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rosieswriting · 12 days ago

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Closer than ever

Remus Lupin x Potter!reader

Summary: After years of friendship filled with banter, study sessions, and always having each other’s back, a certain Gryffindor victory shifts everything between them. The lines they’ve carefully walked for so long start to blur, sparking a new closeness neither can ignore.

Note: english is not my first languaje so it probably has some mistakes!

Words: 1,9K

It was a Sunday morning, and the first days of spring had brought a warm glow over Hogwarts. The Gryffindor team had been training all morning under their new, overly enthusiastic captain—your brother, James Potter—who was determined to crush Slytherin in the upcoming match.

“We’re telling you, Moony, he’s going to be the death of us!” Sirius groaned dramatically to Remus and Peter, clutching his chest with exaggerated despair. The table broke into chuckles, everyone except James.

“You’re exaggerating,” James said, taking a long sip of his orange juice, looking unimpressed.

“He’s really not, Jamie,” you interjected, giving him a pointed look. “It’s barely nine in the morning, and we’re here, fresh from a two-hour training session, just trying to enjoy breakfast,” you added, taking a bite of your toast.

James shrugged, grinning. “When we beat Slytherin, you’ll all be thanking me.”

You and Sirius shared an eye roll, and Peter and Remus gave a small laugh. Soon, the Marauders shifted the conversation to other things—something about their latest plan to prank the Ravenclaws—but you tuned them out, savoring the warmth of breakfast and the rare spring sun filtering through the Great Hall.

Beside you, Remus leaned in, speaking softly. “Are you still up for the study session with Lily later? Or do you want to take it easy after practice?”

Since your first year, Remus had always been the one to help you with studies when you needed it. Weekly study sessions had become a tradition, and once Remus and Lily had grown close, she’d started joining you too.

“I’m still up for it,” you replied, turning to smile at him. “I have an essay due on that Goblin War of 1882, or something like that.”

“Oh, yes, I remember that one from last year,” he said with a grin. “I’ve got you covered. Same time in the library?”

“Same time,” you confirmed.

Later that afternoon, you made your way to the library, books and notes in hand. As you entered, you spotted Remus already sitting at your usual table, a few books spread out in front of him. He looked up, giving you a warm smile as he waved you over.

“Hey! Ready to tackle the Goblin War of 1882?” he greeted with a grin, sliding a seat out for you.

“Not really, but I’ll try,” you replied with a laugh, settling down beside him.

As you set up your notes, you noticed that Lily was nowhere to be found. "Where’s Lily? Don’t tell me she bailed on us,” you joked, glancing around.

Remus chuckled, shaking his head. “She did, actually. But only for a good reason—your brother convinced her to go for a walk around the lake.”

“Of course he did,” you muttered, rolling your eyes but smiling at the thought of James finally winning Lily over enough to steal her for a date. “Guess it’s just us, then.”

“Just us,” he repeated his tone light but with the slightest hint of something softer, and you couldn’t help but feel a warm flutter in your chest.

Remus pulled one of the books towards you, flipping to a section he’d marked. “So, for your essay, you’re supposed to cover the lead-up to the war, right? I found a few bits in here that might help.”

“Thank Merlin you’re here,” you sighed, leaning in to read over his shoulder. The proximity made your face warm, and you quickly turned your attention to the book to avoid giving yourself away.

He started explaining the notes he’d gathered, his voice soft and steady as he walked you through the political tensions and key events leading up to the conflict. You noticed how his hands moved as he spoke, gesturing in small, precise movements, and how his face lit up slightly as he explained things. There was something calming about the way he taught—like he wasn’t just helping you study but making it genuinely enjoyable.

After a while, he paused, his gaze lingering on you a little longer than usual. “You’re actually getting this down quicker than I thought.”

“Are you doubting my historical expertise, Lupin?” you teased, glancing up at him with a smirk.

He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. “Not at all, but you did look a bit horrified earlier at breakfast when you mentioned the essay.”

You laughed, nudging his shoulder playfully. “Alright, fair point.”

A comfortable silence settled over you both as you continued writing, only broken occasionally by quiet questions and shared glances that made your heart race more than you’d like to admit.

Eventually, your attention drifted back to Remus, his brow furrowed in concentration as he scanned through one of the history books. “You know, I never did get why you’re always so patient with me about this stuff.” You said softly “You know you don’t have to keep impressing James to be your friend, right?” you added playfully.

He looked up, surprised by the question but with a fond smile playing at his lips. “I know” he answered chuckling “I like spending time with you.” he replied simply, his voice barely above a whisper.

You felt a blush rising to your cheeks, and the air between you grew warm. “Well… I like spending time with you too,” you murmured back, feeling bolder than usual.

For a moment, you just looked at each other, the silence now filled with unspoken words and the quiet buzz of the library around you. Neither of you moved, and neither did anything to break the spell. Instead, you just smiled, feeling flustered and shy, but somehow happier than you’d been all day.

Remus cleared his throat softly, breaking the silence but not the mood. “So… back to the Goblin War?”

You laughed, nodding. “Back to the Goblin War.”

And, as you returned to your notes, you couldn’t help but wonder if, maybe, this little spark between you both was something he felt too.

A week after, the Gryffindor common room was a blur of red and gold, filled with cheers and music as everyone celebrated their win over Slytherin. As one of the Chasers, you’d played a crucial role, weaving through the Slytherin defense and scoring more than once, and your teammates and friends hadn’t stopped congratulating you since.

As you moved through the room, basking in the praise and warmth of your friends, Remus caught your eye from across the room. He was leaning against the wall, holding a cigarette and smiling softly as he watched you. You made your way over to him, dodging tipsy students and sidestepping Sirius, who was in the middle of a very dramatic retelling of the match to a group of fourth years.

“Hey,” he greeted, taking a drag of his cigarette. “You were incredible out there.”

“Thanks, Rem.” You grinned, taking a sip from your own drink. “I’d say I had to be. Slytherin was definitely out for blood.”

“Tell me about it,” he chuckled. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you play like that.”

You rolled your eyes playfully. “It is Slytherin, after all.” You smirked. “You know, I wish you could come up there with me.”

He chuckled, shaking his head. “You’d have to use a Sticking Charm to keep me on that broom, but... maybe someday.”

You grinned, holding out your pinky. “I’ll hold you to that.”

He hooked his pinky with yours, giving you a look that made your heart skip. “Fine. But only if you promise you won’t laugh when I fall off.”

“Deal” you whispered, still caught in his gaze.

“Although I’m not sure if I’ll be as good as you” he said softly.

The compliment caught you a bit off guard, and you felt your cheeks warm slightly, though you brushed it off with a laugh. “Flattery now, Lupin? I’m not that easy.”

He tilted his head, raising an eyebrow. “Really? Could’ve fooled me. You looked over the audience about five times during the game, couldn’t keep your eyes off me.”

You laughed, nudging him. “Maybe you were distracting me.” You said playfully.

“Was I?” he asked, giving you that lazy, half-smile that made it impossible to tell if he was serious.

You smirked, folding your arms as you leaned in a little. “Yeah. You wanna kiss me so bad it makes you look stupid.”

The words slipped out, and for a split second, you wondered if you’d gone too far. But instead of getting flustered, Remus just laughed, a deep, warm chuckle that sent a shiver down your spine.

He took a small step closer, his voice soft but playful. “So what if I do?”

Suddenly, you found yourself speechless, your usual confidence shaken by the way he was looking at you. Your heart raced, cheeks burning, and you tried to come up with a clever comeback but failed miserably.

Remus chuckled, clearly enjoying your flustered reaction. “Didn’t expect that one, did you?” he teased gently, reaching out to tuck a loose strand of hair behind your ear, his fingers lingering for just a moment.

You swallowed, feeling your pulse quicken as you looked up at him. “Shut up” you mumbled.

His smile softened, and he leaned in slowly, giving you plenty of time to stop him if you wanted to. But of course, you didn’t. You closed the distance, meeting him halfway, and his lips were warm and soft against yours, filling you with a heady rush that made the whole world fade away.

His hands settled on your waist, fingers pressing gently as he pulled you closer, making your heart race. Your arms instinctively wrapped around his shoulders, fingers finding their way into the soft strands of his hair, savoring the warmth radiating from him. The kiss was anything but rushed; it was slow, each movement filled with a quiet intensity that spoke volumes.

As the kiss deepened, you felt the world melt away, leaving only the feeling of his steady heartbeat against your chest, the gentle touch of his hands as he drew you impossibly closer, and the realization that you’d both been waiting, yearning, for this moment to unfold. When you finally pulled back, he rested his forehead against yours, his thumb brushing your cheek as he whispered, “You really are something, you know that?”

But just as you were about to say something, you heard someone clear their throat beside you.

You both turned to find James standing there, arms crossed, a smirk playing on his lips. “Well, well,” he said, raising an eyebrow, “about time, don’t you think?”

You felt your face go hot, scrambling to explain yourself, but James just rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Please, I’m just glad you finally got around to it. Just… no public displays around me, alright?” He winked and clapped Remus on the shoulder. “She’s all yours, Moony. But you better take care of her, or I’ll be hexing you.”

“Wouldn’t dream of anything else, mate,” Remus replied, glancing at you with a smile that made your heart skip.

James gave you one last playful eye-roll before heading back into the crowd. And as you turned back to Remus, you felt that spark between you both grow even warmer, knowing that whatever this was, you weren’t the only one who wanted it.

“Again?” you ask him smiling widely, making him chuckle.

“Again” me muttered against your lips before kissing you.

#remus lupin #remus lupin x reader #the marauders #marauders era #remus lupin x you #potter reader #harry potter #james potter #sirius black

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girlactionfigure · 1 month ago

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🟦Wednesday - events from Israel

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

( VIDEO - IDF operating in Lebanon, official video. )

✡️ROSH HASHANA is tonight. Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the universe, the day G‑d created Adam and Eve, and it’s celebrated as the Jewish New Year. The central observance of Rosh Hashanah is blowing the shofar (ram’s horn) on both mornings of the holiday, which is normally done in synagogue as part of the day’s services. Rosh Hashanah feasts traditionally include round challah bread (studded with raisins) and apples dipped in honey, as well as other foods that symbolize our wishes for a sweet year.

▪️ISRAEL DECLARES.. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs declares the UN Secretary General as persona non grata - an "undesirable personality" in Israel, following the failure to condemn the Iranian attack.

.. Foreign Minister Katz: “Anyone who is unable to unequivocally condemn Iran's criminal attack on Israel is not fit to set foot on Israeli soil. This is an Israel-hating Secretary-General, who gives support to terrorists, rapists and murderers. Guterres will be remembered as a stain on the history of the United Nations."

▪️US SAYS.. US Secretary of Defense: We are determined to protect Israel from Iranian aggression and push for a diplomatic solution and avoid further expansion of the conflict. Analyst response: The US is doing and will do everything in the closed and open rooms to get to the November elections with no war in the background.

▪️IRAN SAYS.. The Iranian Minister of Defense in an appeal to the European countries: if you fail to control Israel's actions - there will be an Iranian response, and the entire region will risk an all-out war.

.. The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence publishes a threat to Netanyahu, Gallant, and the heads of the defense establishment: we will reach each of you. (( Rules of engagement determined. ))

▪️FOLLOW UP ON TEL AVIV SHOOTING TERROR.. One of the terrorists who carried out the attack last night in Jaffa - was not killed, but seriously injured. A number of suspects were arrested who helped the terrorists purchase the weapons and enter Israel.

.. The terrorists visited a mosque and then warned the worshipers in one of the Jaffa mosques not to leave the mosque so that they would not be harmed.

▪️SOME TRAIN SERVICE LIMITATIONS.. Israel Railways announces that due to an extensive reserve recruitment of security personnel, a number of stations will be closed from Sunday, Oct 6 until further notice.

▪️FALL BACK.. Iranian opposition sources: 5-10% of the missiles failed and fell in areas of Isfahan in Iran.

▪️A GAZAN ASKS.. How is it that 200 Iranian missiles do not kill even one Israeli and one Iranian missile in Syria kills 200 Syrian civilians?

▪️NOT KIDNAPPED.. Israel's ambassador to Cyprus refutes the likely-Iranian-sourced rumors that he was kidnapped.

♦️IDF attacked in a-Shuifat area of Dahieh in Beirut in the last hours.

⭕HEZBOLLAH ROCKET & SUICIDE DRONE FIRE continues regularly across the north and extended area such as Safed and reaching to Kinerret towns.

#Israel #October 7 #HamasMassacre #Israel/HamasWar #IDF #Gaza #Palestinians #Realtime Israel #Hezbollah #Lebanon

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 month ago

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Letters From An American

Heather Cox Richardson

October 6, 2024 (Sunday)

This morning began with a CNN headline story by fact checker Daniel Dale, titled “Six days of Trump lies about the Hurricane Helene response.” Dale noted that Republican nominee for president Donald Trump has been one of the chief sources of the disinformation that has badly hampered recovery efforts.

Trump has claimed that the federal government is ignoring the storm’s victims, especially ones in Republican areas, and that the government is handing out only $750 in aid (in fact, the initial emergency payment for food and groceries is $750, but there are multiple grants available for home rebuilding up to a total of $42,500, the upper limit set by Congress). He has also claimed—falsely—that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is out of money to help because the administration spent all its money on Ukraine and undocumented immigrants.

Trump’s lies are not errors. They are part of a well-documented strategy to overturn democracy by using modern media to create a false political world. Voters begin to base their political decisions on that fake image, rather than on reality, and are manipulated into giving up control of their government to an authoritarian.

Russian political theorists who were key to the rise of Russian president Vladimir Putin after the collapse of the Soviet Union called this manipulation “political technology.”

They developed a series of techniques to pervert democracy through this virtual political reality. They blackmailed opponents, abused state power to help favored candidates, sponsored “double” candidates with names similar to those of opponents in order to split the opposition vote and thus open the way for their own candidates, created false parties to further splinter the opposition, and, finally, created a false narrative around an election or other event that enabled them to control public debate.

Essentially, they perverted democracy, turning it from the concept of voters choosing their leaders into the concept of voters rubber-stamping the leaders they had been manipulated into backing.

This system made sense in former Soviet republics, where it enabled leaders to avoid the censorship that voters would recoil from by instead creating a firehose of news until people became overwhelmed by the task of trying to figure out what was real and simply tuned out.

But it has also worked in the United States, where right-wing leaders have used it to divide the American people and spread disinformation. While “misinformation” is simply false information—which we all spread innocently and correct with accurate information—“disinformation” is a deliberate lie to convince people of things that are not true.

Before the 2016 presidential election, Russian operatives working for Putin set out to tear the U.S. apart and thus undermine the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) they see as stopping the resurrection of Imperial Russia. They called for provoking “instability and separatism within the borders of the United States... encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts,... [and] support[ing] isolationist tendencies in American politics.”

But they were not the only ones operating in this disinformation sphere. In 2014, then–Breitbart chief executive Steve Bannon explained to a right-wing Catholic group meeting at the Vatican that he believed traditional western civilization was fighting a war for survival. To win, current western-style civilizations must be completely reconfigured to put a few wealthy white Christian male leaders in charge to direct and protect subordinates.

In that year, Bannon set out to dismantle the administrative state that was leveling the playing field among Americans and push Christian nationalism. With the help of funding from Republican megadonors Robert and Rebecca Mercer, he launched Cambridge Analytica, a company designed to develop profiles of individuals that would enable advertisers to group them for targeted advertising. Before the 2016 election, the company captured information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission or knowledge, enabling it to flood the platform with targeted disinformation.

Bannon became the chief executive officer of Trump’s 2016 campaign. He then served as chief strategist and senior counselor for the first eight months of Trump’s term, during which he worked to put MAGAs in power across the administration and across the country.

“The Democrats don’t matter,” Bannon told a reporter in 2018. “The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with sh*t.” Keeping listeners constantly trying to defend what is real from what is not destroys their ability to make sense of the world. Many people turn to a strongman who promises to create order. Others will get so exhausted they simply give up. As scholar of totalitarianism Hannah Arendt noted, authoritarians use this technique to destabilize a population.

Trump’s administration began with a foundational lie about the size of the crowd at his inauguration. Recent challenges to that assertion from Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Barack Obama rankled as badly as they did for Trump because that lie allowed Trump to define the public conversation. Forcing his supporters to commit to a lie that was demonstrably untrue locked them into accepting others throughout his presidency, for backing away would become harder and harder with each lie they accepted.

Challenging that lie, as Harris and Obama did, challenged all those that came afterward, including the lie that Trump had been the true winner of the 2020 presidential election. Thanks to the October 2 filing by special counsel Jack Smith, we know that Trump was in almost daily communication with Bannon as he pushed that lie.

Scholars of authoritarianism call a lie of such magnitude a “Big Lie,” a key propaganda tool associated with Nazi Germany. It is a lie so huge that no one can believe it is false. If leaders repeat it enough times, refusing to admit that it is a lie, people come to think it is the truth because surely no one would make up anything so outrageous.

In his autobiography Mein Kampf, or “My Struggle,” Adolf Hitler wrote that people were more likely to believe a giant lie than a little one because they were willing to tell small lies in their own lives but “would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.” Since they could not conceive of telling “colossal untruths…they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.” He went on: “Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation.”

The U.S. Office of Strategic Services had picked up on Hitler’s manipulation of his followers when it described Hitler’s psychological profile. It said, “His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”

The MAGA movement is now based in the Big Lie. Its leaders refuse to admit that Trump lost the 2020 election. Trump’s running mate, Ohio senator J.D. Vance, two days ago actually said Trump won, and as media figures more frequently ask the question of MAGA lawmakers, they continue to dodge it, as Arkansas senator Tom Cotton did today on NBC’s Meet the Press, and as House speaker Mike Johnson did on ABC News’s “This Week.”

Now, though, their lies about the federal response to Hurricane Helene show that they are completely committed to disinformation. As Will Bunch noted today in the Philadelphia Inquirer, when Vance lied again at the vice presidential debate about the legal status of the Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, and complained when moderator Margaret Brennan corrected him, he gave up the whole game. “Margaret,” Vance said, “the rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check.” He continued to argue until the moderators cut his microphone.

Bunch points out that MAGA Republicans insist on the right to lie, considering any fact-checking “censorship,” a position to which Vance pivoted when Minnesota governor Tim Walz asked him if Trump won the 2020 election.

Just as Russian political theorists advocated to overturn democracy, MAGA Republicans have created an alternative political reality, aided in large part by the disinformation spread on social media by X owner and Trump supporter Elon Musk.

They continue to be aided by foreign operatives, as well. This morning, on CBS’s Face the Nation, Senate Intelligence Committee member Mark Kelly (D-AZ) warned, on the basis of information he has heard from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the National Security Agency, that Russia, Iran, and China are generating about 20% to 30% of the political content and comments on social media.

But the largest purveyors of disinformation are homegrown.

Perhaps, though, the very real, immediate damage MAGA’s disinformation about Hurricane Helene is causing might finally be a step too far. In what is at least a muted rebuke to Trump, Republican governors across the damaged area have stepped up to praise President Joe Biden and the federal response to the disaster.

#heather cox richardson #letters from an american #the big lie #climate #storms #Christian nationalism #flood the zone #mike luckovich

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like-what-the-fuck-scoob · 2 years ago

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Would loki be my bff

Would Loki Be Your BFF? - Tarot Reading 🔮

This is for my 1k celebration event! Submissions are still open until this Sunday!

7 of Wands - This card represents conflict, and suggests that being best friends with Loki certainly wouldn't be easy. He is someone who can be mischievous, and may often hit a nerve just to get a reaction out of you. However, if you know him well enough, you may be able to simply laugh it off and dismiss his attempts to stir the pot, avoiding any arguments or tension between you.

Page of Swords Reversed - This card reiterates the previous sentiment. In the reversed position, it represents having trust in someone, and learning to stop overthinking your relationships with other people. In other words, it suggests that Loki's mischievous and rude nature is purely surface level. Deep down, he does have heart, and he can be trustworthy when he wants to be. Being Loki's best friend, you would quickly understand this, and learn not to overthink or dwell on the annoying/mean things he might say or do.

Knight of Swords - This card represents enthusiasm and intensity. It suggests that with Loki, there will never be a dull moment! Being around him, something will always be happening. Being such a strong personality, Loki struggles to maintain inner and outer peace. Because of this, you'll never be bored with him. Whether you're on adventures together, finding something to laugh at together, or even bickering, there will always be some sort of ordeal in your friendship to make each day more interesting.

#loki #loki laufeyson #loki x reader #loki laufeyson x reader #loki fluff #loki laufeyson fluff #loki x reader fluff #loki laufeyson x reader fluff #marvel #marvel x reader fluff #marvel x reader #marvel fluff

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newstfionline · 1 year ago

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Sunday, September 17, 2023

13,000 workers go on strike at major US auto makers (AP) About 13,000 auto workers have walked off the job at three targeted factories after their union leaders couldn’t reach a deal with Detroit’s automakers. The United Auto Workers union is seeking big raises and better benefits from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. They want to get back concessions that the workers made years ago, when the companies were in financial trouble. A small percentage of the union’s 146,000 members walked off the job at a GM assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri; a Ford factory in Wayne, Michigan, near Detroit; and a Stellantis Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio. Both sides began exchanging wage and benefit proposals last week. Though some incremental progress appears to have been made, it was not enough to avoid walkouts. The strike could cause significant disruptions to auto production in the United States.

Muslim Students’ Robes Are Latest Fault Line for French Identity (NYT) The mass French return to work, known as the “rentrée,” is often marked by renewed social conflict. This year has been no exception as the summer lull has given way to yet another battle over a recurrent national obsession: How Muslim women should dress. Late last month, with France still in vacation mode, Gabriel Attal, 34, the newly appointed education minister and a favorite of President Emmanuel Macron, declared that “the abaya can no longer be worn in schools.” His abrupt order, which applies to public middle and high schools, banished the loosefitting full-length robe worn by some Muslim students and ignited another storm over French identity. The government believes the role of education is to dissolve ethnic or religious identity in a shared commitment to the rights and responsibilities of French citizenship and so, as Mr. Attal put it, “you should not be able to distinguish or identify the students’ religion by looking at them.” Since then, organizations representing the country’s large Muslim minority of about five million people have protested; some girls have taken to wearing kimonos or other long garments to school to illustrate their view that the ban is arbitrary; and a fierce debate has erupted over whether Mr. Attal’s August surprise, just before students went back to their classrooms, was a vote-seeking provocation or a necessary defense of the secularism that is France’s ideological foundation. Where some see laïcité as the core of a supposedly colorblind nation of equal opportunity, others see a form of hypocrisy that masks how far from unprejudiced France has become.

Crowds descend on Munich for the official start of Oktoberfest (AP) The beer is flowing and millions of people are descending on the Bavarian capital to celebrate the official opening of Oktoberfest. Revelers decked out in traditional lederhosen and dirndl dresses trooped to Munich’s festival grounds Saturday morning, filling the dozens of traditional tents in anticipation of getting their first 1-liter (2-pint) mug of beer. The Oktoberfest has typically drawn about 6 million visitors every year. The event was skipped in 2020 and 2021 as authorities grappled with COVID-19, but returned in 2022.

If 3.3 Million Ukrainian Refugees Never Come Home? The Economics Of Post-War Life Choices (Ukrainska Pravda) Approximately 6.7 million Ukrainians have left their country since the Russian invasion. The longer the war lasts, the more these refugees will consolidate their new lives in their host countries, resulting in a heavy population drain for Ukraine. Earlier this month, the Kyiv-based Center for Economic Strategy (CES) presented a study on the attitudes of Ukrainian refugees that shows a large number of them will likely not return to their homeland even after the end of the war. According to their calculations, Ukraine may lose 3.3 million citizens. There is also a strong likelihood that a large number of men currently fighting in the war will move abroad in order to reunite with their families that have settled there. Even in peacetime, counting Ukrainians is not an easy task. A full-fledged census was conducted in the country only once: in 2001. It concluded that Ukraine had a population of 48.5 million.

Erdogan says Turkey may part ways with the EU (AP) President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that Turkey may part ways with the European Union, implying that the country is thinking about ending its bid to join the 27-nation bloc. “The EU is making efforts to sever ties with Turkey,” he told reporters before departing for the 78th U.N. General Assembly in New York. “We will evaluate the situation, and if needed we will part ways with the EU.” He was responding to a question about a recent report adopted by the European Parliament, which stated “the accession process cannot resume under the current circumstances, and calls on EU to explore ‘a parallel and realistic framework’ for EU-Türkiye relations.”

China Is Investigating Its Defense Minister, U.S. Officials Say (NYT) China’s defense minister, Gen. Li Shangfu, has been placed under investigation, according to two U.S. officials, fueling speculation about further upheaval in the military after the abrupt removal of two top commanders in charge of the country’s nuclear force. General Li has not been seen in public in more than two weeks. He had been expected to take part in a meeting last week in Vietnam, but there was no word of his attendance. The investigation points to questions about the Communist Party’s leader Xi Jinping’s confidence in his own military, a pillar of his ambitions abroad and dominance at home. Just six weeks ago, Mr. Xi replaced the two most senior commanders of the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, which oversees China’s nuclear missiles. The abrupt dismissals suggested that Mr. Xi was seeking to reassert his control over the military and purge perceived corruption, disloyalty and dysfunction from its ranks, analysts have said. Mr. Xi still appears politically unassailable, with the Communist Party leadership, military top brass and security services packed with his loyalists. Even so, the sudden downfall of such high-ranking officials has exposed the pitfalls in a system so dominated by a single leader and has raised questions about Mr. Xi’s judgment because the officials under scrutiny been promoted by him.

History Turns Upside Down in a War Where the Koreas Are Suppliers (NYT) Washington and Moscow flooded the Korean Peninsula with arms and aid as they fueled the war between South and North seven decades ago. Now, in a fateful moment of history turning back on itself, Russia and the United States are reaching out to those same allies to supply badly needed munitions as the powers face each other down again, this time on the other side of the globe, in Ukraine. “In the post-Cold War era, South and North Korea have been virtually the only countries that have remained on a constant war footing, with large artillery and other weapons stockpiles ready to use,” said Yang Uk, a military expert at the Asian Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. “The fact that South and North Korea remain stuck in a Cold War armed confrontation explains why Washington and Moscow come to them seeking weapons.” Artillery ammunition has been in particular demand as both sides in the Ukraine conflict tear through their stores faster than production can catch up. South Korean and American officials have been tight-lipped about how many shells South Korea has provided to the United States. But recent news reports indicated that South Korea has sold or lent at least hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to the U.S. military. Moscow has repeatedly warned Seoul against supplying weapons to Ukraine. But South Korea has been pressed by the United States, its most important ally, to help the war effort.

A year after Mahsa Amini’s death: Repression and defiance in Iran (Washington Post) A year ago, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police sparked a popular uprising, led by women and young people, that rattled the pillars of the Islamic Republic: clerical rule, gender segregation and the security state. In the end, the leaderless movement, clustered in pockets across the country, was no match for the keepers of Iran’s authoritarian system. Its clerical leaders are still standing, having brutally crushed the demonstrations. More recently, they have strengthened the kind of strict social controls that gave rise to the protest movement. The last year allowed the world to glimpse the seething anger just below the surface of a repressive society, and to document government abuses. But it also highlighted the resilience of the regime. But Tehran has not emerged from the uprising unscathed, according to analysts, human rights advocates and ordinary Iranians—many of whom say they are just waiting for the next spark.

There’s a glimmer of hope on Yemen’s war front. Yet children are still dying of hunger (NPR) Malia Qassim Mahmoud found herself at Al-Thawra hospital in Taiz, seeking help for the third time for the acute malnutrition affecting her family. Two years ago, her older son was severely malnourished. He recovered but his growth has been stunted; she says the 6-year-old is much smaller than other kids his age. A year later, she herself had to be hospitalized for malnutrition. Then it was her 1-year-old baby, lying limp in her arms, his skin a sickly yellow color, unable to even open his mouth as his mother tried to feed him protein paste. “Most days we can only get water and flour and I make a doughy paste and that’s what we eat,” Mahmoud said. “We can’t afford more, and we haven’t received any aid through the war.” This family is among at least 20 million people in Yemen who need food assistance in the midst of what the United Nations calls one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. In 2014 Houthi rebels overthrew the Saudi-backed government. They took control of parts of Yemen, sparking a civil war. The U.N. estimates that the conflict in Yemen has caused over 377,000 deaths, most of which were due to hunger and lack of health care. A slowdown in fighting has raised hopes that the war could end, but the number of people needing medical attention or hospitalization due to malnutrition has not decreased.

In the midst of Morocco earthquake chaos, surprising heroes: Donkeys (NPR) When the villagers of Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains were stricken by a powerful earthquake on Friday, they found themselves facing a situation they had never known before. They dug desperately in the rubble to rescue loved ones or find their bodies so they could bury them, rescue crews having been held up by mountain roads choked with rocks that fell in the magnitude 6.8 quake. Heavy machinery was dispatched to clear the roads, and rescue teams worked to open access points to the mountain. But it took time—time the villagers did not have. The villagers, used to the mountainous terrain, found a foolproof method to move themselves and materials around: their donkeys. Photos have emerged of villagers using donkeys to move rubble out of the way, to get relief supplies to more difficult-to-reach spots, and to move people to where they need to go. The nimble-footed creatures have been able to pick their way along tracks that are barely visible, loaded with bulging saddlebags and sometimes hauling a person on their backs to boot.

Amazing science: The Ig Nobels (AP) Counting nose hairs in cadavers, repurposing dead spiders and explaining why scientists lick rocks are among the winning achievements in this year's Ig Nobels, the prize for humorous scientific feats, organizers announced Thursday. Jan Zalasiewicz of Poland earned the chemistry and geology prize for explaining why many scientists like to lick rocks. “Wetting the surface allows fossil and mineral textures to stand out sharply, rather than being lost in the blur of intersecting micro-reflections and micro-refractions that come out of a dry surface.” Other winning teams were lauded for studying the impact of teacher boredom on student boredom; the affect of anchovies' sexual activity on ocean water mixing; and how electrified chopsticks and drinking straws can change how food tastes.

#headlines #news

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youngerdrgrey · 1 year ago

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all the pieces aren't even in the box // the morning show, bradley/laura, chapter three

about: Bradley and Laura's last few months in Montana and how the world reacts along the way (and maybe how they find their way back to each other) ~ read chapter one / chapter two chapter three summary: As Bradley prepares to leave the ranch for the funeral, Laura's conflicting feelings bubble up. (read chapter three on AO3)

mid J U L Y (2020)

By the next morning, Gayle’s already put in the request for Bradley’s time off. It’ll only be a few days since Bradley can work Thursday morning, then start her drive. The funeral’s set for Saturday. Bradley will either leave Sunday while everyone’s at church or Monday morning. She’ll be live on air from the guest house by Wednesday.

Cory’s face only pulls tight once as he hears the full plan. It’s during a post-show Zoom with Cory, Stella, and Mia. Laura watches as Cory’s eyes bounce from Bradley to Laura within their shared Zoom window.

“And will we be replacing one anchor or two?” He asks.

Laura quips with only a bit of spite in it. “You can’t get rid of me that easily, Cory.”

His nostrils flare, even as he barks out a laugh. “I wouldn’t dream of it. You, my friend, are ratings gold. I’d say you have the Midas touch, but I don’t want to get HR on the call.”

It’s Laura’s turn to give a fake laugh. Bradley flicks the outside of Laura’s thigh. Play nice. Laura turns her gaze to her woman beside her. Bradley still looks like she’s ready to neutralize a fight. But Laura lifts her brows in silent surrender.

She says, “This is Bradley’s trip. I will hold down the fort.”

Bradley speaks only to her, “Thank you.” Then she averts her eyes back to their computer. “Can somebody draft a statement so Twitter doesn’t freak out again?”

Mia speaks up. “We’re already on it. You’re taking time to grieve in conjunction with your family. No mention of you actually traveling for the funeral.”

“Thanks, Mia,” Bradley says.

Laura shouldn’t say it. She shouldn’t mention how they’re avoiding the funeral in the statement because of how hypocritical this whole thing could look.

Cory’s eyes shrink as he makes an exaggerated wince.

“Question.” He holds up a finger, and Laura feels a rush at the calculated voice he’s already in. He’s going to say it for her, isn’t he? “Do we think it’s a bit of an optics nightmare to send Bradley across country right now? Sure, she did it four months ago, but we have the spent the summer of our discontent tirelessly demanding that our fellow Americans hold the line. No travel, not even for emergencies. Yet here is Bradley Jackson, the face of UBA, doing exactly that.”

The air thickens as Bradley stops breathing. Laura watches the tiny wrinkles form between her brows. A wrench thrown by Bradley’s friend on the inside.

Bradley tries her best to sound friendly, but they all hear the crackle underneath it. “I’m not flying, Cory. I’m driving. By myself, with masks and hand sanitizer.”

He nods. “Then you’re attending the biggest event in your town since New Year’s.”

“It’s my mother’s funeral,” Bradley bites.

“Plenty of people miss funerals every day. We’re in a global pandemic.”

“Are we?” Bradley asks. “The CDC seems a little confused about that.”

Now that's too far. Bradley's being willfully obtuse for her trip.

Laura sets a hand on Bradley’s thigh, and Bradley whips her head to glare at Laura too. For a moment, Laura hesitates. If she publicly sides with Cory, after she was the one who set this in motion….

She can play the fence.

“Maybe Bradley can keep a low profile,” Laura suggests.

Bradley runs with it. “I don’t need to give a speech. Hal has got that covered.”

He doesn’t, but Laura can’t say that either.

Cory grinds his jaw. “And when America asks where you’ve been for three days?”

Bradley gives a dazzling smile. “We refer them to Mia’s brilliant statement. Honestly, the less people I talk to down there, the better. Gives me a perfect excuse to avoid a few uncomfortable reunions.”

Cory’s eyes shift, and Laura can feel them on her. “Laura? What do you think?”

She never should’ve made this suggestion. Bradley going is an awful idea. She doesn’t want to be alone in this house for three weeks just because Bradley wants to say goodbye to a woman that Bradley despised.

Laura smiles into the camera. “So long as she stays masked up, then we should all be fine. I have had to use the restroom since we went off air. If you’ll excuse me.”

She stands up over their commentary. Heads out with something like panic vibrating under her skin. She fucked up. She put herself in this impossible situation where she can’t tell Bradley how deeply she wants Bradley to stay. Her therapist isn’t available until next week, and Gordon will absolutely make things worse if she tells him how she feels.

Laura walks past the studio restroom for the main house. The rest of the call will be travel logistics anyway. She needs to center herself before she says something she’ll regret.

She starts a bath in the master bedroom. That will calm her down.

What is it about Bradley that makes Laura so unstable? She destabilizes Laura. She upends her time and time again, and Laura keeps allowing it to happen. Honestly, Laura should’ve never let Bradley move in. It was too soon.

Yet, even as she thinks it, Laura doesn’t mean it. Having Bradley here has been her North Star. Her gravity as every new piece of information sends the world reeling. But if her gravity falters, then where does that leave her? Splayed out on the ground, gasping for air that her lungs can’t process.

She undresses and slips into the water.

She needs to be her own gravity again. She can do that. She’s done it for over fifty years. Why should now be any different?

“Babe?” Bradley’s voice comes from the other side of the bathroom door. Laura’s traitorous heart soars at hearing babe again. Bradley’s been withholding in her grief. One of her little rebellions. “Can I come in?”

“Open it.”

In comes Bradley in her work dress with a cold glass of water for each of them. She pauses at the door, eyes raking along Laura in the tub.

“The call wasn’t that long. I, uh, took out the trash before coming up. I didn’t mean to let it sit so long. I just….”

“You just?”

Laura wants her to say it. Wants Bradley to find her voice in all of this.

Bradley lands on, “You know I can’t fight Hal. I can’t. He’s too raw and tender. He can’t handle it.”

“I suppose there’s a compliment for me in there.”

Bradley shakes her head. She crosses the room to kneel beside the tub. Sets the glasses on the railing beside Laura’s left arm.

“No. Well, yes, but not intentionally.” Bradley holds Laura’s eyes so softly. “I’m sorry. I feel like I’ve been forgetting that you’re tender too. And if all this is too much for you, if you don’t want me to go… then I can stay right here. With you.”

It’s an impossible situation. Laura’s heart pounds in her ears. She can’t do more than blink as she takes that in.

The acknowledgment is everything, but Bradley cannot possibly mean it. Bradley may hate her mom, hate everything that Sandy Jackson stood for her and did to Bradley and her brother. But she hasn’t healed from any of it. Hasn’t processed enough that this death doesn’t wreck everything else she’s built on shaky ground.

Laura says, “You don’t owe it to her, Bradley. You don’t owe her anything.”

On instinct, Bradley says, “She gave birth to me. She fed me and clothed me.”

“You fed yourself more often than not. You may think you’ve hidden it, but not from me. You — she hurt you.” She stills hurt Bradley, even when she’s not around.

“Not in the ways that matter,” Bradley says. She shakes her head. “Not in a way I can’t come back from. I’m not, you know, Hal.”

“You mean you’re not an addict.”

“I’m not.”

But Bradley does bury her feelings in whatever she can. Buries them in her reporting and in Laura and in midnight margaritas that make no sense for their earlier mountain call time.

Months ago, when Laura first brought up therapy, Bradley had been afraid that they would call her crazy. Is that what this is about? Bradley wants to prove to everybody that she’s mentally stable? Mental disorders and hormone imbalances are often genetic. Hal has them for sure, but Bradley could easily have something too. She just did a different job of hiding it and handling it.

As gently as she can, Laura says, “There’s other options than just ‘crazy,’ ‘addict,’ and ‘fine.’”

Bradley’s eyes narrow. “‘Crazy?’ What part of burying my mother makes me crazy?”

“None of it.” Laura twists in the tub to set her hand next to Bradley’s. “Bradley, that’s not what I said.”

“You literally said the word ‘crazy!’”

“Because you seem to have an aversion to talking about any other possibilities. You are very sane, Bradley Jackson, but when it comes to your mother, or to Hal, you can be so reactive and defensive—“

“I’m not—“ Bradley stops herself. Laura quirks a brow as Bradley flushes. “You don’t know them. Nobody does. I’ve spent my whole life defending them. That doesn’t make me crazy.”

“I know, honey. I’m not trying to diagnose you. That’s not my job. My only job is to support you through whatever comes our way.”

Bradley leans into the tub, so it can help hold her up. “How come this kind of support isn’t enough?”

“It is,” Laura says, “but we all deserve more than bare minimums.” Bradley eyes Laura’s bare body. Clear sign of deflection, and Laura splashes a bit of water out of the tub to stop her. “Focus.”

Bradley swipes the water off her face. “I am. You’re deflecting too. You didn’t answer my question. Do you want me to go?”

Laura sighs. Fine. “Of course I don’t,” she admits without looking, “but I won’t stop you either. I’m just… not ready for all this to be over.”

“Over? Laura, I’m coming back.”

“I know that, but in here—“ Laura puts a hand to her wet chest “—it’s harder to know.” Laura feels flushed after saying that. Vulnerable in the same way she’s been asking Bradley to be. It’s uncomfortable to say the least. To admit that Bradley has this space in her heart and in her life.

Bradley takes the hand from Laura’s chest in two of her own. “Then let’s do something fun before I leave. Anything you want.”

A last good day.

Anything she wants. They can’t leave the ranch, not that Laura really wants to. There’s only one thing they haven’t done. Four months in, and Bradley still won’t go horseback riding. Bradley always insists that it’s Laura’s thing. Bradley’s never been good with animals. Their earlier compromise had been that Bradley would go with Laura to the stables. Brush the horses. Feed them. But she still hasn’t ridden.

“Ride with me,” Laura says. Bradley’s lips quirk, so Laura corrects, “Horseback. Today.”

“Today!?”

“You said anything I want.”

Bradley rolls her eyes. “I thought you’d want something like a massage, or a picnic. Not try to kill me.”

Scout would never hurt Bradley. Neither would Sue. But Laura’s said that more than enough times since March.

She leans forward, knowing good and well that it’s not playing fair to draw Bradley’s eyes back to her body. Might as well remind her what she’ll miss, right?

Laura asks, “Is that a no?”

Bradley pries her gaze back up to meet Laura’s. “If you want us to make it out there, you better get out the tub.”

“Or what?”

Bradley doesn’t take the bait. She pushes herself up off the floor and grabs her lukewarm water glass. She heads for the door, talking as she goes, “What do I even wear to go horseback riding? All of my boots have heels.”

Laura calls after her. “A whole life in West Virginia, and you don’t have any boots?”

“I threw them out when I moved to New York!”

The next hour’s a bit of a blur. Bradley ends up in a pink and blue plaid shirt that screams “gay and into horses.” Laura pulls on a nice denim shirt and a white hat for the sun. Then they head down to the stables.

Laura squeezes Bradley’s hand before they go in. Reminds her, “Don’t be nervous. They can sense it. They already like you.”

Still, Bradley’s hand shakes when she holds it out so Scout can smell the back of her hand. The horsemen’s handshake gives the horse the chance to trust the rider.

Bradley mumbles, “Can’t believe you named your horse after ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’” Laura allows it since the chiding means Bradley’s loosening up.

Laura brushes Sue, her other horse, who bristles at the fact that she’s not going out today.

“I’d been rereading when we got her. It felt appropriate.”

Scout touches her nose to Bradley’s hand. Bradley beams over at Laura. She’s a bundle of proud nerves until Laura says, “Now you can mount her.”

“Oh boy.”

Then Laura helps Bradley get up onto Scout. Corrects her form and grip on the reins. They do a few short laps inside to get Bradley and Scout acquainted before Laura checks back in.

“How do you want to do this? Together or separate?”

Bradley laughs. “Together please. Do not leave me alone with her.”

So Laura climbs up behind Bradley and curves her body around Bradley’s. She settles her hands on Bradley’s wrists.

“To help guide you,” Laura says, “but you’ve got this. I’m right here with you. Stay calm, and move with her. Keep your eyes ahead, so she knows where to go.”

Bradley turns her head just enough to see Laura’s face beside hers. “Anything else?”

Laura presses a kiss to her lips. “Have a good ride. And thank you, for doing this.”

Bradley kisses her back. “Thank me if we stay upright.”

Laura’s laugh follows them out into the field.

Nearly an hour and only two near falls later, they reach a clearing with a wooden fence and a picnic table. Laura helps Bradley down, and they tie Scout up while they all regroup and hydrate. There’s a small watering trough there for Scout. Bradley watches her drink with a little smile on her face.

“Admit it,” Laura says with a shift of her hat on her head. “You liked it.”

Bradley takes a big swig of her water. “I admit nothing. ‘Cept maybe how good it feels to have you behind me.”

Laura’s grin grows. “What did you say? Is Big Spoon Bradley Jackson saying she wants to be held?”

Bradley swats at the brim of Laura’s hat. “You hold me plenty.”

“I do.”

Bradley rolls her eyes and watches Scout’s mane blow in the breeze. One of the great things about Montana has been the views. Even now, there’s these gorgeous trees and wide fields of flowers that barely glimpse at neighboring properties. Bradley’s never had so much space in her life. Never felt so full.

“Let’s take a picture,” Bradley says.

Laura smiles. “Of what? Us?”

Bradley nods. “But not a selfie. We can balance it.” She gets up from the table to use her helmet as a prop for her phone.

“Bad day to leave the tripod at home,” Laura jokes. Bradley flips her off. Laura walks closer to the wooden fence.

Bradley sets the timer and rushes to Laura’s side. “Put your arm around me.”

“You’re directing now?”

Bradley huffs, and Laura just barely gets her arm up before the camera clicks. Bradley slips out of Laura’s grasp to set the timer again.

Laura says, “It might help if you tell me the pose before you hit the button. What do you want, Bradley?”

“I don’t know,” Bradley says while she changes it from five seconds to ten. “Something cute.” Something they can look back on once their thighs stop aching and the sunburn’s gone and remember that they had a good day during a God awful week. Something she can show Hal when he asks why she’s leaving so soon in a few days.

“Well, you’re cute,” Laura says once Bradley gets back to her side. She slips her right arm around Bradley’s shoulders, and Bradley slips her left around Laura’s waist. “So how about you smile and I’ll just—“

She presses a kiss to Bradley’s temple. It’s probably cheesy. Next level corny that this picture will be the two of them in the gayest possible outfits after horseback riding in Montana, but damn, if that thought doesn’t make Bradley smile even harder.

She never thought she’d get this. She almost screwed it up several times over, but here she is with a woman she’s crazy about who could have asked for anything in the world, and all Laura wanted was to do something she loved with Bradley.

The camera clicks, but Bradley doesn’t even hear it. She turns in Laura’s hold and wraps her other arm around Laura’s waist.

“I did like it,” Bradley tells her.

Laura smiles. “I know. But thank you for telling me.”

“Can I tell you something else?” Bradley asks. Once she does, her heart pounds heavy in her chest. It’s like it wants out of there. She has to gulp just to keep it out of her throat.

Laura must feel it since she rubs her hand along Bradley’s back. Lifts her other to hold Bradley too.

“Anything.”

Just say it. Say something. Say she’s never been happier than she is with Laura by her side. Say she could spend the rest of her life here if they were allowed to go out and be people sometimes too. Say that she’ll be back the moment she can, and this week is just the last thing she needs to do before she can really move forward.

A whole world of things Bradley could’ve said, but all that leaves her mouth is:

“Come with me.”

a/n: !!!!!! COME! WITH! ME! will she do it? should she do it? l

et me know what you think and what else stood out to you.

also, just to say it, fictional lesbian/journalist Laura Peterson would never spout zionist propaganda the way that her actress currently is. I won't say much on here bc it's a fic site, and I am here to escape into Montana, but also free Palestine. stopping Israel has nothing to do with judaism, and it's an awful weaponization of religion to equate stopping genocide with antisemitism.

#bradleylaura #bradley x laura #laura x bradley #bradley jackson #laura peterson #tms #mine #the morning show #tms fic #fic: all the pieces

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fourmsandasilentq · 1 month ago

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Heather Cox Richardson

October 6, 2024 (Sunday)

Russian political theorists who were key to the rise of Russian president Vladimir Putin after the collapse of the Soviet Union called this manipulation “political technology.”

Essentially, they perverted democracy, turning it from the concept of voters choosing their leaders into the concept of voters rubber-stamping the leaders they had been manipulated into backing.

But the largest purveyors of disinformation are homegrown.

Notes:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/06/politics/fact-check-trump-helene-response-north-carolina/index.html

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/gleb-pavlovsky/

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/lesterfeder/this-is-how-steve-bannon-sees-the-entire-world#.nbJrrXK8gx

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/virtual-politics-and-the-corruption-post-soviet-democracy

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/02/08/514102356/steve-bannon-aligns-with-vatican-hardliners-who-oppose-pope-francis

John B. Dunlop, “Aleksandr Dugin's Foundations of Geopolitics,” paper available at https://stanford.io/3wTNlEx.

Quoted from “Joseph Goebbels: On the ‘Big Lie,’” Jewish Virtual Library, https://bit.ly/2PlQmdI.

Office of Strategic Services, A Psychological Analysis of Adolph Hitler: His Life and Legend, Walter C. Langer, CIA-RPDP78-02646R000600240001-5, Washington, D.C., August 24, 1999, p. 38. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP78-02646R000600240001-5.pdf

https://www.yahoo.com/news/vance-says-trump-won-2020-192218871.html

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/10/01/vance-walz-vp-debate-tonight/moderators-fact-check-00182066

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/gop-disinformation-trump-vance-20241006.html#loaded

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/16/media/steve-bannon-reliable-sources/index.html

https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2024/10/gov.uscourts.dcd_.258148.252.0.pdf

https://gazette.com/news/wex/helene-makes-unlikely-friends-of-republican-swing-state-governors-and-biden/article_b2814791-6ca3-5d89-9a3f-35ab3c135c4a.html

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4870818-barack-obama-donald-trump-new-kamala-harris-campaign-ad/

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/10/harris-trump-crowd-size-debate-00178116

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/06/mike-johnson-donald-trump-election/

keithboykin/status/1842975629995921781

NewsJennifer/status/1842940155847746011

#heather cox richardson #us politics #Trump #disinformation #misinformation #The big lie #hurricane helene

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nationalpolitic · 1 month ago

Link

#DonaldTrump #Europe #Russia-UkraineWar #U.S.Election #Ukraine

0 notes

head-post · 2 months ago

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Trump holds first event since assassination attempt, Harris makes remarks on Middle East

Former US President Donald Trump on Tuesday made his first public appearance since the second assassination attempt on Sunday. The crowd gathered chanted “God bless Trump!” and “Fight, fight, fight,” while US Secret Service agents surrounded the stage to protect the Republican presidential candidate.

“It’s been a great experience,” Trump said during an evening meeting in Flint, Michigan, of the events with thousands of supporters. But he also called participating in the presidential election a “dangerous business” akin to auto racing or bull riding. He also added:

Only consequential presidents get shot at.

Earlier in the day, Vice President Kamala Harris kept a low-key tone and didn’t even mention Trump by name in an interview with black journalists, a stark contrast to the former president’s highly controversial speech to the same group.

The two candidates briefly put their differences aside in a phone conversation that Trump called “very, very nice,” though the crowd booed him when he mentioned Harris by name. Trump told his supporters:

It was very, very nice, and we appreciate that.

Earlier in the day, Harris told Trump that “there is no place for political violence in our country.”

Both parties are ramping up campaigning with no changes to Trump’s calendar, despite an apparent assassination attempt at one of his golf courses in Florida that has renewed accusations from Republicans that Democrats’ criticism of Trump inspires violent attacks. Democrats have accused Trump before of making long-standing inflammatory statements during the campaign and supporting the idea of imprisoning or prosecuting his political enemies. After the second apparent attempt, however, Harris began to proceed more cautiously.

Tuesday’s meeting with the National Association of Black Journalists was one of the few extensive interviews Harris has given since replacing President Joe Biden as Democratic Party chief in July. She has repeatedly criticised Trump on issues such as his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and opposition to abortion access, but has sought to call him a former president in other ways while avoiding direct name-calling.

Trump repeated his past threats of retaliation against poll workers, donors and others in an attempt to stoke concerns about the integrity of the upcoming 2024 election.

On Tuesday, he wrote on his social media page:

Those involved in unscrupulous behaviour will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before.

Harris calls for an end to the Gaza war

Kamala Harris called for an end to the war between Israel and Gaza and said Israel should not reoccupy the Palestinian enclave once the nearly year-long conflict is over.

Speaking to the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia, she called for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Hamas, a two-state solution and stability in the Middle East in a way that does not empower Iran. US Vice President Harris said in response to questions from three journalists:

We’ve made ourselves very clear this deal needs to get done in the best interest of everyone in the region.

Israel launched a military offensive on the Gaza Strip on October 7 in response to a Hamas attack on Israeli territory. The fighting has so far killed at least 41,252 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded 95,497.

Read more HERE

#world news #news #world politics #usa #usa news #usa politics #united states #us politics #us presidents #trump 2024 #donald trump #trump #maga 2024 #donald trump assassination attempt #donald trump 2024 #donald trump shot

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sa7abnews · 3 months ago

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US fears widening conflict is about to explode in Middle East

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/06/us-fears-widening-conflict-is-about-to-explode-in-middle-east/

US fears widening conflict is about to explode in Middle East

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told foreign ministers from G7 countries on Sunday that Iran and Hezbollah could attack Israel as early as Monday, according to reports.

Fears are growing about the potential break out of a major regional war following the assassination of senior Iranian, Hezbollah and Hamas figures – including Ismail Haniyeh in Iran – with Tehran threatening revenge.

Blinken assembled his G7 counterparts in a conference call to urge Iran and its allies to de-escalate tensions but believes Iran and Hezbollah will both retaliate for the killings, US news outlet Axios reported.

There are fears the response could exceed Iran’s retaliatory attack against Israel last April following the assassination of top Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander in Damascus.

While Israel, the US, and other allies worked to intercept Iranian drones and missiles during the last retaliation, the exact timing of the next attack has yet to be confirmed – not its scale – but the US believes it could start as early as the next 24 to 48 hours.

G7 ministers released a statement on Monday, urging restraint and de-escalation in the Middle East, stating that recent events “threatened to ignite a broader conflict in the region”.

“We urge all involved parties to refrain from perpetuating the current destructive cycle of retaliatory violence, to lower tensions, and engage constructively towards de-escalation,” the Group of Seven added.

“No country or nation stands to gain from further escalation in the Middle East.”

France’s Emmanuel Macron and Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Sunday said a widening of the war in Gaza must be avoided “at all costs” during a telephone call on Sunday, according to the French presidency.

Meanwhile, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi concluded a rare visit to Iran on Sunday with a plea for “peace, security, and stability”, as nearly 40,000 people are killed in Gaza.

“Jordan has always been proactive in defending the Palestinian cause and the rights of the Palestinian people,” he said in a press conference alongside his Iranian counterpart.

“It has condemned the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and rejected all of Israel’s escalating measures that prevent achieving security, stability, and a just peace.”

Additionally, Egypt has addressed concerns that a major assault on Israel by Iran and its proxies could be the next step toward a wider conflict in the region after Israel’s killing spree.

Egypt Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty stressed in a phone call with Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani that recent developments in the region were “unprecedented, very dangerous” and threatened stability.

Last week, Australia and South Africa warned against the region being plunged into further turmoil.

Pope Francis has called for minimising violence in the region, hoping that the “violent, bloody” conflict will not expand further.

“Attacks, even targeted ones, and killings can never be a solution. They do not help to follow the path of justice, the path of peace, but generate even more hatred and revenge,” the head of state of the Vatican said.

However, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday that it is not seeking to escalate regional tensions but still believes Israel needs to be punished to prevent further instability.

According to Israeli media, an underground bunker in Jerusalem, prepared by Israel’s Shin Bet security service, is said to be fully operational and can accommodate senior leaders – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – for an extended period during wartime.

Concerns that the nearly 10-month war on Gaza could become a wider regional conflict have increased after the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut last week.

In Gaza, over 39,000 people have been killed because of indiscriminate Israeli bombardment and ground attacks on the territory.

#World

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themacpsych · 10 months ago

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2024: Week Two

Yes, this is a day late, but it’s been quite the week so I hope you’ll understand.

Work

I had a really, really good week at work. I tore through my task list and made great progress on some important podcast and YouTube work. Plus some lovely client projects and interest from potential new clients.

I’m super excited about an upcoming collaboration with another psychologist. We’re going to co-host a podcast series all about psychological flexibility and how to develop it. Lots of work still to do, but I’m confident we’re going to have a great product at the end of it all. We did our first video podcast together a while back and we both agreed we worked well together.

I published my second Vlog on my work YouTube channel. It’s very much an experiment, but I can already see ways to improve the next one and keep improving as the weeks go by.

Wellbeing

As per my previous post, I had some bad news on the wellbeing front. This is almost certainly going to lead to some hospital time, so intrusive tests, and then long term medication. If I’m lucky.

Despite this, I stuck to my new healthy habits. I’ve maintained Dry January (it’s just too easy!), avoided junk food and snacks, and made it to the gym and went out for a run on Sunday. I could so easily have rationalised a few beers and burgers to ‘cheer me up’ after speaking with the doctor. But I didn’t. Frankly, that’s the kind of crap that my body really doesn’t need right now.

I’ve veered between doom and gloom and a sense of optimism that I’m finally getting some medical attention. It’s fine to have doubts, it’s fine to feel some anxiety about it all. But it’s what I actually do that matters.

Travel

To take my mind off my wellbeing worries, I spent some more time planning my upcoming trip to Tokyo. In just over a month, I’ll be flying there with JAL and, for the first time ever, I’ll be experiencing their First Class cabin. I have no doubt it’s going to be amazing. But once I’m there, I want to extract as much fun out of the visit as possible. So my list of venues and experiences is getting longer by the day.

I just hope I’m able to make some progress on the wellbeing front so that illness doesn’t hamper my enjoyment of this amazing holiday. Or that it conflicts with a hospital stay…

In other news

I’ve continued to experiment with NotePlan and I think it’s going to stick. You can think of it as a kind of digital bullet journal. Each day as a note, but there are weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual notes too. You can have notes, tasks, reminders, events… pretty much anything you want to help you feel organised and avoid relying on your memory.

You can easily make links between notes (like in Obsidian and other PKM apps), but unlike Obsidian, the iOS apps actually work and synching is flawless. This is so important for me - I want to be able to access my project notes and plans from my iPhone and iPad when I’m on the move.

I’ve been using it to make a weekly note that contains my must-do tasks and activities. I fill this every Sunday for the week ahead. Then the following Sunday, I review the week with my reflections on how things have been.

I’m toying with the idea of starting a new travel blog. I love writing and I have some great trips lined up for this year. I’d like a fresh start and, based on some posts I’ve read about Substack in the last week, I’m looking at Ghost as one option. If you’re a Ghost user, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

I’m writing this from my study at home, as I’m working here this morning. I’m starting module two of my Japanese language course this afternoon, and it didn’t make sense to go to the office then all the way back into the West End for my lesson.

And that….was the week that was.

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vampkomori · 6 months ago

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lil 2.2 update ⭐ bonus content

weve got a bit of a better idea of what Order is now, but lets start with the obvious

when attempting to emo-dial one of the puppets during Sunday's prelude, the color of Clockie's iris is identical to Aventurine's. same colors, same order of colors. is it explicit confirmation that Gaiathra is tied to Ena? technically, no. but they also couldve gone for any other color combination for any of these, but they still chose to go for the magenta+violet+blue combo, so this is as good as confirmed to me.

does this mean anything? well it certainly puts Sunday's questions towards Aventurine in a bit of a different light. That is, if he knew about Sigonia's connection to Ena. Maybe he asked Aventurine if he can mind-control people because Sunday, with his HarmonOrder Powers, can? Who knows! This is a surprise tool that will help us later.

anyway i was just spitballing and not really intending to predict anything so im not gonna go through each paragraph saying "THIS was confirmed HERE and That was clearly-" because this is for fun.

ultimately Order is the Laws of basically everything, gravity, foundations of society, etc. At least, according to Sunday. and although they loved to avoid saying it, its also tied to Fate. I think they only mention fate by name like, once or twice, which i thought was funny because they were describing the notion of fate pretty thoroughly. to not make it obvious? Conspiracy-

Also, heres Dan Heng summarizing the idea about multiple paths that i tried to get across. in one sentence. thanks buddy

anyway. you know what drove me insane? its small. im the only one going insane over it. its just this teensy tiny little achievement you get for unlocking the Harmony Trailblazer.

nothing out of the ordinary. except... Nessun Dorma. huh. cute reference, it means "Let no one sleep" and the title of a musical opera piece, fitting the entire part of the plot where everyone needs to wake up from the sweet dream.

You- y-you know what else it is though? Darn thing was so familiar, surely ive seen it befo-

WHAT A COINCIDENCE.

sorry. this makes me go insane. its just- this is on purpose. there is no way theyd reference a characters banner title and not have it mean anything. they are explicitly tying Harmony to Kafka, or, the Stellaron Hunters as a whole

quick side tangent. i was conflicted on whether it even made sense to connect Elio to Order if the SH's entire mission is the opposite of Order. theyre all about freedom. its clear theres some kind of freedom/harmony-order juxtaposition going on and now with Kafka being connected to Harmony- well. they still have Order-esque imagery and symbolism- what with their script and all. but their Goal is harmony-esque. i dont have the foresight or capacity to entangle this web of symbolism but its clear theyre tied to Harmony/Order. anyway also heres some relevant screenies

whenever anyone mentions "destiny" or "script" i zoom in until i start seeing pixels

theres also this twitter thread. its lovely. i love it. it makes sense.

to summarize it, you can find a letter called "Death of the Crow" in Dreamflux Reef (even before finishing the main quest) and it implies that after the events of said quest, Sunday was/will be "invited" by someone called Cecil Simmes, with a bunch of references to Edgar Allan Poe and his poem "The Raven".

the op points out that in chinese, Cecil is actually written the same way as the name of the protagonist of Ghost Trick, "Sissel". They do spoil the game, so watch out for that if you havent played it yet, but it definitely makes the connection to Elio make Sense. Theres a cat involved, and as seen in Kafka's trailer, Elio might have a cat form.

Also, Poe has a short story called The Black Cat and. theres just a lot, especially Elio and the SH's connection to Harmony/Order.

im not really going anywhere with this, theres too little to go off of. but we can definitely assume that Sunday was "invited" by Elio, either to join the Stellaron Hunters or.. for something else.

Also, there was a narrator with a unique boyish voice at one point, which couldve been Elio, too. but i digress.

so, i cant find the source or a screenshot so i didnt want to include it, but i also dont want to not mention it. so ill mention it, but bare in mind that iiiiii currently cant find the source. if you happen to have it on hand, id love to add the source.

basically, Black Swan gives us some lore on Emanators, and the basic gist is that Emanators can turn their backs on the paths they are Emanators of. So, to visualize it with a theoretical example: if someone was made an Emanator of Abundance, but through circumstances ended up disagreeing with the path of Abundance, they can end up following, say, the path of Destruction despite still being an Emanator of Abundance. Mostly i bring it up because of the confusing relationship between Elio's script and the Stellaron Hunters' "goal". the idea is that, if Elio was an Emanator of Order, he couldve turned his back on the path of Order and started following Harmony instead. highly theoretical though. im just spitballing again.

i dont have any concluding remarks. im very excited to see if were getting Stellaron Hunter Lore with Firefly's release next patch. yippee!

Ena the Order is the concept of conforming to Fate, and Elio is an Emanator of Order

welcome to my pre-2,2 theory, i got carried away.

for those yet unaware, theres been a theory flying around that the Goddess of Sigonia, Gaiathra Triclops, is a folkloric interpretation of Ena the Order, on account of the iris of Ena's eye having the same colors as Aventurine's. we can go much further with this though.

(Aventurine's pupils are diamond-shaped, but little Kakavasha has round pupils. its likely that diamond-shaped pupils are a result of becoming a Stoneheart, because Topaz also has diamond-shaped pupils, and Aventurine used to not have them. but i digress)

Anyway, Gaiathra=Ena. Gaiathra is described as a left palm with 3 eyes, arguably Ena also has 3 eyes- two closed ones on their face, and one massive, open eye floating around them.

Gaiathra "reigns over all matters related to fertility, travels, and trickery." (Sigonia, Planar Ornament Relic Set) and is said to have been the one to bestow Aventurine with his luck.

but first: What is Order? Based on the words alone, youd think Order would have more in common with Equilibrium, but evidently that wasnt the case. Considering it was assimilated into the Harmony, it must have overlaps with that though, since the broader path is the one that absorbs the narrower one if their concepts are too similar. So, if Harmony is unity and peace, the idea of everyone joining a happy paradise, then how did the Harmony manage to absorb Order?

"I am filled with curiosity about how THEY swallowed up Order. The hymns of Xipe continue to spread and grow, occasionally overseen by ideology. In contrast, Ena's harmonic songs seems to align within a three-dimensional framework, akin to an emperor maintaining hierarchical order among all creatures. While there may be some overlap between THEIR Paths, the ancient Order is enormous in size, and swallowing THEM would prove far from effortless... Among the Aeons, there exist countless enigmas that surpass my own speculations." - Dev Log for Xipe in Simulated Universe, Herta's comment

Herta doesnt know either, and by all means a freshly ascended Aeon should not have an easy time absorbing someone as ancient as Ena- that is, unless Ena intended for it to happen.

This is a lot of establishing facts before i get to the meat of things. We still dont technically know what Order even is, so lets try figure it out!

"The planets governed by Ena adhere staunchly to established rules, yet I must acknowledge that the various calamities in the cosmos were all hindered by Ena's guardianship, leading to extremely efficient development of civilization among diverse planets. Interestingly, however, civilizations all eventually hit rock bottom because of Order. The ancient planets that once fervently worshiped Order would shine briefly before their total collapse... Perhaps this is the "Path" of these planets." - Dev Log for Ena in Simulated Universe, Herta's comment

So: Order is the concept of adhering to a predetermined outcome- their "path". Ena observes humanity "gazing into a crystal orb containing the cosmos" and ensures that they all follow their predetermined path of Fate. None may go astray, no outside influence may interfere, no matter what fate awaits them, they must follow their set path.

"THEIR voice is composed of syllables sequencing the rise and fall of civilizations in accordance with the Aeon's path."

Ena has the ability to foresee the future, as they dont just sequence the rise, but also the fall of civilizations. They are inherently impartial, just, things are destined to happen and so they see to it that they happen. Order is the concept of conforming to Fate, if a planet is destined to be destroyed by a calamity, then Ena guides it to that outcome.

However, Aeons, despite being concepts, arent just concepts, they have some semblance of sentience, self-awareness. they have goals, they make deals, though humans are unable to comprehend them.

So, Ena conforms to fate, but what is the purpose of doing so? Ena can see the future, but we know Kafka. there isnt just ONE future, theres a lot of futures, and endless paths. So its logical to assume that Ena, by being able to see the fates of civilizations, can actually see the endless amount of paths towards all possible fates, and personally chooses which path is specifically followed. and for the sake of the theory, lets assume Ena is benevolent and guides humanity towards the most fortunate fate (though even the most "fortunate" of fates can still end in destruction)

Before Ena was assimilated into the Harmony, they made a deal with Qlipoth the Preservation: Qlipoth will bring an end to Tayzzyronth the Propagation (as they are interfering with the predetermined Fates of planets) and in turn Ena will help Qlipoth against Oroboros the Voracity somehow (likely foreseeing its Fate and interfering with it). Qlipoth held up their end of the bargain, but Ena was assimilated before they were able uphold their part, which is interesting

We know theres something fishy about the Orders assmiliation into Harmony- it doesnt make sense, especially knowing that Ena foresees the future, and is likely aware of their own fate.

Heres where we remember that Gaiathra is also a goddess of trickery. Theres two possibilities:

Ena foresaw their own "demise" and made a deal with Qlipoth knowing they wouldnt be able to follow through on their part of the promise

Ena, able to see multiple paths for the future, foresaw that being assimilated into Xipe would lead them towards the most fortunate one, so they let themselves be absorbed on purpose, as the Harmony would not have been able to absorb the Order otherwise. The deal was just a bonus.

Either way, Ena would have known of the future, and making a deal shortly before the assimiliation of their path is clearly a scheme- they get something great out of it, and dont have to follow up on it.

Heres where we bring up Elio (and the Stellaron Hunters). We actually still dont know what path they follow, and isnt that so interesting? What path could possibly include following a "script" to ensure a certain future? hmmm

sounds like Order to me!

Elio possesses the ability to foresee future possibilities and the paths that lead towards them. Essentially, the exact ability that Ena is shown to possess. All the futures look pretty bleak though, except for one, which hes trying to achieve by making sure to follow that exact path: his "script". the very definition of Order.

Note also that despite Enas assimiliation, their faction can still exist. After all, Idrila the Beauty is also gone, but the Knights of Beauty still roam around. The path of a deceased or assimiliated Aeon can still be upheld even if the Aeon no longer exists.

Anyway, Elio is basically upholding Ena's legacy by ensuring that we adhere to fate, and guides us towards the most fortunate one. His ability is far too powerful though, so its safe to assume hes an Emanator, since theyre considered to be "as good as emissaries of the Aeons' wills"

*As a bonus, Gaiathra also reigns over "all matters related to 'travels'". if you stretch the definition a little, "travels" could refer to the idea of embarking on paths towards fate. you "travel" on a path, after all.

Theres also this interesting little tidbit here:

"THEY are always so symmetrical and so equal. If we were to rank those most sublime beings, only the Voracity and the Permanence can stand toe-to-toe with the Equilibrium's antiquity... Oh, and also the Order. After Ena disappeared, the Equilibrium's duties have only grown greater. Then, how would HooH perceive Nanook?"- Dev Log for HooH in Simulated Universe, Herta's comment

The fact that Nanook is brought up is pretty funny as theyre the youngest Aeon, and since only the most ancient ones would be able to stand "toe-to-toe" with HooH, youd think as the youngest, Nanook wouldnt stand a chance against them. but they were brought up regardless, in tandem with Ena no less

Coincidentally, Nanook is also the Aeon that Elio wants the Trailblazer to defeat too. Curious! You could say that it is the Will of the Order to see the fall of the Destruction? anyway,

HooH's duties "have grown only greater" since Ena disappeared, meaning that they must have overlapped in some way before, but coexisted. (similarly to how the Remembrance and Preservation coexist, possibly) We dont know much of anything about Equilibrium yet though, so lets put that aside.

Lets talk about luck.

Luck is just chance. The results of "chance" are left up to "fate". We know that not all choices or events matter in the grand scheme of things. Theres endless possible paths, so rolling a 1 or a 6 doesnt matter because it will still lead you onto the same destiny. Luck is irrelevant to fate, it does not influence it. Luck only influences how you arrive at it.

So how do you reconcile that with Order? if Order is staunchly adhering to fate, observing humanity to ensure they all end up on the "right" path, then how does chance, luck, happenstance, fit into all this?

Luck is the ultimate Order, because there is only ONE path that luck can take: the most fortunate one. It does not influence your fate however, luck only influences which one of the countless paths towards your fate you end up on. and always being lucky narrows your potential paths down to just one.

This is also why Nihility was the natural conclusion for Aventurine. If you realize that no matter what you do, you cannot change the outcome of your choices, then you realize its futile and decide to succumb to it. youll always win, so whats the point? Thats Nihility: succumbing to Fate, the inevitability of everything, realizing your choices dont matter. When youre lucky and everything you do leads to the same result then you start to think that maybe nothing matters.

Back on track though. Fate, despite being predetermined, is not singular. as in, theres predetermined fates (plural) waiting for you at the end of your path. theres multiple endings. Luck means you have less paths to end up on but luck does not influence the end goal.

In a way, what Elio is trying to do is very similar to what Aventurines "luck" does: he wants to end up on a very specific path that leads him to a very specific fate, and luck leads you onto one single path, theoretically making it easier to achieve certain fates. Its an interesting parallel.

"Blessing" someone with luck seems a bit too hands-on for someone like Ena, so while we might never know why Aventurine was blessed specifically, we can kind of see it as a sort of trial-run. Ena does not interfere, does not "defy" fate, but bestowing luck onto someone to narrow down their futures is a bit like interference- except its not, only on a technicality. theyre still adhering to the set paths that exist, after all, im not changing fate, what are you talking about? look, hes still on one of your predetermined paths. the fact that he cant go onto other paths is irrelevant if he still ends up at one of the predetermined endings.

As a note though, Ena is not Fate itself. Ena adheres to fate and ensures that humanity follows it. Nihility is basically succumbing to fate and thinking its inevitable and change is futile, and I guess you could see Harmony as the concept of circumventing fate- instead of arriving at one of your predetermined endings, how about you get assimilated into our harmonious hivemind and experience eternal bliss? (lets wait on that 2.2 harmony lore-drop before saying anything about that though)

got off track a little. basically, Ena's Order is the concept of conforming/adhering to Fate. potentially, in their era, Fate was a singular end, because they were the one to guide humanity onto certain paths and towards certain ends (which is why civilizations thrived but ultimately still collapsed). Enas assimiliation was on purpose, although we can only speculate on the reason. so i will. heres my speculation:

Ena is not Fate itself, but a Guide. seeing the countless possible paths and possible fates for humanity, they foresaw the same thing that Elio foresees- a terrible End at the hands of the Destruction that may affect humans and Aeons alike. potentially, Enas Will mightve been to avoid that (but remaining within the confines of fate, not defying it) so they set in motion the steps needed to embark on said path, which necessitated their assimilation into Harmony. if Enas reign caused the Fates of humans to be "set in stone", then Enas disappearance could be seen as humans regaining the ability to choose their own paths, their own fate. Essentially, Enas disappearance wouldve been necessary in order to even create the possibility of an "alternate ending" and leaving the choice up to humanity.

anyway thats the conclusion thanks for coming, godspeed if you read the whole thing. im bad at keeping things short and concise. and i started rambling near the end

as a disclaimer: these are vague thoughts and i change my view on things often. if we get new info in the future that says this was all nonsense then thats that. im not trying to convince anyone. just offering a perspective for funsies

#hsr #ena the order #im all theory'd out for this topic. until we get More

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vyorei · 1 year ago

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Article from 16th October on CNN about the US warmachine on the move. Link below but this is the whole article.

"A US Marine rapid response force is headed to the waters off the coast of Israel and the Pentagon is preparing American troops for a potential deployment to the country, escalating the US’ show of force in the region as it works to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hamas from widening any further.

A defense official familiar with the planning said the rapid response force, consisting of 2,000 Marines and sailors, is being sent. It will join a growing number of US warships and forces converging on Israel as the US seeks to send a message of deterrence to Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

On Sunday evening, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered that roughly 2,000 troops prepare for a potential deployment to Israel to help with tasks like medical and logistical support, multiple defense officials said.

Taken together, the moves are aimed at forestalling a wider regional war, officials said. But they also risk deepening the US’ involvement in a conflict in which the Biden administration is trying to avoid direct military action.

Officials have stressed that the US has no plans to put American boots on the ground to fight in the war between Israel and Hamas, which Israeli officials have warned could be prolonged and difficult.

But the planning and movements offer a window into the kind of assistance the US might provide, including managing logistics away from the front lines and offering medical support. That could be particularly valuable if Israel launches a ground invasion of Gaza, which could be complicated and bloody, experts have warned.

The decisions also come as the US military has been steadily bolstering its presence in Middle East, including deploying a second aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean Sea to join the USS Ford strike carrier group there, and sending Air Force fighter jets to the region.

The Pentagon has been deliberately cautious about how it discusses any potential deployment of US troops to Israel, officials said, because the Biden administration does not want to give the impression that American troops could become embroiled in a hot war.

But there are preparations underway for a range of contingencies should things devolve further.

The 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), which specializes in tasks such as amphibious operations, crisis response, humanitarian assistance, and certain special operations, had been stationed near Kuwait in recent weeks as part of a scheduled exercise there. But it departed early “as a result of emerging events,” Capt. Angelica White, a spokeswoman for the unit, told the Marine Corps Times on Wednesday.

CNN previously reported that the unit was preparing for a possible move toward Israel.

Officials would not specify where exactly the Marine unit will now go, other than to say it is headed toward Israel. But it could remain in the Red Sea off the southern coast of Israel, which would put US forces near the country’s two coastlines. The unit is on board the USS Bataan, an amphibious assault ship which is currently in the Gulf of Oman, officials said.

The USS Bataan and the 26th MEU have been operating in the Middle East since August as part of an effort to deter Iranian aggression in the critical waterways around of the region, including the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz.

Austin’s order to prepare troops for a possible deployment, meanwhile, does not mean they will definitely deploy, or that any will serve in a combat role if they do go to Israel, officials said. But the secretary’s decision has shortened the time the identified troops will have to prepare for the mission if they are ordered to go, officials said.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report about the potential deployment of troops to Israel. Asked about the possible movement, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said on Monday, “I don’t have more to provide at this time. I might be able to give you more details later, but at this time I just don’t have anything more specific to add to.”"

#gaza #free gaza #gaza strip #palestine #free palestine #news on gaza #irish solidarity with palestine #cnn #israel #boycott israel #USA

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kierianpattonphoto · 2 years ago

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Cultural Project - Development and Research

The prospect of developing and shooting a project based on cultures or subcultures is a very exciting opportunity. For years i have wanted to shoot a photo-project showcasing cultures in Scotland that you wouldn’t normally see within Scotland or even outside of Scotland. This country has such a vast array of scenes and cultures despite having such a small population on the world stage. From the underground dance music scene to the software and design companies based in Scotlands major city’s.

i had a few initial ideas such as documenting scotland's dance music scene, hiking culture and drinking culture, all three we are known for in scotland, some better than others. I wanted to do something accessible to the majority of the population, something that it doesn't matter about your background or financial status, you can access it. I decided to do it on football culture, football is something i hold quite close as its something i grew up with and have been constantly surrounded with. You can’t really avoid football in scotland as it is the country's biggest sport and near enough every pub or bar will show it when its on. You will also notice the numerous football pitches from the amateur grass fields to the professional steel structured stadiums dotted all around scotland.

I aim to document football culture in scotland as a whole and to inform the viewer of how scotland see’s football and how it interacts with it. I would like to capture the professional top flight teams all the way to the lower league sunday amateurs. The main focus of the project is to document the fans, without the fans football wouldn’t be as big and exciting as it currently is.

Risks and Challenges

Risks associated with documenting Scottish football culture should be properly evaluated and managed. The following are a few potential risks:

- Football is frequently associated with deep and emotional feelings, hence it is usual for rivalries to turn violent. Being aware of potential conflicts and avoiding circumstances that can endanger myself is vital. To protect my safety, this can entail collaborating with security at the games.

- Privacy and consent: While taking pictures of people in public places, privacy and consent concerns may come up. Despite the fact that people in public places have no expectation of privacy, it's still crucial to respect their right to privacy.

- Misrepresentation: Photography has the potential for influencing public narratives and attitudes. Nonetheless, care must be taken to avoid misrepresenting or stereotyping individuals or communities and to ensure that the photographs accurately reflect the reality of the situation.

- Laws relating to defamation and invasion of privacy are among the legal concerns that i must be aware of. It is crucial to make sure that any photos taken do not violate these rights within the clubs rules.

- Photographing Scottish football culture may have an emotional effect, especially when photographing delicate or contentious subjects. It's critical to recognise my own emotional reactions as well as taking the steps to deal with it.

Strategy and Objectives

Of course, gaining access to some of the top flight teams is very difficult as they have contracts signed with companies such as SNS group which typically covers any sporting event in scotland with their own photographers. Sometimes for a few of the top flight teams they will have their own internal photo and video team for documenting for their socials.

Thankfully, when shooting sunday amateur teams or even premiership teams they aren’t as strict with allowing photographers and or students in too take images. By approaching these smaller teams and gaining more access would allow me to create a better narrative and story. I think shooting at the top flight teams would be interesting for a few images especially in the ultras sections but i think having the full photo story be about them would be rather boring.

In order to even get access to the bigger teams you would firstly need to build up a rapport with the smaller teams and get images you can show the bigger clubs so they have a better understanding for what you wish to shoot.

Although i do plan on attempting to shoot some of the top flight team’s fans at away games travelling to and from the stadium. Typically these do make for interesting images as pyro or smoke bombs are used. Typically these fans will be fairly rowdy, so proceeding with caution when approaching these fans is advised.

I would also like to document some iconic and some unknown stadiums in scotland. Taking inspiration from Brian Sweeneys photo series “great stadiums of the north” he documents amateur football pitches all over from the north of scotland, faroe islands and iceland. His images have a slight liminal space feel as they are commonly shot with no people in the shot and most of the time are shot when the weather is overcast, dark or rainy. The use of weather gives the images a nostalgic feel as i can recall playing on pitches similar to these as a child in similar weather, i think that's what partly draws me to the series.

Equipment

Choosing equipment is always a tricky thing as you feel like if you dont take that extra lens or two you wont come out with the shots you want, or sometimes if you have too much equipment you give yourself too much choice and you overthink it. My typical rule of thumb is two prime lenses and a zoom, usually being a 50 1.4, 85 1.4 and a 24-70. Sometimes i will take the 70-200 instead of the 24-70 but obviously its very subject dependant.

One would think taking a 70-200 to a football match would be the obvious choice, but for the images i wish to create it wouldn't work. The images i have been researching and looking at looks as thought they are shot between 24mm and 70mm. I think using a lens with a larger focal length can run the risk of creating a distant and removed feeling from your subject. I think my go to lens for the project will be a 50mm as its the closest focal length to how the human eye perceives perspective and distance. Plus, the 50mm is notorious for allowing the photographer to get in nice and close without distorting the subject.

Regarding cameras i plan on taking two, one being my Nikon D850 and a small Nikon 35mm point and shoot film camera. It would be good to only shoot this project on film and would create interesting results. Although i cannot risk relying on 35mm film to get the shots im after. Currently i think the chance of the exposure or metering being way off is quite high as it isnt manually dialled in plus it isnt the most advanced point and shoot. It is also because i may need the high resolution of the 46 megapixel D850 if im planning on cropping in close and if i need the dynamic range to push and pull the shadows.

I have decided the D850 will be my main go to camera during the project as i know i can get consistent images that are well exposed and sharp while shooting fast moving action such as crowds. Regarding the film camera i would plan on using it as a secondary camera to capture images that are more candid and use it in places where using a large professional camera would be noticed.

Since im using a film camera i will obviously require film. I plan on using two types of black and white film, Ilford HP5 and FP4. Im using these two specifically since it is a fairly common film which i can buy easily and develop easily. I like the idea of shooting some of the images in black and white as it can suppresses individual team colours and makes a stand showing that everyone is all supporting the same sport and shares similar values which is typically forgotten about in the current world of football.

Research and Inspiration

I recently had a phone call with Brian Sweeney for guidance for this project as throughout the past few years he has shot football ultras and commissioned his own projects based around football culture in scotland, most notably his series “ great stadiums of the north”. We had a fairly in-depth chat about taking certain approaches when contacting clubs and shooting fans. His advice was fairly similar to what i suggested i do when approaching clubs which was start with the smaller clubs and work your way up. He also invited me to assist him on a shoot for lower block where he plans on shooting a local football ultra’s fan group in airdrie. He mentioned ‘Lower Block’ was the perfect website and publishing company for drawing inspiration. The website features articles about european football and its fans, the articles contain beautiful user submitted images of the stadiums and fans, i can already tell this site will be one of my main sources of reference and inspiration.

These images are of the san siro which is the home of AC Milan. These images were taken Alex Amoros's series documenting both Inter milan and AC Milan. In these images Alex documents the stadium and surrounding areas and focuses on the graffiti and artwork created by the fans. As you can see, the stadium has an influence on the surrounding landscape usually creating themed bars and coloured wall featuring artwork from the ultras groups.

Celtic FC has a similar fan group which creates elaborate artwork such as political murals or simply painting walls with the colours of the irish flag. Celtic has a strong political stance as its more left leaning since the club was created by immigrants. The club often creates banners during matches referencing its stance on pro-immigration and its anti-israel narrative. The reason why they are anti-israel is because they believe israel stole the land from palestine which is similar to how the british took over ireland, so therefore they resonate with the palestinian people.

Another project i have been looking at on lower block is one by "Makl Oddo" she documented monza FC as her grandfather was a long term fan. She was taking images at the games during the run up to the team being promoted to serie A in italy. I am a big fan on how these images have been shot as they create a very nostalgic feeling and almost a throwback to 90's football culture on the continent. Shooting the images on film using what i presume to be a small compact point and shoot allows to you to become part of the crowd and not to be alienated by using a large professional camera setup. At football games nowadays especially with clubs that feature ultras fans group people are growing more and more skeptical as there is typically a large police presence and or undercover police. For example, at one of Celtic FC's recent games there was 4 undercover police standing beside the ultras section. the fans quickly realised who the were and took a picture of them and placed the images on twitter.

I have also been looking at John Ingledew’s series on Chelsea FC in the 90′s which documented how chelsea plummeted from top of the league to the mid table team and in the worst case the division below and then rocketed back to champions of Europe. What drew me to these images was how timeless they look, not just through the use of black and white but also the fact what people wear and how they act has not changed from the modern day game.

I think what make these images successful is they give a spectator view of the game instead of the perspective from the sidelines where the photographers usually are. I also enjoy the fact the images capture the reactions of the players and give an insight as to how the fans were feeling at the time since their team had just dropped a league.

One thing i have noticed in all the photo projects i have researched is that they are either shot on film or include film photography one way or another, I think this quite interesting and thought out. As previously mentioned most football fans are quite wary of cameras inside stadiums and even more so amongst the crowd taking images of the supporters. By shooting on film it almost disguises you as a novice or some random tourist. Especially now that film has become fashionable again in the last ten years or so its not uncommon to see people using a film camera and i think most people still see it as a novelty so i imagine people do not take you as seriously if you’re using a film camera rather than a professional digital set-up.

For example, a few years back i was experimenting with a bit of street photography and i was using a professional DSLR and a 24-70. Obviously this isn't the most subtle of setups but i was still trying to be inconspicuous and even going as far to taping up logo’s on the camera and lens. But, as soon as you raise the camera to your eye people instantly notice as if its some sixth sense. My theory is that people associate big professional cameras with press and journalists shooting some sort of news story, therefore when they see it they instantly glance over to see whats going on.

Then a week after that shoot i went back out with a fairly small point and shoot film camera. Instantly i noticed i could raise the camera to my eye and look through the viewfinder and nobody would bat an eye. Like i previously said i think a lot of people see film cameras as a novelty and a bit of fun therefore they do not think about it as much.

Applying this knowledge to when it comes to shooting this project i think will be very helpful. My original plan was to only shoot on digital but to get the images i want it would be wise to shoot on a mix of film and digital.

Shooting plan

Im already quite fortunate going into this project as i knew the head of marketing over at Kilmarnock FC as i had previously done a shoot for him when he was at his last job, so i already knew i could rely on him for access to some kilmarnock games and hopefully some connections.

I knew i wanted to shoot celtic or celtic park as i have a been long term fan of the club so it would be quite special to feature the current squad in the project or even the stadium. Firstly i decided to get into contact with Gregg over at Kilmarnock as i could be guaranteed to shoot at least one match. We firstly had a call discussing what my project is about and what i aim to achieve.

I also reached out to the liaison officer at Celtic FC as he directly deals with fan enquires directly. I thought this would be a good place to start regarding possibly being granted a press pass for an up-incoming home game. I reached out over email explaining my situation and the images I aim to get.

From here we organised a call and went over the technicalities with allowing me into shoot a home game. Sadly it was going to be very difficult due to SNS Group having a contract with the club and by allowing an external photographer in would be a breach of contract regardless of what they are shooting. John did suggest reaching out to the Celtic TV team and put me in touch with one of the videographers but i didn't get a response sadly. Although me and John came to an agreement where i would be allowed in to shoot aspects of the stadium that you normally couldn't get access too on the normal tour such as the standing sections, pitch-side and the back corridors featuring artwork.

I also reached out to Hampden for the possibility of shooting the Celtic vsRangers cup final. Since i did not have any connections there i did go on linkedin and looked up who worked at hampden and sodexo. Linkedln is a wonderful platform for finding names of people who work behind the scenes of these places.

I reached out to Rory MacDonald who is the marketing manager at Hampden with a message explaining who i was and what my project was about and then he put me in touch with someone at the Scottish FA who handled the press side of matches.

As you can see I wasn't able to get a pass as im presuming its due to them only allowing publication photographers / in house teams access to the match since it was one of the biggest if not the biggest match of the season. I would get in contact again but from the final till the project due date they did not have any matches that i wanted to cover unfortunately.

First Shoot - Celtic Park

Since my first contact with John i have been lucky enough to be granted a private tour of sorts from the disability access officer who was more than happy to take me behind the scenes and allow me to shoot. I was able to walk around for about an hour taking photos of the standing section, the artwork inside the corridors and the stadium itself. Getting to the stadium was very easy, i stay in hillhead so it was a case of headed to the subway station and then getting off at buchanan street and then walking to central station to then get the train to Bridgeton station. From Bridgeton station it would take a 17 minute walk, i was due to be at Celtic Park for 11am therefore ideally i would liked to be there 15 mins before.

Route from Glasgow Central to Bridgeton station

Walk from Bridgeton station to Celtic Park

I was originally worried it would be a fairly rushed tour where i could only go to one spot and shoot but thankfully i was allowed to take my time and was able to ask questions about the club. Below is 32 images i selected that i deem as usable and would contribute to the project.

As you can see most of the images are of the artwork and stickers as i think they are able to represent the club and its ideologies nicely. I think from each game i shoot i would like to get images of the stadiums and behind the scenes as its not something you typically see as often therefore making the series a bit more interesting, an example of this would be these images.

One of the main points for this project is context more than anything. For example, if i’m simply taking images of just fans there isn't much context than it just being people enjoying themselves. Since the project is about Scottish football and its culture as a whole then its the images like the ones above that provide the depth. By showing these types of images it also shows and gives indications towards the individual subgroups within the sport as a whole such as the ultras fans and the implications they have with the clubs and the police.

Selecting the images

Out of the 32 images from Celtic park that i had condensed down from the original 244 i have chosen 6 to be used in my wider project. I will discuss why each image was chosen and how it will contribute to my project.

Image One -

I chose this image for the fact it shows off the standing section at Celtic Park, which is far as i’m aware the only one in the top flight scottish football. What drew me in the most was the thin sliver of light that stretched across the standing section giving the image a bit more contrast. I also enjoy the leading lines in the image, leading from the standing section towards the seated section and then to a large triangle of light which once again adds something dynamic to the image. I flipped this image to black and white as this area of the stadium had a lot of different coloured stickers, signs and logos which i feel take away from the sliver of light and leading lines. I also cropped the image to 5:4 as i prefer this aspect ratio mainly due to the fact i feel like regular 16:9 is either too wide or too tall for most images, cropping into 5:4 i feel gives more emphasis on the subject within the frame and is easier on the eyes.

Image Two -

This is one of the images that i mentioned would give more context to the overall project. The more formal analysis of the image would be that it represents the Green Brigade and the Bhoys interaction with the club and the fact they have their own standing section which in itself shows the club is willing to give them a platform to create their atmosphere and display their messages. But, in a more contextual analysis an image like this contributes to the message that this project wishes to project and that is that scottish football isnt just people gathering on a muddy pitch on a sunday. I want this project to show how passionate people are about their teams and how they are almost passed through the family like heirlooms.

Image Three -

Another image of the famous standing section with the back wall decorated with the words “ NORTH CURVE “. Typically most ultras fans regardless of the teams either settle in the north curve of the stadium or behind the home team’s keeper. Im a fan of this image as its not one you get to see, the. only time you will see images of this wall is when its game day and the standing section is filled with home support.

Image Four -

I wanted to include an image or two which showcased some stickers in the standing section as a lot of them were politically motivated and others not so much. Taking pictures of the stickers which are faded and have clearly been there for a long time which can compliment the dedication of the dedicated fan group who have stood beside the club for so long. I included this image for context as i believe it contributed to the overall story of this project.

Image Five -

Similar to the previous image but this image showcases more of the stickers that the ultras fan group have created. You will notice there are a few stickers that aren’t the usual Celtic colours such as the “nautica 10 ans” sticker near the bottom. This sticker symbolises the long term relationship the green brigade and Paris St.Germains ultras group have established as they both share similar views and ideologies. This relationship is something i would loved to of documented but it would fall into a longer term project as gaining access and getting their trust would be very tough.

Image Six -

This image was taken in the corridor below the standing section. The corridor was full of murals like the one below. I decided to choose this image as it directly relates to the other images since it features the same logos and colours. I think images like these draw the overall project together by showcasing that it is about the more hardcore fans of scottish football.

Second Shoot - Kilmarnock Vs Hearts (Rugby park)

Like i mentioned previously i have stayed in contact with Gregg McEwan and we had set out an idea of the games i wished to cover, kilmarnock vs hearts was one i wanted to cover. I liked the idea of shooting two smaller teams in the league as it hasn't been covered as much as the two old firm teams. I spoke to Gregg regarding whether there were ultras fans on either side and he said “each side do but they arent that big” then i asked where about they sat so i know where to position myself.

Around a day before the match i got sent through the press accreditation list containing who got access where and everyones roles. ( see below )

Kick off for the game was 3pm, therefore i had to plan ahead in terms of what train i will get and how long it will take to walk from the station to the stadium. Ideally i wanted to be at the stadium roughly 30 minutes before kickoff, this gives me plenty of time to drop my kit off in the press room and then locate which security gates i can walk between to get to each stand.

Below is the route from station to stadium.

Train tickets - Glasgow Central to Kilmarnock

Stadium arrival

After arriving i made my way to the press entrance and had my name ticked off the list and then made my way to the press room where others had already setup. I then got given my press pass which would allow me everywhere but the behind the scenes offices.

Upon arriving into the press room laid my kit out and had a look at what i needed. Since i was unsure where i could go i did pack multiple lenses just in the off chance i was away from the main body of fans. I ultimately decided to keep things light if i am shooting amongst the fans while keeping a low profile. I didnt want to risk damaging any of my kit despite having insurance nor hit someone with my camera. I took out my D850 and a 50mm lens with a small film point and shoot.

I was unsure what camera i would use the most as i believe both had their own uses. For example, i would use the dslr for capturing high res portraits and pictures of the fans celebrating or just watching the game. If i was taking pictures of the fans celebrating i couldnt risk missing the shot so by using a camera with an advanced auto focus system and that could fire of multiple frames a second i was confident in my ability to get ‘the shot’. I would use the film camera as a general camera whether it was to shoot wide shots of the fans or specific detail. I was not worried about getting images of any of the players as this isnt what the project is about, the only time an image would feature a player would be when they run up the fans in the stands and interact with them celebrating.

Shooting

There wasnt a huge number of fans from either side but they did have numerous hardcore fans from either side. Hearts had a sizeable turn out for one of the non old firm teams which was good to see. I positioned myself amongst the crowd at the back of the stands so i could see what was happening and who was creating the most action. I wanted to spend the first 45 mins in the hearts section and the other 45 in the kilmarnock section. but ultimately i wanted to go with the flow since hearts could score multiple goals therefore the atmosphere in that section would be the best to shoot.

contact sheets from the game

before getting into the main body of images, i took these while i was getting on of the famous pies at halftime and what struck me the most was the look of the place, the old images of the trophy winning teams of by gone days and ex superstars. In most stadiums it has been completely modernised and images like these are stored away or just gotten rid of so its interesting to still see these images hanging up. I would like to integrate this imagery into the series but my only concern is having images of the fans and then having these before or after, i dont think it would link very well but ill try and see how it looks in the final series.

Picking the finals - Film

I picked these images for a multitude of reasons. One of the reasons being as i believe they captured the game perfectly, kilmarnock won this game against hearts which was fairly unlikely as kilmarnock were near enough bottom of the table and hearts were third in the table behind celtic and rangers. judging by the images of the crowd they were fairly happy about it. Another reason why i chose these as some gave me nostalgia for going to football matches with my Dad, moments i hold close. Its such a common occurance to have the football ground out the way and sometimes amongst houses so the walk from the car, bus or train is quite a strange one. As you are in a huge crowd walking past someones front room and going up little side streets where any other day the place would be very quiet apart from the odd dog walker. Some of these stadiums seem very out of place and random, some even giving off a liminal space sense of emotion.

I think overall images of outside the stadium also gives the image series a bit of context regarding the football experience and culture as a whole. I think if it was images of only the fans the series would really be about scottish football culture as using the terms culture implies more than just people in the stands.

Out of this selection of images the first one would be my favourite as theres not any defining symbols or ideas of locations for where the image is from or who is in it. I believe it is an image which would symbolise the ‘away day’ experience which typically involves a large group of people travelling by bus or train, could make a good front cover for a zine!

Picking the finals - Digital

Similar to the last group of images this bundle has a bit more focus on the fans. The first three sums up the general feelings of the hearts fans, first they score then suddenly kilmarnock put two past their keeper then its all over. I cropped these images to 5:4 as i much prefer the look compared to the crop straight out of camera as i felt it was too wide. By having the crop at 5:4 it allowed me to allow for more focus on subjects as when i had it at the original crop there would be points where id have half of someones face in the image and it took away from the image overall.

Out of the digital bundle i have three favourite images. The first one being the third image of the hearts fans after kilmarnock just scored. I like this image not only for the reactions of the fans but more for the conclusions i can draw from it. You will notice that the more prolific reactions are from the younger fans and the older fans maybe in their 30′s are a lot more reserved. I think this is because when you are young you can get away with more things and they arent taken as seriously but when you have a job and a probably a family you cant be seen making gestures like what the younger fans are doing.

My second favourite is the second last image for the composition. When i shooting this i wanted to just get the younger fans leaning over the railing but when i shot the image the other fan appeared in the bottom left of the image. Only when looking back at the image after the game i noticed it. Initially i didnt like it very much but cropping it to the 5:4 ratio allowed the image to feel a bit more balanced for a normally awkward composition.

Lastly i like the last image too as its a good sum up of the younger fans in scottish football. These fans would of grown up going to matches with their dad or family when they were younger but i think due to covid and growing up during that time they were unable to attend matches in person. So by dressing like this and being the ones to incite chants and gestures they are almost making up for lost time, gone are the days of adidas sambas, blue jeans and stone island apparel. Its time for the nike tech tracksuit, nike airmax and north face jackets. You could draw some symbology from the image based on how he is standing, his slight awkward and hand placement could symbolise the attempted integration they have into the football scene with all the older fans and attempt to find where they place on the hierarchy.

Celtic Vs Kilmarnock

This is the game i was looking forward too the most as celtic always have a very good turn out for away games. In this case celtic took up the full away stand, therefore i decided to position myself in these stands for the whole game. This is because celtic is dominating scottish football at the minute and have only lost one game therefore a lot of kilmarnock fans didnt turn up as they knew they would lose, which they ended up doing.

When shooting the Celtic Kilmarnock game away i was amongst the Celtic support specifically between the two ultras groups the 'Green Brigade and the 'Bhoys' both previously part of the same group but split due to internal conflicts and beliefs. I know they are typically suspicious of people with cameras so i made sure to speak to both groups before kick off to just let them know I'm here with a camera and their faces wont be in the images. The paranoia stems from undercover police being present at the home games in their standing section so i don't blame them for the suspicion.

screenshots from some videos i took

Learning what i did last game i used the same approach which was look around and see who looks like a good subject and or who is making the most noise. Like i previously said i couldnt shoot the ultras fans since they didnt want their faces in the images either. Thankfully in the first half celtic scored 4 goals so fir that first 45 i was able to get a lot of images i was happy with since the atmosphere was great.

Final Images - Film

I didnt get many images on film, if i remember correctly i only shot 12 frames out of the 36. I got these three im happy with, the first one im a bit iffy with as it strikes me as quite a random image. But, like i said when i was talking about the previous images from the last game part of football culture is taking public transport to these grounds so i guess it does add some context to the project overall.

The second image would be a good one to accompany it as it depicts three people walking through a train station with a bag full of beers. But what also adds to the image is that the person in the middle has a celtic cross on his leg which is the same symbol you can find on the back of older celtic tops and inside the stadium.

Finally the third image shows off the smoke bombs and pyro the celtic fans used at the game to add to the atmosphere, again since smoke bombs are used so often in matches.

Final Images - Digital

I am very happy with how these images turned out because i think they have added a bit more variance to the project. I like how i managed to get some images of the ultras fan groups too as its quite rare to see images of them.

One of my favourite images would be the second one as the composition is a bit more thought about. What i like the most is how all the fans are looking in the same direction and how the composition is made up of geometric shapes such as triangles and squares.

Another image i enjoy is the last one as it shows how varied the ages of people are who go to some of these matches and it contributes to the overall project.

Presenting and displaying the work

Since most of my images are in a 5:4 format i will need to be careful in how i display it as having a 5:4 image in a standard A3 landscape frame may look a bit unbalanced.

Looking at articles from Lower block when i was in my development stage i was fairly inspired to create a zine. I think this project would work best as a zine mostly because there is such an abundance of images. If i displayed 25+ images it would only work if i had my own gallery show which a the current stage isnt viable. Therefore having the images in a zine and then printing multiple copies it would raise awareness of the project and then hopefully would allow me to create a gallery show at the end of the day.

Hypothetically speaking having a gallery show would be quite an interesting opportunity to display the work. Because scottish football is engrained in our culture it would make sense to display it in and around buildings that relate to football. For example, this series would work well displayed in some of the hospitality suites at Hampden since it is Scotland’s national football stadium therefore multiple teams play at the park.

Getting in touch with Lower Block

Recently i won a competition on instagram to win a zine of my choice from lower block and i decided to pick this one mostly because the san siro is being demolished and rebuilt in the current year or so therefore it would be like owning a piece of history having a zine about it.

I spoke to the person who runs the pages and asked about submissions.

He then sent me over some questions.

Where are you from? Where do you now live?

Originally from Dunblane just beside Stirling in Scotland, it's usually easier to say " ever heard of andy Murray? the famous tennis player? yeah his hometown haha".

But recently i made the move to Glasgow to improve my network and finish my degree.

Profession (how you describe yourself) - if not a photographer?

This is always a tricky question as i see myself as a fairly flat person, id often describe myself as an introvert mostly which is quite an odd personality to have when

photographing people or shooting in public. Usually other than shooting you can find me at the top of a munroe and being from Scotland its a fairly typical thing to go up one every weekend.

Who do you currently support and why? How long have you supported them?

Currently supporting Celtic! its a team my dad and his dad and so on has supported. The interesting thing about supporting a football team in Scotland is that a team is passed down to you

like a family heirloom. Like you're told when you are young that this is your team regardless of what happens whether they get relegated or win the champions league, its something you just stick by them.

I remember times growing up where my dad would mention celtic legends and speak about famous goals and performances.

Any particular footballing idols from your time growing up (and why) First big name player saw live?

Sadly didn't get to see him in person and I'm sure everyone who supports celtic will agree with me when i say this but it has to be Henrik Larsson, the man was a god. Scoring 174 goals in 221 matches across

his career at Celtic, not to mention his scoring streaks in Europe, he was ahead of his time as a striker and could be argued at the time he was one of the best in Europe. No wonder Barcelona snatched him up after leaving celtic where he

continued to score. Sadly getting tickets to any game at Celtic park was always a struggle you or your dad had to know a guy who knows a guy who had a season ticket who couldn't attend. Only being to Celtic park a handful of times was a

common occurrence for most, but recently i got to see Celtics current striker Kyogo Furuhashi who has been at the top of his game since his arrival and i believe he will turn into a club legend.

First match attended as a fan? Any early memories from that match or attending / playing football growing up?

Most matches i attended was when i was fairly young therefore i cant remember much, one springs to mind and its when i went to see manchester united play another league team. We were

fortunate enough to get hospitality since it was my uncles birthday treat. I always used to play football growing up and i was part of my local youth team "Dunblane Soccer Sevens" where i played defense.

I remember the Saturday morning car rides to amateur league grounds to play other local teams in a freezing cold November.

What is it / was it that drew you towards football as a fan? Any experiences that connected you to football and football culture?

I think its something i have always had an interest in, i remember there was a time period where i wasn't super interested in football but id always check the Celtic score whenever they played.

Like i said your team is a family heirloom and its something you will always have in your heart regardless of whether you are invested in football. Only really in the past few years I've gotten more

and more invested into my team as a whole, especially since the incredible job current manager Ange Postecoglou has done. But speaking on Scottish football culture as a whole is quite an interesting thing as its

so ingrained into Scottish society its hard to miss. One thing that really sticks out about it all is how invested people are in their teams even to the extent of not wearing an item of clothing that is the same colour as your

football rivals but at the end of the day you can still have a laugh with someone who supports another team. Its always surprising to see the week in week out turn out for games too, for example Celtic has one of the highest

average attendances for home games in Europe which i think speaks for itself regarding the passion people have for their teams.

Tell me a bit about this project. How did it come about? What was your inspiration for it? Any interested anecdotes or obstacles that you have to overcome? What does the name mean?

So I'm currently studying for my BA in photography and the project came around as we were given a brief where we had to document a culture, whether that be a sub culture, food culture or car culture, it just had to fall

into the category of a culture. Straightaway i wanted to document football culture in Scotland since its so engrained into society. At the time to my knowledge i had not seen a project which documented football culture from a

fans perspective, yeah whatever you get photos of fans taken by guys on the sidelines with huge lenses but its so flat. I wanted to be amongst it getting genuine reactions and documenting how good the atmosphere really can be.

The only issues i really ran into was getting access to some clubs as they have a contract with a media group in Scotland that basically have a monopoly on photographers at not only football matches but most sports events, most know

my feelings about this so i wont bother going into detail about it here. Thankfully i know a few people behind the scenes at some clubs due to previously doing work for them who managed to issue me a pass for some games.

beliefs. I know they are typically suspicious of people with cameras so i made sure to speak to both groups before kick off to just let them know I'm here with a camera and their faces wont be in the images. The paranoia stems from undercover police

being present at the home games in their standing section so i don't blame them for the suspicion.

What kit did you use for this project?

Kit-wise i wanted to shoot fairly light as i didn't want to clock someone over the head with a lens when celebrating. So i used a Nikon D850 and a 50mm, i wanted to use a DSLR to capture some action as I've found the hard way

that a film point and shoot is rubbish for getting anything spontenous or fast moving action. I also decided to use the D850 so i can get all the resolution i can so I'm able to print large eventually when i decide too and just so i can get a

bit more control over the image in post as i like to mess about with the colours. Then for a few more candid images i used a film point and shoot loaded with Ilford HP5 or FP4, i mainly used this to get random images of the crowd celebrating goals or

the end of the match.

When / how did you get into photography?

I only properly got into photography when i got my first camera at 16. Like most 16 year olds you're into hanging out at the skatepark with your bike or skateboard, that hobby translated in to watching countless bmx videos on

youtube and wishing you could make your own edits. So i tried my hand at making bmx clips for youtube and realised quickly i was better at taking photos of people on bikes rather than creating videos. From there it was a general interest till i

finished high school at 18 where i wondered if i could take photography a bit more seriously. I took a year out after high school where i developed my craft and ultimately decided to not study engineering or computer science at university but to

take up a photography course at Edinburgh College, i didn't take it as serious as i should have so i didn't get into second year. I then took the same course at City College in Glasgow where i thankfully finished the course with good marks and now

I'm at the same place doing my BA in photography.

Any photographic / artistic influences?

Currently, I've been looking at Brian Sweeneys work, specifically 'Great Stadiums of The North'. He documents all these stadiums in Scotland and in places like iceland that you would consider as a sunday league pitches.

there is something really nostalgic about the work and liminal and I'm all for it.

What was it about taking pictures and telling stories through images that interested you?

I liked the idea of bringing more awareness to scottish football as a whole, since somtimes i feel like the atmosphere and the passion goes un-noticed amongst the other leagues in Europe. It sounds cliche but using photography to convey a sense of feeling is a big thing for me. For example, a few years back i did a project on liminal spaces but all the locations were places where i had grown up and felt some sort of nostalgia for which ended up creating a melancholic feeling around the project.

First match / footballing event attended as a photographer or with a camera?

Id say back in 2018 when i shot kilmarnock vs motherwell, i think i just did it for the experience mostly. I was sat there amongst the pros on the sideline with a sh*tty zoom lens and just shot images for fun really.

Do you have a favourite photograph that you have taken?

Not really, im never really satisfied with my work enough to be like “wow yeah thats the shot” since i study photography im always in the mindset of being like ‘what if’. But currently, i am happy with how this project is going, its only a matter of time before i find flaws in the images and shoot more.

For you, what makes photographing football lifestyle / culture such a fascinating subject? What is it that appealed to your visual senses?

I think its such a longstanding subculture that has developed in recent years with the advent of twitter and instagram. Now more than ever ultras groups such as the Green Brigade at Celtic can reach out to followers to contribute to the match day atmosphere. Previously you had to be part of the inner circle to be in on the tifo’s and pyro displays. So documenting the subculture in modern times is interesting now that more than ever people of all ages is getting involved. For example, in my project people as young as 15/16 are sitting amongst the ultras who tell stories of ‘The Jungle’ at Celtic park which is nuts.

As a photojournalist and a fan what are your thoughts / experiences of different football subcultures? For example; connections between football, music and fashion and style. The food and drink. The architecture of the grounds. Kit / training kit design / boots and balls. Footballs place within community and society and the power of football to bring people together. (These are just some ideas that resinate with me for reference).

I think football has always been a working mans sport. Most towns and cities in Scotland or even the UK have some sort of football team whether its a Sunday league team or a European winning side so i think naturally football will link up with fashion and design. Up in Scotland i haven’t noticed a huge shift towards a more mainstream culture. Although one thing i have noticed is the slight change in styles of clothing. Gone are the days of Adidas sambas, blue jeans and stone island jackets, ive noticed people are shifting towards Airmax 95′s, nike tech fleece tracksuits and North Face jackets.

Best advice ever given and what advice or tips they would pass on to any aspiring photographer?

Be a people person at the end of the day especially when shooting projects like this. Being quiet and awkward gets you nowhere when doing this sort of work. I like to think i’m quite a confident person but when shooting this project and having to point the camera towards ultra groups is quite scary stuff. People appreciate it if you speak to them and make some sort of connection before you stick a camera in their face.

Best place(s) to signpost for; sales / exhibitions / promoting this project or other work(s) / getting in touch for editorial or commercial commissions and licensing / keeping up to date with you and your work?

Im still choosing the final images for his project and may create a gallery show. But in the meantime follow my instagram “kierian.jpg” or drop us an email “[email protected]

What's next? Do you have any future plans / other projects you’re working on?

From now finish my photography BA, try and shoot a few more football games before the end of the season and then we will see haha.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Until the last rebel.

Before these questions i had sent over a sample zine thats purpose is just to show the work and it wouldnt be the final project.

From here im going to start creating mockup covers for a potential zine. i would like to keep the inside pages of the zine fairly straightforward with just white backgrounds and image placement.

Some design inspiration i have been looking at, im quoye drawn to this type of design for numerous reasons. One of which being the bold graphic lettering and how the words are placed onto the title page. Its proven that a photo zine doesnt need to be something boring and flat, it can be a reflection of the images via the use of design. I also like the colours used, some are more bold than others and a bit more muted.

Design mockups

Above is a selection of posters which could all be for my zine. I already have a favourite but before that im going to discuss why i dont like the other three. The first two posters are fairly similar but i believe the reason why i havent chosen them is because they are too simple and arent thought out. When looking at the poster my eye is immediately drawn towards the shoulder of the guy in the white jacket and not towards the title. For a zine this is obviously something very important as someone may look at the poster for a second before they look away, therefore you have second to catch their attention and the title should be the thing that does that.

The last poster is better than the two previous as it features an image of someone sticking their fingers up at the opposition fans which is a good symbol for what the zine is about. My only issue with this is that the typeface, lettering and placement. I feel as though my name could had been a different font and to be shifted to below the picture, similar to were the ‘01′ is but on the opposite side.

My personal choice is this one, the cover does everything right in my opinion. Funnily enough this title took next to no time to make compared to the other ones. I like how balanced and timeless the over feels, it doesnt feature any strange design techniques and the text placement is fairly timeless. I originally wanted to have the cover feature super modern text and design practices but my worry was that in a few years time current trends could be considered ugly. Whereas keeping the cover simple and timeless eliminates that completely.

Evaluation

Overall i am fairly with how this project turned out and despite it taking a slightly different approach from the original plan i still gained invaluable experience and images while shooting this project. Originally i was going to focus on one team and one group of fans but due to circumstances out with my control i had to improvise. Thankfully i had a contact at kilmarnock who sorted me with press passes to shoot two games. Initially i was skeptical with shooting other teams which had smaller turnouts for games but i ended up getting some great images.

I think if i was to reshoot this project i would have reached out to more amateur clubs in Scotland or the central belt. In my experience going to these amateur games as a child there was always a good atmosphere and turn out. Since the clubs would be a lot smaller it would be easier to be granted access to shoot during matches.

I think going forward with this project would be a great idea as i have proved that even in 2 matches i was able to get a zine worth of work. The potential to expand this body of work is massive, one could even extend the work to Europe and attend matches there. I could even use this body of work as a pitch to allow me access to some bigger matches with bigger clubs as it shows i am capable enough to keep my head down and shoot what i need to shoot, thankfully Gregg over at Kilmarnock even said he will vouch for me if i need access to any game in the the premiership.

I wish i took more time to sit down and design a proper zine. Sadly down to my own timekeeping i was only really able to design the front cover but thats my fault. If i had started designing the zine in conjunction with shooting i would of been able to design the inside pages and possibly even added the questions and answers which i got sent from Lower Block. The staff at Lower Block did say however if i do create a physical zine from this project at some-point down the line they will happily promote it however they can.

I would deem this to be a successful project in my eyes which gave me a great body of work that i would be able to show news, publishers and football clubs in future if i decide to expand this project. The project has allowed me to develop my own social skills and negotiating skills, when shooting members of the public i think its always important to speak to them as if you weren't planning on taking pictures of them. What i found is that striking up a conversation about a player or asking a question about the club as an outsider allows them to open up therefore you develop a human connection which then in turn makes them an easier subject to shoot as you had just gotten over the hard part.

#culturalproject

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