#we're dealing with the Russian empire here

[kaiserin-erzsebet]

"Why does it make you frustrated that the Captain of the Demeter is consistently not Russian in adaptations?" - hypothetical person

For several reasons:

It takes away a heroic figure who is Eastern European, which significantly contributes to the (arguably incorrect) reading that this book is about an East vs West dichotomy.

Slavic characters so rarely get to be good and heroic figures in English-language media beyond very bit parts.

It takes away the significance of him being mourned by people even when he is buried far from his homeland.

[httplovecraft1890]

Hi, What's your opinion the Lives of Others movie from 2006 and it's presentation of Stasi modus operandi? You're very intelligent in drawing parallels between SxF and it's real life counterparts.

Also may I ask what your music tastes are? thanks.

I'm flattered you have enough confidence in me to think I can answer this question in an intelligent way, but it's been a long time since I've seen The Lives of Others, though I remember liking it when I saw it years ago. However, the Stasi's reputation definitely proceeds them; even if one is sympathetic to the Warsaw Pact, they were the vanguards of a brutal regime. The same thing is true of the SS that the State Security Service also pulls its name from, but I don't think one has to point the obvious when discussing Nazi Germany. East Germany/the GDR is generally less known here in the West in pop culture. Certainly at least, the mention of people fleeing its borders brings to mind the Berlin Wall, even if we haven't seen an equivalent. That said, given that Endo is sometimes frustratingly obtuse on elements of Spy x Family's world (which is fair, since world building doesn't really seem to be something he's super interested in unless it serves a narrative purpose) there are some things we can at least tease out with those two examples about what the Ostanian state is like. Communism, at least as a widespread ideology, doesn't seem to really exist in the SxF universe - or at least their world seems to be having its version of the Cold War from the freer West versus an authoritarian East. Granted, the Red Circus in the Japanese text is described as a far left organization, but we're given no indication it receives foreign backing from a USSR expy. The curious snag is that they use the word 'cosmonaut' to describe their astronauts as well, but perhaps the Russian Empire persists in some form, bankrolling other reactionary regimes that it borders.

Regardless, we're given a very narrow view of what Ostania is like for citizens of the middle and upper classes - and it generally seems to be okay. However, we know for certain that this isn't really the true state of affairs given the disappearances of people like Frank the former newspaperman, Biddy's death, how it closely monitors its citizens personal lives by viewing people who're not even married as suspicious, etc. The SSS, even if it bears a superficial resemblance to the organizations it's named after, is clearly intended to be a frightening thing. Billy is very obviously killed after he's arrested in the most recent bus hijacking arc and we know for certain things like wiretapping are commonplace. It is a totalitarian regime where minute actions are scrutinized to the nth degree for supposed subversiveness and no amount of bread or circuses makes up for that. This is a point I think is further supported by a mention of a shadow government doing... something in the cruise arc; whatever they've got going on, it isn't good, and the civilian government led by a bunch of doves seems like an obvious front while the Ostanian political cadres plan what to do next. Sooner or later, they're going to have to fall on the proverbial sword, and the National Unity Party will swoop back in to power. Instead, it seems obvious to me that Ostania is fascist or at least some flavor of far-right. Private enterprise persists, though I would imagine the state intervenes or directs them to do things it sees fit to (real life Imperial Japan comes to mind, especially given Endo's background; while a lot of zaibatsu were disbanded following WWII, others like Mitsubishi weren't) but this was also present in Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Something tells me that Desmond never divested his business dealings when he was prime minister. Further, we can see this exemplified in how Damian boasts about how great his family is, placing an emphasis on heritage and wealth which we can only assume was a foundational belief passed onto him by Donovan at the very least. Melinda is a tougher nut to crack in this regard right now. We've no evidence that a monarchical dynasty currently reigns in either Westalis or Ostania but I think we can infer at least at one point one did, if for no other reason than our Germany parallel from our world; still, it seems that nobility is at least recognized or has a lingering influence on the country's politics even if it's ostensibly a republic now. One of the things I'm personally most curious about is how much the regime, either now or in the past, scapegoated its minorities. Difficult to say if they had some form of Holocaust/Shoah and/or Generalplan Ost, but one thing that might be a snag regarding my cosmonaut theory above is the belief that Slavic peoples were inferior to their Germanic counterparts during the 19th century's formative years with racialist theories. An interesting thing to note is that the Briar family seems to be coded as perhaps coming from this background. Mom Briar's clothing bears some resemblance to traditional Russian dress, Yuri is a Slavic transliteration of the name George, and Yor's name was initially meant to be Yolanda which, while not Slavic in origin, had been used by some queens in eastern Europe historically. Yuri working for the SSS isn't necessarily a deal breaker either since, if there is such an emphasis on one's parentage, perhaps he and Yor have enough 'proper' blood in them that this is seen as acceptable. Even the Nazis' bat shit theories had dispensations for certain percentages of Jewish ancestry (no, really). However, that's my own editorializing on this aspect of the lore, which doesn't have a whole lot of clarity surrounding it. Anyway: my musical tastes are old. I'm a Boomer, if not a Silent Generation type; '30s-'60s stuff is my jam and if I do dip my toes into more modern music, it's usually in the form of mashups (a medium I love and think is very great).

[stainlesssteellocust]

US diplomat: "Okay, so you bought some of Alaska's land from Russia, okay, okay. But...your people live on the other side of the world, and, let's be real here, we're too racist to respect you as equals. Why should we honour your deal with the Russian Empire when we can just...waltz in and annex your little home away from home?"

Tsalal Alaskan colonist leader: "Good question! Do you see this missile, this one right here, bigger than a train? Its warhead is filled with several tons of fuel-air explosives. Now, I'm not saying that we have a dozen of these things stocked on ships ready to fire at any given moment and a bunch of fanatical suicide pilots ready to fly them ludicrous distances into your nearest population centers...

"But I'm not not saying that."

[the-firebird69]

There are a couple points one is if the opening of the harbor is cleared out by John Remelard he takes a lot of Flack and he can't do anything about it he did the last time he was still suffering so we don't mind if he does that and there are a couple other things the synthesis two up there in your Starliner you keep saying it came down when they're up there and it's because they change what they look like and we don't know if you know but that's really stupid. And you're seeing all such a dumb things you gotta have a Moody Blues reunion and you're going to get in trouble which is good and you're very very ignorant and you want our son to believe you're in power and control and we cannot stand you at all you're going to be hit by a lot of people very soon

-and yes the Russians are going to come into the Caribbean this week It does mean something and it will have an effect and you're not gonna like it

- Other things are happening there is a storm here it is a rainstorm and it is soaking Florida it is from the evacuation which is continuing we set up to 20% today we think from last night to today into tonight and we think we're correct. Is a huge huge moving now and it is going to get much bigger. A few other things are happening that are going to affect this area greatly

- Governor Santos is out is with the match proper said the Mac Proper and the Pseudo Empire. And so we can't stand this little boy either who's making a huge amount of odd decisions and laws and changing all sorts of things to try and tailor fit to his weird asinine program so they're going after him to remove him and he might just remove himself as well as he is going to pursue the clone ships and they are going to strike them they said and it is a big deal there's a huge number of people that are waiting to see what happens because this is a gigantic change it is going to be a massive day this is one thing that's happening his government is being removed and thus trump too is being pulled out and anybody else and they're installing the pseudo empire and it is a sign it's a beginning of a large change here and globally.

- There are a few other things happening here that will make a lot of things different and one of them is that we find out that their attitude and what they're doing is not being tolerated on a lower level and they are starting to infiltrate the police and that's the pseudo empire mostly and all over Florida they have like half the police off and on it's a lot and it is continuing and their infiltration numbers are increasing and they're pretty much where they were before they changed a few points but to their favor

- Additionally there is work being done and our son and daughter said that if we start to work here and do things we'll have vested interest and we also will have people and they won't have people and it's begun all over Florida and they're stifling as reduced and they're getting beat up they look at plague and so damn awful but they're really getting the their hats handed to them and it's about damn time except this movement is what's required they're fighting over the small ships in the diamonds and it's where it's at and the Morlock are losing they are planning a large scale attack tonight on the pseudo empire and they're about to initialize one overseas and we think they'll lose.

= Along with their moves to attack the Pseudo Empire in each other which are really smaller numbers there is something happening that's changing what they're doing they're being attacked on their islands because it's slipped out as home base and support and they are going after leadership too more directly and it is starting a conflict between them and they will be fighting this revolutionary war before you can blink. They are starting to cordon off both islands more so and regaining their shield and Michael too said it we don't have a shield down there and our barricades crap and they're coming out and bothering us with hardware and we actually need that hardware. It's going on right now

More shortly

Thor Freya

Olympus

We have a lot more to announce and we're gonna get to it in a minute.

Hera

[unreliabledragon]

I think there are a few factors at play here.

First, Putin is, to some extent, an unchecked idealist. He sees the fall of the USSR as one of the greatest tragedies in human history, and sees the window closing on his opportunity to regain some of Russia's lost glory. (Because, surprise, he saw the USSR as effectively a Russian empire.) He saw how well his wars in Crimea, Georgia, Chechnya, and the Donbas had gone, and assumed he could simply roll into Kyiv and regain the most important part of his "lost empire".

Second, public opinion. Bloomberg, as well as other reputable news sources and pollsters, believe that support for the war may be as high as 80%. Now to be sure, there are issues regarding polling a country with as much censorship as Russia has, but everything seems to indicate that the general populace, by and large, wants to fight this war. They want it for a variety of reasons, but whether it's because of nationalism, militarism, fear, or just for pure plunder, very few governments can afford to make major decisions that 80% of the populace opposes. Especially when that 80% likely includes much of the army and most of Wagner. And to be fair, wars are often a very convenient and effective way for a government to keep itself in power. You can justify almost any repressive measures you want, and people will tolerate a lot more deprivations in their day to day lives if they believe it's going towards "victory".

Third, and related, Ukraine is very closely linked to Russia culturally. The Rus culture started in Kyiv, and Russia is, if we're being honest, the upstart younger sibling nation. There is still a great deal of cultural interchange between them, so if Russians saw Ukraine getting closer to the west, and then saw its material conditions begin to improve substantially, that could undermine the regime's anti-West messaging. And it's worth noting that Ukraine's GDP has doubled since Euromaidan, so this isn't purely theoretical. In a sense, this war is a pre-emptive strike, but against a future cultural threat rather than against a future military threat.

Lastly, Putin is paranoid and Ukraine is strategically valuable. Russia currently has borders which are difficult to defend, but taking Ukraine would give them either the Dnipro or the Carpathians as a natural buffer in the south, substantially improve their control over the Black Sea, and secure their hold on Crimea. This is seen as the primary reason by some people who hold to geographical determinism, but I don't personally find it the most compelling factor.

So to summarize... Glory, stability, and safety. At least in the regime's eyes.

Genuinely what the fuck is the Russian government getting out of continuing this war?

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Former President Donald Trump blamed the United States for "almost forcing" Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.

Trump's remarks came as Russia continued to stall in their struggling "special military operation," ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin more than seven months earlier on February 24, 2022. The ex-President has been critical of how President Joe Biden, who he may run against in the 2024 presidential election, has handled diplomatic relations with Russia. But critics accuse Trump of taking positions seen as favorable to Putin.

During an interview on Real America's Voice, a right-wing network favorable to Trump, the former President criticized the Biden administration. He argued that their "rhetoric" in the months leading up to the Ukraine invasion contributed to Putin's decision.

"They actually taunted him, if you really look at it. Our country, and our so-called leadership, taunted Putin. I said, you know, they're almost forcing him to go in with what they're saying. The rhetoric was so dumb."

He claimed, without evidence, that the Ukraine invasion would have "never" happened if he were still President. He also did not provide any specific examples of how the U.S. "taunted" Putin into invading Ukraine.

Trump also touted his working relationship with both Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky when Real America's Voice host Wayne Root suggested Biden could send Trump to negotiate a peace deal.

"I got along very well with both Zelensky and Putin," Trump said. "If you remember, Zelensky was very nice because when they asked him about the Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine hoax—that was the phone call—he looked at them and said 'What was wrong with the call? He did nothing wrong.'"

William Pomeranz, the Director of the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute, cast doubt on Trump's comments in an interview with Newsweek, pointing out that Biden said Ukraine would need to work on its corruption in order to gain entry to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) but that Putin's given justification for the invasion was unrelated to NATO.

"It's something Putin has been thinking about for many years," he said. "I think Putin basically launched this campaign to annex what was two territories—but is now four territories—to expand the Russian Federation. I think this was an example of imperial intent. He wanted to expand his territory and the Russian empire."

He said it will never be known if the invasion would have occurred if Trump won the 2020 election but that he did not believe Trump would have "stood up for Ukraine."

"Did Trump think that he had such a great relationship that he could dismay him from attacking, I just don't think so," he said.

TRUMP FACED CRITICISM FOR PAST RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR COMMENTS

Trump has faced criticism for several comments about the Russia-Ukraine war. In the days leading up to the conflict, Trump said Putin was a "genius" for moving troops into Ukraine.

"Here's a guy that says, you know, 'I'm gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent.' He used the word 'independent,' 'and we're gonna go out and we're gonna go in and we're gonna help keep peace.' You gotta say that's pretty savvy," Trump told Clay Travis and Buck Sexton in February.

In March, he again renewed controversy after appearing to push Putin to release any information he has about Hunter Biden's alleged business dealings in Russia during a conversation on Real America's Voice about an accusation that Biden's company received $3.5 million from the widow of a former Moscow mayor.

"She gave him three and half million dollars. So now I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it. I think we should know that answer," he said.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's office and the White House for comment.

[lightdancer1]

Originally Darkness Falls was to be a twelve-part series:

But after looking back over High Cost of Living and some of the Death and Tim Hunter scenes, I decided to incorporate them with this AU's Death. And to expand the last part significantly to incorporate aspects of that one scene from The Books of Magic.

The first eight parts of sixteen were at that higher/cosmic level, the second half incorporates views from the 'lower deck' and includes how ordinary people, as well as superheroes, deal with the world where Death died in 1916 and a direct glimpse at cultural effects.

It's not quite what TV Tropes would call the Umasqued world where the whole veil on the supernatural falls given this is the DCU we're talking about here, but the whole impact of a sudden and abrupt implosion of death and dying that started on Earth and at the end of 1916 reached multiversal scale and affected every single one of the fifty-two earths and all of hypertime does not fade readily.

Comic book death is already weird enough in the regular DCU, in this particular version the death of Death made it much weirder and more unpredictable in its effects. Among the smaller changes are that the Lazarus Pits produce a kind of catatonia (meaning Ra's always comes to on his throne and there's a wee bit of a 40K Corpse Emperor vibe to him in post-Pit states and Jason Todd abruptly falls in and out of catatonia at unpredictable intervals), that the Blackest Night insofar as it happens happens vastly differently, religion and magic function very differently (the death of Death was an unintended hard reboot of magic at multiple levels and some of the dead gods and demons that resurrected never went back to the grave).

Also Adolf Hitler and the Nazis never took over Germany and the Bolsheviks never took over Russia, though there was still a second world war that started as a general European war and spilled over into a war in Asia (in reverse to history's pattern in reality) upon the death of Field Marshal Hindenburg, the Ottoman Empire is still alive and well in the 21st Century and facing both Jewish and Arab terrorists fighting for homelands and working together and shooting at each other impartially......

And the East Slav Federation (as greater Russia is called in this AU with quasi-independent Belarus and Ukraine and a Transnistria equivalent with Ruthenia) invented the atom bomb first because the Khozyain said "split the atom" and Russia didn't need to worry 'bout no measly budgets or accountability to the Duma.

The USA is in a global imperial rivalry with the East Slav Federation headquartered in Petrograd, (read: Greater Russia with a somewhat more competent Putinist type nationalism absent the USSR) as the British Empire was fatally weakened after the world wars and played the historical USSR role of backing the national liberation movements while the ESF played the US role in backing white supremacy.

So this is the geopolitical backdrop to the AU DCU's modern era, a Cold War very much active and like the historical version backed by a nuclear balance of terror where the USA started behind and then vastly outmatched the ESF at every possible quantitative and qualitative level (which the Russians are very much aware of and resent immensely), superhero organizations that are superpowers in their own right and more caught up in strife with villains who couldn't care less about Cold War rivalries save insofar as it suits a scheme to work with one or the other side, and the entire world aware that in 1916 for a year nothing was born and nothing died.

There are a bunch of different theories about what happened and why, but the occultists of the world all have the basic picture. That one Roderick Burgess, aspiring Aleister Crowley wannabe tortured Death to death in a basement and then reality nearly came unglued as the maddened things of the Source Wall had their fun just like they did the first time when Death left in the very dawn of time.

Christian fundamentalism is a virtually moribund because a very real apocalypse did happen with WWI and then Jesus *didn't* come back, though other brands of extremist cuckoo elements have taken their place. Among them cults of the Second, which means essentially that with the recognition of the overlap of the Year Without Death with the hidden occult teachings of a death deity who is life and death both and whose previous mishap led to the implosion of both, the dying goddess is worshiped in a manner that Death of the Endless is *very* aware of and detests.

[the-firebird69]

Lady Gaga - Marry The Night (Official Music Video)

There's a period in the mall he was calling me paparazzi and he's really talking about his brother and and how he got entombed and might be dead we don't know if you can revive him and it's getting late and he's calling me papa Razi someone who stops people from driving them into a wall and I picked it up and then these guys went nuts said he can't do that and wellness they said this why this is real simple the max have symbology everywhere and everybody is thinking it's someone else they're finding JC and Mary but they have a lot of it and they look saw the streets and saw them torch and Tyler just to see and Mary and there's a big plan in place and they started getting horrified and he said 35% of the population then they were massively horrified now it's a nightmare and Lady Gaga is right and on a date with her so our children have a chance as it is we keep dating our sisters like the max one and they're not going to be terribly brave but they'll be smarter than us and we need it and we also need Trump to slow down he's got the math wrong and it keeps and it really didn't happen that way and we're trying to explain it and it just does not coming out right. And our friend here said that he wants to drive me like a chauffeur in his Lamborghini doesn't want to tell me it's a kit car and I might not be able to tell and I say things like I probably will and then he says that some kits are authentic and he would try and get the interior just right and there's always components to it and I looked at the replica it's really a kid a kid car that he pointed out and it uses an infinity and the motor sounds smooth like a Lamborghini when you see exhaust and I said I probably won't be able to tell and he wants to drive me around in it and people think it's real and he said he might rent one is true too if you can't get the kit and it's hard for him to get things like that but I liked it I thought it was great and you said don't turn evil I need to live somewhere and paparazzi he called me and we're going to see something horrific and learn and we don't know who it is and he's saying it's Russians so we're going to stay tuned it might be the Max doing it or it could be the pseudo empire but really it's influenced by the max and for some reason Lady Gaga thinks that it might be Max and she's sort of says it they don't look like that and our friend says you're correct and it's going on now and all throughout part of tomorrow and we'll probably hear of a nightmare so we need to get going on things and we need to do Ghostbusters anyways we're behind

Jason

I was thinking that too it could be a bunch of demons and we are behind but I don't think so and I think it will look like pseudo empire but I do know what the deal is and we think Justin he did great work he is really really awesome I'm glad you're his friend cuz you're trying to convince him we should team up and I know he is because I hear what he's saying to everybody and he's repeating what he's saying and he says that sometimes because the reaction is bad what he wants them to think about it and what he says is it's ridiculous you're out there at fisherman's village you can't tell who you are but you know that you're the same people and I don't want you to tell who you are I want to know that you're the same people and we start talking today I said you look sharp and it's great you look better than I do but soon I'll become huge and I don't have any clothes at all I'll have to wear Spandex and you know how that's going to work out. So started laughing he's also that was mean and have to be Puffs and she fell over but she's really really skinny and it was horrifying to him a little bit but he said I didn't know what it is and you need Adobe and vitamin B2 and she said you're right about something I can gain weight and she went home and ate up and slapped and ate and felt better and it's working here and him being a little bigger is helping I heard he went from 5 ft 8 and 1/2 to 5 ft 9 and 1/2 as a steady number and it's kind of like comparing it to the drop of the water you have to do the math and they said they were not accounting for the plug up golf and it's 6 feet less loss of meaning that at low low tide it will only be 3 ft down and it high tide will be 3 feet up and mid tide it's at like the midpoint and that's what we got now they're saying that's pretty close it's more like three and a half and three and a half which is not much different it won't help us that much but every little bit counts I'm taking those diamonds out will make it lower but it won't do any good if it fills up rapidly and right now it's filling up and not emptying so I'm wondering where the water is going

Lady Gaga and I accept your date request Jason unless Lily becomes a maniac

I'm not going to become a maniac if I can date your husband and she says yes because it's her brother and it's wrong and he says he knows about it and they encourage you encourage because it creates riffs and distrust and mistrust and I do understand that

Lily

We're now going to publish

Olympus

[the-firebird69]

There's a huge number of people who seen some of these movies and they're disgusting Tijuana man jijuana not Tijuana and it's a Humvee stretched it's got a picture of a guy on the front in a plaque and it looks like a funeral in Thailand or something and you told me it looks gross. And it's still very good so we have stuff to announce and it's pretty big

-we have several things to announce one of them is the max are under duress and people are taking their stuff and they're getting information in a lot of it you're tired of being brutalized by them and not doing anything back and they're going to

-and some other things too going on people are figuring out that the video actually shows what happens it's terrible but there's a lot of people getting hurt fighting the max there's a lot of things happening they're still refueling fueling actually and the phones are feeling and that there's going to be a heck of a fight they're not up to 8% they're probably at 5:00 or 4% which is still a lot people have to figure it out that kind of hard work and hold them off pretty well and they don't have any so they're going to have to do something and they're building up more and more troops every day and a huge training camps it's massive it's going on now we have training games too massive ones it is going on and all over the world pretty soon it's going to be a new day we have a lot of work to do and we're going to get to it but we're going to make an announcements

-we have a few people who are discreet but we do intend on halting their operations I was supposed to go to signings tomorrow and people are realizing what they're doing is really odd and lame so they're trying to figure out how to do it and you notice they're having difficulty getting there and difficulty actually getting the signing done so we are going to try and help and we do need to sign on and get going on and we're going to try and do that

-a couple of the things we have some retired people here no there's some zombies more or less we're working on it it's going to take some time but the movie is coming up with the watch it is not the one our son has right now no that's a Russian watch and it's supposed to meet something it is supposed to mean something or it's a Max code and plan and they're going ahead with it it's going to happen now is people going to realize that they have to get to work as well but a lot of people not doing anything

-did our fleets that are coming here and they will be here at 3:00 a.m. the ground troops at 2:00 a.m. and it's going to be a war lots of death there will be more going on up north in New England at wachusett and the Firebird probably 2% of the population it's a big deal of the parks are full of people and there are probably 3% of the population globally at them and yeah it's going to refill it's going to be a big number but over the whole groups all the groups of theirs and there's increasing amounts of troops going down after caverns and massive numbers I was trying to amass in case the bunkers open up there's a huge war in space between the pseudo empire and the warlock and they're fighting on the islands and other groups too are fighting them on the islands it's getting bigger and bigger it is a war. The watch of her sons was a Rolex that was seen and he thinks the story and it is it was on the History channel's antique show and they were selling it and they sold it and it was bought by Tommy f and he wants to hang on to it and they go to New York City but only after the Georgia group and actually that's where the superhero stuff really kicks off there's more to it but we are going to announce something.

Thor Freya

Olympus

Good

Hera

Zues

[faithful-grigori]

”#he could also be from what is now Ukraine Belarus or Poland, #we're dealing with the Russian empire here”

"Why does it make you frustrated that the Captain of the Demeter is consistently not Russian in adaptations?" - hypothetical person

For several reasons:

It takes away a heroic figure who is Eastern European, which significantly contributes to the (arguably incorrect) reading that this book is about an East vs West dichotomy.

Slavic characters so rarely get to be good and heroic figures in English-language media beyond very bit parts.

It takes away the significance of him being mourned by people even when he is buried far from his homeland.