FLAMING_AUBURN_LOCKS [she/her]

Oh God Fucking Cyberpunk 2077

its how every European talks in the age of the anglo-centric internet. our guttural Frankenstein language has become the Latin of the 21st century

i appreciate that we still do this joke every time the site’s down

i have a very bad feeling that this thread is going to break 2k comments.

i am trying to find a way to lay out all the thoughts in my head without it feeling like i’m using the news mega as a journal. but the agony of knowing that courses have already been decided on, and a manmade monster of gunpowder and blood looms over us, waiting to feed…i’m mortified. the potential for things to escalate even further out of control has never felt this strong. Iran’s next move feels like watching someone pull out the last jenga block on that layer, hoping the structure can reconstitute itself when the top half drops down a story. but the blocks are made of plastic explosives.

Here’s my thoughts about what preceded the Moscow attack. It’s obviously very fishy, but I think this is another moment of disunity between Kyiv and Washington, of their policies not playing well with each other

The perpetrators more or less admitting they mostly did it for money and didn’t want to die is EXTREMELY out of character for Jihadists, and them trying to make a break for Ukraine is a weird red flag. It hints at some kind of Western connection to the attack, but then you’ve got America strangely pre-empting it with a warning about a terror attack in Moscow weeks before. Not something you typically do if you’re trying to make sure the attack happens in the first place.

I feel that Ukraine tried covertly arming and coordinating with Islamist groups like ISIS in an attempt to foment chaos/ignite a war with Chechnya or disorder is other Islamic regions of the Federations. The Ukrainian government is in a do-or-die position where they might feel pressured to do something underhanded and unethical like this. But then at some point, they either ran the idea by the Americans and got a “Hell No” response, or they were trying to keep it under wraps but the Americans found out anyways.

Accepting that the attack was going to happen whether they liked it or not, the Yanks are stuck with a dilemma. If they keep their lips sealed and let a catastrophic terror attack happen in a geopolitically convenient place, they risk it being discovered that they knew in advance but didn’t stop it, humiliating the US diplomatically for being hypocrites and tanking Biden’s reelection chances.

The harm reduction option is to adhere to Duty to Warn, maybe try to limit civilian deaths by discouraging public gatherings (if that’s even a concern for US leadership), all while having the plausible deniability of being able to say “Well we knew something was going to happen, but we didn’t know our friends in Ukraine were involved!”. Or even to just outright say “That’s propaganda, we didn’t know Ukraine would do this/Ukraine wouldn’t do this! Look, we even warned you that we knew something was going to happen? Why would we do that if we knew/collaborated?”

A proxy state’s interests aren’t always totally aligned with their overlord’s, and there have been plenty of times in the past where US Military leadership has seemed openly aggravated with Ukrainian strategies. As the situation grows more desperate, Ukraine will become more and more willing to resort to questionable/Machiavellian plays to somehow turn the tides, even if it actively harms US interests. At the end of the day, it’s the Ukrainian officers and politicians who will end up at best unemployed and at worst on trial if Russia wins, not any members of the Biden administration.

holy shit. i used to dismiss reports of US troops on the ground in Gaza as wishful thinking by those seeking more reasons to blame the US for the genocide they’re running interference on. conspiracy-brained stuff. but Bushnell claiming it was true before his sacrifice lends that claim a level of credibility its never had before.

i find it very very funny that Nikki Haley’s campaign strategy is “be the only other the person in the running besides Trump all the way until the Convention because chances are he’ll bite the dust or go to prison before then”. and i would find it earth-shatteringly funny if that happened but the party still picked someone other than Haley

the slavic brainpan is not capable of considering settling a port city next to an ice free harbor. the anglo-saxons pioneered this technology when they invented London, but the russians missed the point when they tried to copy them, leading to the creation of Arkhangelsk

the week where the siege of Deir ez Zour Airport was finally relieved, and the liberation of the city from ISIS began was just fucking harrowing to experience from afar. I’ll never forget General Issam Zahreddine and his men finally getting the hell out of the airport, him saying something that translated to like “The Euphrates is a treasure these pigs will never grasp at again.”, and then getting killed by an I.E.D. on his way back to Damascus for the mother-of-all heroes’ welcomes. it felt like an historic— no, legendary moment right as it happened.

he’s decided that he’s going to spank the ayatollah personally

i don’t think there’s anything sinister behind it, Black people are over-represented in the military compared to their numbers in the civilian population. its entirely likely that three enlisted soldiers who died in this most recent attack were all Black

Mexico International Airport said no harm had been caused, but that the passenger had been handed to police. Fellow passengers, however, have written a joint statement, saying the man had everyone’s support.

modern day folk hero in the making

The most humane method of execution that humanity has ever developed is still just a bullet to the head.

many people want their loved one’s body to be left intact and not riddled with holes or missing limbs

there are weeks where decades kill themselves…

there’s absolutely no way of walking this back from the brink now. over 100 civilians killed by israel at a memorial service for an infamous enemy of israel, on the anniversary of his death. there is no way they expect to get away with this. i think a regional hot war is now inevitable and Israel thinks they’ll come out on top at the end, if they are bold enough to be this provocative.

i’m scared for my friends in the region, in israel and beyond

i keep reading COTW as “cock of the walk”, not country of the week

that being said however Haiti is absolutely the cock of the walk. one of my favorite things about Massachusetts is our Haitian immigrant community, and all the food and music and art they’ve brought into cities in MA over the generations. i love how totally casual and appropriate it seems to be to sing to yourself while you’re working or just out on a stroll or something. an absolutely chadlike people

update: it was occupied, with over 300 passengers. they’ve been safely evacuated, with footage taken by passengers inside the cabin showing a smokey and scary scene, but no major injuries visible

looks like folks are singed and scared shitless, but otherwise fine

hard disagree on Glaceon. she’s a trans lez