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savage-kult-of-gorthaur · 29 days

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"SUCKING DEMOCRACY DRY" -- ONE OF THE GREAT POLEMIC PAINTINGS OF OUR TIME.

PIC(S) INFO: Part 2 of 2 -- Spotlight on what began as a convention exclusive, AlexRossArt.com and Mercury Comics present Alex Ross' Bush "Sucking Democracy Dry," originally used by "The Village Voice" in the fall of 2004. Artwork by the maestro, Alex Ross.

""So, what was the least subtle cover you ever did ?" Glad you asked! It's one that might also be the most subtle in an odd way.

Ah, Bush fatigue. Seems almost charming now. We'd been banging the drum on this endless beat of how much W sucked for what seemed like eternity, and the bludgeoning impact of weekly tabloid repetition was taking its toll on me, much less the overall readership. When there was a plan for yet another Bush-centric cover, I was actually at a loss. Particularly because this time around there wasn’t as solid of a story angle as we usually had, so it seemed more about feeding red meat to a base that was... probably doing okay in the protein department at that point.

So I decided to try something so ridiculously blunt and over-the-top it would cast a shadow over any similar tries for quite a while. It was the issue before Halloween. A plan came together. But in order for it really stick and not be shrugged off as just another political-cartoon grotesquerie it had to be rendered as beautifully as possible.

We had done one project before with Alex Ross, but this had a whole other layer of difficulty, since so many elements had to come together precisely. He delivered: The “hot” overhead lighting, the Bela-Lugosi-hand reference, the arc of Liberty's punctured neck, the fact that there are actually no visible fangs.

Subtle!"

-- TED KELLER for Ted Keller Design

Sources: www.tedkellerdesign.com/village-voice & Previews World.

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thegayhimbo · 3 days

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#israel #palestine #gaza #sde teiman #IDF #whistleblowers #israeli whistleblowers #human rights abuses #human right violations #tw torture #this whole article reminds me of what happened at abu ghraib prison during the iraq war in 2004 #this is vile #israel hamas war #israel palestine conflict #fuck benjamin netanyahu #and fuck netanyahu's extremist government #social issues #cnn #news

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fallahifag · 3 months

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Repost of Instagram post by alessandra_sanguinetti:

“In 2004 I worked as an intern in Newsweek and had to go through the wires coming in from the Middle East.

The Iraq war was raging. Israel was committing its routine violations and killings.

The images were devastating and unequivocally condemning of both the USA and Israel, but I remember the editors would reject all my picks and demand images of burnt cars or vague images of destruction.

So I brought a hard drive and collected everything they didn't publish.

It was my first live glimpse of the lack of ethics or integrity in most US media.

Not the journalists on the ground, but of the senior editors making the calls - in their self important glass cubicles.

And no, to the cynics out there..it's not all too complicated to discuss on social media.

Social media is the only reason we know what's happening in Palestine.

And the only reason mainstream news has to keep up and sprinkle some actual news now and then.

Meanwhile we are seeing much less footage coming out of Gaza - Israel has been killing off all the journalists.

This is terrifying.”

Photo credits: Nasser Ishtayeh, Yossi Alon, Saif Dahlah, Jaafar Ashtiyeh, Musa Al-Shaer, Abed Onar Qusini

#palestine

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sgtgrunt0331-3 · 6 months

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In one of the most famous photographs from the war in Iraq and still gripping his 9mm Beretta, a seriously injured 1st Sgt. Brad Kasal is carried from the “Hell House” by Lcpl Chris Marquez and Lcpl Dane Shaffer on November 13, 2004.

1st Sgt. Kasal lost much of his blood and nearly lost his right leg after being shot seven times by insurgents. His body was peppered with shrapnel as he used his body to shield an injured younger Marine, PFC Alex Nicoll, from a grenade blast.

For his heroic actions that day while serving as first sergeant of Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, Brad Kasal received the Navy Cross.

(Photo by: Lucian Read)

#usmc #us marines #fallujah #operation phantom fury #infantry #grunts #military #urban combat #warrior wednesday

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probablyasocialecologist · 6 months

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In the actual world outside of high-level American political rhetoric, Israel could have had peace at many times in the past 75 years. However, such a peace would have required Israel giving up most of the Palestinian land — specifically, Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem — it conquered in the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel has always preferred conflict with stateless Palestinians to that. Amos Malka, one-time head of Israeli military intelligence, explained it straightforwardly in 2004. “It is possible to reach an agreement,” he said, “under the following conditions: a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and sovereignty on the Temple Mount; 97 percent of the West Bank plus exchanges of territory in the ratio of 1:1 with respect to the remaining territory; some kind of formula that includes the acknowledgement of Israel’s responsibility for the refugee problem and a willingness to accept 20,000-30,000 refugees.” In polite circles of U.S. power, these facts are considered preposterous. Anyone describing them exiles themselves from serious discussion of the issue. It’s similar to the situation before the invasion of Iraq, when there was uniform agreement across the political spectrum that Iraq possessed so-called weapons of mass destruction. Any claims to the contrary were seen as self-evidently ludicrous, as ludicrous as now saying that Israel is a huge obstacle to peace.

All the Times Israel Has Rejected Peace With Palestinians

#israel #palestine #gaza #zionism #west bank

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leandra-winchester · 21 days

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The Tommy timeline is making me insane

We know the 911 writers are REALLY crap about timelines. I mean, just within the Eddie Begins episode there are several dates that just don't add up. I love those writers, but they can't even count to 10, lol.

Tommy was never supposed to come back, so him being in his late 20s-ish in 2005 when Chim joins the 118 was of no consequence, but now that Tommy is back, that makes it really difficult to say how old he really is.

Some people have speculated that he's 45, but I find that too old. Lou was born in Nov 1984, which makes him 39 currently. I could see Tommy being 1-2 years older than that AT MOST.

So let's say Tommy was born in early 1983 and go from there.

He would have started school at 6.5 and finished HS at 18 years old in 2001. Which means he could have joined the army that year and started training to be a helicopter pilot.

There's a program called "From Street to Seat", also sometimes called "High school to Flight School", so that is a possibility. Training would have been around 2 - 2.5 years until he'd achieved the rank of Warranty Officer and be a fully trained helicopter pilot in late 2003. After that, you have to enlist for TEN years at minimum to repay them getting you through flight school.

At that point, the US had entered the war in Afghanistan and just started the one in Iraq.

Tommy could have been stationed anywhere in the US, or been deployed to one of those countries, or at first, as a still very young officer, been deployed to an allied country like Germany. In the early 2000s, there were many bases in Germany where US soldiers were stationed, only serving short missions in Afghanistan or Iraq. So that's an option if we don't want him to be permanently stationed inside a war zone.

Now, how did young Tommy leave the army early so he ended up being a firefighter just two years later?

Well, there's always medical discharge, but if it was for any injury, him already being a member of the team (and by the looks of it no longer a probie) in 2005 is a bit tight. He'd have to recover from his injury, then apply, then be accepted, do the basic training at the academy (18 weeks) and his probie year... so yeah, that's really a very tight timeline.

Another option would have been Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Back then, army members could not be actively asked if they're gay and therefore fired for it, but if they voluntarily disclosed/confirmed it, they would be kicked out.

If he was lucky (and probably the version I'm going for in my fic), and had a very lenient superior officer, he might be offered medical discharge for depression. Usually, that can get you out of the army pretty quickly.

So, to recap:

Born between Jan/June 1983

Finished high school summer 2001, joined the army

Finished flight school in fall 2003, was deployed somewhere or in service in the US

Found out/discharged in early 2004

Started LAFD academy in summer/fall 2004

Started his probie year end of 2004

Just finished it when Chimney joined in (should be late) 2005, at now 22 years old.

Still an incredibly tight timeline, and I wish Chim joining had been more like 2007 or so, but alas. It works.

You are welcome.

And I need to lie down. God I hate inconsistent timelines, lol.

Oh and I just looked it up, and apparently you're only a probie for 6 months at the LAFD, so I guess that makes it a little easier.

I mean, if you shift things around a little, you could even make him only 40 now, born in summer 1983 instead of early. Maybe he was initially gifted and able to enroll in school at just barely 6 years old.

#Tommy Kinard #911

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onenicebugperday · 1 year

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The "aggressive spider" post made me think of my favorite, most specialist, sweetest little bugs of all time, Sunspiders. (Who are not even spiders)

They are very much attracted to shade since they like to borrow under, like plants and stuff, but as a result, are often seen chasing people through the desert, which sounds goofy but ppl really hate it for them.

Ive noticed that solifugae in general are for some reason, incredibly vilified? (There are actually people who believe they kill and eat camels,,, how?) There are like countless misconceptions about these little guys :( but i love them forever and am kissing them in my heart

I deeply love solifuges! Unfortunately my first introduction to them was a chain email when I was in high school circa the early 2000s, maybe 2004 or so, that was some sort of weird pro-war-in-Iraq propaganda about "what our troops are dealing with over there." It included the below photo and a whole bunch of made up "facts" about camel spiders that made them sound absolutely terrifying.

For those who are unfamiliar, this photo uses false perspective and these two lil babes are each only about two inches long. Claims that they're venomous and somehow kill camels or chew their stomachs out are obviously not even close to reality. In fact, solifuges don't have venom at all. They look a little scary and alien if you're unfamiliar with them but they're fairly harmless!

Also they have adorable little faces...

An angel :') Photo by laurenzarate

#bugs #arachnids #solifuge #camel spider #windscorpion #sun spider #legal-bastard #the more you know

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olekciy · 1 year

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A short reminder that Russia is imperialist, has been imperialist for a long time, and there's no way around that fact.

Sections of the Western left have developed a narrative according to which Russia has been gradually surrounded by NATO and that supposedly "provoked" Putin. It's increasingly difficult to sustain the notion that Russia is simply "defending itself" after 24 February 2022, but the thing is - the invasion did not come out of the blue. One needs a different narrative to understand what Russia actually is: an aggressive imperialist power alongside other imperialisms.

So, a different narrative:

- 1994: Russia, with US support, acquires Ukrainian nuclear arsenal in exchange for the assurances to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity

- 1997: Russia acquires the Sevastopol naval base and almost all of the ships (82%, to be exact)... in exchange for the assurances to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity!

- 2004: Russia meddles in Ukrainian presidential elections, fighting hard to force an undemocratic fraudulent outcome, but fails

- Mid-to-late 2000s: As punishment for Ukraine electing Yushchenko, Russia uses energy blackmail, a form of economic coercion not very different from the IMF and World Bank lending and conditionality

- 2008: NATO refuses to adopt a roadmap towards Ukraine's membership and in effect postpones the decision indefinitely. Ukraine's security is in no way guaranteed, while Russia has already demonstrated the propensity to use coercion to force Ukraine to do its bidding

- 2009: Dmitry Medvedev, then president, writes to Yushchenko that "Russia does not pose and cannot pose any kind of threat to Ukraine", so seeking NATO membership is stupid. Yea, sure

- 2014: Russia, which "does not pose and cannot pose a threat to Ukraine"... annexes Crimea. Really, Dima?? I thought you were for real??

Of course, by annexing Crimea Russia not only makes all the previous statements that it "can never pose a threat to Ukraine" a ridiculous lie, but also breaks the 1994 memorandum and 1997 treaty. "We are the Kremlin. Our word is worth nothing"

- Crimea's annexation provokes armed separatism in Donbas that Russia supports and coordinates, including direct military command and control, and then completely subordinates Donbas "authorities", in effect occupying the region

- Ukraine's still not in NATO, its security is still in no way guaranteed, and the supplies of US weapons only begin in 2018. They are kept to a minimum... out of fear of provoking Russia!

- Nevertheless, on 24 February 2022 Russia launches a full-scale invasion to establish 100% control over all of Ukraine in one way or another. There is literally no military development on the ground that could have provoked the invasion. On Russia's part, it's a war of choice in exactly the same way the invasion of Iraq was a war of choice for the US in 2003.

Now, this is only the general outline. One should add Russia's drowning of Ukraine with spies and agents of influence, money to corrupt Ukrainian politicians and massive acquisition of Ukrainian assets to impose economic and political dependency.

These are well-known facts, but so many on the left refuse to see the story behind them. It's a story of decades of imperialist aggression, culminating in a war that cost 150,000 lives in 2022 alone. Any discussion of left-wing internationalism should begin with recognizing the reality of what Russia is and what it did.

#ukraine war #ukraine #imperialism #left #russian imperialism #russian ukrainian war #russia #policy #war #nato #russian chauvinism #anti-imperialism #history

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dev-solovey · 7 months

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Reading up on the history of American Idiot (album) and realizing exactly how revolutionary it was and I just have to yell about it for a hot second

So, before they started working on American Idiot, the band was having problems and they were thinking they were going to break up. But for a couple of reasons, they switched directions, most notably because they all felt strongly about the Iraq War and how it was manufactured by greed and warmongering from the Bush administration, which was amplified by the news media. I read a quote from Billie Joe Armstrong where he talked about how the news media was becoming "more of a reality show" than it was news, and he couldn't have been more right. In fact, that problem got worse, and now we're living in an era of rampant misinformation where everything is politicized to a point where just supporting human rights for marginalized people is considered controversial. The song American Idiot came out in 2004, and when Donald Trump first visited the UK at the beginning of his presidency, it was the top played song on every UK radio station, 12 years after it was released. Most things would be culturally irrelevant at that point.

When creating the album American Idiot, a lot of thought went into it - they had a very specific message in mind, and their goal was to send that message to youth. This is because they realized at some point that their fanbase was a bunch of teenagers, and even though they hadn't necessarily intended it that way, they suddenly had a platform with the youth of America and they decided they ought to do something good with it. The drummer, Tré Cool, said something along the lines of "I've never really liked the idea of preaching to kids, but I realized we don't really have a choice at this point." And I love that so much because like, so many people who get rich and famous just become completely out of touch, and when they get a platform, it's very easy to exploit that platform, influence them with terrible ideas, or encourage them to act in terrible ways for self-serving reasons (ex: JK Rowling, Andrew Tate, Dream, Logan Paul, Onision, etc etc). Green Day refused to allow themselves to get to that point. They know the platform they had gave them power and they made an active choice early on to be responsible with it. And a lot of that moral code comes from the fact that they came up in the DIY punk scene in Oakland, which held its members to a very high standard of ethics, a code that they still follow even after they were disowned by that scene when they signed on with a major record label in 1994.

The song American Idiot has a message of "this mass media hysteria is manufactured bullshit, don't fall for it," and it is not subtle about that message. It punches you right in the face. I remember being 12 years old and listening to it and thinking, "yeah, I don't want to be an American idiot." And now, at the age of 28, I am a staunch leftist who is firmly against the atrocities the US government commits, and I feel strongly about stopping misinformation. So I can say with absolute certainty that they succeeded.

I also get like, really upset when people say that American Idiot is the album where they sold out, because that's objectively not true, both for the reasons I've provided above, and also because of the song Wake Me Up When September Ends. Not a lot of people know the story behind this song, but it's actually a song that Billie Joe wrote about the experience of his dad dying of cancer when he was 10 years old. The story, as he tells it, is that when he came home from school, his mom gave him the news, and being (understandably!) upset, started crying, ran to his room and slammed the door. When she knocked on the door to try and talk to him, he shouted "wake me up when September ends!!" in response. It took him decades to be able to write this song, and it shows because it's the perfect grief song, having been played at benefits for 9/11, hurricane Katrina, and so on. The first time I heard that song it reduced me to tears, because you can hear the intense sadness in it. A "sellout" would never write a song like that!! (Side note: maybe stop tweeting at Green Day to wake up every October 1st, it's super tone deaf given the subject matter,,,)

Anyway, I think I'm done being autistic about Green Day (that's a lie, they'll forever be my special interest), so TL;DR:

Thank you, Green Day, for creating a generation of leftists who aren't about the bullshit

#green day #American idiot #wake me up when september ends #billy joe armstrong #tre cool #mike dirnt #iraq war #bush administration #misinformation #i will die on this fucking hill

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vivmaek · 1 year

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THE PLUTO IN SAGITTARIUS GENERATION Born at the start of Globalization, November 10, 1995 - January 25, 2008

I’ve been talking a lot of shit on here about the Pluto in Sagittarius generation. And while I still think my irritations are justified (lol,) I gotta make it up by doing a complete breakdown. Afterall, this is the generation I belong to.

1995: NASA's Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter

With Pluto in Sagittarius, this is a generation full of creatives, visionaries, academics, philosophers and rebels. We’re all about big ideas and moral philosophy. We’ve had the internet within our fingertips our entire lives, an unlimited database of knowledge and social interconnectivity. I remember a teacher once told me that we were the most educated group of humans humanity has ever seen. And this is true, by middle school many of us were walking around with cellphones in our pockets more powerful than computers built in the 80’s. Through technology, we were able to discover the world at an incredibly young age.

We have a lot in common with the Pluto in Leo generation (Baby Boomers,) being that both generations are ruled by fire signs. However what differentiates us is that the Pluto in Leo generation is focused on the self (Sun,) and the Pluto in Sagittarius generation is focused on the collective (Jupiter.) We project a sense of optimism despite having such large ambitions. This will serve as an inspiration for future generations.

Most of us have parents belonging to the Pluto in the Libra Generation. They raised us with values centered on equality and justice.

We grew up amongst explosive world events: First Internet Meme (1996), Google (1998), Columbine (1998), The Second Congo War (1998), Kosovo Genocide (1999), Launch of International Space Station (2000), 9/11 (2001), Invasion of Iraq (2003), Darfur (2003), Boxing Day Tsunami (2004), Facebook (2004), London Bombings (2005), iPhone (2007), America's first black President (2008), Global Economic Downturn (2008).

Pluto in Capricorn frames our coming of age story. Our teenage years were harsh and depressing. It was an isolating experience that did not involve much fun. For many people born with a Sagittarius Pluto, their adolescence is defined by a Global Pandemic in which all movement was restricted. These years also put into focus old frameworks that must be destroyed and cast aside. We feel punished, and now we are angry.

The Pluto In Scorpio Generation is coming through and uprooting all these frameworks before passing the torch onto us. We will be the ones to come up with blueprints for new ideologies and ways of thinking. We’re aiming forward and casting an arrow for future generations to follow.

Past events that occurred while Pluto was in Sagittarius: The Burning of the Library of Alexandria (272), first novel published in Japan (1010), Sorbonne founded (1257), first use of eyeglasses (1268), Columbus sets sail (1502), the birth of Nostradamus (1503), invention of sign language (1749), the first encyclopedia (1751).

Past figures born while Pluto was in Sagittarius: Constantine I (272), Dante Aligheri (1265), Goethe (1749), James Madison (1751), Alexander Hamilton (1755), Marie Antoinette (1755), Mozart (1756,) William Blake (1757), Robespierre (1758).

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workingclasshistory · 10 months

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On this day, 22 July 1946, actor and activist Danny Glover was born. The son of two postal workers who were also activists in the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, Glover took part in the longest student strike in US history in 1968. As a student at San Francisco State University, Glover took part in the successful strike of the Black Students Union and Third World Liberation Front demanding the creation of a School of Ethnic Studies. He worked in the Black Panthers free breakfast for children programme and helped them organise their newspaper. He later lived in a commune for a year, fought against the Vietnam war and colonialism in Africa and more recently has supported migrant workers, the occupy movement and Black Lives Matter. In 2004, in an interview with AARP magazine, he explained how he remains optimistic: 'I try to find hope in struggle and resistance in small places as much as I can. The progressive movement against the war of occupation in Iraq is a reason for hope, as is resistance to free trade agreements in Latin America. Those are moments that we have to celebrate: that people still find the resolve and energy to resist.' You can learn more about the Black Panthers in these books by former members: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/black-panthers Pictured: Glover supporting Nissan workers' organising in Mississippi https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=666208148885737&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

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savage-kult-of-gorthaur · 1 month

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"SUCKING DEMOCRACY DRY" -- ONE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTY AT A TIME.

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on the politcally-charged/anti-Bush regime piece titled "Sucking Democracy Dry," cover page to "The Village Voice," a.k.a., "America's Largest Weekly Newspaper," October 20-26, 2004. Artwork by Alex Ross.

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER: "You once did a "Village Voice" cover depicting George W. Bush as a vampire sucking the blood out of Lady Liberty, and another of Bush and Dick Cheney in an open-mouth kiss. Those identified you as a lefty. Can we can expect more political images from you?"

ALEX ROSS: "When there is something that has galvanized my interest and my feelings, I will be happy to put it out there. There have been ways I wanted to use characters to say something culturally that might be potentially controversial, just like they did with Superman renouncing his citizenship. That, to me, seems spot-on. That's a perfectly fine idea, not necessarily conveyed in the best way it could have been done, but there is a boldness that can be applied to these characters because in their very inception [in the World War II era] they were responses to a world that was out of control for the normal man. So here were these larger-than-life characters that could affect real, immediate change by their simple physical actions."

Sources: www.pghcitypaper.com/arts-entertainment/a-conversation-with-superhero-comics-artist-alex-ross-1457737, Ted Keller Design, & Pinterest.

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the-garbanzo-annex-jr · 1 month

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by Brendan O’Neill

And yet there is something off, even something nauseating, in all the Western finger-wagging. It isn’t only Cameron. US president Joe Biden has also weighed in, saying he is ‘outraged’ by the killing of the aid workers. You can’t help but wonder whether he directed similar outrage at his own nation’s military when 37 Afghanis at a wedding party, mostly women and children, were killed by mistake in a US airstrike.

‘Stop killing Afghan civilians’, the then president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, said to the newly elected US president, Barack Obama. And who was Obama’s vice-president? Biden, of course. You would think a man whose own military has killed huge numbers of people in error would understand that these things happen, even if every decent person would rather they didn’t.

Vast numbers of civilians have been killed by accident by the US in recent years. At another wedding party in 2004, this time in Iraq, 11 women and 14 children were killed by American fire. Was there a ‘full, transparent explanation’ for that calamity?

Terrible accidents happen in war. That’s because war is hell. If you hate the war in Gaza, as you should, then you should aim your ire at Hamas, the virulently anti-Semitic terror group that started this war with its pogrom against the people of southern Israel on 7 October. The seven decent souls of World Central Kitchen would be alive today had Hamas not taken the decision to visit its racist barbarism on the Jewish State.

For once war starts, error becomes unavoidable. There are few wars in history – none, perhaps – in which innocents have not perished in the violent maelstrom. What is striking about Israel’s mistake is that it is not being treated as ‘friendly fire’ at all. Instead it is held up as proof of Israel’s evil, evidence of its malevolence.

#israel #hamas #gaza #friendly fire #war #double standards #hypocrisy #david cameron

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dougielombax · 3 months

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So.

Today marks 36 years since the beginning of the Anfal Genocide in Iraq where Saddam Hussein’s regime slaughtered hundreds and thousands of Kurds, Yazidis, Assyrians, Mandaeans and Shabaks.

Around 100,000 people at the least would be killed.

It would last from February to September of 1988. During the late stages of the Iran-Iraq war.

Largely consisting of mass killings, chemical attacks and forced displacement.

Many in Iraq sadly continue to deny it to this day. Predictably. As do Saddam Hussein’s many idiot apologists on the internet.

I’ll leave some sources from this year and the last few years here for additional information.

Some sources also focus on the Assyrian victims too.

Above: A monument dedicated to the memory of the Assyrian victims of the Anfal genocide in the village of Gonda Kosa.

Just to remind any idiots who think Saddam and his cronies were kind to the Assyrians. They were certainly not!

Feel free to reblog.

Reblog the shit out of this!

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eretzyisrael · 5 months

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by Ben Cohen

The French Catholic priest who developed an international reputation for his pioneering research into the Nazi “Holocaust by bullets” in Ukraine has spoken out forcefully against the antisemitic attitudes coloring criticism of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

“I always say: if there were no Jews in Israel, few people would look out for the Palestinians,” Father Patrick Desbois told the French language service of Israeli broadcaster i24 on Tuesday.

Desbois has dedicated his life to researching the Holocaust, fighting antisemitism, and furthering relations between Catholics and Jews. In 2004 he helped found Yahad-In Unum, a project whose mission is to investigate the mass executions of Jews and Roma in Ukraine and Belarus between 1941 and 1944. In the process, Desbois and his team located the graves of more than 1 million Jews throughout Eastern Europe and interviewed scores of witnesses.

Desbois was particularly irked by repeated claims on social media over the Christmas holiday that Jesus himself would be persecuted by Israel were he still alive.

“If he had lived in 1942, Jesus would have been deported to Auschwitz, and if he had been born today, he would be the target of missiles or be a hostage in Gaza,” Desbois remarked, referring to the seizure of more than 200 people during the Oct. 7 pogrom carried out by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel.

Desbois insisted that the motive behind such messages was political, not religious.

“What we see in Bethlehem today, this need to affirm that Jesus was not Jewish, is political,” he argued. “Hamas has always officially supported Christians, but not in Gaza.”

He added that the “Islamists are always with us, except when we are at home; at home, we try to survive.”

Desbois also voiced concern about the alleged participation of Hamas terrorists in the oppression of Iraq’s Yazidi minority in 2014 at the hands of ISIS.

“I do not forget, either, and we never talk about it, that the Palestinians in Gaza, who were not locked in cages as we believe, were circulating a lot, and a number participated in the genocide of the Yazidi minority in Iraq in 2014 alongside the jihadists,” said Desbois, whose efforts have encompassed advocacy on their behalf. “Others also participated in the Yazidi slave trade.”

In an extensive interview with The Algemeiner in 2018, Desbois articulated his view that the fundamental goal of antisemitism has not changed since the Nazi era.

“The Nazis wanted to eliminate every last Jew, even the babies and the old people,” he said. Now, he continued, “they say to the Jews, ‘get out of France,’ ‘get out of Germany,’ ‘get out of Britain,’ ‘get out of Palestine.’ And at the end, who will stay?”

#father patrick desbois #jesus #bethlehem #hamas

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boltvolta · 5 months

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A (non)comprehensive evolution of the US Army field jacket, from 1945-2007. These are all original specimens, with or without optional items, and thus is incomplete before 1945, because using reproductions is never 1:1 and is cheating. (Unless its SMWholesale.)

1943-1953: M1943 Field Jacket, Civil Defense.

Pictured here is a Civil Defense variant, which outlived its military counterpart in service life. (This one is here because I haven't gotten around to focusing my autism on collecting them yet.)

1950-1953: M1950 Field Jacket.

An update to the M1943 with interior buttons for liners, a swing-out arm gusset and other improvements, mostly for making it more presentable for dress uniform. The M1950 makes its debut in Korea, is found wanting for actual combat, and within a year is superseded.

1951-1970s: Early M1951 Field Jacket.

A more field use oriented jacket, the M1951 introduces a zipper and snaps to the field jacket, while still retaining button in liners. The M51 survives Korea and enters Vietnam. Later production M51s can be discerned by white labels and green buttons, whereas early M51s have an ink stamp and brown, WW2 production buttons.

1965-1990's Early/Vietnam Era and Post-War OD M1965 Field Jackets.

The M65 iterates further on the field jacket, while adding additional features and simplifying manufacturing. most notably a stowable built-in wind hood and velcro wrist cuffs with stowed flaps to extend over gloves. The early Vietnam era M65s are distinguished by having 2 white cotton inkstamped labels, one on the neck, and one behind the right lower pocket, alongside aluminium zippers like the M51. Post-1973 M65s have brass zippers and either still retain the 2 labels, or have a single, larger label at the neck. (The Vietnam Era one here was acquired in Vietnam and was used in the war, and was repaired numerous times by many people until it found its way to me.)

1981-2008: Early and Late Woodland pattern M1965 Field Jackets.

The only significant difference on the early woodland M65 from its predecessors is its change to camouflage, entering service with the BDU in 1981, but served alongside the OD M65 all throughout the 80s and 90's, never fully replacing it. Early and Late Woodland M65s can be differentiated by a change from brass Talon zippers to green coated YKK zippers, and from white letterpressed or inkstamped labels to green letterpresses labels. (There is also the change of using woodland fabric to OD fabric in the hip pockets but that varies by manufacturer.)

1989-2008: 3 Color Desert M1965 Field Jacket.

A contract of 3CD M65s were made in 1989 for potential actions in desert areas around the globe, made to the same cut as the Late Woodland M65s with tan coated YKK zippers. Few made it in time to be issued in Desert Storm, among with the DCU, but saw more extensive issue in the rest of the 90s, and in Desert Shield, Iraq and Afghanistan. Another batch was made in Contract Year 2003, and changed the cut to the final iteration of the M65, without shoulder or nametape velcro. (I am too lazy to photograph this one right now.)

2004-2008: Universal Camouflage Pattern M65.

The last breath of the M65 in service to the US. By the time it was issued it was no longer competitive with other cold weather clothing systems, and many commands did not authorize them for dress uniform. Other parts of the M65 system were made in UCP, but befell the same fate. Velcro for shoulder patches and nametapes were added, and liners in the same color were even made for them. Only a single contact year was ever ordered, and by 2008 the M65 was phased out of service. Maybe, someone high up might get nostalgic, and order new ones to be made in the current camouflage for dress uniform, but if ever that happens, the story ends here.

#military uniforms #milsurp #uniform #united states #ww2 #korean war #vietnam war #history #nazrin

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