#also once again bavarians are on a whole other level

[umilily]

i'm back. (and i didn't commit murder, but it was close.)

[melosingitonadailybasis]

a while ago i wrote something about the similarities between Mondstadt and Germany cause friends on discord asked me about it an well why not share it here

Wine : german is know for wine as feel bernkastel kues or the whole region is known for its wine german qine counts as one of the best wines in the world i know people who own winerys (i come from that region but moved)

German beer has a long tradition the oldest brewery is over 1040 years old, its a monastery like most of the others as well

Roman influences: Trier germanies oldest city was a roman city and the furthest they were able to get into the european continent (the nordic and germanic tribes fought the hard lmao) so there are a lot of zisterenen, roman constructs all over german like old water ways and such are just standing around (googel römer kanal) or like in Trier the Porta Nigra "black gate" its one of the orginal roman city gates thats still standing but left black from the ashes of the city burning down

Buildings: The city buldings are "Fachwerk Häuser" houses were hay was stacked and loam pasted over it and wood blocks inserted as a means to seperate the sections and stabel them during the drying processe, those are very traditional and u see them everywhere because (like any medival town) german city grew around the city center /market

But like dont start me on the city walls and the knightheadquater because if we base the time frame on the gothic church its around 12 century and then the bulging city walls are fine BUT the knights headdquatet tower roof isnt and thats been pissing me off lmao the bulding onnits own is fine its just the piecing roof thingy the middle thing is fine but the outer once are out of character but well that's one thing

Clothing: jo the clothes are ??? What the majority of woman in mond are wearing are "Dirndl" traditional *Bavarian* fest clothing that is worn on the Oktober Fest, Dirndl are really expansive and mostly hand made (the good onse are) so if you have a Dirndl with full accessories you are very easily in a 3 digit number so everyone wearing one is like off its like saying they korean and having them wear a ceremonial hanbok on an everyday occasion

Knights: ooooof germany had a "lehns herren system" indentured servitude in medieval times basically the farmes wear living on the nobels land and severed them, sharing their religion and stuff and if they needed a knights theyd just take them people

Germany's older knight order are the Johanniter which were formed during rhe crusade all of the other ones can be traced back to this time too

Its because usually theyd fight for one lord but now the church (pope Urban II )gave a task so thwy just bannded together instead of serving

But i dunno if the are based on them knight BECAUSE i know heraldry (heralik the science behind blazons and what they mean i need that for restorations) and the KOF blazon looks nothing like a real one lmao and it would never exite like that its wrong on so many levels lol (in any germanic nation , Switzerland, Germany, Prussia etc...) i mean there are strict rules so

4 winds: I believe Andrius is more based one Fenrir wich is more nordic / germanic (nord and germanic tribes are sometimes hars to seperate) so yeah its as much german as its nordisch

Dvalin: dragongs have always been a strong influence in german story telling like in Siegfried die Legende des Drachentöters (siegfried the dragon slayer) which is from the Nibelungen Lied which is a collection of medival stories that also include the story of the dwarf king Alberich as well so i guess it could be and inspiration but like i said dragons a very german medieval they saw thise everywhere back then lmao

Vanessa: Vanessa is a very traditional german name it means the shinning one/ the enlightened one

The lion of the south: well the dandelion is called Löwenzahn (Lions tooth) in german so like yeah thats a thing they integrated so calling jean the her descendant and dandelion knight and leveling her up with them is kinda a nice symbolic touch as well

4th one: sorry who is that again

edit:

ive been informed that Vanessa is the falcon and that so yeah its

Andrius the wolf, Dvalin the dragon, Vanessa the falcon and [■■] the lion so yeah

im already getting dragged on twt so im reflecting i was just really caught in the whole dandelion meaning löwenzahn (lions tooth) thing

[cantusecho-archive]

(Episode 9.

“I think I’m cursed.”

First of all, the fact that the last episode ended with the credits showing Hibiki and Miku throughout the seasons was already bad enough. But then in the beginning of this episode, straight out the gate, they do the same thing. Except, they have Hibiki giving a monologue over it, her saying how they’re best friends that knew each other for years. 

They get into arguments but then make up. She thought things would always be like that. But---

And then Hibiki turns around and basically screams for Miku not to leave her and I’m just skndgnldhfjlg.

One thing I will say I like about this scenario is that it’s really setting up for Hibiki to feel what Miku has felt whenever she went on missions. I’d imagine Miku feeling alone while she was gone, always worrying about her. Now yes, Miku has gotten better, and it shows in GX, but that worry never fully goes away. But what this sets up for Hibiki is for her to see it from Miku’s point of view, albeit in a worse scenario kinda.

Again, in Kimi Dake Ni, Hibiki admits that she didn’t realize Miku’s tears unless she was in trouble. She didn’t see them when she was fine and “safe” back at home. So, for Hibiki to feel that sense of worry/panic on a whole new level, not knowing where Miku is or what’s going to happen, is something that’s new (and something I’ve wanted to explore honestly AHA).

Like, it probably sounds terrible of me to say that, but having Hibiki experience that pain could very well not make her take things for granted. Not saying she has but it puts her thinking in a very different perspective where she considers more options and not just think everything is fine simply because someone isn’t on the front lines. I probably don’t make much sense, but I mean this on a positive note for Hibiki’s character.

MOVING ON THOUGH;

So next scene is Hibiki there with her dad in his apartment. Yes, I am still really glad that he’s in his own individual apartment, as simple as that may sound. Lol. Hibiki admits that she was afraid and didn’t know what to do after all that happened with Miku so she ran...and ended up seeing her dad (plus she’s under house arrest for using Amalgam lol). Hibiki’s comment is reminiscent of how she used to run away from her problems all the time, similar to Akira (as to why he makes this comment).

But Hibiki says it’s because he’s her dad. His expression here was interesting since instead of smiling, he actually frowns. This kinda comes later so I’ll wait until then (I’ll also wait until the end before stating my thoughts on Hibiki and her dad). He offers to be a listening ear to her problems, which makes Hibiki pleased.

LOOK AT HER SMILE OKAY. It’s a small one but...ffff. So Hibiki ends up recapping what happened that night.

To put it simply, Hibiki and the others failed, despite their efforts. Miku is now being used as the vessel for Shem-Ha, who seems to be annoyed by the moon as well. Shem-Ha should be an Annunaki I presume, so they should have put the Curse of Balal into place. But why would Shem-Ha want to get rid of the moon? Or maybe it would be something about the Lunar Frontier that would be what they find interesting? No telling.

Regardless, Shem-Ha begins to be stuck in pain by what actually reminded me a bit of Shenshoujing and the mind-control device. Though SSJ had some stuff on its back too.

And immediately after, Fudo begins to use the Stained Glance again in order to control Tsubasa and makes her take Shem-Ha away while they’re subdued.

After all that, everyone goes back to HQ and I assume learn that the Kazanari Organization was truly behind everything. They still believe in Tsubasa though, which neither of them believe that she would betray them (on purpose).

Though Elfnein is the one to bring up the “evil eye” aka, the Stained Glance. 

I believe that because Elfnein has went through it, and Carol literally shoving Millaarc out, allowed them to realize what it was somehow. Or if anything, at least Carol since she was the one that prevented Millarc from delving any deeper into her mind. BAD THING ABOUT THIS IS THAT NO ONE SAYS ANYTHING ABOUT IT LOL.

Maria gets pulled away to the bridge so maybe the others talk about it while she’s gone but like FUDGE. No lie, I said about ten “thank you’s” during this scene because I want them to figure out that it wasn’t literally Tsubasa’s own actions that did this.

INTERMISSION:

Tsubasa is shown back with her grandfather as he explains that he also basically has a controlling device on Shem-Ha to...control it. Lol.

This dude is literally prepared for everything, good lord. What he reveals here is that this is actually a Faust Robe of Shenshoujing and that the person who made it is “already gone”. Now, I have no idea who he is referring to, but my friend told me last night that she wonders if he was thinking about Vanessa. Since she had the SSJ showing up back in episode 6 along with the vambrace, it very well could have been prepared by her ahead of time since she was a scientist for the Bavarian Illuminati for years. And his comment about them not being around anymore could be because he thought he killed them with the tainted blood.

This is just a guess though, and we actually have no idea who he’s actually talking about.

Now, despite what the Stained Glance ability actually does to a person, it seems as if Tsubasa still has her sense of self. They say it corrodes the heart and makes them either become controlled, have low self-esteem and/or rely on others. But Tsubasa questions this;

So Tsubasa is still technically herself but this whole “seal” is really jacking up her emotions like no tomorrow. Mainly just so Fudo could control her too. In a way, I do understand some concerns of how this is partially making Tsubasa’s long development to actually start thinking of her dreams, thinking more of herself in a better light, suddenly taking a slight nose dive but I feel like this was still possible because Fudo was always a thorn in her side. He was an issue for everyone, honestly, one that they really couldn’t confront or get rid of due to his status and power. And in a way, I think this is what Tsubasa is being stuck with in terms of facing right now; it’s just that Fudo had to use a mental manipulative way to get Tsubasa under his thumb.

Anyway, Maria gets pulled away to do a raid on the Kazanari compound but they only want Maria to be part of it. They got enough evidence to arrest Fudo and so Maria goes there determined to drag Tsubasa back by all costs.

Next, Hibiki’s dad literally just lays down and says that he realizes he wouldn’t be able to help Hibiki at all or give her any sort of good advice. Hibiki complains that he was the one that brought it before giving her throwback line of her being cursed. This little scene probably isn’t important to note, but once again, it’s brought back up at the end of the episode.

As for the raid, Yatsuhiro, Genjuro, and Ogawa also join Maria on it. Genjuro ends up meeting face to face with Fudo and engaging in a fight. I, technically, wasn’t expecting this, but my friend really wanted to see Fudo actually fight and do something besides scheming behind the scenes and she literally got it with this episode. Lol.

And while that happens, Maria starts her fight with Tsubasa.

Maria talks to her throughout the whole fight, telling Tsubasa that she doesn’t believe any of this stuff she’s saying; talking about how the power of the God will help protect people and that people need to be protected only because they’re weak.

Maria finds this to be arrogant and selfish of Tsubasa (of course neither of them knew about the seal), so instead Maria chooses to smack Tsubasa, and literally this is enough to break the seal.

I kind of joke that Maria’s hands are even stronger than Hibiki’s in this regard lmao. She literally smacked a seal off her, even if she didn’t know it was there in the first place. Though of course this was due to Maria’s words too, but knew she’d be the one to break it and help Tsubasa through.

But because of the seal being broken, I think the gravity of what she was doing and how she felt just kinda overwhelmed her so she starts crying and questioning what she was doing up until now. Again, it’s not Tsubasa’s fault for basically being a mess. It was literally the seal that made her feel this way.

I’m kinda not sure how I feel about this fully though? Merely because it seemed kinda easy in the end to break it and it was used mainly as a way for just tear Tsubasa down? Then again, Millaarc and them are known to be weak, and the keywords do state that if it was honed by someone stronger, it really could become an evil eye. But due to Millaarc being considerably weaker, even if she did end up putting it on Tsubasa in a weak mental state, the breaking of it may have been understandable. Or at least, that’s how I’m seeing it. Lol.

In the other fight, Fudo shows how good he actually is, despite being over 100 years old. He’s fighting against Genjuro with a sword but he’s really no pushover. He doesn’t take long to get rid of Genjuro, literally pile-diving the man into the ground, it was insane. Or I guess its weird because we’re so used to seeing Genjuro being the one that basically owns everyone because of his inhuman strength. But Fudo really out here fighting with the same amount of strength. Lol. And that shows most when he fights Tsubasa later on.

While this is happening, Noble Red sneaks in to deal with Shem-Ha, to take control of it for their own since they were betrayed by Fudo. But once they removed the mind control, Shem-Ha immediately wakes up and freaking kills them??????????????

Okay, my first initial thoughts on this is that if they died here and in such a way, that would suck. I say this because it feels like such a anti-climactic way for them to be killed off? Them dying in the show is a given, yes but the fact that they were killed off like this bothers me. I’d rather them get killed off in a fight against the Gear users OR you know just fighting back. Not getting owned by a God with little to no effort. It just felt like a waste to me.

With that out the way, some people are thinking they aren’t fully dead. One reason for this is Vanessa’s reaction; it didn’t actually seem all that worrying to her? The way she says their names, and even her movements make it seem like she wasn’t that pressed. But we know that she loves and cares for them so it wouldn’t make sense for her NOT to be upset. So because of this, some people are thinking that they aren’t dead, despite them being cut in half (as well as Vanessa being cut in half). I’m also not sure on how to feel about this because them dying like this would suck and would be nice if they got another chance.

But then how in the world would they even survive an attack like this when they’ve been considered weak? They already came in there weak due to the tainted blood so how would they even recover from such an attack? In my brain, it doesn’t make much sense so I don’t know what else to say about it until we see what may happen as a result next Saturday. 

They go back to the scene with Maria and Tsubasa, but Fudo comes in and knocks Maria out with a punch as he tries once again to get Tsubasa back on his side. He attempts to use the control seal but fails as its broken. And with Tsubasa’s denial, he deems her useless and tries shooting her. But Yatsuhiro takes the bullet for her instead.

He also reaffirms that he didn’t want anyone but himself to pretend being her father (which also just reminds you of how f*cked up Tsubasa’s family tree is) and that they protect people because they’re worth it, not because they’re weak. And from here on out, we assume he dies, which...clearly isn’t making Tsubasa feel any better.

Also, some people are thinking that her second song is in reference to Yatsuhiro. And honestly, I can buy that, merely because I thought “maybe they wanted us to see something with Tsubasa in episode 9 before her CD came out” and this is very well something to see before her CD comes out. It literally comes out tomorrow too (Wednesday for Japan but Tuesday for the US, at least my timezone) so it fits and very well may be the reason why they pushed Tsubasa’s CD another week so it comes out after this episode.

Moving on, after this, Tsubasa now uses her Gear to fight against Fudo, primarily as revenge against him for everything he’s done, as well as killing her father. And to be expected, Fudo is holding his own against a Gear, just like Genjuro is able to. And eventually because of it, Tsubasa uses her Amalgam. (HQ was able to lift the restriction off of it right as she used it lol)

Also, I feel the need to show Tsubasa’s expressions while she’s preparing for a killing blow to Fudo. After breaking his sword, he keeps telling her that a monster is what’s needed to protect their country, one that is willing to do whatever is possible. He ends up saying that Tsubasa is that monster as she’s about to kill him, plus, he’s encouraging her to do this the entire time.

But Genjuro stops them.

He does this to protect Tsubasa from becoming a monster just like Fudo, and for what Yatsuhiro wanted for Tsubasa. He named her “Tsubasa” in hopes that she would be the one to break free from the Kazanari family, basically to “fly away” from them. And if she ended up killing Fudo, that would be blood forever on her hands. This stops Tsubasa immediately, her Gear deactivating before she starts to cry again.

Now I’ve seen some people wishing she actually killed Fudo because he’s still a threat. And while I understand that, I still don’t think Tsubasa doing it would be right or fitting. Death is also too cheap for him because then he wouldn’t even be held responsible for his actions. He’d just die and then what? Even if he doesn’t feel regret, it’s better for him to actually have consequences instead of just dying and not facing anything. At least, in my opinion that is.

After this though, some shizz starts happening with what I assume is Shem-Ha.

Hibiki is called back into HQ due to everything that’s transpired I assume so as she gets ready to leave, her father stops her to tell her that everything is okay (using the familiar catchphrase).

Akira admits that he’s a bad father that can’t do anything for Hibiki but use those words for her. He also admits that the same words turned into a curse for him and honestly in a way, it was the same for Hibiki. Her using those words were mainly as a crutch to when she felt she was literally crumbling from within.

Technically, it wasn’t a good coping mechanism for Hibiki either since it’s literally her attempting to say she’s fine, and convince herself of it, when she really isn’t fine whatsoever. I think GX shows that well, especially in episode 8 where she’s running as she cries, saying the catchphrase over and over to herself as if the words alone would convince her that she’d be feeling better by saying it.

But he tells her that something is a blessing or curse depending on how you look at it. This is mainly in reference to her saying she’s cursed (and probably all of S1 where she said she was cursed like it was a mantra lol). 

And him saying how the kanji for “blessing” and “curse” look similar and are possibly two sides of the same coin sounds pretty silly but it makes Hibiki laugh lmao. This could hint to something later in the last four episodes however. And I’ve seen some people thinking it could ironically play to the Curse of Balal but I won’t get into that now. Other people are better at theories and thinking than myself lol.

So the episode ends with Hibiki leaving the apartment; her dad encouraging her while he deals with all this stuff with her mother and she thanks him for the food before running off.

NOTE: There’s a bonus scene after the credits that seem to show the Lunar Frontier/Ruins being activated? Could be because of that massive energy where Tsubasa and them are. I am not sure what to say about it because it’s really not that long and I’m sure it will come into play next episode.

Now, let me get this out the way again--- If people think that Hibiki 100% forgives her dad and don’t like that she does, then I’m sorry because I don’t see it that way at all. I don’t believe she has fully forgiven him because based on what she said WAY back in episode 3 that the problems don’t simply get erased. It was literal YEARS he abandoned them, and even before then he didn’t treat them right once he started drinking.

Hibiki knows this, and doesn’t think it will all be “sunshine and rainbows” immediately. This all takes time, it was literal trauma for ALL of them, her mother especially. It may work out in the end, it may not, who knows. But that’s for Akira and Hibiki’s mom to figure out and not to put the pressure of fixing her family all on Hibiki.

She’ll try to help, yeah but...that’s between those two. They are the ones that need to figure that out and not drag their daughter into it as well. I believe that Hibiki realizes he’s trying, and that’s enough for her to try and help him along the way. He’s attempting to change but just because someone says that doesn’t mean it simply erases what he’s done. I think people really seem to forget that.

They seem so quick to believe that if you don’t hate someone that has done terrible things, they believe you agree to what they did and find no issues with it. That’s not true at all. I take this stuff very seriously, even if it’s just a fictional character. I don’t think what he did was good at all, and I even disliked him as GX was airing because he did some messed up things that season that just left me feeling uncomfortable. I always bring up the scene in episode 8 when they’re eating. Again, it wasn’t the fact that he made her pay for the bill that bothered me, it was more that he seemed so nonchalant about Hibiki’s feelings, like he didn’t notice them. He didn’t notice how hard this was for Hibiki to face him again, and how frustrating it was for him to act as if everything was fine despite being out of their lives for literal YEARS.

That’s something I still don’t like. I was glad that she was pissed though, because it was understandable for her to feel this way. However, I also see that he’s trying and I think that’s what Hibiki sees. Plus, seeing her at least A LITTLE bit happy with this is nice because this is something that was hampering Hibiki for a HUGE chunk of her life. So for her to find at least A SMALL AMOUNT of happiness from this is good.

He wasn’t always bad, but it doesn’t excuse his actions either. There’s a lot to this and it bothers me that it feels as if there’s always “one side or the other”. It feels like people don’t think of it from both perspectives sometimes and that bothers me a lot. Maybe because I feel stuck in the middle for thinking about it both ways while most that I see are like pure hate or pure forgiveness.

To sum it up: What I do when I write Hibiki in terms of her family life is that she hardly ever tells ANYONE about it of course but she’s still dealing with it regardless if anyone knows or not. I don’t write her as 100% forgiving him for what he’s done. I write her as them slowly going through the process of working things out, even if it may take years before things are alright. And it may not work out in the end, and I think Hibiki knows that’s a possible route and will be fine with it in the end if so. At least they tried and that’s all they could ask for.

But anyway, moving on, this episode was a mixed bag only because it felt like they were trying to tie up loose ends really fast? Like, is Noble Red really dead? Is Yatsuhiro dead too? The removal of the seal felt rushed and simple (though I explained the different reasons earlier), but looking back and taking a few days to think about the episode, I feel at least slightly better about the whole thing overall. 

I can understand some people’s concern and their opinions, but I also can’t help but look on the other side as well. Maybe this is why I’m not good at discussions since I try to take everything into account lol.

But we’ll see how the last four episodes go. That’s it for me! These next few episodes should be intense then for sure.)

[communistcountryclub]

One morning in mid-August, Americans woke up in what felt, to some, like an altered country. The week’s most notable political event had begun with hundreds of Americans carrying torches while chanting “Sieg heil” and “Jews will not replace us.” White supremacist radicals like these had been active and energized throughout the presidential campaign, but much of their energy had been restricted to the internet. The rally in Charlottesville was markedly different. It confronted America with an unlikely question: Was it possible the nation was seeing a burgeoning political faction of ... actual Nazis? People we should actually call Nazis?

“Nazi” is a remarkable example of the very different routes a word can take through the world. In this case, that word is the Latin name “Ignatius.” In Spanish, it followed a noble path: It became Ignacio, and then the nickname Nacho, and then — after a Mexican cook named Ignacio Anaya had a moment of inspiration — it became delicious, beloved nachos. In Bavaria, a much darker transformation took place. Ignatius became the common name Ignatz, or in its abbreviated form, Nazi. In the early 20th century, Bavarian peasants were frequent subjects of German mockery, and “Nazi” became the archetypal name for a comic figure: a bumbling, dimwitted yokel. “Just as Irish jokes always involve a man called Paddy,” the etymologist Mark Forsyth writes in his 2011 book “The Etymologicon,” “so Bavarian jokes always involved a peasant called Nazi.” When Adolf Hitler’s party emerged from Bavaria with a philosophy called “Nationalsozialismus,” two of that word’s syllables were quickly repurposed by Hitler’s cosmopolitan opponents. They started calling the new party Nazis — implying, to the Nazis’ great displeasure, that they were all backward rubes.

That original, taunting meaning of “Nazi” is now long gone, replaced forever by the image of history’s most despised regime. This is precisely why the word has resurfaced in American conversation, aimed at the white supremacist arm of the so-called alt-right: It is perhaps the single most potent condemnation in our language, a word that provides instant moral clarity. Not everyone, though, is entirely comfortable with this new usage. The New Yorker’s Jelani Cobb finds “Nazi” insufficient as a label for American racists, because when we use it, he writes, “we summon the idea of the United States’ moral victories, and military ones” — references that make little sense when we’re talking about American-made moral failures. Lindsey E. Jones, a Ph.D. student of history in Charlottesville, tweeted that a long history of American racism is “conveniently erased” when figures like the white nationalist Richard Spencer are reduced to “Nazis.”

But if “Nazi” isn’t quite the right word for the fringe groups now attempting a takeover of national politics — if it’s sloppy and inexact and papers over just how widespread some of these bigotries are — then “Nazi” will, in a way, have returned to its roots. It began as a broad, imprecise and patronizing slur. Then it became a precise historical classification. (One that, you might argue, “conveniently erased” widespread anti-Semitism throughout Europe and America.) Now we find ourselves arguing over whether it can serve as a general epithet again — a name for a whole assortment of distasteful ideologies. Nearly 80 years after Kristallnacht, we are not exactly sure what a Nazi is, or should be.

Not so long ago, it seemed as though “Nazi” had lost much of its frightening power. A person with an abiding fervor for flawless syntax could quite casually be labeled a “grammar Nazi.” A comically exacting chef on “Seinfeld” could be called a “soup Nazi.” On right-wing radio, any woman with a challenging opinion could be called a “feminazi.” Some of these were jokes, others pointed accusations. But in each case, what the word described was a kind of outsize zealotry — a person who was too stern, too demanding, like an order-barking villain in a World War II movie.

This tradition has unexpected roots, too: It begins with surfers. Shortly after World War II, some surfers started toying with Nazi regalia, mainly out of a desire to offend. By the early ’60s, some young California surfers had begun wearing a Nazi-themed pendant called the Surfer’s Cross. (One teenager told Time magazine he liked it because “it really upsets your parents.”) Despite condemnations from the surfing press, this strange association eventually resulted in the term “surf Nazi” — which, oddly, didn’t describe beachside fascists but cultishly single-minded surfing fanatics.

Actual Nazism remained in circulation, becoming one of various extremist ideologies on the international fringes. In that sense, a Nazi was a very concrete entity. A Nazi was a believer in a very specific mythos. A Nazi was someone who murdered members of my distant family. At the same time, the word was also a frivolous way of comparing decidedly nongenocidal behavior — like using “whom” correctly or being persnickety about etiquette — to the best-known example of human wickedness. This double life was possible, in part, because professed Nazis had very little public voice; identifying as one disqualified you from mainstream conversation, a reality racist communities remain well aware of. As Wired’s Ashley Feinberg discovered, some members of the white supremacist forum Stormfront were concerned by the symbols used by marchers in Charlottesville: “Some were carrying swastikas and that isn’t good for our image, because of the propogabda [sic] embedded into everyone’s minds,” wrote one.

Hence one rhetorical strategy of the alt-right, which constantly gestures toward Nazism without actually assuming the designation. Just after the election, Richard Spencer told a crowd, “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail our victory,” and was saluted with outstretched arms in reply. Online forums have concocted an imaginary alt-right country called Kekistan, whose flag is basically a Nazi flag, only green, with a cluster of Ks instead of a swastika. This winking take on fascism has helped mainstream the alt-right, bringing us to a point at which President Trump might say that there were “many fine people” among the demonstrators in Charlottesville. (It has also brought us to the point at which there can be earnest argument over whether we should consider a sitting president a Nazi sympathizer.) This is one of the most remarkable results of the alt-right’s emergence into the national dialogue: Talking seriously about Nazis is part of the new normal.

It has long been a standard of political argument to liken your foes to the Third Reich — enough so that, in 1990, an annoyed attorney named Mike Godwin proposed what’s now called Godwin’s Law: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving the Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” This was intended as a critique of the level of argument on the internet. Now, as we half worry that swastika-wavers might seize some contemporary political power, such comparisons don’t seem quite as fanciful, as evidenced by a recent tweet from Godwin himself: “By all means, compare these [expletive] to Nazis. Again and again. I’m with you.”

One problem with calling American extremists Nazis is that the word carries an inevitable outlandishness. Nazis have a unique place in the cultural imagination; their image is a singularly terrifying and ridiculous thing. Applying that label to the alt-right runs the risk of making them seem like exotic cartoon villains. But the men and women marching in Charlottesville weren’t exotic; they were people’s neighbors, colleagues and study buddies. The racism of the Nazis wasn’t particularly exotic, either: The uncomfortable truth is that Nazi policy was itself influenced by American white supremacy, a heritage well documented in James Q. Whitman’s recent book “Hitler’s American Model.” The Germans admired, and borrowed from, the “distinctive legal techniques that Americans had developed to combat the menace of race mixing” — like the anti-miscegenation laws of Maryland, which mandated up to 10 years in prison for interracial marriage. At the time, no other country had such specific laws; they were an American innovation.

What term, then, is the right one? None — fascists, white nationalists, extremists — fully encompass the men and women in this mass. Watchdog groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center have spent decades tracing the intricate ideological differences among various fringe sects: neo-Confederates, neo-Nazis, Klansmen and so on. Yet when these impulses collect into one group, it’s impossible to arrive at a simple, low-syllable explanation of their particular ugliness.

But that’s precisely why “Nazi” was, originally, such a useful word. It was never intended as an incisive diagnosis. It was a snappy, crude, unfussy insult, repurposed and wielded by people the Nazis intended to dominate, expel or kill. It contains a larger lesson, which is that we do not have to engage in linguistic diplomacy with people who want to destroy us. We don’t have to refer to them with their labels of choice. There is a time for splitting hairs over the philosophies of hateful extremists, but there’s also great value in unambiguously rejecting all of them at once with our most melodious, satisfying terminology. “Nazi” is not careful description. But careful description is a form of courtesy. “Nazi,” on the other hand, has always been a form of disrespect.

[mancitynoise]

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Bayern Munich are in a somewhat transitional period at the moment.

Just recently, the Bavarians parted ways with Niko Kovac and are looking to regain their dominance both in Germany and in Europe.

But for that, they will need reinforcements.

Of course, it’s not that they don’t have a formidable team already at their disposal but they haven’t tasted victory in the Champions League since 2012/13 and even though they’ve been German champions for seven straight seasons, their aspirations grow much bigger than that.

The proof of that could very well be in their recent transfer targets.

After all, first they’ve acquired the services of Philippe Coutinho from Barcelona, albeit on a loan, and are now reportedly looking into the possibility of signing Leroy Sane from Manchester City and interestingly enough, Kingsley Coman could possibly be going the other way.

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This is not, however, a straight swap but rather two separate deals that could potentially unfold.

Sky Sports are reporting that Pep Guardiola’s men would be targeting Coman in case Bayern snatch up Sane and even though it’s not officially a swap of players, it does feel like the Citizens would be getting the short end of the stick while the German team should be extremely satisfied with it.

The two players, however, are fairly similar in their style of play: they’re quick, agile, have an eye for goal but are also somewhat injury-prone.

After all, both Coman and Sane are currently out of action with the latter one suffering a pretty serious setback.

But Coman falls short in almost every category when compared to Sane, even when talking injuries.

A quick overview of his fitness issues throughout the seasons indicates the 23-year-old Frenchman generally experiences a lot of injuries, even multiple ones per season, while this is Sane’s first major one.

When it comes to the final product, once again it feels like the German has the edge: 16 goals and 18 assists in 2018/19 compared to Coman’s ten goals and seven assists.

Looking at their whole careers at their respective clubs, the situation is much tighter with Sane sitting on 39 goals and 45 assists in 134 games while Coman has 28 goals and 33 assists in 139 for Bayern.

The difference is not huge but when everything is said and done, the Bavarians would be getting an upgrade on their man and City would fall down a level, for sure, especially if the Frenchman’s injury woes continue in the Premier League.

So even if losing Coman was a big deal, Bayern shouldn’t be down too much if they manage to get Sane in return.

For them, it’s very much the perfect outcome.

[nosequotes]

William Zebina Ripley, The Races of Europe: A Sociological Study, 1899

Page 49: Is there any doubt that were, as in our own Southern States, two races are socially divided from one another, the superior would do all in his power to eliminate any traces of physical similarity to the menial negroes? Might not the Roman nose, light hair and eyes, and all those prominent traits which distinguished the master from the slave, play an important part in constituting an ideal of beauty which would become highly effective in the course of time? So uncultured a people as the natives of Australia are pleased to term the Europeans, in derision, “tomahawk noses,” regarding our primary facial trait as absurd in its makeup. Even among them the “consciousness of kind” cannot be denied as an important factor to be dealt with in the theory of the formation of races.

Page 107: Experience proves that the vast majority of the population of this continent shows evidence of crossing, so that in general we cannot expect that more than one third of the people will be marked by the simplest combination of traits. We need not be surprised, therefore, that if we next seek to add a third characteristic, say the shape of the head, to a normal combination of hair and eyes, we find the proportion of pure types combining all three traits in a fixed measure to be very small indeed. Imagine a fourth trait, stature, or a fifth, nose, to be added, and our proportion of pure types become almost infinitesimal.

Page 121: The first of our races is perhaps the most characteristic. It is entirely restricted to northwestern Europe, with a center of dispersion in Scandinavia. Each of the other types extends beyond the confines of the continent, one into Asia, the other into Africa. Lapouge’s name of Homo Europeus is by no means inapt for this reason. Our portraits, chosen as typical by Dr. Arbo of the Norwegian army, show certain of the physical peculiarities, especially the great length of the head, the long oval face, and the straight aquiline nose. The face is rather smooth in outline, the cheek bones not being prominent. The narrow nose seems to be a very constant trait, as much so as the tendency to tall stature. This race is strongly inclined to blondness. The eyes are blue or light gray, and the hair flaxen, tawny, reddish, or sandy. The whole combination accords exactly with the descriptions headed down to us by the ancients. Such were the Goths, Danes, Norsemen, Saxons, and their fellows of another place and time. History is thus strictly corroborated by natural science.

Page 122: A distinctive feature of the Teutonic race, which we have not yet mentioned, is its prominent and narrow nose. This is notable, in general, as a fact of common observation, but it is very difficult of anthropometric proof. The range of individual variation in the fleshy parts seems to be very great, even in the same race. There is some indication, moreover, that the nasal bones are influenced by the structure of the face. The lack of any international agreement as to the system of measurement renders statistical comparisons doubly difficult. Nevertheless, enough has been done to show that from the north of Europe, as we go south, the nose betrays a tendency to become flare and more open at the wings. Especially where the Alpine and Teutonic types are in contact do we find the flatter nose of the broad-headed race noticeable. Arbo has observed it in the southwestern corner of Norway. House proves it for Belgium in a comparison of Flemings and Walloons; it is certainly true in France that the Teutonic elements are more leptorhim (narrow-nosed) than the Alpine. The association of a tall stature with a narrow nose is so close as to point to a law.

Page 123: Italy shows a regular increase in frequency of the broad and flat nose from north to south; and Colingon’s law of the association of the form of nose to stature seems again to be confirmed. From this point south, even from the Mediterranean coast in Tunis toward the interior, the broad and open form of nose, extremely developed in the negro race, becomes more common. Our Sardinian portraits, compared with those of the various Teutonic types, will strongly accentuate this change. A distinct, though distant affinity of the Mediterranean stock with the negro is surely the only inference to be drawn from it. Our second racial type is most persistently characterized by the shape of the head. This is short and at the same time broad. The roundness is accompanied by a broad face, the chin full, and the nose rather heavy. These traits are all shown more or less clearly in our portraits of the Austrian German, and of the two Bavarian peasants.

Page 151: The people of the inland villages contain a goodly proportion of the Alpine stock; although, as our maps show, it is more attenuated than in either Savoy or Auvergne. To the eye this Alpine lineage in the pure Breton appears in a roundness of the face, a concave nose in profile, and broad nostrils.

Page 152: Our Normans show plainly the elongated face and the high and thin nose so peculiar to them. The varying degrees of ethnic intermixture and their distribution will be seen from an examination of our maps.

Page 154: The Norman nose is high and thin; the nose of the Breton is broader, opening at the nostrils. This difference is no less marked than the contrast in the contour of the face and the general proportion of the head.

Page 173: In our Dordogne peasant there are many other minor features which need not concern us here. The skull is very low-vaulted; the brow ridges are prominent; the nose is well formed, and leas broad at the nostrils than in the Alpine type. These, coupled with the prominent cheek bones and the powerful masseter muscles, give a peculiarly rugged cast to the countenance. It is not, however, repellent; but more often open and kindly in appearance.

Page 175: The skull was elongated at the back in the same way — a distinguishing trait which appears prominently upon comparison of the profile view of a modern Cro-Magnon type with that of its Alpine neighbors, as we have already observed. The brows were strongly developed, the eye orbits were low, the chin prominent. The noted anthropologist, De Quatrefages, prophesied what one of these types ought to look like in the flesh. I give his description in his own words, that its agreement with the facial type above represented may be noted: “The eye depressed beneath the orbital vault; the nose straight rather than arched, the lips somewhat thick, the maxillary (jaw and cheek) bones strongly developed, the complexion very brown, the hair very dark and growing low on the forehead — a whole which, without being attractive, was in no way repulsive.”

Page 193: Examine our Basque portraits collected from both slopes of the Pyrenees. They appear in two series in this chapter. At once a peculiar characteristic is apparent in nearly ever case. The face is very wide at the temples, so full as to appear almost swollen in this region. At the same time the chin is very long, pointed, and narrow, and the nose is high, long, and then. The outline of the visage becomes almost triangular for this reason. This, with the eyes placed somewhat close together, or at least appearing so from the breadth of the temples, gives a countenance of peculiar cast. It resembles, perhaps, more than anything else the features of so-called infant prodigies, in which the frontal lobes of the brain have become over-developed. This resemblance is only superficial. These people are notably hardy and athletic. “To run and jump like a Basque” has become a proverb in France.

Page 202: The development of a facial type peculiar to certain localities is by no means a rare phenomenon. We shall have occasion to call attention to it later in other portions of Europe, particularly where isolation prevails. The form of the nose, the proportions of the face, nay, at times the expression, seem to be localized and strongly characteristic. Thus among the Finnic peoples in Russia, however much they may differ in head form, a characteristic physiognomy remains. It is easy to conceive of artificial selection in an isolated society whereby choice should be exercised in accordance with certain standards of beauty which had become generally accepted in that locality.

Page 217: Thus we pass from a head form identical with that of the Scandinavians, to one in the south in no wise distinguishable from the Swiss, the Austrian, and other Alpine types in France and northern Italy. Our three accompanying portraits on the next page will serve to illustrate this gradual change of physical type.

Page 218: The pure, unmixed Alpine race finds its expression in the plateaus of Bavaria and Württemberg, in the Schwarzwald, the Rauhe Alp, and parts of the Thüringerowald. such is our third type, with its rounded face and skull fore-shortened from front to back. Our representative here photographed was dark brown both in hair and eyes, nose rather irregular, less finely molded perhaps; certainly considerably broader at the nostrils than in the Teutons. At the same time the stature was short, only five feet one inch and a half, with a correspondingly stocky figure. The facts speak for themselves. There can be no doubt of two distinct races of men.

Page 272: Here in Sardinia stature descends to the very lowest level in all Europe, almost in the world. Livi assures us that it is entirely a matter of race, a conclusion from which we have already taken exception in our chapter on Stature. To us it means, rather, that population has always gone out from the island and never in, thus leaving today nothing but the dregs, s to speak. At all events, whether a result of unfavorable environment or not, this treat is very widespread today. It seems to have become truly hereditary. It extends over fertile and barren tracts alike. In other details also there is the greatest uniformity all over the island — a uniformity at an extreme of human variation be it note: for this population is entirely free from all intermixture with the Alpine race so prevalent in the north. It betrays a number of strongly African characteristics, which are often apparent in the facial features. The flattened nose, with open nostrils, thick lips, and retreating foreheads are all notable in a remarkable series of portraits, which Dr. Livi courteously placed at our disposition. These details, with the long and narrow face, are represented in our two portraits reproduced in this chapter. Imagine the black hair and eyes, with a stature scarcely above five feet, and a very un-European appearance is presented.

Page 276: Aranzadi believes the very prevalent “honey-brown” eyes of the southwest quarter of Spain and Granada, to be due perhaps to strong Moorish influence. And the effect of a Moorish cross is also apparent in producing a broader and more African nose, according to the same authority. Beyond this the permanent influence of the foreigner has been slight. The varied experiences of Portugal with the English and French invasions, seems to have left no permanent effects.

Page 330: The most characteristic facial feature of the old British populations, be they Scotch, Irish, Welsh, “old black breed,” or bronze age, as compared with the Anglo-Saxon, is irregularity and ruggedness. The mouth is large, the upper lip broad, the cheek bones prominent. In the bronze-age type, as we have seen, the nose is large and prominent. In most of the other earlier types it is oftener merely broad at the nostrils, sometimes snubbed, as in our younger black-breed Shetlander at page 302; not often very delicately formed.  

Page 278: The physical traits of these Berbers are at once apparent by reason of their isolation from all admixture with the other ethnic types of Europe. The distinctively long, narrow face appears in most of our subjects, although the broad-faced, disharmony Cro-Magnon type is quite generally represented. In many cases the slightly concave nose in profile is characteristic, suggesting the negro.

Page 331: Footnote: Cf. Barnard Davis, 1867, p. 70, cited by Beddoe, 1870: “The most distinctive features of the western Irish are seen to be derived from the strongly mark superciliary ridges, extending across the nose, making a horizontal line, upon which the eyebrows are placed and overhanging the eyes and face.”

Page 332: One more facial type needs to be mentioned. It is commonest in Kent and in the Isle of Wight. It is generally ascribed to a Jutish ancestry. Our two upper portraits at page 316 represent this adequately enough. These people are darkish in complexion. The principal peculiarity is their convexity of profile from chin to forehead. The lips are rather thick; the nose is difficult to describe, unless we can agree to call it Jewish. Whether we may, indeed, accept it as Jutish, for we are accustomed to regard the Jutes as near relatives of the Anglo-Saxons, is matter of question. It is certainly a noticeable type in the south and east of England, where Jutish settlements were common.

Page 386: Vogt in his Lectures on Man assumes the Polish type to be descended from Hindu sources, while the Spanish alone he held to be truly Semitic. Weisbach gives us the best discretion of the Sephardim Jew as today found at Constantinople. He is slender in habit, he says; almost without exception the head is “exquisitely” elongated and narrow, the face a long oval; the nose hooked and prominent, but thin and finally chiseled; hair and eyes generally dark, sometimes, however, tending to a reddish blond. This rufous tendency in the Oriental Jew is emphasized by many observers. Dr. Beddoe found red hair as frequent in the Orient as in Saxon England, although later results do not fully bear it out. This description of a reddish Oriental type corresponds certainly to the early representations of the Savior; it is the type, in features perhaps rather than hair, painted by Rembrandt — the Sephardim in Amsterdam being familiar to him, and appealing to the artist in preference to the Ashkenazim type. This latter is said to be characterized by heavier features in every way. The mouth, it is alleged is more apt to be large, the nose thickish at the end, less often clearly Jewish perhaps.

Page 394: Secondly, as to the nose. Popularly the humped or hook nose constitutes the most distinctive feature of the Jewish face. Observations among the Jews in their most populous centers do not, however, bear out the theory. Thus Majer and Kopernicki, in their extended series, found only nine percent of the hooked type — no greater frequency than among the Poles; a fact which Weissenberg confirms as to the relative scarcity of the convex nose in profile among his South Russian Jews. He agrees, however, that the nose is often large, thick, and prominent. Weisbach measured the facial features of nineteen Jews, and found the largest noses in a long series of people from all over the earth; exceeded in length, in fact, by the Patagonians alone. The hooked nose is, indeed, sometimes frequent outside the Jewish people. Olechnowiz found, for example, over a third of the noses of the henry in southeast Poland to be of this hooked variety. Running the eye over our carefully chosen series of portraits, selected for us as typical from four quarters of Europe — Algeria, Russia, Bosnia, and the confines of Asia — representing the African, Balkan, Spagnuoil, and Russian Ashkenazim varieties, visual impressions will also confirm our deduction. The Jewish nose is not so often truly convex in profile. Nevertheless, it must be confessed that it gives a hooked impression. This seems to be due to a peculiar “tucking up of the wings,” as Dr. Beddoe expresses it. Herein lies the real distinctive quality about it, rather than in any convexity of outline. In fact, it often renders a nose concave in profile, immediately recognizable as Jewish. Jacobs has ingeniously described this “nostrility,” as he calls it, by the accompanying diagrams: ….. What have we proved, then? That there is in reality such a phenomenon as a Jewish nose, even though it be differently constituted from our first assumption.

Page 396: Another characteristic of the Jewish physiognomy is the eyes. The eyebrows, seemingly thick because of their darkness, appear to be nearer together than usual, arching smoothly into the lines of the nose. The lids are rather full, the eyes large, dark, and brilliant.

Page 410:  In facial features Nicolucci’s early opinion seems to be confirmed, that the Greek face is distinctively orthognathous — that is to say, with a vertical profile, the lower parts of the face being neither projecting nor prominent. The face is generally of a smooth oval, rather narrow and high, especially as compared with the round-faced Slaves. The nose is thin and high, perhaps more often finely chiseled and straight in profile.

Page 416: The physical type of these inhabitants of Turkestan has been fairly well established by anthropologists. It persists throughout a great multitude of tribes of various names, among whom the Kara-Kirghiz, Uzbeks, and Kiptchaks are prominent. At page 44 we have represented these Turkoman types. The most noticeable feature of the portraits is the absence of purely Mongol facial characteristics. Except in the Kara-Kirghez the features are distinctly European. There is no squint-eye; the nose is well formed; the cheek bones are not prominent, although the faces are broad; and, most important of all, the beard is abundantly developed, both in the Uzbeg and the Kiptchak. The Kara-Kirghez, on the other hand, betrays unmistakably his Mongol derivation in every one of these important respects.

Page 418: In addition to this, the Turks are everywhere, as Chantre observes, “incontestably brunet.” The hair is generally stiff and straight. The beard is full. This latter trait is fatal to any assumption of a persistence of Kirghez blood, or of any Mongolic extraction, in fact. The nose is broad, but stright in profile. The eyes are perfectly normal, the oblique Mongol type no more frequent than elsewhere.

Page 433: From these portraits and from our other data it appears that the Magyars are a strikingly fine-looking and well-developed people. The facial features are regular, the nose and mouth well formed. There is nothing Asiatic or Mongol to be seen. Perhaps, indeed, they have, as Dr. Beddoe writes me, an Oriental type of beauty, with somewhat prominent “semi-Tatar” cheek bones. Nevertheless, we find no trace of the “coarse Mongoloid features” which Kean describes among these Szeklers, whom he rightly seems to regard as the purest representatives of the race. Nor are they even very dark, these Hungarians.

Page 445: These Kurds have remained relatively untouched by the Mongol or Turkish invasions in the retirement afforded by the mountains of Kurdistan. Both in their language and their physical traits they are Iranian. Chantre, studying them in Asia Minor, reports as to their hard features and savage aspect. Their own derivation of “Kurd” is from a word meaning “excellent”; but the Turkish equivalent for it, “wolf,” seems more aptly to describe their character. They are very dark, with eyes of a deep-brown tint; the women darker, as a rule. Our portrait at page 49 is fairly typical. The nose is straight or convex; rarely concave. The head is long and exceedingly narrow with a face corresponding in its dimension.

Page 450: Finally, our third subtype of the Persian occurs toward the southeast, among the so-called Suzians, about the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Look at our portrait of one of these on the preceding page. Is not the strain of negroid blood at once apparent? Notice the flattened and open nose, the thick lips and the black hair and eyes. We have reached the confines of India. Here we meet the first traces of the aboriginal population underlying the Hindoos. It includes all the native Indian hill tribes, and extends away off over seas into Melanesia. We are entering upon a new zoological realm. Our tedious descriptive task for European peoples is nearly completed.

Page 566: An interesting reason has been suggested for the predisposition of the negro for consumption — namely, that the broad, open nostril of the race is unfitted to perform the necessary service of warming the air before its entrance into the lungs. Leptorrhinism, it is asserted, may be due to natural selection, which has died upon that form of nose as most suitable to the temperate zone; and the negro, deprived of this advantage, suffers from disease of the lungs at once he is transferred to that part of the earth. It is not inconceivable that this may indeed serve as a partial explanation, but how, then, can we account for the equally open nostril of the Mongolian stock so immune from consumption? Or how can this theory be made to square with the predisposition of the Polynesian for the same class of diseases, especially when the leptorrhinism of this latter race is taken into account?

[yngwrthr]

“Prior to November 9

The revolution began among the sailors of the German fleet at Kiel, the major Baltic port. They had mutinied during the summer of 1917 and were crushed: some were imprisoned, others executed. Like the workers, they organized their revolt through revolutionary shop stewards. They had established contact with the USPD Local (Dittmann), which then disavowed them during the repression of their summer 1917 revolt. They had also been in contact with the workers at the Kiel shipyard and the arsenal. At the end of October 1918, the High Command of the German Navy decided upon one last battle. The sailors refused to set sail and seized the ships, and later took over the city. A workers and sailors council was formed which took control of the city on November 4.

Their attitude and program were quite pacifist: peace, democracy and recognition of the workers. This was the program of all the councils which were born in that first phase. They took the form of the Russian workers and soldiers soviets. They were based on cities, neighborhoods or the various military units. Their form was unlike that of the enterprise or factory councils.

The Kiel council, with an SPD majority, elected Noske as its president, the same person who would later be called the “bloodhound” of the revolution; dispatched to the scene by the SPD leadership, he also took control of the local city government. This fact alone summarizes the whole period: the rebellion chose as its representative the man who had come to squelch it, and he would promptly organize its armed repression.

This tactic of the SPD proved to be more suitable under the circumstances than the one advocated by the government minister from the Catholic Zentrum Party, Erzberger, who proposed that Kiel should be militarily assaulted, but could find no one to carry out such a plan. This same Erzberger, who had presented the motion in favor of peace adopted by the Reichstag in July of 1917, would later be assassinated by the extreme right in 1920, at a time when the revolutionaries had other things to attend to than killing ministers: the good democratic souls of the “workers parties” would, of course, utilize the occasion to criticize the sectarianism of the “leftists” who refused to participate in the insipid campaigns in defense of legality, which is an internal affair of the bourgeoisie.

The revolution rapidly spread throughout the whole country, taking Hamburg and Lübeck on November 5. A general strike broke out in Hamburg after the Kiel revolt.[1] Huge crowds seized warships, the port, the trade union headquarters, the central rail station, and the barracks of the city’s regiment (after a gunfight that led to some casualties), and then armed themselves, without taking any further steps. The senate (the local city administration) and the council mutually recognized one another and functioned (or, more accurately, failed to function) alongside each other: it was by no means a situation of dual power. Instead of dealing with real problems (food, production in the interests of the population and the revolution, armaments, links with the outside), the council organized elections ... for the workers and soldiers councils, which would cost them three days to prepare. After having seized power, the council immediately relinquished it, seeking legitimacy instead. The president of the council was H. Laufenberg. The council proclaimed “the indissoluble unity of the Russia of the Soviets and the government of the Hamburg councils.” According to Laufenberg, it was the movement in Hamburg which transformed the Kiel revolt into a pan-German phenomenon, which spread to Bremen (where the ISD exercised a great deal of influence), Stuttgart (the first party section to split from the SPD), and later, on the seventh, to Munich.[2] The demonstrators in Munich proclaimed the Bavarian council republic and freed all political prisoners. At that time, when the councils were just being formed, this council republic appeared to be copied from the “council-republic” of Russia. Its president was Kurt Eisner (USPD).

Unlike the precedence of Paris in French revolutionary history, Berlin fell, under pressure from all the rest of Germany, on the ninth: a “division” of revolutionary sailors (the Volksmarinedivision) arrived from Kiel and demonstrators occupied all public buildings. Under the direct democratic pressure of the crowds, the republic was proclaimed by the SPD minister, Scheidemann. Ebert reproached him for such an undemocratic act, since a republic can only be proclaimed by a constituent assembly elected by the people. Scheidemann responded that, had he not done so, the demonstrators would have immediately rallied to Liebknecht. An entirely Social Democratic government was created, called the “Council of Peoples Commissars”, composed of three members of the SPD (Ebert, Scheidemann, Landsberg) and three from the USPD (Haase, Dittmann, Barth). Due to his popularity, Liebknecht had been approached, but had refused to participate: at the head of another demonstration, Liebknecht proclaimed the socialist republic.

Approximately 10,000 councils were established, electing leaders who were in their great majority members of the SPD. Both the leaders of the SPD as well as the Army encouraged this process and helped to form councils: “All power to the Councils”. The council was the form chosen to liquidate the subversive movement, from the very moment of its appearance. ...

he November Revolution took place in a totally unexpected manner for all the parties and groups which attempted to assume its leadership, including, among others, those who were closest to the rank and file, the RO, whose plan for an insurrection was rendered superfluous by the wave which spread from Kiel. But the social democracy knew perfectly well how to use this current in its favor, and was all the more pleased when it conformed to its desires. When social democracy took the power which the proletariat had granted it, and which the bourgeoisie was prudent enough to surrender to it, the democratic revolution was already over. The emperor had abdicated after nobody spoke of him anymore. The struggle against the social revolution was initiated and led by the “most powerful workers party in the world” and its peoples commissars, in the name of democracy, the councils and socialism. ...

The strategies and functions of the various organizations

As far as the bourgeoisie was concerned, the State was momentarily neutralized. Nowhere did the bureaucracy offer any resistance to the formation of councils which, although concentrating all power in their hands wherever they were established, left the old State intact, and demanded that the latter “recognize” them. The Army dissolved, although its officers managed its return to Germany in a more or less orderly and disciplined fashion. There was little fraternization with enemy soldiers. The soldiers who were not immediately reincorporated into civilian life formed councils throughout the country at all levels, from the barracks up to the army corps. They were mostly social democrats, but were utterly useless as a force for direct repression: their purpose was more to immobilize the movement, so as to make it expire from inactivity. Some officers attempted to reestablish the status quo in the Army but could only create the Freikorps, paramilitary formations led by officers and government employees. The bourgeoisie and its parties did not take any overt action and ceded political power. Under pressure, their parties changed their names; all of them introduced the word “peoples’” or “popular” into their titles.[4] Liberalism was weak in Germany: the bourgeoisie was not very unified. In 1918, it was not economically destroyed, but surrendered political power to the workers parties. Once again, under the Nazi regime, the bourgeoisie would not itself exercise political power, and Hitler was able to say: “I do the politics, you do the economy”.[5] Immediately after the First World War, the bourgeoisie was divided between republicans and monarchists, those who benefited from inflation and those harmed by it, etc. ...[6]

The SPD which had taken power had undergone a large reduction in its membership, which was in its eyes a sign of proletarian radicalization, although the masses allowed it to remain in power. Once it occupied the highest offices of the State, its membership as well as its audience rapidly expanded: it obtained 35% of the vote in the January 1919 elections. It was the “backbone of the new bourgeois State” (Wolffheim).

Although it had been formed by those who had been excluded from the SPD, the USPD never lost the hope of reunification. Since its leaders were primarily concerned with the exercise of power, they did not consider the possibility of assembling a council as the Spartacist left had desired. Having taken account of the obvious current of radicalization, Spartacus had to show that it had at least become a significant minority within the USPD. We must point out that “public opinion”, the press, etc., had at that time seized upon the term “Spartacist” as being more suitable than “left radicals”, “international socialists”, etc., for causing a sensation, and that the term was applied to the whole revolutionary movement, within which Spartacus was just one group among others, and which would constitute neither the majority nor the most radical current within the KPD. The term “left radical” was also used in an imprecise manner, designating not only the USPD left (without distinction) but also everything to the left of the USPD.[7]

On October 7, 1918, the Spartacists, as an autonomous group, convoked a national conference, to which they invited the groups of the ISD as observers. This conference launched the slogan, which had already been heard in certain places during 1917-1918, calling for the formation of councils everywhere following the Russian model. It adopted a democratic transitional revolutionary program which was presented as follows: ending the state of emergency, liberation of all political prisoners, expropriation of the banks, heavy industry and the mines, as well as of large and medium-size agricultural properties, and the completion of German unification. This last point was in conflict with Wilson’s “right of self-determination”, which was devised to weaken Europe and strengthen the United States, and to give rise to buffer States against the revolution. The conference refused to deal with the trade union question as a “secondary” issue, despite the appearance of numerous autonomous organizations in the factories.

Freed by the government at the end of October, Liebknecht met with the Berlin shop stewards, who elected him to their leadership along with Müller (ISD). Luxemburg, who was also imprisoned during the war, was freed by the revolution on December 9. On that same day, Spartacus published the first issue of its daily newspaper, Rote Fahne (The Red Flag), the future organ of the KPD, the right wing KPD and the VKPD. On the 18th, it became the “Spartacist League”, thereby demonstrating its movement towards autonomy in respect to the USPD.

Like Spartacus, the ISD also grew and multiplied the number of its publications: some of them would become the organs of the left wing which would be excluded from the KPD. On November 23, meeting in Bremen, the ISD would assume the name IKD: Internationale Kommunisten Deutschlands. This would be one of the names proposed at the founding congress of the KPD. Laufenberg and Wolffheim’s organization joined the IKD, which also led the Bremen council. In Berlin, a member of the IKD (Müller) was elected leader of the shop stewards. On December 1, the IKD of Saxony, with Rühle, held its founding congress: after a week of experiences it had withdrawn from all the councils dominated by SPD and USPD members. These groups would attend the national conference of the IKD on December 24 (see the next Chapter). After November, the IKD declared its full solidarity with the struggles and the slogans of the Spartacists and, together with the latter, proclaimed the watchword: “All power to the councils”. However, as could be deduced from the press and attitude of the Saxon IKD, the IKD, from its inception, unlike the Spartacists, judged that the workers and soldiers councils, so recently created, the products of a still confused movement, could not be the vehicles for the proletarian revolution. On this point the IKD was not the victim of a fetishism of the organization and the masses. It put forth as a specific task the clarification of the relation of forces throughout the country and, taken as a whole, played a much less well-known but more important role than Spartacus.

On a national scale, the revolutionary shop stewards seemed to constitute the trade union left. As such, they corresponded exactly to the USPD (following the old economic-political dichotomy which the revolution would try to overcome). The RO was ultimately the trade union organization of the USPD. It fully confirmed this tendency by providing itself with a trade unionist leadership: Ledebour, Däumig (both from the USPD) and Müller (of the Berlin shop stewards). Even after the revolution, the RO would still allow a place for the USPD. In Berlin, however, where the Spartacist tendency of the USPD was strongest, the RO elaborated the insurrectionary plan which would be short-circuited by the revolution itself.

On January 1, 1919, the RO refused to become the KPD’s economic organization, and requested, among other things, that the party abandon the provocative name of “Spartacus”.[8] As an expression of its radical-reformist base, the RO would be replaced during the struggles of early 1919 by the factory organizations and action committees, the precursors of the future AAU. After the end of 1918, left wing action committees existed in all of Hamburg’s factories.

Meanwhile, the anarchosyndicalists, although outlawed and reduced to inactivity during the war, had preserved their cadres. The Free Federation of German Trade Unions (FVDG) rapidly rebuilt its organization. During December 26-27 it held a conference and, most importantly, decided to invite its members to collaborate with the communist organizations (IKD) and the Spartacists, in support of the councils and the dictatorship of the proletariat.[9]

The “November Revolution” was not even a bourgeois revolution: ultimately, it was the political conclusion, carried out by the proletariat, of a bourgeois revolution which started in the 19th century. This “revolution” was not a revolution: it did not fight the essence of the State, which was only modified in a secondary manner. Eichhorn, a USPD member, who was appointed “chief of police” of Berlin, was by no means the real chief of police. And what kind of police was he supposed to lead? The police of the bourgeois state had not changed. The mere fact that the workers and the revolutionaries had mobilized in its defense was more than symbolic: it reflected the incompetence of the movement. To speak of the “German Revolution”, granting this term its most profound meaning, as Luxemburg did in her last article (January 14, 1919), is a dangerous illusion.”

[eddiejpoplar]

2017 BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo – A Complicated Love Affair

The news that the BMW 6 Series range as we’ve all grown to love it will be retired after the current Coupe, Convertible and Gran Coupe models have run their lifespans shocked a lot of people. A lot of us already knew that the 8 Series was in the making and that the revival of this iconic nameplate would probably lead to a sort of cannibalization between the two. Even so, the thought that the 6er will be dropped was kept in check with our never-ending optimism. And then the confirmation came and we learned that the 6 Series range won’t be completely retired but that it will simply…transform.

When the BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo was unveiled, it was already too late, we knew that there’s no going back and that this is the only model that will keep using the number ‘6’ on the boot moving forward. It was a bittersweet moment, to be honest, one that made me wonder just how good the new GT will be, considering my previous experience with its predecessor, the 5 Series GT. A true trailblazer in my view, a car that I thoroughly enjoyed, basking in its comfort and ample room but which fell short when it came to what matters most to the vast majority: the looks department.

It’s true, the 5 Series GT was no looker. It was peculiar, weird and boxy, especially in its original guise. The facelift that came afterwards managed to change some shapes, especially at the back, making the boxy rear end look a bit rounder, a bit less blunt but even then, you couldn’t say it was a good-looking car. The advantages were obvious though, if you could just ignore the exterior looks of the 5er.

BMW wanted to offer a more practical alternative to those looking for the ultimate luxury and comfort…

Inside the car you’d find room for even the largest and tallest people out there, rivaling the 7 Series in terms of leg room and then rattling its crown as the roomiest Bimmer out there by having more headroom thrown in for good measure. Get the 5er GT with a panoramic roof and the sense of space was even more overwhelming. But there were obvious drawbacks, the most obvious one being the weight of the gran tourer.

Back when I tested the 5 Series Gran Turismo I remember saying to myself and my readers that it was the perfect surrogate if you really didn’t want to buy an SUV. It offered all the space and comfort inside while allowing you to ride closer to the ground and therefore more compliant when pushing the car to its limits. On the other hand, if you put the 5er on a scale and then an SUV right afterwards, you might notice that the needle would rest in roughly the same position. It was a heavy beast.

Therefore, those two were the main culprits that made the 5 Series GT a peculiar offering in the 5 Series range: the looks and weight. Could the 6 Series Gran Turismo overcome those handicaps? From the get go, the 6er lines up at the starting grid with a huge handicap in the collective mind of the audience it’s appealing to. You see, the 6 Series range as a whole might’ve been a bit heavy overall, but those cars were still regarded as high-precision tools, fast and enjoyable, not to mention drop dead gorgeous. Nobody can deny those claims and that means the 6 Series badge comes with a certain prejudice that will simply block some people from seeing what the Gran Turismo is supposed to be all about.

Some will get in and try and reproduce the driving dynamics of the old and now retired F13 6 Series Coupe and that simply won’t happen. It will then leave them angry and disappointed, without even trying to understand the car that’s sitting in front of them.

The Gran Turismo is a different kind of 6 Series. It’s a new breed if you will, a car that aims at offering the ultimate comfort and luxury for those looking to save some money compared to a 7 Series. The two have almost identical exterior dimensions. In terms of length, the standard 7 Series – not the long wheelbase model – is just 7mm longer while the two are exactly the same in width. However, the higher roofline of the GT makes it over 70mm taller and all of that translates into extra headroom compared to the limousine.

By now, you should get the picture: BMW wanted to offer a more practical alternative to those looking for the ultimate luxury and comfort inside a Bavarian machine but the size of the Gran Turismo isn’t the only thing that confirms my theory.

The car is also quick off the line and keeps you secure at all times, rising the confidence levels even higher.

Unlike the old 5 Series, the new model now also comes with all the latest tech the 7 Series brought out in the first place as well as the being built on top of the same CLAR architecture. This is actually important as it means the 6 Series GT now managed to drop considerable weight compared to its predecessor, thanks to intelligent use of lightweight materials. yet don’t believe that the 6 GT is now a light car on its feet but it did drop 150 kg (331 lbs) off its hips which is noticeable in all types of scenarios. It also comes with the latest adaptive drive suspension and integral active steering which, combined, make a big difference in how the car handles.

However, a big part in that is played by the engine choice as well. In the US, the entry-level model is the 640i GT. It comes with the familiar B58 3-liter straight six engine we’ve all grown to love, making 340 HP and 450 Nm (332 lb-ft) of torque. It’s a rapid machine that will reach 100 km/h (62 mph) in 5.4 or 5.3 seconds, the latter for the xDrive all-wheel drive models. All cars come with an 8 s-speed automatic gearbox as there’s no manual on offer. Then there’s also the 630i model but, unlike what the name would suggest, it’s powered by a powerful and yet small 2-liter 4-cylinder turbocharged engine.

The remaining models in the range are diesels and, therefore, not available in the US. You get to choose between a 630d with or without xDrive and a 640d xDrive model which can’t be had without all-wheel drive. Both cars use 3-liter straight six diesel engines making either 265 HP on the former or 320 HP on the latter. But that’s just half the story. On a car this heavy, torque is what matters the most and both of them have it by the plentiful. There’s only 60 Nm between them, with the 630d having less of it, of course, the 620 Nm (457 lb-ft) kicking in at 2,000 RPM.

It was this model that we had for testing purposes for a longer period of time and, to be fair, it felt like the best buy of the range. There’s plenty of power from down low, the car will do 100 km/h (62 mph) in 6 seconds flat and it handles great, never leaving the impression you’d need more grunt under the hood. Furthermore, the magic BMW applied to the chassis works wonders in favor of the new Gran Turismo in the range.

With the Executive Drive option ticked, our tester came with active anti-roll bars which did they job brilliantly and managed to keep body roll in check most of the time. Take the car up to 9/10 though and yes, there is some dive to be noticed if you enter a corner with too much speed but considering that the behemoth I was driving tipped the scale at just shy of 2 tons, the way it kept its composure was admirable. Some of the credit also goes to the active steering which makes this tall and ungainly car feel like it’s on rails and that simply left me dazzled. How could such a big beast keep its composure like that?

It was, without a doubt, a combination of factors. From the air suspension on both axles to the active anti-roll bars, everything works together perfectly, like finely tuned orchestra, offering a great show to the person sitting behind the wheel and I’m not talking only about when pushing the car to its limits. The ride feels composed at all times and the steering is direct and confidence inspiring but lacks the feedback everyone is talking about these days. The car is also quick off the line and keeps you secure at all times, rising the confidence levels even higher.

But you might want to take things down a notch every once in a while, especially when you pause for a moment and look around while sitting inside. As I already mentioned, there’s ample room both in the front and in the back but there’s also luxury on par with the 7 Series. The dash looks almost identical and you get access to all the optional features you can possibly want, from Gesture Control to the latest lane-keeping assistant and the Bowers & Wilkins sound system. Our tester also came with massaging seats up front as well as Individual Black Piano trims and Nappa Mokka leather upholstery. In a word, the car was expensive.

The price tag added up to over 100,000 Euros and we were still looking at a dash covered in Sensatec and missing some options that could’ve taken things even further up the scale. And that’s expensive, no matter how you look at it, turning the 6 Series GT into a niche model, if I ever saw one. But then again, there are things working for it, even at this stratospheric price range.

Compared to a similarly equipped 7 Series, the 6er comes in a bit cheaper even though it is also more practical and offers more room. In terms of practicality one has to mention the cavernous boot that offers 610 liters of storage space which is more than the 515 liters of the 7 Series or the 570 liters of the 5 Series Touring. Furthermore, fold the seats and things go up to a ludicrous 1800 liters, 100 more than the Touring 5er, making the GT one of the most practical BMWs you can get these days, including the SUV range. As a matter of fact, the X5 only offers 70 liters more with the rear seats folded and that’s something you might want to keep in mind.

Another thing you might want to remember when driving or parking the 6 Series GT is the high-rising tailgate. With the boot open, the rear end of the car looks like a hippo with its mouth open, allowing you to stow away all your stuff thanks to the flat floor and the secret storage bins underneath it. On the end of the tailgate you’ll also find an active wing that raises at speeds over 100 km/h (62 mph) for from Performance Junk Blogger 6 http://ift.tt/2pxC1hz via IFTTT