

Misinformation and Leftists

My last post about this got eaten by a block, so I'm going to take a moment to talk about misinformation in left wing circles.

This is misinformation:

That's not what Hasan said, that's not why China annexed Tibet, and it demonstrates pretty well that you can sell misinformation to leftists just as easily as you can sell it to right-wingers, because everything said in that tweet is not just wrong, it's manipulative as hell.

If you react to words like colonize and primitive and savage by agreeing with the person making the callout, you're just handing them the ability to make you hate whoever they want you to hate.

Let's talk about what Hasan actually said. You can watch the full video clip here:

Hasan is clearly talking about how China's intervention in Tibet ended an authoritarian government built on slavery and caste structure.

That's it, that's the controversial take. That things improved in Tibet when the rule of the Lamaists was brought to an end by a Tibetan people's uprising that led to the Dalai Lama of the time signing an agreement to allow China to annex the country.

You can still criticize that take! It's still Hasan praising the actions of the PRC when they helped to overthrow the government of another country. That flies in the face of respecting the autonomy of another people, but it wasn't in support of colonization and it wasn't being done to civilize the people of Tibet.

China annexed Tibet to strengthen their borders with the west. At the time, China's position was that they were also doing it to end feudal rule in Tibet for ideological reasons, but nations don't operate on ideological motives. They were doing it to secure their border and strengthen their position in the Cold War. It wasn't being done to civilize Tibet.

What actually happened is that Tibet faced significant internal pressures to modernize their country following WWII, pressure opposed by the ruling Lamaist caste that sat at the head of Tibet's feudal system of government. This pressure led to a popular uprising, which led to the agreement with China, which led to the annexation of the country.

In other words, the people of Tibet wanted an end to slavery and oppression.

The 'culture' that was wiped out wasn't a culture, it was an authoritarian government built on a caste system that relied on slavery. The people at the bottom of the society were not considered fully human.

Here's a documentary about the conditions that serfs lived in under Lamaist rule:

Like, I'm sure the current Dalai Lama is dedicated to peace, but he's also the inheritor of an inhumane system of authoritarian government that made life hell for countless generations of Tibetan people.

You should listen to what Hasan actually said and then listen to what it was like for people who lived in slavery in Tibet if you want to understand this issue. Don't listen to someone who tries to activate you by selling you buzzwords.

And most of all, don't let people trick you into supporting a caste of slave-owners. The comparisons to the slave-owning South in the US are apt, slavery was not 'Tibetan culture' and the end of Lamaist rule in Tibet was a good thing.

[darkmaga-returns]

News that President-elect Donald Trump nominated Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to be his secretary of state is causing heartburn among U.S. adversaries because Rubio is known for his hawkish stand towards China, Cuba, and Iran. If confirmed, Rubio’s nomination could significantly shape U.S. foreign policy, particularly regarding these countries.

Rubio, the son of a Cuban exile, has been a U.S. senator since 2011. His personal journey, often described as an American Dream coming true, resonates with many.

After losing to Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, Rubio shifted his focus to U.S. foreign policy, serving on the Senate Intelligence Committee and Foreign Relations Committee. His hardline approach to U.S. adversaries, particularly China, has been a defining feature of his career.

Rubio was instrumental in introducing bills to address the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong. Beijing was so upset by Rubio’s outspokenness that it first imposed sanctions against Rubio and a few other Republican legislators in July 2020. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sanctioned Rubio again a month later, along with ten other U.S. citizens, in what they claimed was retaliation for the U.S. sanctions against 11 senior CCP and Hong Kong officials for their human rights abuses in Hong Kong.

Rubio tweeted in response: “Last month China banned me. Today they sanctioned me. I don’t want to be paranoid but I am starting to think they don’t like me.”

[one-has-to-be-wary-of-a-poet]

The Shattering of Lies

He says we are weak

But look around

Look at the hearts of the people

Burning brighter than any tweet

Look at the eyes of those

Fighting for tomorrow

For justice

For peace

Look at the streets,

From the slums of Johannesburg

To the hills of Oaxaca

To the cities of Europe

And the mountains of Tibet

People are rising

Against the lies he feeds them

His “America First”

Is a lie

A mask

A shield

He hides behind it

But the truth

Is the people

Are rising

And they are louder

Than his tweets

He cannot silence us

Not in the streets

Not in the halls of the UN

Not in the hearts of those

Who believe in love over hate

In unity over division

His empire will fall

Not because of war

But because of truth

The truth

That we are one world

And the world will rise together

To erase the stain of his name

[sario528]

Most ridiculous part (to me): The award winner, @tkingfisher, actually DID go to Tibet and live tweeted the whole thing

Holy shit someone finally leaked what went down with the Hugos and from a quick skim it appears to be the worst possible scenario: that is, Western award-runners PREEMPTIVELY censoring anything they thought the Chinese government might not like. Clownery AND fascism.

[gerardpilled]

I think we’re focusing too hard on the fact mcr got back together after a barbecue at Gerard’s house and not enough on how hilarious a barbecue hosted by Gerard must be. Do we have any proof he can cook ANYTHING? his wife tweeted about making dinner once but that doesn’t mean it’s good. I imagine they serve the most abominable meatless alternatives that God themself couldn’t even comprehend. Burger patties made out of rare Syrian grain and corn from Tibet. It doesn’t taste good btw.

[themultifandomgal]

His Queen Pt17

We end up finding Octavius's cape attached to an air vent

"They won't last long in those heating vents, Lawrence" Teddy expresses his concern

"At their size, they'll bake like tiny little scarabs in the Sinai. Too dark?" Ahk looks at me and I nod my head with a concerned expression. Larry goes over to a wall and breaks something. My guess is he's turned off the hot air

"They could be anywhere between here and the intake vent. What do you see, Dex?"

"You know he's a monkey, Lawrence. He can't talk. No, but he can fit. Nicky... give me your phone"

"Why?"

"For Dex"

"I don't understand one thing that's going on here"

"I don't, either. Dad, what's going on?"

"I'm sort of set up to track your phone"

"You're sort of set up to track my phone? you track my phone?" I switch off at this point feeling weak and sickly

"My love are you ok?"

"I just need to sit" I sit on a bench, Ahk sits next to me

"So she's taken?" Lancelot says pointing at me

"Their married" Teddy clarifies

"Ahh. Well you've got a fine woman on your arm"

"I know" Ahk kisses my forehead

"Dex, come here. Thanks, man. Listen. I need you to go down there and find them, all right. Think you can handle it?" Dexter gives a salute "good man. Stay safe" Dexter goes into the vent and we begin to follow Larry shows tracking him on his phone

"I think it's right here" Lancelot start laughing. I crease my eyebrows

"Right here. Classic. The gift of laughter. Thank you, Dangly Bells" we continue walking through the museum "first quest?"

"Not exactly"

"I thought you were going to Egypt"

"We are, but we got to do this first"

"Is he annoying you as well?" I ask Ahk who chuckles and shakes his head "what? I'm being serious" I laugh not able to hold it in

"Is it true what he says?" Lancelot turns to look at Ahk and I "the tablet that you carry is magic?"

"It is, indeed. Everything around you has come to life tonight for the very first time... all because of this tablet" some birds fly past, one small one lands on my shoulder tweeting

"Amazing. Then they're not real?"

"They're as real as any of us"

"Yes, but we're real people. They're just things. And they don't even know. They must be unbelievably stupid" oh if he only knew

"It can be confusing at first" Teddy tried to say to him

"Hello, frog. Keep hopping. You're real"

"Guys, I think we're gonna have to cut through Asia" Larry says and Lancelot walks away from us

"Not a clue" Teddy says to Ahk and I

"None" Ahk shakes his head.

We get to the Asia exhibit where a... thing tries to stop us

"Oh hey, guy. We're just passing through"

"It's a Garuda from Tibet" Teddy informs us

"A Garuda.Hi, Garuda. How you doing? "Garuda. How you doing?" it repeats

"Cool, great. Okay. We just... You know what? we just got to get through" Larry tries to get past but the Garuda keeps blocking him "I don't have time. Please. Okay. I'm not gonna play this game with you. I got to go through" I look up and see a large snake asleep

"Larry" I whisper getting his attention

"Get back" Larry whispers. Ahk pulls me to the side

"A dragon" Lancelot states excitedly

"No, it's not a dragon. It's a... its a Xiangliu. Mythical snake demon"

"It looks like a dragon. I say we kill it"

"What? no, it's asleep"

"You're right. It's not very sporting to kill it while it's asleep. Let's wake it up and then kill it. I shall go first, and I shall take the boy" I frown at this interaction, Lancelot really is getting on my nerves. Things would be going so much quicker if we didn't have him

"What are you...? no. You're not gonna take the boy"

"Why not?"

"Because he's a boy"

"Larry, there comes a time in every man's life... when he must slay his own dragon"

"Not this kid, all right? he still hasn't finished all his thank-you notes from his bar mitzvah. Anyway, that's just an expression"

"Guys we're running out of time. Why don't we just go around the snake quietly" I suggest. We all slowly walk around the snake. Ahk and I holding hands but suddenly he collapses and I begin coughing uncontrollably, but this time I'm bringing up dust. This is not good. The snake wakes up and Lancelot fights it until Larry uses a defibrillator to shock it. Finally I stop coughing and Ahk is able to stand

"Are you ok my love?" he asks

"Me? what about you?" I place a hand on his cheek

"I'm fine, but you coughed up dust"

"I don't like what's going on Ahk, I'm scared"

"Me to, but we will be ok" Ahk kisses my forehead

"Guys how are we going to find them now?" Ahk asks as Larry holds up his phone which as been broken

"Lawrence? I fear we've turned a corner. I'm becoming wax again, son"

"All right. We'll look for them later. We got to get to Egypt now"

"Wait, shouldn't we keep looking for Jed and Octavius"

"Nick is right. A true knight never shirks his duties"

"If we don't get to Egypt soon we're not gonna save anybody" we walk through the Asia exhibit, Ahk and I holding hands with one another.

Previous

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

#20yrsago Melancholy Elephants: infinite copyright = infocalype https://www.baen.com/chapters/W200011/0671319744___1.htm

#20yrsago WiFi-SciFi: My open spectrum fiction on Salon https://www.salon.com/2003/01/16/liberation_spectrum/

#20yrsago Supreme Court rules against Eldred, Alexandria burns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldred_v._Ashcroft

#15yrsago Bruce Sterling’s Kiosk: geniunely 21st century science fiction https://web.archive.org/web/20080115084153/https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/fiction/bs01.htm

#10yrsago Free Freedom of Information Requests, in honor of Aaron Swartz https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2013/jan/14/aaron-swartz-1986-2013/

#5yrsago Marriott fires employee for “willfully liking” a tweet in support of Tibetan independence https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2128124/marriott-sacks-employee-who-liked-twitter-post-tibet-independence

#5yrsago Playing low frequency noise to disrupt hard-drives: denial of service for CCTVs, data-centers, and other computing environments https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.07816.pdf

#5yrsago Trump’s new assistant Drug Czar: a 24-year-old campaign volunteer with no experience, in charge of billions to end the opioid epidemic https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/meet-the-24-year-old-trump-campaign-worker-appointed-to-help-lead-the-governments-drug-policy-office/2018/01/13/abdada34-f64e-11e7-91af-31ac729add94_story.html

#5yrsago Inmate, denied health care in an Arizona private prison, chews his own fingers off https://www.newsweek.com/prison-health-care-chewed-fingers-pain-arizona-corizon-780648

[escaping-thoughts-reviews]

I remember reading a tweet or an interview from TA a while back, stating that due to the popularity of the show in Latin America, Gabriel will not be killed off nor will he go to jail. I will admit, I’m glad that this is the case. They also said he won’t be redeemed, and I’m also fine with it.

So here’s my prediction for Gabriel in S5:

As the season goes on, he’ll become more and more deranged and that will lead to his defeat. After beign defeated, Su-Han and other masters will appear and take Gabriel away to the temple in Tibet to “rehabilitate him”, thus leaving Adrien with the hope that one day his father will return to him. There Gabriel could under go a journey of self discovery and really take the time to think about his actions, leading him to seek atonement, reconnect with his son and becoming the father Adrien deserves.

[And maybe the masters can also help Emilie and Nathalie in some way... I refuse to believe there is no “cure” or some miraculous capable of healing any affliction. Not at this juncture (I’m looking at you, rooster miraculous).]

[bridgetinerabbit]

Okay, I just had a crazy thought, and it's probably already been considered and dismissed by everyone, and I'm just unaware because I've admittedly been dodging all the sentimonster theories. And it's way past my bedtime, so I'm not giving this the discernment it needs, but - what if Emilie is the sentimonster?

The tweets said they can age and have children.

It would explain the weird stasis she's been in. If she's alive it's weird that there's not even an IV for fluids. If she's dead she looks too good for being dead for roughly 2 years, even in a fancy pod.

Okay, so she probably hasn't always been a sentimonster, the Peacock was acquired by modern day Parisians when Gabriel and Emilie went to Tibet, as far as we know.

Maybe Emilie died in Tibet, and Gabriel made a replacement. But then why wouldn't he have just made another one? The peacock Miraculous was broken, maybe he wasn't convinced it would work as flawlessly as he needed for that to work.

What if modern day Parisians acquired it before the trip to Tibet? Like, if the peacock and the moth were found by random people and then eventually made their way into the hands of rich Parisians. (Okay, this is admittedly crazy.) What if the Graham De Vanily's were avid rare jewelry collectors and had the.peacock and moth for ages and made a sentimonster to give Amalie a sister?

What if the trip to Tibet was an attempt to find answers about how to fix the broken peacock because for whatever reason Senti!Emilie, as the only active long term sentimonster, was starting to get sick whether she used it or not?

(Back to less crazy.) If the ring Gabriel wears now holds an amok, maybe it's her amok and he put it in her possession from the beginning. I mean, if you're going to make a sentimonster of your recently dead wife, wouldn't you put the amok in her wedding ring?

Maybe she was only supposed to be a temporary replacement and the plan for the wish was to reset things from before they went to Tibet in the first place.

I don't know if any of this chaos makes sense or not, but it's yours now. There you go.

[familyagrestefanblog]

Ml analysis: Native American miracle box

While is it obvious that the new miracle box is of native American origin I still went to do some research on it to see if I can narrow it down to a certain tribe and find more connections hidden in the lore.

So not to waste any time, here is my result:

The native American miracle box is in possession of the Souix Lakota tribe. Just like with the Ml Tibetan guardian monks represent not only 1 but 4 groups, the native American Miraculous tribe is a combination of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota and where we can safely say that the monks will primarily lean towards the Tibet representation, I would say here we will primarily lean towards the Lakota. Therefore, I will call the native America Miraculous tribe Lakota but know that the other two tribes are included in this as well.

So a dead giveaway for the identity of the ml Tribe is Jessicas Shirt. In general Jessica has the hairstyle, the physical features and the accessories typical for representing an “Indian” character and her shirt is a direct confirmation of that heritage.

On her shirt is an obvious reference to the Lakota flag which pretty much tells us that this is the Tribe we are dealing with. Nice, why cant it always be this easy?

Under the cut I cover three more points to go into more detail, read more if you’re interested ^^

1. The medicine wheel

I must give it to miraculous, using the medicine wheel for the upper layer of the miracle box is one genius move imo.

The Medicine Wheel is a sacred symbol and way of life used by the indigenous Plains tribes to represent all knowledge of the universe. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to really get into its teaching and living ways to be comfortable explaining its practice in more details, so in this part I want to cover only what has been directly acknowledged by Thomas Astruc. And that would be the animals (duh, obviously) and the elements.

The first thing I had to learn the hard way in this research is that there is not one "true" way for this symbol to be arranged. The way its used, what animal belongs to which color or element and even what KIND of animal is in it can vary STRONGLY from location to location.

So I accepted that the arrangement can not be pinpointed down to perfect accuracy through research. We were already given all the animals and colors, now all I can really do here is present to you a possible variation of the miraculous arrangement I put together after looking up and trying to understand the differences between the real life ones to continue from here on.

There are only two animals we know for sure the connected color of: The eagle, Jessicas miraculous of freedom and the Thunderbird. In his tweets Thomas mentioned the elements so I decided to include them in the arrangement, how or if they will be incorporated into the show I can not tell you though. But still I wanted the elements in here as well ^^

As already said, the eagle is red and the thunderbird is in the green center. As you can see I put the bear to black, the Wolf to yellow and the Buffalo to white. Those seemed to me the most likely combinations and even if they don’t end up right, it wont do harm to any of this.

Buffalo: white and air because the Lakota have a white Buffalo woman legend where air was one of the main elements she controled and used.

Wolf: yellow and fire. Fire because in Lakota legends the wolf/ coyote is a very unpredictable animal. He's both a trickster and a hero, not always moraly sound but always clever. It's a dangerous but strong and lively nature that I do think the show could represent with the fire element. Yellow is one of the two cases where I was left with this option by default.

Bear: I choose black and water because that's a combination I have seen the most

Eagle: I already know Red and choose earth in combination. At first I thought about putting fire in this place because of its normal association with red but in the end choose earth because I think it's the element that fits the best to Jessica.

But the reason why I decided to include the elements is because of the green thunderbird in the middle. Because where the other 4 animals are connected with the 4 elements, the thunderbird would here represent inner balance and harmony. Of course this isn't it's power, but the layout makes it quite obvious that the thunderbird is the equivalent of the ladybugs and cats yin-yang. My assumption right now is that this is how the show will cover the different types of "balance" although the world cultures it incorporates, but let me come back to this one another time.

2. more cultural references and meanings

The thunderbird represents the most powerful one of this miracle box because the thunderbird is the one animal that is present in every Souix Lakota tribe and holds an enormous cultural and spiritual significance. It is a mythological bird and is associated with several legends starting from controlling the storms, lightnings and thunder to being the protector of the humans and even being a helper of the creation of reality (Reality in Ml are the LB and Cat hence why its place in the middle of the box is well deserved) It only makes sense that it would be chosen for this and I know it may seem cliché but please hear me out, which is why im convinced this is the miraculous of the chiefs.

A couple of details do support this for me but please remember I'm not exposed to alot of native American cultures I'll do my best to get things right but if I do interpret something(s) wrong feel free to correct me.

For one, well, the symbol. While looking up the clothing for a later point I did see a symbol like this on some of the feather headdresses.

Definitely not on all of them, I couldn't figure out if there is a system behind the pattern usage or tied to a distinct area but I do know that it is THERE and not exactly rarely either. Noticeably it isn't a 1 to 1 fit but that is an all time returning thing in miraculous. Real life and historical things like this have to be slightly altered for the show to be able to incorporate them. A great example for this is the old English flag in "Darkblade".

So at this point I'm used to this pattern, so yeah, this could very likely be a symbol they took inspiration from.

The second reason why I think it it's the miraculous of the chiefs is because the piece with the symbol on it looks like one of these

In combination with the feather on it. The feather headdress is also called a war bonnet and was originally only worn in battles and only by the person who has truly earned that honor. Each feather represents a distinct honor earned in battle which is why we see feather headdresses in such different lengths. How this translates perfectly into a miraculous I think is obvious. The headdress is a symbol of true leadership and worthiness of such a status, hence why it were especially the chiefs to earn such impressive ones. Turning it into a miraculous wouldn't change too much about it since such a powerful miraculous is an honor and duty you have to be worthy of as well. Them being originally used only for battles is a perfect fit too, because so are the miraculous.

Then of course once again, the thunderbird.

The thunderbird being the great mythical protector animal of these tribes makes it naturally a perfect fit for the miraculous animal of the great chiefs. The chiefs were not only the leaders they also were the primary warrior in battles which is seen by the war bonnets. Having the Thunderbird be the miraculous of the chiefs highlights their status as the tribes protector in such a genuine way, I personally really really love it.

As the last point of 2. I want to bring up the outside top of the Miracle box and the way its designed. While looking through the clothing symbols and pattern I did notice some that looked similar to the ones on the box. I deliberately tried to find a more recent example of usage because in the end of the day Miraculous is a show for TODAY so if the show used patterns for example that may not have been used in the past but are now associated with the Lakota that’s still valid. So the possible matches for design inspiration I found stem from a picture of chief Arvol Lookinghorse who holds the responsibility of spiritual leader among the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota People to this day.

3. Their location and monuments

Researching the lakota made me think of where this guardian group has its roots, which made me remember something I found on my guardian mountain - mount kailash theory a while ago (I swear right now everything comes back to that theory). In it I showed you the monuments-line around the world always separated by a length of 6666km between each other (basically the height of Mount Kailash) and while I didn't mention it there, there is also one of those "mythical" monuments in the USA.

The bears lodge butte (in Wyoming)

I mean LOOK at this, that is out of this world and breath-taking in every sense of the word! That is a location of a miraculous guardianship if I had ever seen one. Also known under the (sadly) much more well known name of "Devils tower" but this will be the one and only time you will read of me calling it like that. The fact that this butte is still officially called by this disrespectful and bastardized white peoples name is a freaking insult. I'm calling it the bears lodge as this was its original english name.

The bears lodge is not just a monument in the USA it is the VERY FIRST official monument (1906) and the location of the butte also checks out perfectly with the areas the Lakota settled in real life. I couldn’t get the exact scale but I think you will still understand just fine.

Adding to the Bears Lodge butte I also wanna bring up the "other" medicine wheel. Which is, just like Bears lodge, located in Wyoming.

As we know the rest of the native American miracle box is made of the zodiac signs just like in our normal miracle box. Confirmed not only on Twitter but also in the very intro of the New York special.

But the same way the miracle box is similar to ours the Medicine wheel as monument reminded me of something as well. Of course I'm talking about the ritual circle in the Kwami "dimension" of the box seen in “Sandboy”.

And just like the native American monument it is also of "astronomical" nature. Taking a closer look at the Chinese Kwami circle one can see that the outer ring is made of specific places for each Kwami signified with a picture of their "animal".

And in the inner circle is obviously the moon circulation.

Meaning, put very simple, this is a design specifically meant to represent the Chinese calendar and culture this miracle box is based on. Therefor this should also exist for the native american one. My guess Is that for all the boxes/cultures Miraculous is gonna include they will also have an “ritual circle” equivalents for each based on all the different kinds of stone circle monuments around the world, including the medicine wheel of the Lakota.

But not only was the medicine wheel monument used for astronomical purposes, with it the people wanted to give things back to mother nature. They placed things right in the middle of the wheel under the stones so nature could take it back "spiritually" (for a lack of a better word on my part) through their rituals and chants. Which is something once again similar to what we see with the Kwamis.

First if all, when the Kwamis (who are the embodiments of the abstract concepts reality is made of) enter their "dimension" in the miracle box the guardian symbol opens right at the center point, letting them cross the layers of reality.

Second, the Kwamis are obviously able to take material objects with them to the in-between dimension. Supporting and verifying the Lakota’s ritual because at the very least in the ML world its actually true. And thirdly, when the Kwamis try to reach Nooroo they chant as well and once again the collected energy is combined in the middle to cross the layers of reality. Gabriel is transformed though so he, as Hawkmoth, is able to almost take over the connection and therefore the miracle box if the Kwamis hadn’t blocked him.

This shows that the spiritual dimension layers are interactive from both sides under certain circumstances. A normal human being wouldn’t be able to cross the layers and take control like this but the more a person is involved with/ powered up by the miraculous the more power they hold interdimensional. Which is the idea of a ritual to reach the spiritual side of nature brought to a new 11 as TV shows usually do.

 4. The design of the guardian.

I'm definitely not the right person to properly judge this in depth therefore I will just showcase my opinion based on the research.

The way I see it for the guardians design they tried to combine the guardian "look" with the native American one.

The pants, staff and robe-like upper part are obviously influenced by the guardian we already saw through Fu's flashbacks, whereas the colors, the hairstyle and shoes (etc) are kept more Lakota-like. Though, as far as my opinion counts in this, the much darker skin and the eyebrows in comparison to Jessica does make me question if he is supposed to represent the same native American tribes as her. His bushy eyebrows are a physical characteristic I recognize in rarely any real life photos and neither did I notice such a noticeable difference in skin color.

Jessica and the guardian simply do not really look like they are of the same heritage to me, but again, who am I to say this isn't a legit representation? Besides that, it makes alot more sense that this guardian wasn't lost for almost 200 years like the ones in Tibet, so it is a fair option to consider that this black guardian may not be of "original Lakota heritage" but he is simply a worthy man born in this area of the USA (who knows in what year considering the guardians life spans) who was chosen and trained for the guardianship simply because he was the right fit for it just like Marinette.

I think it's only fair to consider that option as well, especially since we have NO official background on him. But that's just my opinion.

 And as the last thing I want to bring up is the symbol on his robe because this is something I'm going to need help with.

We can hardly see it and I've tried my best to find something in my research but I just couldn't find anything fitting.

If anybody has the means and knows if this is a cultural reference as well, I would appreciate it if this knowledge could be shared here as well. I really would love to know ^^

[kyungsoodaily]

exo’s present ; the moment color palettes (35, 36, 37, 38/∞)

palettes linked in source (split into 2 tweets) | colors used below the cut | original scans cr. giltterbaek (watermarked) | editing + palettes cr. me

palette 35:

chinese red — #A33826

chocolate web — #D46517

carrot orange — #E1943A

camel — #AF9A61

dark sea green — #82AD82

gray x 11 gray — #BBBCB7

silver chalice — #B0ACA3

beaver — #A58D7C

umber — #5B493B

bistre — #37251B

palette 36:

chestnut — #9A4429

flame — #D36434

persian orange — #E3975B

gold crayola — #F0C278

maize crayola — #F5C243

gold metallic — #D7B642

gold — #AB7F26

russet — #814A27

pullman brown UPS brown — #593A18

dark liver horses — #493630

palette 37:

fuzzy wuzzy — #D7655F

copper crayola — #DA7D58

burlywood — #E4B377

medium champagne — #DECF91

dark khaki — #CFC877

olivine — #91B266

maximum green — #6E8346

deep taupe — #6C5B61

palette 38:

chinese red — #B42F20

rust — #B44E27

chocolate web — #D16A2A

persian orange — #E0964E

jasmine — #F8D888

arylide yellow — #E4CC76

vegas gold — #CFBF64

cafe au lait — #A3744B

coffee — #665039

officially declaring this my lucky post because none of the pics decayed in quality upon first upload... a miracle

managed to avoid using bistre more than once but there are TWO chinese reds.......... :| anyway free hong kong and free tibet 

[read-marx-and-lenin]

I didn't even notice the claims this moron was making in the tweet lol. None of these are annexations. Xinjiang, Hainan, Zhoushan, Tibet, Yijiangshan and Dachen were all parts of the Republic of China before the Civil War, the 1988 conflict was a border dispute with Vietnam and did not involve "multiple parts of the South China Sea" but instead a single unpopulated reef, Tajikistan was also a border dispute and 2011 is when it was settled peacefully without military intervention, and do I have to even say why "Hong Kong in 2020" is not an annexation?

[irradiate-space]

Connecting two thoughts: Gundam edition.

Zeon Zum Deikun, credited as the foundational thinker of what became Zeonism, regarded Earth as the sacred cradle of humanity, which must be preserved against pollution and destruction. He called this concept "Ere-ism". He had other ideas, too, which were folded together with Ere-ism into Zeonism.

Political successors to Zeon Zum Deikun were many, and of those, several declared war on the government of Earth. In notable incidents: a space colony is dropped on Sydney, a space colony is dropped on North America, a space colony is dropped on Ireland, an asteroid is dropped on Tibet. To save the Earth from ecological ruin at the hands of one group of humans, these groups of Zeonists use weapons which cause ecological ruin.

Sarah Taber was tweeting today about ecofascism, which appears to be generally regarded as a totalitarian government which forcibly deprives people of rights and property for the good of nature.

Thus, this thought: the colony-drop mode of Zeonism would be labeled "ecofascist" if it were in popular political discourse today.

[newsaajtak2021]

Tensions are rising in South Asia after India ended the special status for Jammu and Kashmir by revoking Article 370. Lockdown continues in the Indian state as key leaders are in custody, communications are blocked and thousands of troops patrol the streets.

Across the border, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has tweeted that just as Germany had been captured by the Nazis, “a fascist, racist Hindu Supremacist ideology & leadership” has taken over India. He claims the lives of 8 million Kashmiris are at risk. He worries about “ethnic cleansing and genocide.”Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes a different view. He claims that Article 370 was an impediment to development. Now, the people of both Jammu and Kashmir, as well as the newly separated Buddhist area of Ladakh will be integrated into India. According to Modi, local inhabitants will benefit from investment, growth and jobs as well as greater employment rights, gender equality and minority protection.The Story of the Kashmir Dispute Until 1947, modern-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were part of British India. Yet it was not as simple a matter as the transfer of power from the British to the Indians. There was a fly in the ointment. The British had propped up a number of princely states ruled by local monarchies that acted as their loyal clients.When the British decided to leave, the future of these states came into question. Both India and Pakistan wanted to absorb these vestigial states into their territories. The populations of most princely states were in favor of joining either India or Pakistan. The rulers themselves had three options. They could either join India, Pakistan or declare independence.The princes were known for their opulence, decadence and misrule. Besides, many saw them as traitors who had been rewarded for betraying their countrymen to the British. So, in the post-independence environment, there was little chance of these princely states retaining independence. Without the teat of the British Empire to suckle from, they were simply not in a position to survive. Embed from Getty Images Most people forget that these princely states were a big deal in 1947. First, there were an ungodly 565 of them. Second, they comprised 40% of the Indian subcontinent. Third, about 23% of the population of this region lived in these states. Integrating them into two newly independent countries was a matter of paramount importance to the political leadership of India and Pakistan.Jammu and Kashmir was one of these princely states. In the dying days of the short-lived Sikh Empire, the Dogra Rajput generals of Jammu conquered many small Himalayan states such as Kashmir Valley, Gilgit, Baltistan and Ladakh. They even tried to conquer Tibet but were beaten back. When the British beat the Sikhs, they sold Jammu and Kashmir to Gulab Singh Jamwal, a Dogra general of their rivals. Jamwal abandoned his Sikh masters and cast his lot with the rising British East India Company. This enabled him and his successors to rule the second largest princely state in the Indian subcontinent.In 1947, Hari Singh, Jamwal’s successor and the last Dogra king, wanted independence. However, he was effete, ineffectual and debauched. As a Hindu king ruling over a majority Muslim population, his power base was slipping. As in much of India, communal tension broke out in Jammu and Kashmir. This excited emotions in Pakistan.Ideologically, many in Pakistan saw Kashmir as an integral part of a new Muslim nation. On the night of October 21-22, the Pakistanis sent tribal militia and soldiers in civilian clothing to annex the state. Sheikh Abdullah, the most important Kashmiri leader and a friend of Jawaharlal Nehru, opposed the Pakistani incursion. So did the ruler Singh. In panic, he signed the Instrument of Accession, ceding Jammu and Kashmir to India. Indian troops arrived by air and pushed Pakistani forces out until Nehru took the matter to the United Nations.In 1948, the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was divided between India and Pakistan. Pakistan controls part of Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan. India holds much of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh. India lost territory to China after a disastrous war in 1962 and Pakistan ceded territory to the Middle Kingdom in 1963.Since 1989, Kashmir has suffered from insurgency after the 1987

elections were reportedly rigged by New Delhi. Since then, many Kashmiris have called for independence. India has blamed Pakistan for stirring up trouble. Pakistan has blamed India for oppressing Kashmiris just as Israelis persecute Palestinians. Tensions have frequently run high. Casualties on the militarized Line of Control are a regular occurrence. Full-scale conflict between India and Pakistan has broken out in 1947, 1965, 1971, 1985 and 1998.Why does Kashmir Matter? The Jammu and Kashmir region is a melting pot and a geopolitical hotspot. Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Xinjiang and Tibet are next door. Here, many races and cultures cross paths. The region is also home to Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and numerous indigenous spiritual traditions. Rivers that feed hundreds of millions downstream flow through it. The three countries that lay claim to parts of this region are all nuclear powers: India, Pakistan and China. This raises the specter of a truly catastrophic conflict. Embed from Getty Images Kashmir also throws up tortured questions about identity and popular sovereignty. As a nation formed for Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, Pakistan has long believed Kashmir belongs to it. As a multicultural democracy, India has held the view that Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh prove its secular identity. The two contending ideas of nationhood that led to the partition of British India in 1947 are the reason for so much emotion in Pakistan and India over Kashmir.There is also the tiny matter of Kashmiris themselves. At least since 1953, their leaders have been flirting with the idea of independence. Some of them believe that they could be the Switzerland of Asia if the Indians and Pakistanis would leave them alone. Both Pakistan and India fear that. So does China. Kashmir’s independence could cause a domino effect because it could set a precedent for other border areas that want to secede from these three Asian giants. On Kashmir, two contending principles of self-determination and national sovereignty clash. Sadly, there is no clear and obvious resolution.Astute analysts expected the Indian government to remove the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has espoused this idea for decades. Similarly, Pakistan’s outrage was inevitable too. It sees its chances to control Kashmir weakening as a result of Modi’s move. The heated rhetoric and rising tensions over Kashmir are causing concern worldwide. Two still-poor countries that spend large sums on military preparation and periodic confrontation might end up clashing again, losing yet more blood and treasure in the process. Both states have hundreds of nuclear weapons, making Kashmir one of the most dangerous places on the planet.The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy. Join our community of more than 1,900 contributors to publish your perspective, share your narrative and shape the global discourse. Become a Fair Observer and help us make sense of the world.

[arcticdementor]

In Chapter 5 of The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli describes three options for how a conquering power might best treat those it has defeated in war. The first is to ruin them; the second is to rule directly; the third is to create “therein a state of the few which might keep it friendly to you.”

The example Machiavelli gives of the last is the friendly government Sparta established in Athens upon defeating it after 27 years of war in 404 BCE. For the upper caste of an Athenian elite already contemptuous of democracy, the city’s defeat in the Peloponnesian War confirmed that Sparta’s system was preferable. It was a high-spirited military aristocracy ruling over a permanent servant class, the helots, who were periodically slaughtered to condition them to accept their subhuman status. Athenian democracy by contrast gave too much power to the low-born. The pro-Sparta oligarchy used their patrons’ victory to undo the rights of citizens, and settle scores with their domestic rivals, exiling and executing them and confiscating their wealth.

The Athenian government disloyal to Athens’ laws and contemptuous of its traditions was known as the Thirty Tyrants, and understanding its role and function helps explain what is happening in America today.

For my last column I spoke with The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman about an article he wrote more than a decade ago, during the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency. His important piece documents the exact moment when the American elite decided that democracy wasn’t working for them. Blaming the Republican Party for preventing them from running roughshod over the American public, they migrated to the Democratic Party in the hopes of strengthening the relationships that were making them rich.

A trade consultant told Friedman: “The need to compete in a globalized world has forced the meritocracy, the multinational corporate manager, the Eastern financier and the technology entrepreneur to reconsider what the Republican Party has to offer. In principle, they have left the party, leaving behind not a pragmatic coalition but a group of ideological naysayers.”

In the more than 10 years since Friedman’s column was published, the disenchanted elite that the Times columnist identified has further impoverished American workers while enriching themselves. The one-word motto they came to live by was globalism—that is, the freedom to structure commercial relationships and social enterprises without reference to the well-being of the particular society in which they happened to make their livings and raise their children.

Undergirding the globalist enterprise was China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. For decades, American policymakers and the corporate class said they saw China as a rival, but the elite that Friedman described saw enlightened Chinese autocracy as a friend and even as a model—which was not surprising, given that the Chinese Communist Party became their source of power, wealth, and prestige. Why did they trade with an authoritarian regime and send millions of American manufacturing jobs off to China thereby impoverish working Americans? Because it made them rich. They salved their consciences by telling themselves they had no choice but to deal with China: It was big, productive, and efficient and its rise was inevitable. And besides, the American workers hurt by the deal deserved to be punished—who could defend a class of reactionary and racist ideological naysayers standing in the way of what was best for progress?

…

A decade ago, no one would’ve put NBA superstar LeBron James and Apple CEO Tim Cook in the same family album, but here they are now, linked by their fantastic wealth owing to cheap Chinese manufacturing (Nike sneakers, iPhones, etc.) and a growing Chinese consumer market. The NBA’s $1.5 billion contract with digital service provider Tencent made the Chinese firm the league’s biggest partner outside America. In gratitude, these two-way ambassadors shared the wisdom of the Chinese Communist Party with their ignorant countrymen. After an an NBA executive tweeted in defense of Hong Kong dissidents, social justice activist King LeBron told Americans to watch their tongues. “Even though yes, we do have freedom of speech,” said James, “it can be a lot of negative that comes with it.”

Because of Trump’s pressure on the Americans who benefited extravagantly from the U.S.-China relationship, these strange bedfellows acquired what Marxists call class consciousness—and joined together to fight back, further cementing their relationships with their Chinese patrons. United now, these disparate American institutions lost any sense of circumspection or shame about cashing checks from the Chinese Communist Party, no matter what horrors the CCP visited on the prisoners of its slave labor camps and no matter what threat China’s spy services and the People’s Liberation Army might pose to national security. Think tanks and research institutions like the Atlantic Council, the Center for American Progress, the EastWest Institute, the Carter Center, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and others gorged themselves on Chinese money. The world-famous Brookings Institution had no scruples about publishing a report funded by Chinese telecom company Huawei that praised Huawei technology.

…

But if Donald Trump saw decoupling the United States from China as a way to dismantle the oligarchy that hated him and sent American jobs abroad, he couldn’t follow through on the vision. After correctly identifying the sources of corruption in our elite, the reasons for the impoverishment of the middle classes, and the threats foreign and domestic to our peace, he failed to staff and prepare to win the war he asked Americans to elect him to fight.

And because it was true that China was the source of the China Class’ power, the novel coronavirus coming out of Wuhan became the platform for its coup de grace. So Americans became prey to an anti-democratic elite that used the coronavirus to demoralize them; lay waste to small businesses; leave them vulnerable to rioters who are free to steal, burn, and kill; keep their children from school and the dying from the last embrace of their loved ones; and desecrate American history, culture, and society; and defame the country as systemically racist in order to furnish the predicate for why ordinary Americans in fact deserved the hell that the elite’s private and public sector proxies had already prepared for them.

For nearly a year, American officials have purposefully laid waste to our economy and society for the sole purpose of arrogating more power to themselves while the Chinese economy has gained on America’s. China’s lockdowns had nothing to do with the difference in outcomes. Lockdowns are not public health measures to reduce the spread of a virus. They are political instruments, which is why Democratic Party officials who put their constituents under repeated lengthy lockdowns, like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, are signaling publicly that it is imperative they be allowed to reopen immediately now that Trump is safely gone.

That Democratic officials intentionally destroyed lives and ended thousands of them by sending the ill to infect the elderly in nursing homes is irrelevant to America’s version of the Thirty Tyrants. The job was to boost coronavirus casualties in order to defeat Trump and they succeeded. As with Athens’ anti-democratic faction, America’s best and brightest long ago lost its way. At the head of the Thirty Tyrants was Critias, one of Socrates’ best students, a poet and dramatist. He may have helped save Socrates from the regime’s wrath, and yet the philosopher appears to have regretted that his method, to question everything, fed Critias’ sweeping disdain for tradition. Once in power, Critias turned his nihilism on Athens and destroyed the city.

…

The chief publicist of the post-Cold War order was Francis Fukuyama, who in his 1992 book The End of History argued that with the fall of the Berlin Wall Western liberal democracy represented the final form of government. What Fukuyama got wrong after the fall of the Berlin Wall wasn’t his assessment of the strength of political forms; rather it was the depth of his philosophical model. He believed that with the end of the nearly half-century-long superpower standoff, the historical dialectic pitting conflicting political models against each other had been resolved. In fact, the dialectic just took another turn.

Just after defeating communism in the Soviet Union, America breathed new life into the communist party that survived. And instead of Western democratic principles transforming the CCP, the American establishment acquired a taste for Eastern techno-autocracy. Tech became the anchor of the U.S.-China relationship, with CCP funding driving Silicon Valley startups, thanks largely to the efforts of Dianne Feinstein, who, after Kissinger, became the second-most influential official driving the U.S.-CCP relationship for the next 20 years.

…

Nearly every major American industry has a stake in China. From Wall Street—Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley— to hospitality. A Marriott Hotel employee was fired when Chinese officials objected to his liking a tweet about Tibet. They all learned to play by CCP rules.

“It’s so pervasive, it’s better to ask who’s not tied into China,” says former Trump administration official Gen. (Ret.) Robert Spalding.

Unsurprisingly, the once-reliably Republican U.S. Chamber of Commerce was in the forefront of opposition to Trump’s China policies—against not only proposed tariffs but also his call for American companies to start moving critical supply chains elsewhere, even in the wake of a pandemic. The National Defense Industrial Association recently complained of a law forbidding defense contractors from using certain Chinese technologies. “Just about all contractors doing work with the federal government,” said a spokesman for the trade group, “would have to stop.”

…

Apple, Nike, and Coca Cola even lobbied against the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. On Trump’s penultimate day in office, his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States has “determined that the People’s Republic of China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, China, targeting Uyghur Muslims and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups.” That makes a number of major American brands that use forced Uyghur labor—including, according to a 2020 Australian study, Nike, Adidas, Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and General Motors—complicit in genocide.

The idea that countries that scorn basic human and democratic rights should not be directly funded by American industry and given privileged access to the fruits of U.S. government-funded research and technology that properly belongs to the American people is hardly a partisan idea—and has, or should have, little to do with Donald Trump. But the historical record will show that the melding of the American and Chinese elites reached its apogee during Trump’s administration, as the president made himself a focal point for the China Class, which had adopted the Democratic Party as its main political vehicle. That’s not to say establishment Republicans are cut out of the pro-China oligarchy—Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell’s shipbuilder billionaire father-in-law James Chao has benefited greatly from his relationship with the CCP, including college classmate Jiang Zemin. Gifts from the Chao family have catapulted McConnell to only a few slots below Feinstein in the list of wealthiest senators.

Riding the media tsunami of Trump hatred, the China Class cemented its power within state institutions and security bureaucracies that have long been Democratic preserves—and whose salary-class inhabitants were eager not to be labeled as “collaborators” with the president they ostensibly served. Accommodation with even the worst and most threatening aspects of the Chinese communist regime, ongoing since the late 1990s, was put on fast-forward. Talk about how Nike made its sneakers in Chinese slave labor camps was no longer fashionable. News that China was stealing American scientific and military secrets, running large spy rings in Silicon Valley and compromising congressmen like Eric Swalwell, paying large retainers to top Ivy League professors in a well-organized program of intellectual theft, or in any way posed a danger to its own people or to its neighbors, let alone to the American way of life, were muted and dismissed as pro-Trump propaganda.

…

There is a good reason why lockdowns—quarantining those who are not sick—had never been previously employed as a public health measure. The leading members of a city, state, or nation do not imprison its own unless they mean to signal that they are imposing collective punishment on the population at large. It had never been used before as a public health measure because it is a widely recognized instrument of political repression.

…

China had cultivated many friends in the American press, which is why the media relays Chinese government statistics with a straight face—for instance that China, four times the size of the United States, has suffered 1/100th the number of COVID-19 fatalities. But the key fact is this: In legitimizing CCP narratives, the media covers not primarily for China but for the American class that draws its power, wealth, and prestige from China. No, Beijing isn’t the bad guy here—it’s a responsible international stakeholder. In fact, we should follow China’s lead. And by March, with Trump’s initial acquiescence, American officials imposed the same repressive measures on Americans used by dictatorial powers throughout history to silence their own people.

Eventually, the pro-China oligarchy would come to see the full range of benefits the lockdowns afforded. Lockdowns made leading oligarchs richer—$85 billion richer in the case of Bezos alone—while impoverishing Trump’s small-business base. In imposing unconstitutional regulations by fiat, city and state authorities normalized autocracy. And not least, lockdowns gave the American establishment a plausible reason to give its chosen candidate the nomination after barely one-third of the delegates had chosen, and then keep him stashed away in his basement for the duration of the Presidential campaign. And yet in a sense, Joe Biden really did represent a return to normalcy in the decadeslong course of U.S.-China relations.

…

What seems clear is that Biden’s inauguration marks the hegemony of an American oligarchy that sees its relationship with China as a shield and sword against their own countrymen. Like Athens’ Thirty Tyrants, they are not simply contemptuous of a political system that recognizes the natural rights of all its citizens that are endowed by our creator; they despise in particular the notion that those they rule have the same rights they do. Witness their newfound respect for the idea that speech should only be free for the enlightened few who know how to use it properly. Like Critias and the pro-Sparta faction, the new American oligarchy believes that democracy’s failures are proof of their own exclusive right to power—and they are happy to rule in partnership with a foreign power that will help them destroy their own countrymen.

What does history teach us about this moment? The bad news is that the Thirty Tyrants exiled notable Athenian democrats and confiscated their property while murdering an estimated 5% of the Athenian population. The good news is that their rule lasted less than a year.