#like I'm calling The Hague

[andy-clutterbuck]

Love Actually | 2003

[directdogman]

Hey there's someone trying to say you said you were pro Israel on discord? They're anonymous and say you blocked them before they could get screenshots so I don't really believe them, but still :[

Mhm. Nice bit of news to wake up to, this.

Yeah, so this person's a troll and they're more than likely lying on purpose in order to try to me look bad because I blocked them on Twitter for being unpleasant, something I rarely even do and they're still seething about it. The block had nothing to do with Gaza, the person was just being annoying and I thought it'd be healthier to block and move on. I'd really prefer not to have to give this person energy, but if there's a rumor going around, I'd like to nip it in the bud, since it's very easy to disprove in this case.

To explain what this person's blathering about: Earlier this week, on a Phonegingi plush advert, this random user that doesn't follow me (and actually instructs fans of mine not to interact with them in their bio) made a dramatic QRT decrying me for posting a DT advert during a strike week, which I honestly had no clue it was, especially since my own timeline was (and still is) full of accounts posting normally.

Given that the person seemingly encountered one of my posts in the wild and ended up seething because of it + likely didn't want anything to do with me on their timeline (as their bio indicated), after thinking it over briefly, I did the healthy thing and just blocked the person + moved on. Makes sense, right? I'll admit: Even if the way the person approached me was regrettable, if I'd known it was a strike week, I'd have participated (as I'd participated in the last one), so I stopped posting teasers for the week anyway, only resuming again yesterday.

I'll also say: I checked my own timeline btw and looked at the accounts posting, and nobody else had anyone acting like this in their replies, even the much larger accounts. Nor did anyone else contact/reply to me in any way stating any disapproval.

Given that I've only blocked one account recently that isn't a replybot (and ofc, given the subject matter of that tweet), I'd have to assume that this is the anonymous person spreading stuff.

I'd understand where this person was coming from if maybe I'd stayed completely silent about Gaza, (which a lot of accounts I follow have) but I haven't. I had a Palestinian aid post pinned on my Twitter for weeks, I've talked about Gaza's child population and my support for South Africa's Hague suit in my discord server, I've engaged in the boycotts, wound down posting during strikes, donated a pretty substantial amount of Dialtown revenue towards sending money/esims... I have 4 bucks in my bank account right now and when my next DT check comes in, you'd better believe I'll be giving more. That's my right as a private citizen and one I'll continue to exercise.

I feel pretty uncomfortable having to put this stuff in front of me to 'prove' myself, even if some of it is public anyway. Charity should be something you do because you CARE and if it wasn't for this person, I'd have been far happier keeping a lower profile and not explicitly calling attention to my own aid, but given this ask, I feel it'd be stupid not to nip this in the bud. The majority of this information could be easily found with the tiniest amount of digging, btw, so it's not like the user couldn't have known any of this. This is the part of having a fandom that creators seldom talk about. You block one person for being a lil annoying, next thing you know, there's rumors that you support genocides! Fun.

So yeah, I'd like you to tell this person to just move on like a normal person (send them this post if you have to) and to stop spreading incorrect rumors about me out of spite. If they insist, I'm happy to pull up receipts to prove everything I've said. If they actually thought I was pro-Israel, they wouldn't be spreading it anonymously, they'd be writing another public post about the subject matter. Also if you see anyone repeating the rumor, please correct them. Thanks.

[mikerickson]

8/29/2024 - 9/6/2024

If I had a nickel for every time I took a vacation in a small European naval power that historically punched above its weight in global affairs I'd have two nickels, which... ah, you know the rest.

Just got back from a trip to the Netherlands and Belgium that was basically: Amsterdam -> Apeldoorn -> Utrecht -> Den Haag -> Brussels -> Ghent -> Amsterdam. I will now proceed to talk to myself about the highlights below the cut.

Still can't sleep on planes. I even took a sleeping pill and bought a fancy new neck pillow thing to help, but instead I was just exhausted and strangling myself. My dinner also didn't sit well with me, so every time I was about to fall asleep, my gag reflex would trigger and I felt like I was gonna throw up. Seven hours of this was not very relaxing.

Landed at ass o'clock in the morning local time and had 6 hours to kill before hotel check in. I've always read that spending time outdoors in natural sunlight helps regulate your circadian rhythm and can fight jet lag, so I took us to look at some windmills. This was kind of a blur and I'm not certain it made much of a difference because I did end up crashing and taking a nap in the afternoon anyway.

Acknowledging that I am biased about this because I am 1) American and 2) literally a traffic engineer by trade, I simply cannot describe the Netherlands as anything other than "car-hostile". I felt actively unsafe driving around each city we visited because there are so many people on bicycles everywhere, who have right of way. Hell, even as a pedestrian I didn't feel safe because they come at you from every direction and you gotta keep your head on a swivel at all times. In The Hague I watched a woman get knocked into by a cyclist who just shouted over her shoulder "Let op voor fietsen!" ("Watch out for bikes!") and carried on.

Amsterdam ended up being more interesting than I was expecting and now I kinda wish I had dedicated one more day for it in the itinerary. Convenient and easy mass-transit system, some of the best bookstores I've ever been in, and beautiful canals everywhere you look.

Were I forced to describe the geography of the Netherlands, I would have to call it "suspiciously flat." I also got to continue my tradition of traveling to foreign countries, seeing literal hundreds of spinning wind turbines all over the place, and seething with jealousy.

Utrecht was a neat, smaller city with a central canal that I wish I had set aside more time for. Felt like a place where you'd actually want to live more than a touristy city.

The Mauritshuis in The Hague is where Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring is located, and you know that before you even get to that room because she's plastered on 99% of everything for sale in the gift shop right at the entrance.

When we drove over the Netherlands-Belgium border, it started getting overcast. These gray skies hung around for four days, and dissipated as soon as we traveled back north on the final day. All of my memories of this country will now have a gray/de-saturated filter on them.

I know Brussels has a reputation of being a run-down or dangerous city among Europeans, but it just felt like a regular American city to me (specifically like the architecture/street layout of Boston with the political importance of Washington DC). Like, I don't know what to tell you, sometimes cities have visible homeless people, unsightly graffiti, and ethnic minority neighborhoods? It's gonna be okay, I promise. Amsterdam felt like Weenie Hut Jr. by comparison.

Going through the European Parliament building was very cool and very well laid-out and informative. Definitely a personal highlight of the trip for me.

The Belgian War Museum kinda just felt like some rich guy's personal collection of artifacts the public shouldn't have had access to? Not a lot of labels explaining what you're looking at in any language.

Belgian chocolate is fine. Not bad, but I mean it's chocolate, that's hard to screw up, you know?

During my research before this trip I kept seeing a general consensus that Bruges is super touristy and sanitized and feels fake and that Ghent was better for a more "authentically" preserved medieval center. I'm glad I opted to go there instead because it exceeded my expectations. Awesome architecture everywhere you turn, way fewer crowds than I expected, and it still felt lived in by modern people rather than a giant open-air museum.

Literally did not see a single physical Euro at all on this trip. Both of these countries are entirely cashless societies, and everyone (both tourists and locals) used chip readers and contactless payment for damn near every interaction. If anything, I saw tons of "Card Only/No Cash" signs and none of the opposite.

[aprito]

I know you won't reply to that, I just want to say something. I'm hurt. I guess you're on Gaza's side. Even though Hamas aren't the only monsters who hurt my people. Those "innocent people" rape , hit and torment my people. I don't care that monster lost her eye! Most of them want to kill us, And YOU either. They hate us more, but they hate you too. I liked your drawing so much, But now I'm just sad. Don't do that again, please- and I'll keep appreciate your work, because sasosaku are the best!

Aside from the fact that South Africa is sueing Israel for crimes against humanity at the Hague with receipts that include Israel's own admissions: Do you not realise how evil it sounds to look at the bombardment and blockade of a civilian population, half of whom aren't even 18, in the internationally recognized world's largest open air prison, and say that they deserve to die due to a group last voted for in 2006, a year half of the current Gazan population wasn't even born at? Do you think it's fair to bomb hospitals and block water and food supply? Do you think think it's fair to displace 85% of a civilian population? Do you believe it's fair that Israel is currently responsible for the largest share of child casualties? Do you believe that, ignoring everything that happened after October 7th, it's okay for Israel to be the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 children each year in military courts lacking fundamental fair trial rights? Those children are the people you call monsters? Do you hear yourself?

I am from Eastern Europe. The wars and consequent economic shock therapies Western Europe and the US have provoked and encouraged there for the past 30 years have displaced and killed more people than I'd like to count. People I met, People I'm related to even. Yet unlike you, I do not believe the children of those countries deserve to the punished for the crimes of a dozen corrupt, imperialist, racist, bloodthirsty leaders and their military henchmen. And I heavily encourage you to find that same empathy in your heart.

[animentality]

I can't go back to thirsting for Astarion now that I'm hooked on Gortash, like, I'm sorry, you're calling your man evil?

He's like a little amoral at best.

MY man should be prosecuted by the Hague.

[zenia62]

Letters From Louis Bonaparte to Daendels (Part 1)

Hii guys!! ✨️ Continuing on what I've found in Mendels book, now I'll be sharing letters that King Louis Bonaparte sent to Daendels 🫡 There's is 14 of them so I'll make like a couple of series w this one 👀 Each part I will share 3 or 4 letters depending on each page in the Mendels book 😌 For now, I'm still trying to understand the meaning of each letter so I'm not rlly ready yet to give a summary on what are they talking abt 🫠 But I thought of sharing it now since why not haha ☺️ That's all for now, I'm sorry if there is misinformation due to translation 🙏 Thank you guys n have a nice day, stay safe 🌙

1st Letter :

Mr. General Daendels, I have received the letter that you wrote to me to announce your acceptance of the position of Extraordinary State Councilor to which I have appointed you. I know so well your services and your zeal for your country, that I have not doubted for a single moment the pleasure that I would give you by giving you the opportunity to use your knowledge for my service and the good of your country. On this, General Daendels, I pray to God that he has you in his holy keeping. Mainz, August 1806 LOUIS.

2nd Letter :

Mr. General Daendels, I accept the offer that you make with pleasure, and if we have war, I will immediately call you to the army and give you back the rank that you have occupied there with distinction. Let me know if you wish to enter the service in any case, On this, etc. Aix-la-Chapelle, September 13, 1806. LOUIS.

3rd Letter :

Mr. General Daendels, I inform you that I have appointed you Senior Military Commander of the Third Military Division and of the Third Army Division, stationed on the borders of the Ems. General Broux, the commanders of Delfzijl and Coewerden, the commanders of the depots of the various corps, the 9th line regiment (new number), all the various detachments of the other corps which could be in this district, all the buildings of the royal navy and the officers who command them, the national guards of these departments, the recruiting officers and non-commissioned officers who could be there, will be under your orders. You will take the greatest care to have the national guards formed in each important position, in accordance with the instructions that the administrations departmental have received from the Minister of the Interior. You will all wear your care to increase, by this means, the garrisons of Delfzijl and Coewerden, and mainly from Groningen. You will be instructed by Colonel Croiset means of defense, which floods can provide in a case of urgent need. You will always have in mind that your mission is to defend only Friesland and Groningen. You will use for this important purpose all the means that you can gather under this instruction. Above all, you will take the greatest care to keep me informed exactly of the movements of foreign troops on the banks of the Ems. You will give in at the same time this information to the Minister of War at The Hague, so that he can follow the orders I leave him in this regard. You will take all thenecessary measures so that no extreme means, such as flooding and cutting of dikes, which could essentially harm the country, are taken except as a last resort; of course this does not concern in any way the flooding of forts and places, armed or unarmed, which can be flooded without inconvenience, according to what is known and will be demonstrated to you by the officers of the Engineers. You will give me a daily report, both on your position and on the movements of foreign troops on the banks of the Ems. If the case should arise that the territory of the kingdom were invaded and that an enemy party sought, by moving rapidly towards Zwoll and Issel, to separate Friesland and Groningen from the rest of the kingdom, you would enclose yourself in these provinces, in order to direct the defence there and to use for a good defence the means that these two departments, whose patriotism and energy are known to me, would doubtless place at your disposal. This case will probably not happen, but if it did happen, the reports would still have to take place via the Zuiderzee, and regardless of that you would keep me informed in Wezel, by duplicate, of everything that would have come to your knowledge. I do not need to repeat to you the recommendation to accelerate the recruitment of the depots of the regiments, which are under your orders, as much as possible, and to raise the cadres as high as you can, without paying attention to what is prescribed for the strength of each corps. On this, etc. Royal Palace of Bois, September 27, 1806. LOUIS.

4th Letter :

Mr. General Daendels, I want you to bring back to their regiments the detachments which could be employed under your command- order, and which would not be part of the 9th line regiment. I would like to recommends not to disturb the deposits from their place and to bring back those who have deviated from it, as well as to monitor the completeness of regiments. On this, etc. Driebergen, October 5, 1806. LOUIS.

[jewish-sideblog]

i have a question. i don’t mean this horribly!! but per this post you reblogged: https://www.tumblr.com/jewish-sideblog/744967243590434816, you believe to call what’s going on in palestine a genocide is antisemitic. can you elaborate on that, please?

I don't want to get in the habit of addressing things other people have said in posts I reblog, because those aren't my words and a reblog isn't a blanket endorsement of everything other people have said. But this topic is really important, so I'll weigh in just this once.

The primary concern I have with the use of the term genocide is Holocaust Inversion. Most people don't have a conception of genocide outside of the holocaust, so the usage of the word genocide is often an obvious ploy to weaponize Jewish suffering against Jewish people. Its sole purpose is to equate Israelis to Nazis and Jewish government to fascism.

Yet, there is a lot of death in Gaza right now. Horrible death, needless death. I think any erasure of that is as horrible as Oct. 7th denial. To outright deny that a genocide is happening exclusively because of the historical reality of the Holocaust isn't just or beneficial. So we have to look at it objectively. As I said earlier today, I'm not an international relations expert, so the following is my understanding and should be taken with large grains of salt.

"Genocide" as a war crime is extremely similar to murder as an individual crime. The key component (besides death) is intention. If you kill someone on accident in most English-speaking countries, you'll likely be charged with manslaughter, not murder. Similarly, genocide requires the intentional destruction of a population of people, well beyond the necessary realities of civilian casualty in active war zones. Death itself, even in large numbers, does not a genocide make. Civilians will always die on the battlefield. Always.

The International Criminal Court says that Israel has to meet standards of care in Gaza to ensure that genocide does not occur, meaning they don't think one has already occurred. There's some dispute on whether or not those standards are being met-- Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say that Israel is failing to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, while the Israeli government issued sealed documents to the Hague last month detailing their compliance measures. It'll take a while to hear back on those. Personally, I think starving Gaza is an obvious measure of intention to destroy Palestinian civilians.

Anybody is obviously welcome to disagree with the highest court of international law in the world. But the fact that the experts seem hesitant to make that determination gives me pause. Why are so many people keen to bring Israel to the Hague, not Russia for their indiscriminate killing of Ukrainians or the Houthis for manufacturing a humanitarian crisis in Yemen? Hamas, one of the governments of internationally-recognized Palestine, fully admits to intending to destroy the Jewish people in part. They say they'll do it again if they get half the chance. Why is only the Jewish state called out as a unique, genocidal evil? Must we label Palestinian deaths as a genocide in order to mourn them effectively? Aren't hundreds dead a day reason enough to mourn and to push for peace?

Again, I don't want to deny the allegations of genocide any more than I want to accept them. I'm following the experts on this one. And so far, the experts say "maybe". As long as they say "maybe", anybody who insists on definitely and absolutely labelling it as a genocide creeps at least suspiciously close to Holocaust Inversion in my eyes.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Hello RTA 👋🏻 I'm getting tired of some people who are saying Charles isn't doing anything to control H. The High Commission in Nigeria put a stop to the pseudo royal tour saying it's a personal visit and nothing to do with the UK or BRF, KClll refused to see H and made a fantastic military announcement for William yesterday and people are still not happy? I don't understand why the UK PM's wife attended his event yesterday and how people in the UK still cheered for him though. Repugnant really

Here's the thing. Harry will always have fans. Whether they're Diana fans who see Harry only as the 12 year old child walking behind his mother's casket, republicans who love that he's destroying the monarchy from inside out, people who hate the rest of the BRF but think he's ok because he "escaped," people who love that he married a black woman, people who love that he prioritized his wife and child over his family of origin, etc., the fact remains that people still like Harry. Is it a lot of people? No. But they still count and they still care and they'll still show up for him.

Should we judge them for liking Harry despite *waves hand at everything*? I don't know. That's up to each of us individually. Personally, I choose not to because who am I to yuck their yum? I don't want anyone yucking my yum so I'm not going to yuck anyone else's yum.

And the PM's wife attending the event is a nothingburger. It doesn't mean anything other than showing up to support the veterans. She's probably a peace offering, a consolation prize, a "here, you're not important enough for the cabinet or the PM or the royal family, so we're calling in the backup to the backup to the backup to the backup." It's like when the US sent the Secretary of Transportation (Buttigieg) to the Hague Invictus Games instead of the Bidens or Harris. It's a snub that doesn't look like a snub because it's about the veterans.

[ceiling-karasu]

Update on AU World-building

Like how the concept of Jollin means I have to restructure my plans with Cherry Valley and the Flower Hill Command Center, the idea of Rana Roja means that I need to do some restructuring of some of my countries in the AU.

This is a lot of work that is coming from a reporter background OC that I might plan on using for one or two scenes later down the line.

I was talking to both kosmicpowers and 32girassoisdevangogh about some of the countries in my AUs, and I realized that I have been seeing the Equatorial Allegiance (Africa)

As one 'country,' per say, with the color separations representing a flag, while in South America I have been seeing this

As two entirely separate countries divided down the middle, with the one on the right being the República de Cultivos Oleaginosos (mostly Venezuela, and I know the name is awkward in Spanish, but I did not expect to ever have to say it more than a few times).

I'm not sure why my brain decided on that? Possibly because this screenshot suggests that many countries just have one color on the flag, and I attributed that to South America but not Africa somehow.

Assuming those are the flags of other nations and not symbolizing something else, or even just not showing detail here.

So now the problem is more or less this area.

I kind of want Rana Rosa to be pink like the figurine I found, but not unnaturally so.

She would need to be a natural color found in nature. The closest to pink a frog (for the most part) can get in a variant of the Strawberry Poison Dart Frog found around Red Frog Beach of Isla Bastimentos, Panama.

Naming the entirety of Panama in the AU as Red Frog Beach, a peaceful fishing, tourist, and agricultural nation, sounds nice. It also sets a precedent for the entirety of China to just be called 'Rabbit Village.'

The problem is, why would that area not already be a region the United States Alliance had taken over in order to be used as a base or foothold to get the oil down below? It could be protected by the República de Cultivos Oleaginosos, but it is next to the green country.

UNLESS the green and yellow there are also a flag, and this was one country all along. Kind of big though, but I guess it did the same thing as the Equatorial Allegiance, with a group of countries banding together to protect from occupiers wishing to steal their oil and lives.

I DO NOT PLAN to just retcon my own stories and AU once they have been already published, though. I skimmed back through The Rod that Blocks the Lightning, and I do not appear to have mentioned a separate country next to the oil producing one, so I should be good to go in making it one country.

Red Frog Beach, however, was not allowed to join the República. It is too distant and remote for the army to move into the areas if they were invaded. They would also need offices and collections of important documents, which could be used against the rest of the country if occupied by the United States Alliance that wants the oil.

As per a treaty, both the República de Cultivos Oleaginosos and the United States Alliance leave Red Frog Beach as a neutral territory, although both may have secret bases of operations within the country. Something like this may have happened in real life? I'll have to look it up.

Perhaps The Hague also have an office there, in order to keep the peace as much as they can, which is how Rana Roja joins after she accidentally stumbles upon a secret wolf base one day and successfully manages to gather evidence and report on it.

Anyway, here is a basic Picrew of how I would expect she dresses as a court reporter (since I can’t draw frogs yet).

[samueldays]

I'm rereading Just and Unjust Wars, trying to resolve something that's been niggling at me about war crimes and the laws of war.

I think it might be an insufficient distinction between (gestures vaguely) law-as-command, the decree of a legislating authority to subjects; and law-as-custom, the agreement of peers about how to behave with each other.

Rules about war crimes necessarily lean towards law-as-custom, because war is the business of sovereigns who are not subject to any other authority's decree.

Yet many people treat war crimes as entirely law-as-command: wanting to call the War Cops on you for violating War Law with your War Crime and the War Judge will give you a War Trial before putting you in War Jail. (I caricature a little to illustrate the sentiment, they don't say "War Cops", they say "The Hague".)

Here's HRW as an example of law-as-command thought:

The Israeli military’s repeated, apparently unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel, and transport are further destroying the Gaza Strip’s healthcare system and should be investigated as war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. Despite the Israeli military’s claims on November 5, 2023, of “Hamas’s cynical use of hospitals,” no evidence put forward would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law.

On the view of law-as-command, Hamas committed crime #1 by using hospitals and ambulances for military purposes, and Israel committed crime #2 by then attacking hospitals and ambulances. HRW is speaking as though on behalf of a Global Sovereign who is in charge of everyone, saying that such-and-such statute prohibits such-and-such action of the nominally sovereign state of Israel. Law-as-command is enforced by the Global Sovereign sending in the War Cops.

On the view of law-as-custom, there was an implicit agreement which sounds something like "I'll leave the hospitals and ambulances out of it if you will", and when Hamas stopped holding to this agreement, it ceased to have any force on Israel as counterparty. Law-as-custom is enforced by the threat of losing the protection of the agreement if you violate it.

Both of these views have (gestures vaguely again) unsatisfying philosophical gaps, I think.

The gap in the law-as-command view is that the de facto Global Sovereign of the past fifty years has been the United States of America, and so "war crimes" de facto reduces to whatever the USA won't let you get away with. The HRW cites the Rome Statute, which neither America nor Israel are party to, slightly more weighty than citing "My uncle who works at Nintendo said so".

The gap in the law-as-custom view is that it entitles Israel to target Palestinian hospitals more broadly now, because their protection only arose from a mutual agreement in the first place, which Hamas has now un-agreed to. Sucks for the Palestinians.

Of course, philosophical gaps very rarely move people with guns in the short term.

[sugdenlovesdingle]

so the incoming Dutch government has (among others)

a prime minister who is not a member of a political party but basically just someone who knows the right people to get him a nice job, former head of immigration and naturalisation services

a health minister/deputy PM who used to be a member of a white power/neo nazi forum and strongly opposes late term abortion.

a minister in charge of trade and international aid (as in aid sent to other countries from the Netherlands) who wanted to cut that aid significantly or even get rid of it altogether to pay for a hair brained plan to lower health insurance costs here a few years ago, who is (or was i'm not entirely sure) a board member for an even more racist and unhinged Dutch version of fox news, believes in some ass backwards conspiracy theory that the "elite" are trying to "replace" the population with non white/non western (Jewish!) people but claims that is not nazi rhetoric but a "factual description of a demographic development" , pro zwarte piet (loooong story but basically she's pro blackface)

a minister of immigration who also believes in the replacement conspiracy theory, is also racist, has referred to Islam as despicable. She's been called out on spouting nazi bullshit and just went "it's possible it's a nazi thing, I don't know, I don't really care/think about that"

a speaker of the house who also believes in the replace conspiracy theory and has mentioned it several times as an mp. He also complained about being sick of talks about slavery when there was a discussion on whether or not the (then) prime minister and the king should officially apologise for the Dutch slavery history. July 1st is Keti koti in the Netherlands - which celebrates the end of slavery and remembers those who lost their lives during it (kind of like Juneteenth in the US) and there is an 'official' celebration/memorial service in Amsterdam where normally at least some politicians would show their face and speak. The organisation has said they don't want Bosman (that's his name) there because he's a racist asshole. He's planning to go anyway.

an MP who blatantly denies there is famine in Gaza and says 2000 aid trucks enter the Gaza strip every week.

the leader of that ^ gang who is bffs with Viktor Orbán (Hungarian PM) and the American republicans (that should tell you enough), who was going to make sure there would be 'less Moroccans' in The Hague after winning local elections there, has insulted Islam on various occasions throughout the past 20 or so years, and wants to ban people from having dual citizenship except that one guy in his own party he kinda forgot about

The daughter of an immigrant who opposes immigration and wants to stop people from bringing their family here when they've officially been told they can stay. The EXACT same law that allowed her father to bring her and her mother and siblings here after he left Turkey when she was a kid. She also claims hundreds of thousands of people do this every year - which is bullshit, but she 'didn't do it on purpose' so it's ok.

a minister of housing who actively opposed building plans in her city. And also who nobody takes seriously because she got kicked out of her old party for openly criticising their covid policies during lockdown. Comedians love her because she says stupid shit all the time that they can use to make fun of her.

the leader of the farmers party who can't do maths, won't let anyone run the numbers on her party's plans because it's "not important what things cost or how they'd be paid for"

So yeah - the country is going to shit!

[jokeroutsubs]

Chantal van Mourik (Kris Guštin's mother) about the New Wave on NPO Radio 2

You can find and listen to the original podcast here (40:30).

Voiceover: Blokhuis (host's name) World hit

Leo: So, Anneli, where are we going?

Anneli: Slovenia.

Leo: Slovenia. Slovenia was where the weather was so bad when I was on holiday. Yeah, whole campings have been washed away there.

Anneli: Oh, no

Leo: And people have been evacuated in busses, but we're not talking about that now.

Anneli: No.

Leo: Because we are talking about the music of Slovenia. We'll go to Chantal van Moerik.

Anneli: (correcting) Mourik

Leo: Van Mourik, sorry.

Anneli: You are still in Greek mode, mixing up vowels, or what?

Leo: I'm still in [unintelligible]. Chantal van Mourik, a year ago we also spoke with her, and back then she introduced us to a band: Joker Out, and that was a very cool band, or- that is a very cool band. And that's not by coincidence, because Chantal is the mother of one of the band members, so it is a Slovenian slash...

Anneli: Dutch.

Leo: Dutch band, *laughs* a little bit at least. And because the band recently had a very unexpected collaboration, we wanted to talk about that for a little. So we're gonna ask Chantal what the deal is exactly.

Chantal: Joker Out. Earlier this year they took part in the Eurovision Song Contest and won a place in the final. And since then they have been going through Europe at rocket speed. So they have already been on tour in the UK and Ireland and later this year we will see them in Scandinavia, Germany and also the Netherlands. In between all of that international success, they have also had the chance to record a single with none other than Elvis Costello.

Leo: But wait, wait, wait, wait, we're talking about a Eurovision act from Slovenia, that's working together with Elvis Costello.

Anneli: Yeah, with Elvis Costello, the one and only.

Leo: Okay the man is a little older, but I still wanna know how that's possible.

Chantal: The godfather of the former bassist of the band is from Liverpool and close friends with Costello and he showed him the original Slovenian version of 'Novi val' ('New Wave'), with an explanation of the meaning. That was enough, because Elvis Costello felt this song, and in record time, he wrote his own English lyrics, and also recorded them.

Leo: I see... Firstly I am hearing an unstoppably proud mother, *laughs* and I love that. And rightly so, Chantal, rightly so. Chantal van Mourik speaking about her son, and the band of her son, and that band is called... er

Anneli: Joker Out.

Leo: Joker Out. And the song is called 'New wave', and Elvis Costello is gonna be singing on it. And now she will quickly introduce the track herself.

Chantal: 'Novi val', ('New Wave'), is about a new generation that grows up in a time where the world is burning, literally, but still has the power, through connectedness, in love and hope, to make a difference. 'Generacija ljubezni in upanja, novi val' ('The generation of love and hope, the new wave'). You could say that this song is like a hymn of a generation, with which Joker Out shows that they sense exactly what is going on in the world and are trying to counterbalance that. They can be seen live in Amsterdam and The Hague on the 5th and 6th of December, but first, with Elvis Costello, 'New Wave'.

~

Translation cr: @italimix @britte00

[fairyhagmother]

okay i’m sorry i simply have to come here. i just love the persephone lore you are sharing. please, im begging for more persephone thoughts from you.

HIIIIIII LILY IN THE INBOX!!!!

the thing is right, you have heard most of my Pippa lore bc a.it is largely inspired by yours and b.whenever I am struck with a Pippa insight I literally run to yell at you in ur inbox, replies, etc.

+ I 100% believe her situation during the civil war was extremely dire. she literally had to resort to cannibalism. it must have been real bad.

+ I'm so sorry everybody. but her relationship to festus is so, so precious to me. It's one of the first things I was dead set on when I finished the book and decided to forego all feelings of shame and write. a 4 weddings and a funeral AU. as they were my wedding 1 I guess I have spent a lot of time with them and I'm very attached now okay.

+ they literally bring out the best in each other. persephone is actually very shy and quiet and he makes her more adventurous and fun! persephone mellows festus out. she hates gambling so he quits cold turkey for her sake. she makes him feel more confident so he drops the macho facade as he matures. still loves a party though! sorry back to pippa

+basically the moral compass of her friend group. like: no livia dont take apart palmyras pointe shoes so she breaks her ankle come on now. her friends are insanely protective of her because they see her as this pure soul that must be protected at all costs. additionally, vip and livia both know how traumatic the war was on the price household (not the cannibalism I dont think, but they know it was bad), and they really admire / are puzzled by how she emerged from all that while remaining kindhearted.

+ she has a little boy who, at times, violently reminds her of mizzen.

+ she's kind of a blindspot of coriolanus's but not because he underestimates her, but because he finds her so repulsive that he refuses to see her as anything more than an abstract concept. livia keeps saying these insane things about him to Pippa over tea, and Pippa is immediately like. this guy is crazy actually. but festus is like nah Pippa that's just coryo he's a bit of a freak but he's harmless, he was my best man!

+ festus dies out of nowhere. the coroner rules it a morphling overdose. to Pippa's dismay, no one in the friend group is shocked and they keep coming to her and: she should have said something if festus was struggling with addiction! you remember how he was at the academy, etc, etc. where the fuck did these stories even come from you know? well pippa can't prove it but she has an inkling.

+ she goes insane with grief. like. its horrible. she keeps telling everyone that something's off but no one listens to her because as far as they are concerned its just the insane ranting of a recently widowed woman.

+ and as I said, she keeps a box of 'evidence' that coriolanus is somehow behind all these mysterious 'purges'. it gets brought up when snow is tried at the hague of panem circa mockingjay.

+ Pippa feels guilty for having been a passive cog in an objectively evil machine, along with festus. she loved / loves him so much but she never really gets over the fact that they were complicit with the regime. she thinks back to all the times her friends called her kind, and she wonders if they're wrong.

[woodsfae]

B5 s03e10 Severed Dreams table of contents - previous episode

Londo fully deserves all the inconvenience that an extremely pedantic Narn security force can muster against him. It's the least his genocidal, fascist ass deserves. I hope many more little miseries for him. 

"This never would have happened if the humans hadn't started fighting each other!"

This also would never have happened if Londo hadn't thrown the entire fucking galaxy under the bus in exchange for temporary political cred. 

Having moral qualms about firing on one's own people mid-civil-war does seem like the sort of emotions one would have as a member of the military that's schisming against itself. 

Psst, while the opening is playing, I have a secret. I'm 100% going to count these words towards my NaNoWriMo count. Probably am not going to make it, since I didn't write at all from the 11th to the 26th. But I did write more than 14k words in the last two days so ya never know. I could whip out 11k a day for the final two days of November. No I'm not lingering over this paragraph to inflate my word count, how very dare?

General Hague's ship is coming to B5. It's called The Alexander, which is a pretty obvious allusion to Alexander the Great, although the Rangers haven't been conquering any vast tracts of land lately in B5.

I fucking LOVE G'Kar helping with the Rangers now! He's like "I AM A GOOD ALLY JUST LIKE I ALWAYS KNEW. Watch me carry this slender little Minbari as far as you'd like." 10/10, no notes. I think he might be my favorite character overall. I mean, Susan is the BEST, but I think G'Kar might be my favorite, yanno? There's a difference. 

"Our humanity got us into this. It's our humanity that's going to get us out again." 

I certainly do hope so, John Sheridan. Because as always, this show is eerily prescient about our present, when it was intended to be a social commentary on the socio-political state of the 90s. 

This side character Minbari is a kickass actor. He welled those tears up no problem. Also very lame that there's even more instability that'll inevitably benefit the Shadows. How much more bleak does it need to be for them to have a satisfying, underdog victory? They're already under, dawg! 

General Hague is dead.  Most of General Hague's fleet is destroyed. And Earthforce is bombing Mars. The plea from Mars not to fire, that there's women and children, is chilling. But the random Aflack commercials on Tubi are great about lightening my mood. /s 

It's so funny that Delenn makes sure to tell Lennier she will support any decisions he makes in her absence, because I just know she's about to go fuck shit up on the Grey Council. 

This journalist is so brave! The journalists were lying, spreading earthgov propaganda, but it didn't matter. The government still came to take them down in the coup because they weren't extreme enough. 

The Agrippa and the Roanoke are coming to seize command of B5....Agrippa was a general, but I don't recall what he is most known for. Roanoke is famous in the USA for being an early colony, which the colonists all disappeared from in a fabricated mystery, when it was obvious they had joined the nearby Roanoke tribe. I wonder if the Roanoke is going to switch sides at the last moment in this episode, or go fuck off to do their own thing or something. 

John giving his senior staff the same inspirational speech he uses for himself because it's 100% "Do it for Delenn!!!! And freedom. But mostly Delenn!" It's extremely cute. 

tHe CoUnCiL wIlL NoT sEe YoU. - useless Minbari dude

"Then I will see them!" 

Yes you will, Delenn. That whole speech is excellent. and wasted on that little pissant. But her speech to the Grey Council is even better! 

Mira Furlan delivers this speech, as all of her speeches, so powerfully. 

And she has such pointed things to say to each of them. Yessss be shamed!! Delenn you badass. Shattered that staff literally with her bare hands!! Was that the strength of prophecy, or her mad grip strength? She got five of them...are there nine on the Council at a time? I can't recall. 

It's very endearing that John called home to make sure to check in with the folks before he can't do it easily for awhile. 

"Where's Mom?" "Oh, she went to town....errands to run. You know how it is."

Actually, in this family, I do know how it is. Is Mom Sheridan in jail for protesting or agitating or something? 

I remember liking the design for B5's little fighter holds when the series started, but I like it even more now. It's just so smart. They're stored so there's easy access with the spin-gravity, and so they can't deploy accidentally. And then they get whooshed out to space when the pilot is in. I'm sure the new opening which highlights it in such crisp, remastered HD helps a lot with my newly arisen appreciation for their fighter deployment systems. 

It pleases me greatly seeing Sheridan using DraalPlanet's hologram! I'm a sucker for continuity. 

Susan Ivanova is right, damn it! One of them, her or Sheridan, does have to be out there, fighting with their people against the rest of EarthForce. And it does have to be Ivanova: Sheridan is the captain. He can't captain while he's starfighting. 

OK they're here! The Churchhill - authoritarian leader who speaks first and deploys their fighters first. Sheridan speaks eloquently. The Agrippa and Roanoke fall silently in line. I'm so curious to see how this plays out. Ivanova is engaging with the Churchill. The Alexander comes out as well! And there's a breaching pod on B5 - something for the B5 security forces to do so Garibaldi doesn't feel left out! 

It's horrible to see the Narn security forces going in without armor, ahead of the humans in armor. At least give them some protective gear, damn! So many of them went down, and idk if their blasters even have stun capability. I'm assuming they're all dead. Which, fuck. 

I think Hiroshi rammed the Roanoke? Ah, and the Roanoke is destroyed. I think all three of the attacking ships were straight up destroyed. I'm usually able to track the B5 battles, but this was the largest and most complicated one.  And I am also kinda crossfaded. 

"If you value your lives: be somewhere else." 

Delenn is getting all the best speeches this episode, as she deserves. Really, excellent Delenn episode all around! She is a badass. Love to see more aspects to her badassery highlighted. 

Zack Allen is now a paragon of helpfulness and loyalty. And Garibaldi got injured again. 

It suddenly sounds like the Churchill was on B5's side which...I definitely misunderstood part of that battle, if so. But at least B5's fighter crews are at full strength since they're taking the Churchill's survivors. 

John Sheridan has a good conversation with the Major whatshisface, and I am charmed again by his deciding not to wear his uniform till he can be proud of it again. Will he extend that decision to every personnel on board? Is everyone about to be running around in civvies? Soace fashion! Space business casual!  

Dang, Delenn's "Hello, John," was sultry. And her dress is much simpler and akin to a human wrap-dress than her usual, structured Minbari robes.

"I don't know how much this cost you personally, and I suspect I never will. But I want you to know that seeing your face is that moment was the finest moment of my life." 

cute, but I think Delenn heartily enjoyed ripping the council a new one.

I am glad Sheridan got applauded by all his B5ers at the end, and the pan over to the partially torn down Nightwatch poster was c h i l i n g

want another one?

[naradreamscape]

We need to hold the mass crimes over the heads of "Israeli veterans" as long as they live. I'm not joking in any way

We need to bring back the domestic backlash people had after the Vietnam War. A guy just came back to America from Gaza? You call him a baby killer instead of their name. Greet them every time you see them like, "OH hey, babykiller! Done any sex crimes lately?" Mock them in every way imaginable, especially if they attempt to brag about the "war" they just "fought in". Wow Bill, you really shot up that hospital full of civilians? Didn't ask questions; just defied all conventional trigger discipline the moment you saw Brown skin? How brave and intelligent of you, a round for the bar on this guy

Man I. just. The things the IOF has gotten away with (FOR NOW) warrant constant mockery at all times. You don't get to go kill and torture a native population based on hearsay and then get to come back to your life of comfort, with your Netflix and instant coffees and numbness to the lives you just ruined. You need to be reminded of your crimes against humanity for the rest of your life, and being constantly mocked is but a penance compared to standing in the Hague where you belong

[horselessheadperson]

I don't know if anyone else feels like this.

I feel like I've been presented with noble ideals for all my life - and I keep being confronted with how utterly hollow they all are.

Me as a kid interested in literature and theatre; yeah no you need to kill your darlings.

Then I end up in theatre and apparently everyone knows all about the sexual abuse perpetrated by a few big names. But yeah, it's my career, you know? Doesn't really matter. I'm not the victim. That's one ideal shattered.

See that one repeated with Catholic priests, about every few years when we remember. Nothing ever happens. Yeah the church is powerful you know

Me as an undiagnosed autistic twelve year old reading Maus. Feeling guilty about how little we did to prevent the holocaust.

Oh, just feeling bad about it is enough you know? Now we have the European Union, the Hague, Geneva. Nothing like that could ever happen.

Then it does. And I find myself signing a petition against the EU. I find myself resenting my husband for not denouncing the atrocities enough.

I'm still that autistic kid feeling guilty. I can't imagine being that fragile and having your home blown up. Your family. Your neighbourhood. Everything that feels safe, everything that feels like home. All the people you cherish, their voices, their jokes. The music they loved. All gone. Not being able to call anyone.

Why did you ever bother teaching me about human rights?