So, with 45 replacing a bunch of people in leadership roles in the DoD, the news media seems very concerned about how this will impact which foreign countries we’re at war with.

But they seen weirdly unconcerned about the domestic implications of replacing a bunch of military heads right after learning that you’re supposed to hand over power in a few months, while also denying that you’re supposed to hand over power.

I’m trying to figure out whether the newspapers are engaged in some extremely wishful thinking, or I’m just missing something.

People who know more than me about this stuff: am I missing something? Please tell me that I am.

You’re not missing anything.  He is attempting a coup.

Don’t fool yourself about that.  

Counterpoint: Trump is attempting a massive and rapid withdraw from Middle East warzones because he wants to be scene has having been the president who ‘brought the troops home’ and thus wanted yes men in charge of the military for that since its a stupid fucking plan to rapidly withdraw from a conflict zone in a matter of months with 0 proper prep work to ensure your allies in the field don’t end up screwed because you just up and left, so having toadies in charge helps with that. Trump replacing the brass, while sus as fuck doesn’t actually give him much wiggle room to start a coup because and I know this might be a hard concept to grasp, but the US military has more checks and balances on it then just who the DoD is currently headed by. The heads of the DoD cannot just order troops to invade the US and take power for the president, despite what you might have read on conspiracy boards. Trump is a loathsome, vial little snake who will do just about anything to grasp onto power, but reports from the White House already have him effectively giving up and moving into, “Win again in 2024″ mode and making moves to secure his legacy such that he’ll have a better time winning reelection then. Meanwhile fear mongering that he’s about to start a massive, armed insurrection is about as helpful and accurate as right wingers urging people to ‘bury your guns before Obama comes to steal them before sending your grand mother to the affordable care act death panels!” I swear to god this web sight is so fucking stupid, if its not fear mongering about cults kidnapping women off college campuses to sell into sex slavery (because some random church held a bible reading in a campus basement and a pear clutching idiot went ahead and started a rumor that they where actually South American white slavers), then its declarations that X politician is on the verge of killing us all with the latest weird move that gets interpreted in the most alarmist way possible. NEVER TAKE ANYTHING YOU READ ON A RANDOM ASS TUMBLER POST SERIOUSLY AT FACE VALUE! CHECK YOUR GOD DAMN SOURCES AND DO YOUR OWN INVESTIGATIONS! Even if one or two of these turn out to be right I grantee its because when there is enough wild mass guessing, EVENTUALLY someone gets it right by pure fucking accident! I’m done with this fucking web sights idiocy! I am sick and tired of fact checking morons who’s gormless parroting of self important Tumbler based ‘intellectuals’ leads to nothing, but people wasting their precious, valuable energy they COULD be spending on activism and ACTUAL political critical reading, instead panicking because a talking head on their side has told them the sky is about to fall, again, but this time for Z reason which is different then the previous Y reason and the X reason before that because... Well just look at the facts! They are so obvious if you ignore any and all context outside of the framing I have given you right here and now to convince you DOOM is here! I left twitter because of the doom and gloom attitude of the leftists there, but at least most of them knew what the fuck they where talking about and had an easy way of being fact checked. Here its just Twitter, but far, far, FAR stupider! Fuck Tumbler!

This is the worst thing you have ever drawn, but having worked a cash register before I have seen this shit and it IS the worst...

Sure okay why the fuck not

Every time I check in on this story it’s gotten weirder

Republicans are already trying to distance themselves from trump. I fucking knew it would happen. Like McConnell is now saying his “number one priority” is passing another covid stimulus. As if it hasn’t sat on his desk for 4 months while they pushed their Supreme Court pick in.

Republicans now

McConnell and most other Republican legislators haven't even acknowledged Biden's victory though? So a big chunk of the Republican party isn't even at the distancing stage.

Right now they are trying to play both sides. Distancing themselves from Trump’s bad policy's and nonsense while ALSO trying not to anger his base (which makes up a decent chunk of there own party) but LOOKING like they are not doing that. Effectively they are going, “We know Biden won, BUT we know Trump is a vicious, disloyal little shit and anyone who speaks out against him now and/or officially says he lost and needs to GTFO will lose their seat next run when Trump vocally supports whichever Republican rival aims to take there place. So... We support Trump ‘exploring his options to ensure a clean and transparent transfer of power’.” At this point its less about them supporting Trump or wanting to be seen as on his side and more knowing that openly crossing him could still mean political suicide if he remains a popular figure within the GOP post 2020, still capable of punishing Republican rivals. Make no mistake, Trump and his bullshit will cast a long shadow over the GOP for years to come and anyone who thinks Republicans will quickly try and disavow him and ‘return to normal’ is in for an unpleasant surprise... UNLESS he pushes too hard  to contest the election results. If he is physically thrown out of the white house and/or tries to pull some SERIOUS bullshit and gets shut down HARD that could actually ruin Trumps, “Big Untouchable Winner” public image with all, but his most die hard supporters and swing the tide of public opinion, but I’d not get my hopes up on that. Trump’s a salty baby, but he’s not so foolish as to risk having to be publicly humiliated in a way that he can’t actually wriggle out of.

Nice try fuckers.

$175K wasted with every reblog.

Let’s make sure they DON’T get their money’s worth.

Oh hey, my 2020 vision says THE INTERNET NEVER FORGETS, MOTHERFUCKERS.

Hey, so what exactly was that cops name again…?

Lt. John Pike. It took more than two years of legal battles to get his name, and the names of other officers involved, released to the public. 

He got fired… but retained his retirement benefits, and got  $38,000 worth of worker’s compensation for the stress he went through after the incident.

The students collectively received $1m, with each pepper-sprayed student receiving $30,000 individually.

Get this rebloged everywhere, send it to other platforms if you can.

The assassination of queer subcultures by mainstream respectability politics is transparent as hell and I don’t know how so many people who think they’re Doing Good let it slide, but, come on.

Kink, and fur, and a host of other subcultures are dominated by queer people. They were largely founded by queer people are still propelled by queer people. Individual kinksters, furries, whoever else, are overwhelmingly gay, or bi, or ace, trans, genderqueer, whatever else you can think of. A lot of them are only into what they’re into because it’s the easiest way to surround themselves with other queer people. A lot of them are there because it’s the only way they feel safe exploring or expressing their sexuality. A lot of them are just super freaky, and that’s A-OK.

“[kink | fur | etc.] doesn’t make you queer” isn’t recited like a moral precept because there’s any real movement of Straight kinksters/furries/whoever trying to infiltrate our spaces. Its purpose is to firmly divorce those concepts in your mind before you have a chance to realize how linked they are by nature. It’s meant to build a brick wall through your perceptions of the world around you.

If you have “kink doesn’t make you queer” drilled into your head for long enough, it becomes an instinct to see a woman in leather and think, “Not Gay.” If you hear “fur doesn’t make you queer” often enough, then seeing a fursuit at Pride will fill you with a moral panic: They Don’t Belong Here, you say to yourself, they’re not queer, even if they are. So you make them feel unsafe, evict them from all of our spaces, and all of a sudden, we have a Nice, Sterile, Respectable Image of a queer community who Definitely Isn’t into any of That Weird Shit, please Straight people, can’t you see we’re just like you?

Be better than that.

If you listen, her tapping very much adds to the music.

Love this💗💗💗💗💗

That’s Emma O'Sullivan! She’s a famous tap dancer (all-Ireland champion) and you can see her often if you walk the streets of Galway, dancing in the street!

I’d just like to add (for non Irish people especially) that she isn’t actually a tap dancer but a sean nós dancer. Sean nós is a traditional Irish dance (sean nós means “the old way”) but it isn’t the same as the mainstream Irish dance which people would be familiar with. In mainstream Irish dance the dancers have carefully choreographed routines that need to be learned and replicated and keep a rigid upright position at all times. They either wear soft shoes which make no sound or hard shoes which make a tap sound which are worn for different types of dances. People can also usually recognise Irish dance pretty easily at a glance due to the extravagant colourful costumes, white “poodle” socks, white undershorts and heavy wigs and make up that the dancers wear at competitions.

Sean nós is a totally different type of dance separate to this mainstream “Irish dance”. It is a much more loose and free type of dance where the dancers always wear hard shoes since the sound of the feet is very important. There are a few basic moves (the “shuffle, shuffle stamp”, the “heel and toe” and the “slide and shuffle” being the basic foundation steps) but once you have the basics you can combine steps, free style and even make your own steps. You can move your hands and arms to the music unlike in mainstream Irish dance too. Sean nós is often seen as the sexier Irish dance as the dancers are allowed much greater hip and general body movement and can laugh and interact with the audience as they move. There are no particular costume rules for sean nós competitons. Unlike Irish dance, people can really wear whatever but the norm is comfortable and simple dresses or skirts or trouser/top combinations made up from whatever the dancer chooses from their own wardrobes, a huge contrast to the heavy Irish dance costumes and the expense and pageantry associated with them. Part of the appeal of sean nós is that it has not been commercialised and commodified to the degree that Irish dance has and has a much more casual and fun feel to it in contrast to the strict routines and costume norms of Irish dance.

The most skilled sean nós dancers are able to dance a “barrel dance” where they dance at high speed on top of a barrel without knocking it over. It usually takes years to get to this level of skill so people normally start on the ground and then work their way up from a quarter barrel to a half barrel until they can dance on the top of a full one. This is Emma again doing a barrel dance on a half barrel:

Another sean nós dance is Damhsa na Scuibanna “The Brush Dance” where dancers pass a brush between their legs at speed. The still images don’t really do it justice so here’s a clip of three members of the Cunningham family dancers performing it: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX3Z8qG7AKo

It’s important that people call it by its correct name of sean nós or damhsa ar an sean nós rather than just “tap dance” as it’s an important part of our cultural heritage and a type of dance that is barely known about outside of Ireland. Sean nós had almost fallen into total obscurity outside of small pockets of rural Ireland until dancers like  Emma O Sullivan and the Cunningham family dancers repopularised it in the early 2010s through their acclaimed performances and TV appearances as well as their classes for children to keep the tradition going into the next generation. Sean nós is still threatened with falling back into obscurity, if you search online most of the popular videos and photos of it are from about nine years ago during this revival and it’s still largely a rural, West of Ireland phenomenon which even people from within Ireland don’t really know about. Calling it by it’s correct name helps to keep it alive and allows new people to find out about it.

When I visited the United States Holocaust Museum for the first time, I was struck deeply by one wall with absolutely nothing on it, except for this quote: 

“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

Hitler often used it to cite how history would forget about his “final solution”, as they didn’t remember the Armenian genocide, did they? 

My family is in America for the sole reason that the first Armenian genocide drove them out. My grandmother knows nothing of what happened to her cousins and aunts and uncles, and still, to this day, the Armenian genocide is not recognized by Turkey. 

It’s happening again. The Azerbaijan and Armenian conflict over Artsakh, an area that Azerbaijan claims is theirs, but is inhabited heavily by Armenians, has been restarted, and the people living there are in serious danger, as Turkey is now lending their military aid to Azerbaijan as well, while the rest of the world is turned the other way. 

I know we’re all so fatigued from the shitshow that has been 2020, and how difficult it can be to comprehend yet another tragedy, but if you have a moment, please just educate yourself on what’s happening in Armenia and Artsakh, educate a friend, and take a look at the some of the resources I’ll link below, I would be so grateful. Don’t let history annihilate my people again. 

explaining why the conflict has re-started

a help Armenia carrd

donate- the Armenia Fund

what is Artsakh? 

More photos of Mongolia’s reindeer-herding minority ethnic group, the Tsaatan, by Joel Santos.

Children are responsible for training reindeer for riding, because the reindeer are not strong enough to carry an adult until they are fully grown, and it works best to introduce them to the idea early. A two year old reindeer, old enough for a child to ride, is called dongor; an adult reindeer is a hoodai.

The mail is the one final hope for resurrecting a dead planet from its ashes, and the letter carriers are the brave soldiers of God in this righteous crusade. They are the defenders of the light of knowledge, free communication, and the exchange of ideas. They are the bold toters of all those little papery conduits of freedom, the white postmarked angels that whisper a message on their deliverance, a promise to the yearning: “There is hope yet.”

Liberty. Reason. Justice. Civility. Edification. Perfection.

MAIL.

turkey and azerbaijan are attacking armenia right now, and it’s 1915 all over again because the world is distracted and people are too busy wondering if they’re gonna live or die, and who gives a shit about my country anyway? my mum told me to tell my friends and explain to them what’s happening and that we are the victims in this war because azerbaijan is spreading lies and people are believing their lies and i told her, what good is that going to do? do you think anyone’s going to come to our aid? is russia going to help us? is america? is england? erdogan said they will finish what their ancestors started, and he means genocide. he means ethnic cleansing. he means to massacre every last one of us. and in doing so admitted to the very same thing turkey has spent 105 years denying. i don’t know who to tell and what good telling people will do because we’re a small, insignificant country, and we have nothing to offer to the people in power, the handful who rule the world. so i sit here with my pain and i feel helpless. i know there’s twitter threads and links to petitions and people being urged to contact their senators, and sorry if im being pessimistic, but azerbaijan has been attacking us for the last 22 years, and though we defend ourselves, we can’t do anything to stop them. they’ve violated ceasefires (and geneva conventions) multiple times. i don’t think they’ll rest until every last one of us is dead.

we just want peace. we just want to live peacefully. we’re not asking for a lot here.

hey either reblog this or unfollow me

Watching this happen I’ve been so scared there is going to be another genocide and nobody would notice. My whole life I’ve hated how forgettable armenian people seem to be to the world. Protect armenian people or rot, please don’t turn a blind eye to us again. And same as above, reblog or unfollow.

here are some cold hard facts for those interested:

1. after losing the war in 1994, the az government spent the next nearly 30 years on a) dehumanizing armenians, b) blaming armenians and losing the war for the terrible socioeconomic state of the people in this oil-rich country while president and his family steal all of the money their oil produces, c) pushing armenophobic propaganda on the population since kindergarten age, d) oppressing and humiliating the other ethnic minorities living on its territories, e) regularly violating the ceasefire of 1994 whenever the internal situation get tense and the ppl get angry, f) selectively sending the youths of said ethnic minorities to the bloodiest parts of the frontline whenever said ceasefire violations happen, g) suppressing free speech, arresting journalists, harassing and threatening those who dare to voice their discontent, etc.

2. in early 1920s, josef stalin, in order to appease the new turkish “republic” and its leader ataturk, with the hopes of using turkey as the base for spreading the communist revolution further into asia, passed artsakh (also known as nagorno karabagh) with its 95% ethnic armenian population onto the new created turkic azerbaijan republic (a country that did not exist before 1918, that’s what newly created means), despite the opposition from the people of the region in question and the republic of armenia.

3. during the 70 or so years that artsakh was part of the azerbaijan republic as an autonomous region, the gov of azerbaijan did everything they could to a) suppress the development of the region, b) change the demographic of the region by moving turkic population to artsakh

4. in 1980s, the people of artsakh, utilizing their rights stipulated in the soviet constitution, petitioned both moscow and baku to be allowed to reunite with armenia. as a response to this, the azerbaijan government started large-scale repressions against the organizers and activists of the reunification movement. arrests on made up charges, threats and violence followed (more info on all that in the link provided below)

5. the people of artsakh then held a referendum as was their right under soviet constitution, and more than 90% of it’s population voted in favor of seceding from the azerbaijan republic. the response to this were the anti-armenian pogroms in baku and sumgait ( https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-18-mn-305-story.html)

6. all this grew into the first artsakh war, which azerbaijan lost, as mentioned in point 1.

to sum it up: artsakh was never a part of the independent azerbaijan republic, during it’s brief 70-year forced az control its indigenous armenian people were oppressed via various government policies, the people of artsakh deserve to live a free and happy life in their homeland, free of threats and fear of annihilation that is sure to happen if azerbaijan takes control of the region

to them, it’s just a territory and they want that territory without the people.

for further reading, check out this comprehensive timeline of the artsakh history up to 2017( when it was written)

https://www.evnreport.com/spotlight-karabakh/spotlight-karabakh

then, this: on what actually happens to armenian lands and cultural heritage when it’s in azerbaijani hands

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-11-07/armenian-monuments-azerbaijan

while you are at it, read up on the armenian genocide and keep in mind that turkey, specifically for this war, moved syrian jihadists to azerbaijan to fight against armenia and artsakh. read up on the kind of internationally banned ammunition azerbaijan has been using against the civilians in artsakh capital, and then maybe make your judgement.

oh, and if anyone tries to frame this as an islam vs christianity thing, send them to hell, regardless of the side they claim to support, bc this isn’t it.

I reblogged a post about this yesterday, but is there something we can do other than spreading awareness?

spreading awareness is HUGE because azeris are spreading lies (mainly on twitter bc apparently thats the only social media they’re allowed to use atm? i haven’t verified this but it checks out with the dictator in powet lol) and it’s really really really important for us to counter their lies with FACTS. like there’s far few of us and we don’t have any bots lmao so it’s really hard to get people to listen to us.

cardi b apparently made a post about it, talking about how there’s a genocide going on in armenia, and azeris started harassing her so she sort of backtracked and said something like “i didn’t know there was two sides to this” and like it’s not the only person they’ve done this to!

this video on twitter actually explains their tactics (the girl in the video is basically translating azeri post) how they target people who speak out in support of armenia and make them rescind their support.

so yeah. it’s important for us to fight against the misinformation. and i think i have no respect for any armenian person who chooses to not engage because the internet is our battlefield. this is where we fight because it’s the least we can do. (note i said armenian person, because i don’t think its fair to ask this of people who don’t have a personal stake in this war).

you can also donate here: himnadram.org

terfs do not interact

update: genocide watch has declared emergency in Artsakh, placing azerbaijan at stage 9 (extermination) and stage 10 (denial)

when we say we are being threatened by genocide, we are not exaggerating

source: genocidewatch.com

System of a Down just released 2 new songs, their first new music in 15 years, to raise money for the Armenia Fund. Go to their Facebook page or https://systemofadown.bandcamp.com/ to purchase the songs for a donation as little as $2 USD or more of your choice

leftist antisemites are really everywhere on this hellsite making & reblogging their posts like “the Jews have too much power and privilege and actually their very recent genocide was not that bad compared to what my group experiences and antisemitism doesn’t even exist in my country and especially not in liberal spaces”

Goyim should reblog posts like this one instead of always only acknowledging antisemitism when it is about jk rowling’s goblins or easy shit like that.

Challenge the antisemitism that is coming from inside the house. Be a little brave. Because you will lose followers for reblogging a post like this, because there are antisemites following you that think this way, and assume you do too.

Fuck antisemitism.

Credit: u/Bombshelly_skates

REBLOG

REBLOG

REBLOG

ALSO THE SENATE.

MORE IMPORTANTLY THE SENATE.

Biden has other paths to 270 if we don’t get Georgia. But Georgia is the only remaining path to 50 senate seats.

One Georgia race is already going to be a special election. That can be two elections if the current race goes into a runoff.

Look at this:

As of right now (11:30pm PST).

I know you could look at that and go “there’s 2.5 point lead for the republicans with 95% reporting. That’s a pretty big gap to make up.”

But we don’t have to make that gap up tonight.

Tonight we need to get just 0.2 points.

In Georgia, if no candidate gets 50+% of the vote, there’s no winner and they go into runoffs that happen in January.

It would not take very many votes at all to bring Perdue below that threshold.

Then we’d have two competitive races in Georgia with a couple more months to organize and campaign there.

And then we’d have 50 senate seats.

This is our last chance to oust McConnell as Senate majority leader by swapping the senate majority this election.

Every single vote in Georgia could not be more important right now. If you submitted a ballot there, please check up on it and make sure it’s counted.