A Wicked, Foolish Lie

ranma-dreams-eternal:

Hello! My name is Francesca Y. Kramer.

You may remember me from my Tumblr blog that, over the course of the past decade, went through names such as @ranma-official, @genderfluid-ranma, @fleshfleshfleshflesh and others.

My previous account was banned due to malicious reports, and it is unlikely that I will ever get it back: hence, this is my new blog.

I will try and recover and repost some of the effortposts I’ve written there over the years, but the drafts are, unfortunately, lost forever.

In either case, please give me a follow and a signal boost!

(I am also a political refugee that was forced to flee the Russian Federation due to my anti-war activism and queer identity, and so my financial status is dire: if you can offer me any job at all, or can recommend to anyone who does, please contact me!)

As my lovely and brilliant friend says, she has been desperately trying to find employment and support herself in exile with only limited success so far. Now she urgently needs at least €800-900 by the beginning of July to move from her temporary room to real housing, and help cover basic living expenses.

She cannot currently access PayPal or other payment systems (because everything about urgent forced migration is catch-22 hell), but you can send her BTC or Monero, send money to my PayPal and have me pass it on, or even ask her for her bank details and wire it to her card if you’re a mutual. Any assistance is enormously appreciated, and please share!

BTC: bc1qph7925vu49sfstllx0thsc7lt7c5687d46wmzt

XMR: 46B9UN8etpgCWSAu1LorWcMazW9s9dhBxDBSGzyf6wVgFUqdJumov7YDqpVEWbnJA2fyWPnajByohXbUbg4MDTmx4E84BFx

My PayPal (please notify me that it’s for her): https://paypal.me/EstherFiddler

In addition to that, please contact her if you have anything like a job offer, fully remote or with some relocation assistance (she’s currently in Montenegro). Her experience, in her own words:

- fluent Russian, fluent English, limited German - python (django, flask), hopefully 3e - C#, some experience with unity - Photoshop, Illustrator, some Blender, some InDesign - extensive experience in translation (English to Russian and back), technical and poetry - excel, visio - extensive experience in writing contracts and various paperwork - extensive experience in scheduling, logistics, all sorts of secretary-adjacent work -  testing/qa

Her discord is beansidhe3210, please reach out if you have anything. And thanks in advance on both our behalf, I’ve been absolutely worried sick about her throughout this months-long ordeal and kicking myself for being unable to help her more. It would honestly be fantastic if things could turn around a bit for her.

(via multiheaded1793)

oligetcetera:

filmnoirsbian:

Casual cruelty has become so ingrained in a lot of people because we live in a society that is structured in a cruel way. To be quite honest you are obligated to consider the harm of your words and actions no matter your personal hardships.

I think this is basically incorrect; there’s a lot of anthropological testimony to really casual cruelty amongst immediate-return hunter-gatherers, whose social structures are substantially less cruel and insane than our own, with very little coercive authority or hierarchy, but with people still losing popularity contests and being roundly mocked and suffering for it. this isn’t to say that casual cruelty is the dominant mode amongst people who’ve achieved and maintained just a setup, you have the full range of feelings and attitudes, but i think it’s incorrect to expect that solving macroproblems automatically means solving microproblems.

turing-tested:

turing-tested:

turing-tested:

“Many species of polychaetes undergo epitoky whereby sexually immature worms transform into pelagic morphs capable of sexual reproduction. After fertilization, they release their gametes through rapid disintegration.”

worms are out here having insane sex we can’t even comprehend

“what do they mean by disintegrate?”
“oh yeah no he fucking disintegrated”

This is some Alexis Kennedy shit right here.

(via nextworldover)

argumate:

The Russian MoD has begun to remove commanders from some of the Russian military’s most combat effective units and formations and appears to be accelerating this effort.

The reported dismissal and arrest of commanders leading combat effective units and formations appears to be associated with cases of insubordination. Popov flagrantly attempted to bypass Russian Chief of the General Staff and overall theater commander Army General Valery Gerasimov and directly bring his complaints about the frontline in western Zaporizhia to Russian President Vladimir Putin. A prominent Kremlin-affiliated milblogger claimed that Seliverstov’s dismissal was a result of similar insubordination, and Russian sources claimed that Seliverstov had a reputation for speaking up on behalf of his soldiers. Kornev may have voiced criticism of a host of potential issues on behalf of the 7th VDV Division, including the likely failure to be notified beforehand about the Russian destruction of the Nova Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station (KHPP) on June 6, reported attritional fighting that failed to eliminate a Ukrainian presence near the Antonivsky Bridge, or conditions in western Zaporizhia Oblast similar to those that Popov complained about. Ibatullin’s arrest may be associated with the 90th Tank Division’s resumption of assaults in Luhansk Oblast, where it conducted widespread offensive operations that failed to achieve territorial gains during the Russian 2023 winter offensive campaign. It is unclear why Ibatullin would have been arrested, if, indeed, he was, when the other commanders were reportedly simply removed from their commands.

Insubordination among commanders appears to be spreading to some of their soldiers. Russian milbloggers shared an audio excerpt on July 16 in which the alleged elements of the 7th VDV Division threatened that they would withdraw from their positions in occupied Kherson Oblast if the Russian MoD arrests Teplinsky or threatens his life. The elements of the 7th VDV Division also claimed that they would defend Teplinsky against the Russian MoD and asserted that the high command is targeting Russia’s most combat effective commanders. This audio appeal, if legitimate, is a threat of mass desertion in the face of the enemy on behalf of Teplinsky. Desertion in the face of the enemy is a capital offense in many militaries. The VDV servicemen are blackmailing the Russian MoD to ensure that Teplinsky continues to command troops in Ukraine, despite Teplinsky’s previous affiliation with Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin who had led an armed rebellion on June 24 to overthrow Shoigu and Gerasimov.

The Kremlin’s chronic disregard for the Russian chain of command is likely hindering Shoigu and Gerasimov in their attempts to suppress insubordination and establish full control over the Russian military in Ukraine. Putin consistently bypassed or ignored the established chain of command in hopes of securing rapid successes on the battlefield throughout the war, degrading Shoigu’s and Gerasimov’s authority – especially when military failures on the frontlines also eroded their reputations. Putin had cultivated an environment in which military personnel, officials, and even Russian war correspondents bypassed Shoigu and Gerasimov to present Putin their understandings of the current state of the war and recommendations for what to do. It is unusual but not unique for a commander in chief to solicit views on the war from outside experts. It is more problematic, although still not unique, for a commander in chief to solicit the views of subordinates opposed to senior leadership directly. But allowing a quasi-military commander such as Prigozhin to conduct his own campaign parallel but not subordinate to the one being executed by the formal chain of command is extraordinarily unusual and badly corrosive of the authority of the formal military leadership.

Putin also established the Russian MoD as the scapegoat for all Russian military failures, which saddled Shoigu and Gerasimov with a reputation for incompetence and failure that they are unlikely to repair. ISW previously assessed that Putin regularly grants and withdraws his support for different commanders in hopes generating rapid improvements in Russia’s military fortunes but without always doing so formally. Shoigu and Gerasimov likely expected that Putin would restore their full authority over the Russian military’s decision-making processes given their loyalty to him after Wagner’s armed rebellion on June 24. Putin, however, has clearly not done so.  He has instead followed his normal pattern of seeking to divert backlash away from himself and rotating commanders instead of outright dismissing them. Intensifying insubordination and widespread outrage in response to the ongoing officer purge may force the Kremlin to reconsider its partial backing for Shoigu and Gerasimov in the wake of Wagner’s rebellion.

Russian commanders are likely setting information conditions to prevent the Russian MoD from punishing them for their insubordination by promoting narratives among Russian servicemembers along the front and thereby risking widespread demoralization.

The apparent crisis in the Russian chain of command and the corresponding morale effects it may produce will likely degrade Russian capabilities to conduct tactical offensive operations that are critical to the Russian elastic defense in southern Ukraine.

snippets from recent ISW updates, this isn’t even relating to the Ukrainian offensive, it’s all Russian-on-Russian violence

stil-lindigo:

Keep reading

(via bookwyrmbran)

multiheaded1793:

The most advanced parts of China always make me think of that Godard movie, Alphaville. Not through how it’s really alike but through how it feels like the Alpha Timeline, with the kind of development you’d see New Wave sci-fi predict. People expected US and USSR to converge, but China ended up with major elements of both by the 2020s, that’s something that would fit right in as backdrop to a Philip K. Dick plot.

GRASP THE DIRECTION OF THREE DEVELOPMENTS
TAKE THE LEAD IN TWO AREAS

The most advanced parts of China always make me think of that Godard movie, Alphaville. Not through how it’s really alike but through how it feels like the Alpha Timeline, with the kind of development you’d see New Wave sci-fi predict. People expected US and USSR to converge, but China ended up with major elements of both by the 2020s, that’s something that would fit right in as backdrop to a Philip K. Dick plot.

play-now-my-lord:

7-11 CLERK: lovely day outside, isn’t it
ME: uhhh
ME INTERNALLY: shit. I didn’t notice. How do I continue this conversation
MY INNER MONOLOGUE: Service workers love it when you tell them the things mortal men were not meant to know, when you speak to them of principalities and powers upon the earth
ME: In the sun a wheel, in the wheel another wheel. Do you see?
7-11 CLERK: Yes, I see!
ME: For each turn of the outer wheel, one thousandth a turn of the inner wheel. And within the inner wheel a point of perfect darkness
7-11 CLERK: Right, growing, devouring. The death of all light
ME: Wanes the light - right - wanes the light and waxes the solar eye. Wanes the day of flesh and blood and waxes the night of crawling beasts. Chewing and swallowing. The name of the night to come is khoshek ha-gibbor
7-11 CLERK: Is that hot dog a quarter pound big bite or a spicy bite. They’re priced different
ME: Which one is cheaper

(via saint-damhnait)