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shihalyfie · 4 years

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Ichijouji Ken, his future, and Kizuna

Having talked about Kizuna’s extremely deep relationship to 02 as a series, it’s only natural that I should probably spend some extra focus on its main central character, Ichijouji Ken. It’s no secret that, although Daisuke was the protagonist of 02, Ken was the central figure to the series itself (after all, the series was founded on the concept of deconstructing the supposed “genius kid”), and so Kizuna having such a deep relationship with 02 means that it does, inevitably, have a deep relationship with Ken in particular.

The last twenty years have been full of a plethora of meta analysis on Ichijouji Ken as a character within 02 to the point I feel anything I could possibly come up with would probably be redundant, so today I’d like to place extra focus on his development after 02 (in terms of both canonical materials and general analysis), and how it leads up to his portrayal in the recently released Kizuna. (Naturally, spoilers for the movie will be below.)

We’ll start this analysis by looking at where Ken left off during the final episode of 02.

Thanks to his interactions with the rest of the 02 crew (especially Daisuke), Ken was slowly putting his life back together, but he still had a long way to go. As late as episode 49, we learned he still had suicidal ideation tendencies in regards to his deeds as the Kaiser, and although the rest of the team did get through to him in the end, it was clear that there was still a huge path ahead of him as far as coming to terms with himself and bonding with the rest of the team went. This was especially because he ended the series with the Dark Seed still in the back of his neck -- supernatural forces may have assisted his initial downfall, but it was going to be entirely on him to make sure that he never went back there again for the rest of his life.

One thing that’s really important to put in perspective is the actual chronology this ordeal took place in. Although the Kaiser saga spanned a little under half of the yearlong series that 02 was, Christmas skewed the schedule a little bit, so a good chunk of the second half of the series actually took place in much more condensed time than the first. Taking into account the official statement that everything before Christmas roughly aligns with the time of the year the relevant episode aired, and given the exact dates in December that we know episodes 38-50 take place in, within the course of 02, Ken’s reformation from being the Kaiser and bonding with the group spanned around only four months. That is not a lot of time, especially compared to the roughly two-year period Ken went through the trauma of his brother’s loss and his transformation into the Kaiser, so in actuality, Ken made a huge amount of progress considering how little time he had to do so.

Before we continue, I should make clear that I generally count pretty much everything in the Toei-esque fashion of “everything is canon, don’t think about contradictions too hard” (which is generally their modus operandi with pretty much any franchise), so pretty much everything here is fair game. That said, obviously, contradictions and other outliers do exist, so occasionally I am going to have to omit stuff that really, really doesn’t track...so for the sake of this analysis, I’m skipping Armor Evolution to the Unknown for two reasons: one, because it takes massive liberties with characterization for the sake of crack (it’s pretty hard to believe Ken would be this degree of flippant about the Kaiser persona in a more serious situation), and two, because it was written before 02 finished airing (it was released between episodes 43 and 44) and doesn’t reflect a lot of series and characterization development that happened later in the series. (Armor Evolution to the Unknown was released during a time period when the drama CDs were really, really big on the crack -- the three Adventure mini dramas are the same -- and it wasn’t until later that actual “serious” ones would start coming out.)

Given that, our next canonical point we can work with is Diablomon Strikes Back, which takes place in March 2003.

At this point Ken’s recovery is at a little around six months, and he’s making massive progress -- even if you’re not sure about counting the actual events of this movie as canon, it’s an excellent character study in terms of watching Ken’s emotional recovery at this point in time and his relationship with Daisuke, now that he’s not directly dealing with issues pertaining to his own past trauma.

It’s already a very different Ken from the one we’ve seen in the original series, where in episode 38 the idea of him laughing was such a huge shock, but here we already see a much wider emotional range from Ken -- light cheerfulness, playfulness, and at times even a bit of petulance. His actions and dialogue still have Ken’s trademark “softness” -- being kind and gentle has always been said to be his core inner trait, after all -- but, nevertheless, he’s a lot more willing to show “superficial” emotions, especially compared to how closed up, shy, and sometimes standoffish he would be within 02 proper.

Even Ken’s own body language indicates a lot -- he’s much more relaxed and natural. Observe how he slouches here.

In fact, if you listen to Park Romi’s delivery of his lines throughout this movie, she voices him with a significantly higher-pitched and “lighter”, soft tone through all of it, which really gives off the impression that he’s much less emotionally uptight.

We get a glimpse of Daisuke and Ken’s future dynamic and how they’ll continue to be such tight friends in the future -- Ken is someone who can keep the infamously chaotic Daisuke in check (especially since prior to Ken coming into his life, Daisuke’s closest friend was probably Miyako, and while the two certainly got along very well with each other, they had a tendency to enable each other’s chaos a bit too much at times).

But despite Ken obviously trying to be more sensible than Daisuke here, it still manifests as a much greater show of emotion than the kind you’d be used to within 02 proper. He’s much more assertive with putting his foot down in keeping Daisuke under control, which indicates not only a more comfortable relationship with Daisuke in particular, but also a general increase in his ability to be assertive.

In one of his most famous scenes in this movie, he actually outright taunts Daisuke in order to spur him on. He’s doing it totally affectionately (it’s specifically to give Daisuke more motivation to keep running), but nevertheless, he’s taunting Daisuke -- not really something you'd expect from Ken in 02 proper. The original line in Japanese even has him use the very super-casual and aggressive end particle ~ze.

He even snarks about Daisuke’s convenient bouts of luck in ways that aren’t exactly complimentary (the literal phrasing of this line has “baka mitai ni” in it, in this context "some kind of ridiculous incredible power”).

And, near the end of the movie, when he starts to lose hope, it only takes a single line from Daisuke to get himself back together -- this kind of thing would have probably taken a whole speech in 02, even from Daisuke himself, but by this point Ken’s got a much better emotional grasp on himself.

And in the end, the movie ends on both Daisuke and Ken laughing together -- very lightly.

It’s easy to pass off Ken’s characterization in DSB as an incidental thing simply because this is a “side story” movie from 02 -- especially since it was technically produced during 02′s airing -- but in fact, this portrayal is consistent with what Ken has to say about himself during his next known point in canon, Spring 2003.

Given that Takeru��s track is apparently set “three months” after Christmas, and Miyako’s track talks about having just entered middle school, I assume that this means Ken’s takes place in around late March or early April 2003 (almost exactly a year since 02′s start), but in actuality nothing really “happens” during Ken’s track. Nevertheless, it provides a lot of information on Ken’s state of mind during this time and his own self-reflection on his past...and defines in very clear words what it is that Ken needs to move away from.

You were always in a bad mood and you were cold to me, but now that I think about it, maybe you really wanted to be nicer to other people. I don’t know what happened to you that made you act like you did, but now, I finally feel like I understand a bit. You were demanded to grow up fast, weren’t you, Brother? Because we were always being evaluated and compared by someone, we didn’t get a chance to have more freedom. We didn’t have any chances to run down an alley because we felt like it, or pull up weeds, or tumble around… meaningless things, things that didn’t bring any value to us at all. Just like the cat napping on the roof… we weren’t able to fully enjoy any everlasting freedom.

02 -- especially its latter half -- dealt largely with the concept of parents imposing too many expectations on their children, acting “proud” of them but actually using them to inflate their own self-worth, and in the end effectively robbing their own children of their right to “be children”. While we don’t know a lot about Osamu based on limited information about him, Ken’s parents also lament that they might have robbed Osamu of the opportunity to be a “normal boy” in 02 episode 23.

Once Ken took the role of the “family genius” after Osamu’s death, Ken was thus likewise robbed of that “normal childhood” due to all of the expectations put on him -- and Ken’s words in his track imply that it extended to before Osamu’s death, because just because Osamu was the favored one at the time didn’t mean that Ken wasn’t subject to the same kind of expectations to at least some degree, even if not as much. (Note how he really didn’t seem to have any kind of friends at all prior to Daisuke and the others.)

Thus, Ken’s ideal trajectory is to become “a normal child” -- one not subject to expectations as a “well-behaved genius child”. That applies not only to things like his academic or sports performance, but also even his core manners -- being a “normal person” in this context meaning being allowed to show emotions, be petty, have emotional range that extends beyond just being deferential and polite, and generally do things because he enjoys them and not because others expect him to. This is consistent with his portrayal in DSB, as in said movie he really does come off as a “normal boy” -- a young child who, while certainly less chaotic than Daisuke, is still enjoying himself and interacting with the world in “his own” natural, relaxed way rather than holding himself to obligations.

Another interesting thing about DSB is that it has Ken refer to Daisuke by given name. This is particularly intriguing because up until the end of 02, Ken consistently referred to Daisuke as “Motomiya” (he did use given name in episode 39, but it wasn’t something he really followed up on). This despite the fact he went with given names (plus honorifics) for everyone else in the 02 team, but it seems like Ken was still trying to figure out his very complicated feelings about Daisuke as someone who was his Most Hated Person™ during his Kaiser days and yet is now trying to aggressively reach through his barriers that he’s constructed out of self-defense.

And yet, extremely notably, almost every single post-02 material is consistent about the idea that Ken switches to given name basis with Daisuke after 02. (The only exception is Armor Evolution to the Unknown, which, as stated before, was written and recorded during 02′s airing and not after; notably, Daisuke is also on surname basis with Ken during that drama CD, even though he permanently switches to given name basis after episode 39.) That includes “out-of-hard-canon” things like Xros Wars episode 78.

Yet they still couldn’t remember to put the highlight back in Ken’s eyes, among other things.

Honorific and surname-given name basis fluctuated quite a bit in both Adventure and 02 (especially whenever canon material changed hands between writers), but for all intents and purposes, there is no reason Daisuke and Ken should not be on mutual given name basis after 02. This is especially when you take into account the more naturalistic relationship they have as of DSB -- there’s no standoffishness at all between them anymore.

This ties very deeply into how 02 portrayed its characters. One thing I’ve very, very often pointed out was that it was always an explicit point of contrast between themselves and the original Adventure team was that the 02 kids were not only “friends” in terms of fighting together on Digimon cases, but “friends” in the sense of actual social-life friends who clicked well in personality and adored each other’s company. (Part of this was because of the core theme of the series; Jogress being such a huge motif, “understanding your friends” took precedence over Adventure’s “understanding yourself”.) These are the kids who hung out together in the totally-not-related-to-any-Digimon-incident (at least, not at first) picnic in episode 6 and Christmas party in episode 38, a stark comparison to the Adventure kids who infamously started drifting as early as Our War Game!.

(Note that this isn’t meant to diminish or drop shade on the Adventure kids’ bonds in any way -- I feel like their bond is more of one that’s a “transcendent” one that crosses space and links them through their shared experience, but, nevertheless, is simply not the same in nature as the “social life” bonds the 02 kids had where they were very casual and yet intimate with each other in almost all daily life respects.)

As a result, Daisuke and Ken’s relationship ended up very different from that of their predecessors Taichi and Yamato -- it’s actually hard to imagine them getting in all that many highly heated fights in the same way their seniors would be prone to, and they’d generally be on “mild banter” terms for most of it. In fact, they come off as pretty casual and in-sync with each other, and it’s to the point where it really does feel like -- especially by the point of DSB -- staying on “standoffish” surname basis really is unwarranted.

And while it’s tempting to limit Ken’s relationship to only Daisuke, this did involve the rest of the 02 group, after all -- we got significant episodes defining his relationship to the others (Miyako got a whole episode in 25, and 30′s entire events kicked off because of an attempt to get him to better socialize with Iori!), and the 02 kids as a cohesive “overall group” were integral in getting Ken to open up and show different sides of himself. Although his relationship to certain team members ended up closer than others (Daisuke and Miyako, the ones who tried most aggressively to reach out to him, ended up getting the most out of him), nevertheless, it was important that Ken ultimately cultivated a relationship with a group of friends, and not just one.

This, of course, brings us to Kizuna, which takes place in the summer of 2010. This is a massive leap of time we don’t know a lot about, and for all it’s worth, this means we have, compared to the approximately two years Ken spent suffering under the influence of the Dark Seed, a whole eight years dedicated to potential recovery. There’s a lot that could have happened during that time, and what happened in between, we can only really guess.

Well, for one, he cut his hair.

The reveal of Ken’s design for Kizuna was a huge shock for those watching, because, among all of the twelve main human characters in Kizuna, he probably has the biggest and most drastic design change -- especially because his long hair was so iconic that even the epilogue depicted him with it (and even longer, at that). Were it not for other important identifiers like Wormmon’s presence and the fact said hair is at least still indigo blue, you’d almost wonder if it’s the same character.

(I do have to at least give props to this Animedia poster, though -- that soft and concerned expression is textbook Ken-chan, so it absolutely nails the vibe that it’s the same character despite the massive design change, and it even has a small cute detail that, despite clearly trying to calm Yamato down in haste, he’s still tidy enough to lay his chopsticks neatly on the bowl. That Ken has a habit of doing this while eating hot ramen is a very specific minor blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detail in 02 episode 36, and while I’d normally pass this off as coincidence, Kizuna and its PR has had such ridiculous attention to detail that I’m not entirely willing to.)

Not only that, his actual outfit in the movie is rather unassuming -- it’s just a black shirt, pants, and a belt, compared to the more distinctive/fashionable or setting-immersive outfits everyone else has. I mean, it sure beats that godawful grey gakuran he was constantly wearing during 02, but there were certainly a lot of complaints about how...well, unassuming and plain he looks.

The thing is, though, this is very much in line with how Ken would most likely want to present himself. When you think about it, Ken himself would probably not really appreciate his fanbase status as the “sad pretty boy”; having been scrutinized, evaluated, and put on uncomfortable pedestals through all of his early life, “blending in” and coming off as an average, unassuming person would be right up his alley.

Anyway, before we get into Kizuna itself, we have the drama CD that came with its BD, Where Should We Go? While it was released after the movie, in chronological timeline, it serves as a slight prequel, and what we learn about Ken in it is certainly...interesting. Namely, that he’s apparently a hardcore fan of Japanese hot springs. And not just a hardcore fan of them, but also a complete nerd.

The hot springs *obviously* must have free-flowing water. If possible, I think I’d prefer a quiet, rural flowing hot spring that’s surrounded by a moss-covered garden. Then I want to stay the night at a historical inn that focuses more on tranquility and wabi-sabi rather than wildness or beauty. I’m not looking for a lot on the food options, but the portions should ideally be neither too large nor too small. If we’re just going to relax our bodies, then I’d like it if there was a variety of hot springs to choose from. The water quality that I recommend for the ladies would be the hydrogen carbonate spring or the alkaline simple hot spring (these are otherwise known as simple hot springs with a basic pH of 8.5 or above), but my personal favorite is the hot sulphur spring! Incidentally, the hot sulphur spring is said to treat arteriosclerosis and high blood pressure. If it were possible, I’d like to take my time there… At least stay for two nights! Ahh… Hot springs… Hehehe…

I cannot stress enough how much the audio delivery for this depicts him as being terrifyingly into it. It’s also...not exactly the most fashionable thing for a nineteen-year-old to be into (actually, it’s more of a stereotype old man thing, what with the fixation on traditional Japanese aesthetics and health nut aspects), but we have Ken being very shameless and assertive about his personal interests, even if they’re a bit unusual.

Funnily enough, this isn’t actually the first time he was demonstrated to be a huge infodumping nerd -- it’s just that the last instance was questionably canonical, but tracks extremely heavily with what was just demonstrated here. Namely, Daisuke and Ken’s Shopping Carol:

Listen, the thing about Christmas is that it's one of the most important days in the world... It was the day the Savior was born... So, you go to church and pray... Of course, you knew all of that right?

Or in other words, he interrupts Daisuke’s wistful thoughts with The Actual Nerd Facts, because he’s a nerd. He even has a bit of a smart-aleck atmosphere...and then he cheerfully and sassily dumps all of the work on Daisuke thereafter. While the canonicity for this song is hard to place since it was released during 02′s airing (and 02 itself depicted a very different Christmas), plus the ambiguity of character song canon in general, it’s interesting how Ken’s portrayal here is pretty surprisingly in line with what we’re learning about his future personality.

The rest of what we see of Ken in the drama CD is what we generally knew about him already -- he’s kind, he dotes on Wormmon (he even indulges Wormmon’s request to take him skiing!), and he still keeps up with being into intellectual studies, and even soccer (he’s described as actually keeping up with soccer to the extent he does training camp), because he was always interested in those kinds of things -- it’s just that now he can indulge in them in ways he personally likes instead of being held to other people’s standards.

But he’s also very emotional, passionate, and openly assertive -- something he could be in 02, but only when it was something he really, really cared about, because most of the time he was a little more on the shy side with others. Not anymore. And he’s happy to indulge in the chaotic trip planning and enable the others, and, at the end, gives some sentimental words to Daisuke, his best friend.

Anyway, onto the movie itself!

Notably, they do not mention Ken’s past trauma nor his deeds as the Kaiser throughout the entire movie.

That might surprise people, given that this was...well, central to the entire plot of 02, so it’s arguably a glaring omission that despite having the 02 cast here, it’s not even brought up once. The only real “reference” to it is this scene, where Ken happens to be the one who knows about Menoa’s background as a child prodigy -- and even then it’s uncertain whether this had anything to do with said traumatic events (Menoa was admitted to Liberica in 2002 itself) as much as it’s a meta nod to Ken having a suspiciously similar background and the fact he and Menoa were based on the same real-life story (the nine-year-old boy who skipped grades into Columbia University).

But, again, recall that Ken has had eight years to move on from the events of 02, more time than said events had actually spanned over. That doesn’t mean he’s easily going to forget that trauma, nor that said events don’t still have an impact on him, but rather that a true positive development for him should have him not having to consciously dwell on it if it’s not necessary, and that his friends of now eight years should probably not be still holding it over him at a time like this.

After all, 02 itself was dedicated to scolding this kind of behavior -- not being “stuck in the past” (which, well, also happens to be a very pertinent theme when it comes to Kizuna...) was basically the entire point of the latter half, and so it stands to reason that Ken, and by extension the rest of the 02 cast, would be more focused on what they’re doing now instead of what happened back then.

In the absence of any references to said past, Ken in the actual movie ends up coming off as a bit unremarkable and plain compared to the three friends who end up surrounding him, all of whom have much more extreme personalities (the chaotic and exuberant Daisuke and Miyako, and the comically poker-faced Iori). But you get the feeling that he’s perfectly fine being that way -- rather, he’s enjoying getting all of his fun from his exciting friends, without feeling a need to spice things up himself.

So when we finally do meet Ken for the first time in Kizuna, he’s cheerfully eating ramen with Daisuke and Iori in New York (which, for all it’s worth, is probably really questionably legal, considering that Adventure’s world of 2010 likely still hasn’t figured out how to deal with that whole thing with “immigration and customs” as it pertains to Digital Gates.) Emphasis on cheerfully. He’s as tidy as ever (note how he still properly keeps his chopsticks between his fingers and cleans up after himself, albeit not as well as Iori), and he’s obviously more straight-laced than Daisuke or Miyako, but he isn’t really hiding the fact he’s also totally enjoying this. He didn’t even know why they were there for ramen in New York in the first place, but he just rolled with wherever Daisuke took him.

Recall that, according to their official profiles, these three go to completely different schools now -- Iori’s in high school, Daisuke’s at vocational school getting a chef’s license, and Ken’s in university studying psychology. (Which, by the way, is not brought up at all throughout the movie nor the drama CD! It’s easy to glean how his past experiences might give him an interest in the topic, and it’ll certainly be a valuable background to have for his future known career in criminal investigation, but despite Ken previously having had a reputation for being studious, it’s not brought up at all -- almost as if hanging out with his friends and having fun with them is more important and pertinent.) The drama CD even points out that Ken would normally be busy with soccer training camp. Yet they’re hanging out. In New York. Eating ramen. So, Yamato, what were you saying about how “choosing your own path can sometimes mean being alienated from friends”? If anything, these friends seem to be going out of their way to make sure they’re staying tight.

And, as you’d expect, Ken refers to Daisuke by given name, following DSB’s precedent. Again, given the nature of their relationship right now, this should be expected. There’s other evidence that Kizuna does use DSB as reference in certain other respects as well (Takeru calls Yamato “niisan”, which had previously been exclusive to that movie), and it’s very possible that Ken as portrayed in that movie was used as reference for his potential trajectory here.

Note that he seems to be even more outwardly affectionate with Wormmon than before (which is, shockingly, apparently possible) -- he still feeds his partner before feeding himself (similar to what he did in 02 episode 37), but now he also shamelessly carries Wormmon on his head, which he never did in 02. Perhaps it’s because he’s tall enough to carry the weight, but unlike with Takeru and Patamon, Wormmon is big enough that the sight is honestly comical -- yet Ken couldn’t care less, and while we don’t see him in his own school, it’s a sharp contrast to how Taichi and Yamato scoffed at the idea of bringing their partners to school because they “have their own lives to live”.

(A nice touch is Ken carrying Minomon from his arm, which actually comes from a very obscure piece of 02 concept art -- you can find it in the Character Complete File or the Animation Chronicle -- but was never depicted in the series proper. The Kizuna design works in the April 2020 edition of Animedia actually recreated that piece of art with Ken in the exact same position, only as a nineteen-year-old this time, which was an incredibly welcome thing to see.)

He greets Miyako upfront when she arrives, which doesn’t look like much on its face, but recall that this probably wouldn’t have happened during 02 proper -- not even with Daisuke! -- and, at the very least, not with this very casual “hey!” tone. It means a lot in terms of how much more casual of a person he’s been able to become in the last eight years, and how much more casual he is with this group (well, at least with Miyako). Takeru also greets Wormmon in the drama CD, and Wormmon seems pretty unusually happy to see Hawkmon when they meet each other there, certainly implying a lot of interpersonal interaction since.

Miyako meets up with them (and, going back to how tight these kids are, Miyako would come in all the way from Spain to meet her friends even for the exact same job that she dumped on her seniors), and they end up infiltrating Menoa’s office. He gets in a line of snark, especially because the Shueisha Mirai novel indicates he’s deliberately “looking the other way” in regards to worrying about security -- looks like he’s developing some Lawful tendencies, but in the end, his friends and getting to the bottom of the real truth take priority.

And, also, it’s still pretty clear he’s totally taking the opportunity to enjoy this.

So what does this all mean, really? He’s taking a fairly passive attitude with his abundantly more chaotic friends, but he’s also not protesting, and he’s enjoying everything he can out of it. He’s a bit quieter than he was in DSB, but that could easily just be from being older and a bit more mature, and he hardly comes off as reserved, either (it helps that Daisuke doesn’t quite resort to any antics nearly as ridiculous as he did in DSB, so there’s no need to keep him in check -- yep, even Daisuke got a bit more mature himself). And he’s joining these kids in being possibly some of the most chaotic disaster adults (near-adults?) on this planet, in a sharp contrast to their seniors.

I mentioned earlier in my analysis of Kizuna’s relationship to 02 that Ken is actually a “hidden” foil to Kizuna’s main antagonist, Menoa -- they were both conceived from the same idea Producer Seki had regarding the real-life “genius boy” who ended up going to Columbia University at a young age and, in her opinion, was going to be robbed of a proper childhood experience. 02′s Dark Seed children arc was a major indictment against parents forcing this kind of pressure on children, not only in the sense of pushing them academically but also quashing out their more “childish” dreams for the sake of a more “dignified” outlook and future. Through the events of 02, Ken learned a very personal lesson on not losing his “true self” to the pressure of those expectations, and the meaning of valuing his family and friends instead.

Ken and Menoa, effectively, were originally on the same path, but thanks to the circumstances of 02, Ken managed to avert Menoa’s fate and ended up following his own way. Nevertheless, Ken was largely robbed of a normal kid’s childhood up until the age of eleven, and it stands to reason that, even at the age of nineteen, he might still be trying to make up for all of those fun experiences he never was able to have.

Funny thing about his haircut, too -- this isn’t the first time Ken’s had this haircut, actually. You know when was the last known time he did?

Hm. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.

But unlike Menoa, who decided that it would be better to trap herself in her own distorted view of what “childhood” is, or Oikawa, who ended up clinging dearly to the last reminder he had of what he’d lost from his childhood, Ken ends up dealing with it in a very forward-facing manner. In fact, he’d elucidated his feelings on the issue back in Spring 2003:

There are still a lot of times when I think about how I should have “done this back then.” But I discovered that there are many things I can do over afterwards. I’ll stop counting the things that I can’t do. Because I’m sure there are many things that I can do.

Instead of living in regrets about the past, Ken simply chooses to move forward by making new fun experiences and memories with his friends, befitting those he couldn’t have when he was a kid, and perhaps even enhanced by his newfound freedom as a nineteen-year-old.

During the final battle, we get a few more emotional and assertive shows from Ken -- his concern about Miyako is pretty frantic-sounding, and the fact he steps in so quickly and frantically to help her out by his own will is pretty impressive. And then he definitively declares that they can’t afford to give up -- which is certainly in line with the nobility he had even during 02, but remember when, even in DSB, Daisuke had to be the one to remind him of this? Now he’s the one reassuring his teammates about this, all on his own. When it all comes down to it, his sense of awareness of what he wants and what he wants to do is stronger than ever.

I mentioned in my analysis of Kizuna in relation to 02 that the 02 kids are in a fairly unique position in the movie, thanks to having already practically gone through a lot of the lessons in both 02 and Kizuna, thus leading them to become very lacking in susceptibility to potentially losing their partners anytime soon (and in fact are deliberately portrayed as such). I would say of all of them, Ken is the most representative of this -- being such a direct foil to the movie’s main antagonist, one who actually came dangerously close to making some of the exact same mistakes she did and emerged with his own trauma as a result, the lessons and warnings imparted by the movie are already deeply embedded in his being.

He’s one of the most openly affectionate and intimate with his partner, having already learned the very, very hard way of what happens when you don’t treasure your partner properly. (He’s taking Wormmon jogging with him, which has got to be an awfully uncomfortable setup, but, goddammit, he’s gonna make it work. And if ~With~ is to be believed, he’s been doing this for years now.) He’s still got a Dark Seed in the back of his neck as an eternal reminder to remember who he is, and to acknowledge the love from his family and friends around him instead of succumbing to arbitrary societal expectations. Remember what I said in my earlier analysis about the true reason for partnerships dissolving, and how deeply it was tied to throwing yourself away for the sake of arbitrary standards of adulthood? Ken’s experiences and extremely painful trauma are like a giant do not do this stamp on his face, and although everyone in this cast is naturally human and may have ups and downs or relapses, Ken is possibly one of the last characters one could imagine succumbing to that kind of mistake again.

So we make it to the epilogue, and although Ken’s technical job title as given in the epilogue is literally “police officer” (keisatsukan), his form of dress (plainclothes, not uniform) and his the Character Complete File indicate he’s from the Digimon Special Investigations Unit (tokusoubu), or, in other words, he’s actually a public-servant detective. (So no, the various dubs also going with “detective” are thus not “changes” in this respect.) In short, he investigates scenes of crimes after they happen, and the Character Complete File provides an example in the form of him investigating a dead body found at the river.

This is probably why Kizuna has him major in psychology, because forensic psychology would be a pretty useful skillset for this kind of job, and a university education in general would most certainly be helpful. (The job requirements as per the Japanese system also require a very high level of athleticism and aptitude.) On the other hand, considering what we know about Ken up to Kizuna, there aren’t any indications that he treated this like any kind of major aspiration, and the psychology major makes you think he might have just fallen into this career by a series of accidents -- he took an interest in psychology (and mental health) due to his own experiences, and then decided that “discovering the truth behind things” was up his alley (much like Iori). Even more notably, his position isn’t really described in any history-making terms, not even ones like being “the first” of anything (like Jou), and it feels like he’s doing this to contribute to society in a way he prefers more than he’s trying to accomplish anything world-shattering.

But on the flip side, it’s probably no coincidence that the 02 epilogue portrays him with such a big family. Of course, it also fits with his and Miyako’s family backgrounds (they’d probably want their kids to have siblings, given their own experiences), but since the Dark Seed was described as having its effects countered by acknowledging how much you’re loved, Ken is clearly surrounded by love -- his wife is one of the most openly affectionate people out there, and his kids (or at least his middle child) use the same “Mama” kind of affectionate language Ken shared with his own parents. Once the events of 02 came to a close at the end of 2002, Ken went on a journey of discovering his own self-assertion, personal desires, and fun -- shedding the expectations and societal standards others had of him, and learning to enjoy life in ways he personally enjoys, for his own sake.

#digimon #digimon adventure 02 #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #ken ichijouji #ichijouji ken #shihameta #kizuna spoilers

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fandom-meanderer · 5 years

Note

Oh my goodness I'm gushing over the male!reader X Linhardt scenario you wrote! It's so cute! But what if Mr. Coolest of Garreg Mach showed Sylvain the ways of being cool? 👀

It seems the Mr. Coolest of Garreg Mach saga continues!

Companion piece to [this]

“Alright, Sylvain. I’m not going to go easy on you,” you warn. Sylvain just nods his head.

“I’m ready, (Name).”

“Okay, lesson one is the hardest, Sylvain, are you absolutely sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure!”

“Can you get on with it? (Name) says I can’t sleep until you complete all three lessons,” Linhardt yawns.

“Come on! Hit me already, (Name)!”

Lesson One

“You have to go three hours without flirting with anyone.”

“...”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Time starts...” You gesture towards Linhardt. He clicks a pocket watch.

“Now,” he finishes. You loop your arm in Linhardt’s and you two walk off together.

“Wait, you can’t just leave me here!” Sylvain panics.

“You’ll be fine! And don’t think we’re not watching, we have spies everywhere,” you say, entering the dining hall. “Good luck Sylvain!”

He’s really doing this. Wow, he’s really working on becoming as cool as Mr. Coolest in Garreg Mach. Okay, he can do this. No flirting. Easy.

“Hey, Sylvain!” A rather cute student waved to him.

“H-” He felt a sudden chill. Someone was watching him. He looked around the courtyard, who was it? Who was the spy? Who was reporting to you as he was freaking out? Okay, just two hours, fifty-eight minutes, and twenty-three seconds left.

He’ll survive.

It was Caspar, by the way.

Lesson Two

You and Linhardt find Sylvain collapsed in front of the altar in the Cathedral.

“So he can nap and I can’t?”

“He’s not napping, he’s praying,” you snicker. You nudge him with your shoe gently. “Hey, Sylvain, you made it. Three hours are up, buddy.”

“I did?” His voice sounded hoarse.

“Yeah, come on, it’s time for lesson two.” Sylvain jumped up with a new found vigor and looked at you intensely.

“I’m ready.”

“You sure? Looks like lesson one really took its toll on you,” you worry.

“I’m fine. I can handle it.”

“He’s really persistent,” Linhardt frowns. “Don’t be too hard on him.”

“Don’t worry, I’m going way easy on him,” you whisper. “Okay, Sylvain. Lesson two. We’re in the chapel already, so this makes things so much easier.”

“What do you mean...?”

“Well, just outside this area happens to be the largest population of the Monastery’s resident cats, right? Well, I need you to bring twenty of them to me.”

“How does this make me cooler?”

“Well, I mean,” you whistle and twenty cats flooded to you. “It works for me.” In another whistle the cats scattered.

“What the hell...”

“See you in a bit, Sylvain,” you wave him off, finally giving in to Linhardt’s pulling.

“Wait, shouldn’t you be here so I know where you are?”

“Looks like you’re just going to have to find me,” you shrug. Sylvain frantically called for you even as you exited the grand doors.

“You know, you could’ve just told him that we’re going to wait outside.”

“Nah, he’s smart, he’ll figure that out.”

“Hello, Mr. Cat,” Sylvain slowly walks up to a tabby cat, prepared to grab him. The cat looks over its shoulder lazily. Intrigued by what the hell this kid wanted with it. He moved closer to Sylvain. “That’s it, just come closer, little buddy.” Once he was in an arms reach, Sylvain grabbed him.

“ONE DOWN NINETEEN TO GO!” He ran around collecting cats, not even caring about the amount of scratches and scars he was receiving.

“That’s no way to make friends with the cats...” Ashe frowns. “I really hope (Name) knows what he’s doing.” He worriedly watches Sylvain pick up another cat and sighs. He really only agreed to do this because he was worried about what Sylvain would do. Now, his friend just looks... sad. He’s never this persistent when he’s trying to charm the other school girls.

Finally, Sylvain had twenty cats under his arms when he made a mad dash to find you and get away from this hell. What he didn’t notice, however, is that he ran right past you and across the bridge.

“Should we... should we tell him?” Linhardt asks.

“No. He’ll be back.”

“That’s cruel...”

“He’s the one who wanted to be cool, right?”

Final Lesson

Sylvain stumble up the steps of the Cathedral and found you sitting on the ground next to Linhardt. Your boyfriend was snoozing away peacefully with his head on your shoulder and you were writing down notes on a piece of parchment. Sylvain dumped the cats in front of you, each of the mewling angrily.

“Here... Here are your damn cats...” He huffs. You whistle and the cats sit next to you.

“You turned up better than I was expecting, Sylvain,” you laugh. You watched the sun begin to set behind him while you nudge Linhardt softly and he opens his eyes lazily and sits up. “One last lesson, Sylvain. It’s not too late to opt out, you know.”

“Are you kidding me? I’m covered in claw marks. It looks like I’m having an affair. I have nothing left to lose.”

“Alright, then, follow me.” The three of you walk for a short moment before ending up at the arena of the final battle, so to say.

“The Library?” Sylvain cocks his head.

“During your first lesson, Lin and I came up here and marked the insides of certain books with a star sticker, luckily, we just placed them in the front covers.

“That was my idea, if I didn’t say anything you would’ve had to dig through all of the books,” Linhardt adds in.

“Yup. So now your job is to find all of those books, read the star marked passages, and write me a paper telling me what they each had in common to one another. And since this is your final lesson, we decided to make it the hardest.”

“How so?”

“We’re not going to tell you how many books are marked, or how many passages are marked.”

“Goddess please forgive me...”

“You can still opt out, Sylvain.”

“No! I won’t!”

“Okay, all I can say now is good luck then. And don’t worry about what Professor Byleth will think, Lin and I already got that covered.”

“Good night, Sylvain,” Linhardt says. He walks with you out of the library and you shut the doors softly.

“There is a reason behind all of this... right, (Name)?” Linhardt asks,

“Yup. I know I said this is the final lesson, but I’ll quiz him tomorrow on what he thinks the purpose of these lessons were.”

“So you aren’t just making him suffer?”

“Of course not, Sylvain is a good friend of mine, after all.”

“If you say so, (Name).”

“Okay... okay I can do this.” Sylvain looks around the library. Then, another knock at the door. It creaks open slowly and Felix walks in.

“What is it that you got yourself into, Sylvain?” He asks.

“I asked (Name) to show me how he became so cool, so he set up these three lessons for me. This is the last one,” Sylvain says, opening his first book.

“So that’s why you’ve been running around like a chicken with its head cut off.”

“Yeah... I don’t suppose you can help me, can you?”

“Even if I could I wouldn’t.”

“Right... Of course,” Sylvain opens his second book. Still no dice. He sighed. It was going to be one hell of a night.

Conclusion

You and Linhardt walked into the Library the next morning and found Sylvain just finishing up the paper. He had forty two books next to him, the correct number of books that you and Linhardt had marked the day before. Sylvain pushed the ten page essay toward you.

“It’s done.”

“Alright,” you take the essay and read through the first couple of paragraphs. “Tell me, Sylvain, what did you learn from these lessons?”

“What did I... what now?”

“What did you learn?” Sylvain looks at you and cocks his head. “Sylvain, I’m not going to make you do these things for no reason. So tell me, what did you get out of it?” Sylvain pondered for a moment, then it hit him.

“The first lesson, you told me not to do the one thing I always do, flirting. At first, all I could think of is ‘what does this have to do with becoming cool?’ But now that I reflect on it, it was as if you were training me to hold back.”

“Mmhmm.”

“For lesson two, I didn’t notice it until I was making my way back to the cathedral, but the cats really started liking me once I put them down and let them just follow. All I had to do was be nice to them, then I didn’t have to force them to come.”

“You’re on the right track, Sylvain.”

“And for this final lesson, it really reminded me of you. Because you have this weird uncanny ability of being able to put things that have no relevance together to make something better. Hence the completely different books and the one paper I had to make on them.”

“Wow, you actually got it,” Linhardt was surprised, to say the least. You hand the paper to him and smile at Sylvain.

“Well, there you have it, Sylvain. Now you know how I became the apparent ‘Coolest in Garreg Mach’.”

“That’s... that’s it?”

“Yup. I didn’t pull any strings to become cool, I just decided to be myself.”

“Huh...” Sylvain sighed. “Sorry, man, but that’s a lot of work I did for a kind of underwhelming answer.”

“I’m not disagreeing, Sylvain, but that’s really the truth. When you walk around the halls today, why don’t you pay more attention to how people interact with you? Like I said, I didn’t make you do these for no reason.”

“O-Okay...”

“I’ll see you later, bud!” You and Linhardt walk off again, leaving Sylvain behind. He walks over to the table and nudges Felix awake.

“Well... did you get your answer?” He asks groggily.

“Yeah... I think I did.”

“Can I go now?”

“Yup.”

“Finally,” Felix pushes himself up. “Just for the record, Sylvain, I really didn’t think you had to do all that yesterday. You’re... you’re already cool as is.”

“What was that? What did you say?” Sylvain stopped in his tracks and looked over to the half asleep Felix.

“Don’t make me say it again, Sylvain!” He grumbles. He picks up the pace and walks ahead of Sylvain. “Now come on, the Professor is going to be mad that we’re late.”

“Okay, okay!” Sylvain couldn’t stop the huge smile forming on his face.

Despite the all nighter he pulled, Sylvain felt like he was ready to take on the world right now. He felt great, energized, and so cool right now. Huh, maybe he could even compete with you for the title someday? Nah.

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Three Houses #feth #fe3h #fe3h linhardt #linhardt von hevring #linhardt x reader #sylvain jose gautier #fe3h sylvain #blue lions #black eagles #fe3h x reader

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zdbztumble · 5 years

Text

But What About Kairi, Or: Today’s KH Ramble, Part II (KH III Spoilers)

Meanwhile...

My play-through of KH III has taken me through the last of the Disney worlds, Big Hero 6. Besides reminding me of why I’m not the biggest fan of that movie, its day/night options make for a fun mechanic, and the layout of San Fransokyo is great. Baymax has some cute battle dialogue, and Donald’s reaction to “Keyblade Hero 3” was a good laugh. Of all the non-Pixar worlds, it’s also probably the best-integrated into the main plot. The reappearance of the Replica Riku, and the revelation of yet another plot, this time a burgeoning rebellion inside the real Organization XIII, nearly made my head explode, but on balance, it’s a solid level. The unorthodox beginning to the last Gummi zone was a pleasant surprise too, though I’d say that the Gummi ship sequences were at their best in KH II.

But then we come to the Badlands of the Keyblade Graveyard, and...ooh boy.

The battle that opens this level is fun, and a worthy successor to the battle with a thousand Heartless in KH II. I may have been a bit over-leveled for it, but it was still a good time. The cutscenes that followed, on the other hand, had me sputtering in disbelief. To begin with, the fact that all of that was a cutscene is baffling. All seven Keyblade Wielders facing down Terranort doesn’t sound like a good boss battle to anyone? Or hell, just Terra and Aqua? They’ve got the real stake in that fight. And Donald’s surprise spell, which I gather was a big Final Fantasy Easter egg, made for a cool moment that would have been much cooler as something that appeared in the course of battle. But that cutscene was also baffling on a story level. The Demon Tower becoming a Demon Tornado certainly made it bigger, but all the characters reacting to it with such despair was hard to follow when the distinction between the two isn’t all that great. Sora’s total collapse was especially out-of-character. The staging of this cutscene, it’s choice of camera angles, action, and pacing, all failed to sell the supposed magnitude of this threat. Coming off of a single battle, massive though it was, didn’t help.

And then...there’s Kairi.

I’m struggling to think of another series where a character supposedly of the main cast has been so consistently mishandled the way Kairi has since the end of KH II. The writing for her has been absolutely abysmal. And it’s in abysmal in a way that, rather than souring me on the character (which has happened in other series), I’m increasingly sympathetic towards her in a critical sense looking at Kingdom Hearts as a story.

That sympathy doesn’t come from Kairi being a favorite of mine. I don’t see how Kairi could be considered a favorite character, because I don’t consider her a complete character. The best way to describe Kairi IMO is as a potential character. She has tremendous potential to do great things in this series. Her wholesome, “girl next door” personality gives her a charming if rather conventional starting point, and the fact that she’s a freakin’ princess - one of the Princesses of Light, no less - who can’t recall her past offers a wonderful hook into stories. I said before that I’d revisit the idea of a KH prequel game, and IMO, the best choice for a prequel story is to explore Kairi’s past. Imagine that; a BbS, or equivalent game, that explored her life as a princess in Radiant Garden, how she came to lose her memories and end up on Destiny Islands, and why she could wield a Keyblade at the end of KH II. Was her personality still the same before she lost her memories? Could the confederation of Disney villains been aware of her and the other Princesses even then? If the prequel must expand on the Xehanort saga, then could Kairi have had anything to do with Ansem the Wise’s research, and could that explain her amnesia?

KH III has, so far, suggested that’s going to deal with at least some of this. Eventually. Maybe. If it gets around to it. But the point still stands that fleshing out one of the main characters of the series instead of inventing three new ones and pulling a third twist with the villain seems like the much more sound storytelling choice to me. A prequel game that focused on Kairi could also contain a hook that, combined with Maleficent’s unresolved fate at the end of KH II, would’ve provided a much more organic segue into a KH III story than pulling all sorts of stunts to re-open the Xehanort saga.

But that didn’t happen, and we’re left with the reality that Kairi’s backstory has barely been touched upon since the first game. Kairi herself is barely present for Coded, BbS, or DDD. In the latter case, that being a game primarily focused on the Destiny Islands gang sans Disney battle partners, Kairi’s absence seems a terrible wasted opportunity. That could be made up for if the revelation that she was training as a Keyblade Wielder had a payoff, but so far, KH III has yet to provide. She’s had two cutscenes with Axel, neither of which actually show any training, and then what little you see of her in the Badlands (more on that later.)

Once again, this feels a wasted opportunity, because this series has a precedent that would allow for Kairi to have more of a role early on in the game. Remember the Roxas segment at the beginning of KH II that served as an extended tutorial? Why not have Kairi’s training be the tutorial of KH III? It would make sense story-wise for her to be the player character as you learn or review basic controls, there would have been opportunities for cutscenes to flesh out her character (and Axel’s, much as I hate to admit it), and a clever bit of writing could’ve passed the torch on to Sora right on time for the story to begin in earnest. And why not turn the swarm of enemies battle that opens the Badlands into a multi-party affair? Start off playing as Sora with Donald and Goofy, switch after a certain stage to playing as Riku with Mickey, then to Ven with Aqua, and then to Kairi with Axel. You could go back to Sora for the finale, but this way, everyone gets included, and the character in most need of material gets to shine for a moment.

Instead, Kairi is probably the least-featured member of the party in all those cutscenes. In the moment when Aqua directs her, Mickey, and Goofy to get the wounded to safety, Kairi isn’t even in the shot. Pretty much the only time she’s in frame in that cutscene is when she’s either being saved or reaching out to Sora.

And here’s where we come to a tricky part of the issue, because I’ve seen some rather strange commentary on Sora and Kairi’s relationship. One school of thought seems to hold that Kairi becoming Sora’s love interest is what costs her any opportunity to stand as a character unto herself. I can’t follow this line of thought, for several reasons. The first being that Kairi can’t exactly “become” a love interest when it’s clear from the start of the first game that Sora has a thing for her. Being a love interest and a solid character in your own right aren’t mutually exclusive either. But I also don’t understand this argument because Sora and Kairi’s relationship has been neglected just as Kairi herself has, and that’s a real problem given its importance to the series.

In KH I, Kairi serves as the stakes and as the prime motive for both Sora and Riku. While she herself doesn’t have much to do, she is pivotal to the story, and her bond with Sora being so strong that her heart takes refuge in his, that she can restore him from a Heartless, and that they somehow find a way to promise to see each other again even as they’re separated in the finale, is the reason why. Kairi indirectly serves as the prime motive in CoM too, with Sora’s memories reworked to replace Kairi with Namine. And while she shares the role of motivation with Riku in KH II, Sora is still mindful of her throughout the game, even slipping into romantic thoughts at least twice.

Now, lest you think I have nothing but praise for the early games in the series: in those games as in the later ones, Kairi is still underdeveloped as a character. She is basically there as the love interest and little more. Being a lifelong huge sucker for first love/young love subplots in fiction, I’ve been taken by Sora and Kairi’s relationship since my first playthrough, but it works as well as it does almost entirely because of Sora. Sora is developed as a character throughout the games, as well as being the protagonist and the player character. Because he is such a charming and likable character, and because he cares so much about Kairi, that carries over to the audience, or at least this member of it. It would be a stronger relationship if Kairi were more developed as a character, which is all the more reason to do so.

But even if you accept their relationship remaining on the level of “hero and love interest,” there’s been a terrible case of neglect since KH II. It wouldn’t be a factor in BbS, naturally, but by leaving Kairi out of nearly all of Coded and DDD, the relationship drops out of the story. Cut to KH III, which does want to present that relationship as being as important as it’s ever been, and the long dry spell is felt. It doesn’t help that KH III is so densely packed with other material, much of it devoted to Organization XIII either taunting Sora or sniping at each other. Several of the Disney films selected offer parallels to Sora and Kairi’s relationship that aren’t noted, even as previous games did so and this one draws parallels in other relationships.

Which brings us back to the cutscene in the Badlands. Sora’s desperation to save Kairi is evident, and an earlier cutscene where they finally share paopu fruits was adorable, but neither has the same impact as they would have had if Kairi had remained prominent as a character, and if her relationship with Sora had remained relevant in previous games. It speaks to how well that relationship was presented in the first three games that it can still exert some sway over the heartstrings despite that, but there has been real damage done to one of the central bonds of the series by the neglect, and nowhere is that damage more apparent than when the story stresses Kairi more than anyone else when the Demon Tornado swallows up the party.

Now, I left off just as Sora emerged in Olympus after literally putting himself together, so perhaps some of this will be addressed by the end of the game. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. And in the meantime...that whole Final World sequence was trippy as all hell and those Soras damn hard to catch, but I loved it. Absolutely no idea what that cat thing is supposed to be though.

#critique #commentary #kingdom hearts #kairi #kingdom hearts 3 #disney #sokai #z's crits

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walkonwalkonwithhopeinyourheart · 5 years

Text

Analysis of Klopp's time at Liverpool so far via /r/LiverpoolFC

Analysis of Klopp's time at Liverpool so far

The objectives of this post are:

Demonstrate the progression since Klopp's arrival;

Appreciate what Klopp has done for Liverpool Football Club;

Refute claims by rival fans and some LFC fans, which include:

Klopp is a checkbook manager who got to where he is by splashing cash;

Klopp is a failure because he hasn't won anything yet;

Comparisons will be made with:

Arsenal's current season with Unai Emery (Usually brought up by Arsenal fans)

The state of our domestic rivals during the same period of time (since 2016)

The reason I single out Arsenal here is not that I want to slate them. On the contrary, Arsenal is the only team in the top six other than ourselves that I don't dislike, partly because they were somewhat similar to us in that they are on a drought for the biggest trophies (league titles and Champions League trophies), they have questionable recruitment, they wear red and they didn't really upset me or cause me too much pain in my time as a football fan. For that reason I began to watch AFTV, partly for the banter material, but also to gain some thoughts on their perspectives as fans of another club. In the process, I have become more familiar with Arsenal than I am with other rivals.

[Main stuff starts here]

Klopp was appointed as the manager of LFC in October 2015, after a 1-1 draw at Everton in the 8th match of the PL season. Most of you would be familiar with what happened afterwards:

2015-16: 8th in the league, League Cup finalist, Europa League finalist.

2016-17: 4th in the league, League Cup semifinalist.

2017-18: 4th in the league, Champions League finalist.

2018-19: at the very least, 2nd in the league, Champions League quarterfinalist, both competition we are capable of winning as things stand.

To put things in perspective, these are the seasons immediately before Klopp's arrival (Rodgers in charge):

2014-15: 6th in the league, (8pt off 4th) Champions League Group Stage, Europa League R32, League Cup and FA Cup Semifinalist.

2013-14: 2nd in the league (2pt off 1st)

2012-13: 7th in the league (12 pt off 4th), Europa League R32.

To summarize, we would be in the Champions League group stages for a third season in a row next season after not qualifying for Champions league 6 out of the 7 seasons before 2017-18. We had two deep European runs in two seasons that we were in European competitions that ended in defeat in finals against stronger opposition and amid controversy (That is not to say we would definitely have won if the referees punished Seville for the three handballs in the box, and sent off Ramos for rugby tackles and elbows to the head, but things could be very different), while the previous European finals were in 2005 and 2007 under Rafa Benitez (a somewhat distant past). We lost a League Cup final in a shootout. Even if we would go on and have another trophyless season this year (BTW, the probability of that is around 50% according to 538's probabilities), we would have another serious title challenge (against arguably one of the best teams ever assembled) and another excellent European campaign.

We have reemerged as a massive power in English and European football under Klopp's guidance after years of mediocrity. We are now relevant in the Champions League discussions, people begin to put us in the category of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, and fans of these powerhouses treat us as a threat.

Now, I'll analyze season by season.

2015-16 season was pretty much a free pass for Klopp, as he was appointed midway through the season without time to buy his players and implement his tactics. Before his appointment, we sold our best player in Raheem Sterling, Gerrard moved on after contract expired; we bought players like Firmino and Benteke who were not properly utilized by Rodgers. He managed to work with the players he had and beat strong teams like Manchester United, Dortmund and Villareal over two legs, teams that didn't have overhauls and had played under the same manager/ style for several years. Apparently the board agreed and gave Klopp a six year contract after the defeat in Basel.

After the summer of 2016, Klopp had his first preseason and summer transfer window. At that point, I would say he began to build his own team.

Let's have a look at the (major) businesses we did (including winter window so that we have a summary of every season):

In: Grujic, 5.1M; Mane, 30M; Wijnaldum, 25M; Karius, 4.7M; Klavan, 4.2M; Matip, free. Total: 69M.

Out: Canos, 4.5M; Skrtel, 5.5M; Ibe, 15M; Allen, 13M; Smith, 6M; Benteke, 32M; Alberto, 6M; Ilori, 3.8M. Total: 85.8 M.

Net (spend): -16.8M.

We made a net profit of approximately 1/3 of Raheem Sterling, who left in 2015, after the 2016-17 season. Just a reminder, Klopp inherited a team that sold its best players and lost its leaders, a team that was only capable of finishing 6th-8th for around 6 years bar one season. BBC pundits had us finishing 6th (https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/37040156). Instead, we were unbeaten in the top six mini league; we had a realistic title shout until January when Mane went on international duty. Eventually we finished 4th despite injury to Mane later on. Players like Lallana and Firmino, regarded as flops from the Rodgers times, dramatically improved and became integral parts of the team. Coutinho, who was already a good player under Rodgers, became world-class after Klopp became manager.

Comparing to Arsenal's current season, Unai Emery inherited world class players (or at least, very good players) like Aubameyang, Lacazett, Ozil- even other often criticized players like Xhaka and Mustafi are big signings in the previous seasons and senior internationals for good national teams- and a team that has been consistently in the top four for a long time bar the last two seasons. In the summer of 2016, Arsenal finished their previous season as 2nd, while we were 8th. A quick look at transfermarkt.com told me that Arsenal had a net spend of around 95M prior to Emery's appointment from 2016-2018. On top of that, they spent about 65M (net) in the summer of 2018. They did well to keep Man United and Chelsea behind them and currently sit at 4th, but it's hardly 'Emery working wonders'. Or perhaps it is, but then Klopp would have performed a miracle in his first full season.

Move on to the summer of 2017, we had a eventful transfer window with the Van Dijk and Coutinho sagas, both of which concluded in January with huge transfers. Our market activities are: (Unit: GBP)

In: Salah, 43.9M; Solanke, 4M; Robertson, 10M; Oxlade-Chamberlain, 35M; Van Dijk, 75M. Total: 167.9M

Out: Wisdom, 4.5M; Lucas, 5M; Stewart, 8M; Sakho, 26M; Coutinho, 142M. Total: 185.5M

Net: -17.6M.

BBC pundits predicted correctly that we would finish 4th (https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/40856491). That was also an acknowledgement of how well Klopp has done in his first full season. Basically, in Klopp's first two full seasons, instead of splashing the cash, we made a profit from transfer activities of roughly 35M. We could pay Roma double the amount we did for Salah and we would still almost break even. In the mean time, Klopp has turned this team into a consistent top four team, not to mention the small matter of reaching the Champions League Final, which non of the big spenders in England managed to do for quite a few years. We basically had the top four place assured by February, leading Chelsea by 10pt at one stage, but the league matches became distractions to our Champions League ambitions in April and May. We were poor towards the end of the season, but still managed 4th, Chelsea 5pt behind us.

Now we arrive in the present. This season, we have been spending big in the market, and as a result, we are seriously challenging the league title instead of fighting for 4th. In back to back seasons, we have been doing well in Champions League. Football fans generally think of Liverpool as a major power again. We are now ranked as one of the best teams in the world. How much money did we spend to achieve that?

In: Keita, 52.8M; Fabinho, 43.7M; Shaqiri, 13.8M; Alisson, 65M. Total: 175M

Out: Can, free; Ings, 20M; Ward, 12.5M; Klavan, 2M; Solanke, 19M. Total: 53.5M

Net: 121.5M.

Grand total of Klopp's transfer activities: net spend of around 87.1M.

Klopp turned the 2015 Liverpool, a mediocre team shall I say, into one of the best in the world with a net spend of 87M. Smart business is a big factor, but that is also credited to Klopp. Many of us, myself included, had doubts over some of those signings above. Rival fans were laughing at the signings we made. Mane 'the annual Southampton purchase', Salah 'the Chelsea reject', Van Dijk was apparently the biggest waste of money of all time, etc. Every one of them has at the very least lived up to his price tag, with the possible exception of Naby Keita, and he has plenty of time since he has been here for less than a year. Many players have 'overperformed' under Klopp, Coutinho a prime example, as he was nowhere near as effective at Barcelona. Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino wouldn't be better than they are now if they were in another system with another manager.

Comparing with the other English clubs' trajectories since summer 2016:

Man City: Net spend 360M, from a title challenger to one of the best teams in the world.

Man Utd: Net spend 290M, from an underperforming top four team to an underperforming title challenger/top four team.

Chelsea: Net spend 200M, from a occasional title challenger and a fairly consistent top four team to a top four challenger.

Arsenal: Net spend 150M, from a consistent top four team to a top four challenger.

Tottenham: Net spend 40M, from a consistent top four team to a consistent top four team.

Numbers are from transfermarkt.com and converted to GBP for our rivals, while the data for Liverpool is from lfchistory.net which include all the potential add-on fees for both incoming and outgoing transfers. I would have used transfermarkt for Liverpool too, (the net spend is around 100M according to them) but I found that lfchistroy's records are consistent with what we saw in news articles, and I don't bother to look for similar websites for other clubs (I don't know if mcfchistory.net exists, for example). There might be some bias, but not deviating from the actual numbers a lot.

We have had the greatest improvement among England's top teams with a relatively modest spending (not taking into account that the only season that we have a positive net spend happened after the huge inflation of the market after the Neymar deal). We were a Europa League quality team before Klopp took over, we were miles behind the likes of Manchester City who already had Aguero, Kompany, David Silva and De Bruyne etc in the team. We were behind Tottenham, who practically had the same established team as they do now. We were behind Manchester United, as they could always afford the best player available in the market. Arsenal might not have the biggest star in the league, but they always finished in the top four and usually had a good title chance until around Feb/Mar. Chelsea were sometimes inconsistent, but they won the league not long ago and had players like Eden Hazard. Now, we have overtaken most of them and closed the gap on Man City despite their huge spending. That's the main progression of this club under Klopp.

Oh, and we have been playing exciting attacking football since his arrival. Fans can actually enjoy watching football matches again. We are showing great team spirit, and the vibe around the club is very positive. Add these to his achievement list as well.

Has he won anything yet? No. But he deserves to have won at least one by now in my opinion. He has come close on three occasions already, and would at the very least, came close again this season. Remember our starting point was very different from Pep Guardiola's Man City, or Jose Mourinho's Man Utd, or Pochettino's Spurs. Even Emery's Arsenal has a better foundation than we did.

That's not to say I'll be happy with 2nd this season, nor to make early excuses. It would be incredibly frustrating if we couldn't win the league when we were 7pt up at the midpoint of the season. I voiced my disappointment and pessimism in those recent draws in the league. But finishing 2nd this year wouldn't make Klopp a failure or a fraud, if you consider that Man City probably still have a much better overall squad than we do, and the point I have been trying to make in the post, which is that Klopp has done enough for the club to be described as a success so far.

Hopefully, we could win at least one of those two major trophies at the end, and then this post would be rendered absolutely redundant.

*Edit: arguments were made that we actually spent a lot of money, it's just that we managed to sell our players for good prices. Well, if you sell a player, you replace him. If you sell expensive players, you need to buy expensive players as well to keep yourself at that level.

Here is the other teams' expenditures in the past seasons for comparison:

Man City- 520M

Man Utd- 400M

Chelsea- 510M

Arsenal- 300M

Tottenham- 180M

(Source- transfermarkt)

Liverpool- 410M, lfchistory

You can decide for yourself what this means. IMO, this only shows that Klopp deserves more credit. Imagine you are John Henry, you said to Klopp: take these 400M and give me a world class football team. Klopp did it and returned more than 300M back to you. Would you think that the fact that Klopp managed to improve this team drastically while keeping most of that fund still available is actually very impressive?

Submitted March 27, 2019 at 09:35PM by egyptiankingsalah via reddit https://ift.tt/2HWvRPN

#IFTTT #reddit #liverpoolfc #liverpool fc #lfc #ynwa

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popentertainment-interviews · 3 years

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RZA & Alex Tse

Bring Da Ruckus with Wu-Tang: An American Saga

By George Seth Wagner

From the slums of Shaolin, the Wu-Tang Clan strikes again. The RZA, the GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck Raekwon the Chef, U-God, Ghostface Killah, and the Method Man. 30 years later you still know them. Whether you're dusting off your original edition vinyl of Enter the Wu-Tang or opening Spotify to listen to The Saga Continues, the Wu is timeless.

Now the group is tackling a fresh territory -- television. Led by RZA and Alex Tse, Wu-Tang: An American Saga has opened its second season on Hulu to much love from fans and critics alike.

PopEntertainment sits down with the show's creators Alex Tse (Watchmen) and original Wu-Tang member RZA to discuss everything from what it took to make this show, the Wu as a group, the actors, and more.

We're nearing the 30th anniversary of Wu-Tang and the group still are as culturally relevant as you were in the '90s, which is a hard thing to maintain. What's the impact of that for you?

RZA: I think purity, something that's pure, always exists. Like a diamond, it's still going to be a diamond. I think Wu is like that. We were one of those diamonds that was discovered by the audience, by the fans. Also, the discovery of ourselves and coming together with our unity, I think it's like a diamond value. No matter, what every generation is going to recognize the value of a diamond one day, right? Here we are close to 30 years later, and I think it's really poignant that Wu-Tang is being put back in front of the world in a new way. In a new medium, yet still being a source of inspiration.

Alex, were you a Wu-Tang fan previously? If so, did this become a passion project? How did you just get involved with this show?

Alex Tse: [I] was a huge Wu-Tang fan. In fact, I probably thought I knew everything about Wu-Tang until I met RZA. Then I was like, oh, I don't know nothing about Wu-Tang. It's beyond a passion project. It would have been a passion project if RZA wasn't my partner, or if it was just a story. It's a great responsibility. I felt the same about Watchmen, but even more so in that RZA is my partner. You don't ever want to let him down or not come through. So, it's beyond that for me.

I totally feel you. For both of you, what made you decide it was time to share the story of Wu-Tang with the world? I'm also wondering what made you guys decide to do a TV show over the popular music biopic that's made a resurgence recently?

RZA: That's a great question. We felt that Wu-Tang can't be contained in two hours. It's going to be hard to contain it in 20, 30, 40, and 50 hours. (laughs) That's a lot of story there. We just wanted to really open up that door and let all the inspiration, the obstacles, all that be put in front of an audience, so maybe it could be a map for another young mind. I'll pass the mic to Alex.

Alex Tse: Especially, getting to know RZA, knowing all the things [making it into a movie] wasn't really on the table at that point. What may have been on the table was like, “Is this maybe a limited [series]?” Even then, I felt like it would be a disservice because there's so much story there. The nerd in me was like, nah, man, we got to show (laughs)... because the nerd in me… we'll watch some other music biopics that will remain nameless. That will be like, no. I remember reading about this, why is that not in the movie? Or like, if I know this person wrote this song, why is that not in the movie? To me, this was built to be told over many hours. That's how I've always felt, once him and I got to sit down.

Something I've been wondering personally is what was it like working with TJ Atoms, who has to figure out how to properly portray such a polarizing and complex figure like ODB, who was like always stood out to me ever since...

Alex Tse: I see you though, you reppin' Philly though. [Atoms is from my hometown of Philadelphia] That's cool. I know you're reppin' Philly too. You got to go hometown on that. Sorry, I had to cut you off (laughs)

No, you're completely fine. (laughs)

RZA: Also, if you look at TJ, he's actually standing out. We as creators and going in our writer's room, we paced him as well. One thing I suppose we can say is we pacing the story like we pace an album. It starts off with "Bring Da Ruckus." You don't hear ODB on "Bring Da Ruckus" but by the time you hear him on "Shame [On a N****]", you like yo! Then he goes twice on "Shame [On a N****]" you know what I mean? Point being made is that when you look at a TJ in the first season, you meet him, but you get deep into him. Then in the second season, we take you to his neighborhood, you know what I mean? And you're like, wow, I love this guy even more. Especially what he yells out: "I'm the one-man army ason!"

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#RZA #Alex Tse #2021 #Television #Wu-Tang: An American Saga #George Seth Wagner

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stairset · 6 years

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Since the series finale is coming up I wanna talk about all my absolute favorite Rebels episodes, in the order they aired bc ranking them would be so hard and I'm lazy, and why I love them because I feel like I owe it to a show that's been a huge part of my life for the last few years and was one of the things that got me through the nightmare that is the teenage years.

Rise of the Old Masters: I think every good show has that one great episode early on that just tells you "this is gonna be a good show, we have a plan" and gets you hooked, and I believe this was that episode for Rebels. Spark of Rebellion was a solid start, Droids in Distress and Fighter Flight were slower episodes to help you get to know the characters a bit more, and then this episode is, for lack of a better term, when shit started getting real. Ezra and Kanan's relationship starts developing, the Grand Inquisitor is introduced in person and makes a great first impression, we get some of our first major Clone Wars connections, etc. It also uses Yoda's famous "do or do not" line to deliver a nice message. "I'm not gonna TRY to teach you anymore. If all I do is try, that means I don't truly believe I can succeed, so from now on, I WILL teach you".

Path of the Jedi: Once again, Kanan and Ezra both have a lot of development here, both as a team and as individuals. The crazy visions that Ezra experiences were some of the darkest and most intense things in the show at the time, and Frank Oz guest appearing as Yoda's voice and Ezra finally constructing his own lightsaber are both great crowd pleasing moments. It also happens to be the first appearance of the world between worlds, though neither Ezra or the audience realized it at the time, which just goes to show how far back the writers planned everything out.

Call To Action: Tarkin makes his debut and calls out our other villains on their relative incompetence throughout the season, even going so far as to, erm, make an example of two of them, and succeeds where they have failed, even capturing Kanan in the process. Despite the cliffhanger, it's a bittersweet ending as the crew does succeed in their mission to deliver a message of hope to Lothal and the surrounding systems. This is where the stakes start to raise, and it shows.

Fire Across the Galaxy: Ending the first season with a bang, the crew rescues Kanan on Tarkin's star destroyer above Mustafar, the stolen TIE from Fighter Flight actually ends up being relevant, the Grand Inquisitor is sent off in the perfect way, the crew joins with Pheonix Squadron, giving us our earliest look at the growing rebellion, and of course the moment everyone remembers, the reintroduction to Ahsoka Tano, and her former master not long after. It was the perfect way to end the first season while getting everyone hyped for the next.

The Siege of Lothal: Everyone was absolutely hyped for the season 2 premiere and it did not disappoint. While many worried that Vader would be toned down for the show, he proved to be as threatening as ever, outsmarting our heroes time and again, kicking Kanan and Ezra's asses, and putting his pilot skills to use by taking on the entirety of Pheonix Squadron himself. And of course there's the unforgettable scene where he and Ahsoka sense each other and James Earl Jones delivers the iconic, bone chilling line "the apprentice lives".

Stealth Strike: This episode was just fun, plain and simple. Kanan and Rex's bickering, Ezra's interactions with Sato, it was all hilarious and entertaining. It was sweet seeing Kanan and Rex finally start getting along, and it also happens to be one of the few times Commander Sato played a major role in an episode. Despite Sato's fairly minor role in the show I always liked him, so seeing him in the action with the lead characters was nice.

The Future of the Force: The Inquisitors are after force sensitive children to ensure that they don't grow up to become Jedi, and it's up to Ezra, Kanan, Zeb and Ahsoka to stop them. Kanan, Ezra and Zeb having to get out of the apartment building with the Inquisitors hot on their trail was intense and lead to an entertaining chase through town, and it all culminated in the elic fight between Ahsoka and the Inquisitors where we see her brandish her white lightsabers for the first time. The episode also serves as a bit of a continuation of the Clone Wars season 2 premiere, in which Sidious hires Cad Bane to help carry out a very similar plot.

Legacy: The episode starts off intense with the Empire attacking the Rebels at their current location after Ezra accidentally gave it away in the previous episode, while the rest is much slower, as Ezra follows a trail of force breadcrumbs to Ryder Azadi, from whom he finally learns the tragic fate of his parents. I think I speak for a lot of people when I expected him to reunite with them, so the revelation of their deaths was a bit of a shocker, and Ezra's reaction, his vison of being with them on a better Lothal, and Kanan's statement that they'll live on in him were all beautifully tearjerking.

Shroud of Darkness: Even though this episode basically exists for the purpose of setting up the season finale, it still stands on its own as a fan favorite, and rightfully so. Our Jedi Trio of Ezra, Kanan and Ahsoka see lots of cool, trippy visions in the Lothal temple, including the Grand Inquisitor and the revelation of his backstory, the return of Frank Oz as Yoda (this time face to face), and of course Ahsoka getting confirmation that Vader really is her old master, with Matt Lanter reprising his role. The episode also has a number of iconic shots, including the temple guard avatars surrounding the Inquisitors, Ahsoka seeing Yoda in an homage to The Last Crusade, and Vader entering the Lothal temple at the end to meet with his Inquisitors in person.

Thhe Mystery of Chopper Base: A rather straight forward adventure, featuring the crew having to rescue Rex from some creepy ass spider creatures. Like Stealth Strike, this episode is simply fun. It's got so many great interactions between our main crew. But there's also a lingering feeling of dread throughout because, because you know there gonna be separated soon and that something's gonna go wrong because, well, it's Star Wars. It leads into the season finale perfectly.

Twilight of the Apprentice: We all remember this one. We all remember our exact reactions to everything in it. Maul is introduced, Ezra starts being tempted by the dark side, the Inquisitors are all killed off, Kanan is blided, and of course Ahsoka and Vader have their climactic duel that was built up for the whole season and did not disappoint, and the last minute or so simply showing the aftermath of everything that happened as “It’s All Over” plays is so effective with absolutely no dialogue. Not only that, but, and I’ve said this before, this episode is also the point where all the big parts of the timeline directly come together. In this episode, Rebels, Clone Wars, the prequels, the originals and even the sequels are all directly connected in a way that they never were before, and it’s not until a later episode that they’re all connected on that same level again. This episode, and subsequently the whole show, is the fulcrum of the Star Wars saga.

The Holocrons of Fate: Maul makes his return and has his sights set on both the Sith holocron from Malachor and Kanan’s Jedi holocron so that he can combine their power to learn any knowledge he desires. This leads to our mind-blowing climax in which Maul learns through the light of the holocrons that Obi-wan is still alive and sets off to find him, while Ezra sees a vision of twin suns, also pointing to Obi-wan, albeit in a less direct way. While the whole episode is entertaining the ending is truly what sets its place as one of the best simply because of the epic factor.

The Last Battle: This episode is simply a half hour of pure unadultered Clone Wars nostalgia and I loved every goddamn second of it. Everything from the battle of Christophsis soundtrack to the return of the droid humor from tcw to General Kalani from the Onderon arc being there to the heroes having to team up with the droids thanks to Ezra being the voice of reason and making them realize they were all just pawns for Palpatine and he is their true enemy, and the yellow Clone Wars style title card at the end with the Clone Wars theme playing during the credits, it’s just a giant love letter to the entire Clone Wars fanbase, a thank you for helping the crew get where they are today. It shows how much they truly appreciate their fans, which shouldn’t be a rare thing with content creators but it is.

An Inside Man: I have a sorta complicated relationship with Agent Kallus, who I guess isn’t an agent anymore but that’s beside the point. I don’t like him that much as I feel his redemption arc could’ve been handled much better and he could’ve done more to earn it, which I’ve talked about before. Yet despite this, I love not only this episode but another Kallus centered episode later on that I’ll get to. This whole episode is intense and excited. Mister Sumar, a minor character from season 1, is reintroduced only to be brutally killed by Thrawn, seeting the stakes for the episode, and establishing Thrawn as an effective villain. While Thrawn’s episodes before this one were more about him simply studying the heroes from behind the scenes, this is the point where he starts taking direct action against the heroes, and does it damn well. He figures out all their tricks that all the Imperials before him overlooked, and Kanan and Ezra only barely get out.

Visions and Voices: Maul returns once again to finish his mind connection with Ezra, leading to the return to Dathomir where the ghosts of the Nightsisters serve as the Guest Appearance Of The Week and posess Kanan and Sabine in rather creepy ways, Ezra also discovers Obi-wan is alive while Maul finds out where he’s hiding, and of course Sabine gets her hands on the darksaber. Like Shroud of Darkness this episode exists just to set up a climactic fight in a later episode, but still stands on it’s own.

Trials of the Darksaber/Legacy of Mandalore: I put these together because they’re basically a two-parter and because I love them for largely the same reasons. These were the first Sabine episodes where she finally got some real, major development as a character. Previous Sabine centered episode seemed to all follow the pattern of “have some dialogue hinting at her backstory that we give away in the sneak peeks then no other answers” and it was frustrating because beyond that those episodes were solid episode, but the way they kept promoting them to be bigger than they were did effect my enjoyment of them at the time. These episode finally resolve that problem and give us payoff to all those hints, and boy was that payoff satisfying. We get the backstory of the darksaber, Sabine training, we’re finally introduced to her family, and the final battle between Sabine and Gar Saxon is simply epic.

Through Imperial Eyes: This is the other Kallus episode that I love despite my “meh” opinion of the character. The banter between Kallus and Ezra is very entertaining to watch, Kallus’s plan for framing Liste as the traitor to keep his cover is very clever, though obviously not clever enough to fool Thrawn, who once again proves to be a great villain and shows that he can hold his own in a physical fight, and of course Yularen appearing was cool.

Twin Suns: The long awaited final showdown between Obi-wan and Maul, who actually finally dies for good, like is really, seriously, legit, for real, in actuality, finally permanently dead, deceased, lifeless, killed, devoid of life, sleeping with the fishes, an ex-person. At first I was in the crowd of people who were like “what the fuck” at how quick he went out, but in analysis I wouldn’t have it any other way. It shows how much Obi-wan has wisened over the years whereas Maul never learned, never changed, and tried the same thing he did on Qui-Gon, and it proved to be his final downfall. The way Obi-wan holds Maul’s body in his arms the same way he did with both Qui-Gon and Satine so many years before, and shows sadness and pity that it couldn’t have turned out differently is absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking. The cartoons made Maul such an interesting character, and cemented him as one of my favorite villains, and I couldn’t ask for a better conclusion to this decades old rivalry.

Zero Hour: While not as mind blowing as the previous season’s finale, Zero Hour is still and intense and action packed way to conclude the season. We see the end of Pheonix Squadron and the beginnings of then true Rebel Alliance, Sato gets an epic and heroic send off, the fight in space with Ezra and the Mandos is epic, the Bendu gives us a glimpse of his true power, and Thrawn is as great a villain as ever. The whole thing is simply epic.

In The Name of the Rebellion: We finally saw the Rebel Alliance on Yavin 4 in all its glory, Saw makes a return and, as I said when the episodes first aired, I believe the Moral Ambiguity with his character, while still not perfect, was handled better here than in Ghosts of Geonosis, but i don’t feel like repeating myself so just look the post up if you haven’t read it already. Anyway Saw’s interactions with Ezra and Sabine were a lot of fun to watch, like if we’re still giving everyone space fmaily nicknames then Saw is like the slightly crazed but still kinda cool uncle in this episode. All the connections to Rogue One were a ton of fun to piece together, and it was great to finally see a giant kyber crystal that’s actually fully animated. Also Jennifer Hale was in it so that’s pretty neat.

Flight of the Defender: A very simple and straight forward episode. Ezra and Sabine steal the TIE defender prototype, they crash it and hide the hyperdrive, we meet the white lothwolf who helps them get back to their friends. I can’t even really explain why I like this one so much tbh, but I do.

Jedi Night/DUMJE: We all know why these episodes are here. I couldn’t ask for a more epic and heartbreaking send off for Kanan’s character, and I’m glad that they dedicated the entire following episode to showing how the rest of the cast deals with their grief in different way rather than glossing over it and immediately moving on to the Mortis stuff. It’s surprisingly rare for characters to get to properly grieve in this franchise despite death being so common. Obi-wan, Galen, Han, Luke, the entire population of Alderaan, the other characters have to get over these things pretty quickly so it’s nice to see a more realistic aftermath for once.

Wolves and a Door/A World Between Worlds: I’ve made my thoughts on these episodes very clear since they aired on Monday, which is that they are quite possibly the most mind blowing thing I’ve watched in a very long time. The connections to Mortis and callbacks to all the movies and to Clone Wars, the voices in the background, the beautifully animated moving pictures, the return of Ahsoka and the revelation of what happened to her, Sidious making his debute with Ian McDiarmid himself providing the voice, it’s all incredible to watch. Like I said about Twilight of the Apprentice, this episode is one of the few times where we get an idea of just how connected everything really is, that it’s all one big story. No wonder the two episodes are also so tightly connected to each other, they truly are where all the parts of the saga come together in ways they never could otherwise.

#this is quite possibly the longest post ive ever made im just. so passionate about this show ok #its so important to me i just had to make a big huge analysis about why i love it so much #im gonna miss it so much but im glad its gonna get the proper ending it deserves #instead of getting canned while still in its prime like tcw #star wars rebels #shut up tristan

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melbynews-blog · 6 years

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MoA - Netanyahoo To Again Cry Wolf

Neuer Beitrag veröffentlicht bei https://melby.de/moa-netanyahoo-to-again-cry-wolf/

MoA - Netanyahoo To Again Cry Wolf

April 30, 2018

Netanyahoo To Again Cry Wolf – But Something Bigger Is Up (Updated)

Updated below —

U.S. President Trump wants to end the nuclear agreement (pdf) with Iran and wants to eliminated Iranian forces in Syria which support the Syrian government. Something is being prepared to make that happen.

Last week General Joseph Votel, commander of CENTCOM – the U.S. military command for the Middle East, was in Israel. It was the first ever visit of a CENTCOM commander to Israel which usually works with the European command EUCOM.

Yesterday former CIA director and now Secretary of State Pompeo visited Israel. A few hours later Israel bombed two ammunition depots in Syria which are supposedly related to Iran. This was a clear attempt to provoke Iran into some reaction.

The Israeli defense minister Lieberman just visited Washington DC and only today came back to Israel.

Now the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahoo loudly announced that he will hold a press conference to present a „huge amount of new and dramatic information on the Iranian nuclear program“. He will allege that Iran cheats on the nuclear agreement (JCPOA).

Netanyahoo is a notorious liar and warmonger. In September 2002 he lied (vid) to the U.S. congress:

There is no question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking and is working and is advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons – no question whatsoever”

Only yesterday he promoted a false story that claimed Arabs in Israel had disrupted a minuted of silence for some people killed in a flash flood.

The IAEA says that Iran is in full compliance with the JCPOA. If there were any serious intelligence about any Iranian deviation from the nuclear agreement it would be presented to the IAEA and the six signature powers of the agreement. The IAEA would investigate and report back. If Iran cheated it would be put back under serious international sanctions. That Netanyahoo wants to present something publicly makes it very likely that he has nothing of relevance.

We hear that the documents he is said to present were compiled by one Christopher Steele and assembled with the help of one Sergej Skripal and his MI6 handler [redacted]. They will show that Iran attempts to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger.

This new comedy stunt by Netanyahoo is tightly coordinated with the Trump administration. Trump’s national security advisor John Bolton has worked with the Zionists since early 2000 to push for a war on Iran:

During multiple trips to Israel, Bolton had unannounced meetings, including with the head of Mossad, Meir Dagan, without the usual reporting cable to the secretary of state and other relevant offices. Judging from that report on an early Bolton visit, those meetings clearly dealt with a joint strategy on how to bring about political conditions for an eventual U.S. strike against Iran.

Behind Trump, Netanyahoo and Bolton is one financier, the militant Zionist and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. He financed Trump’s and Netanyahoo’s election campaigns and the various think tanks that create anti-Iranian propaganda and paid Bolton.

bigger

Trump wants to leave the nuclear agreement but the other signers, China, Russia, the UK, France and Germany want to keep it up. Just leaving the JCPOA without cause will increase doubt over any agreement the U.S. wants to make on other issues. The allegations Netanyahoo will put forward, no matter how ridiculous they may be, could give Trump some excuse to put new sanctions on Iran without actually leaving the agreement.

But even that does not explain all the recent meetings and visits by the various Israeli and U.S. officials. French soldiers and mercenaries from the UAE have entered north-east-Syria. What for? The Saudis are on board with any operation against Iran.

Something big is up and we do not know yet what it might be.

— Update

That was lame. Netanyahoo just finished his show (vid). He claimed that Israel got access to an Iranian archive of its former nuclear program dating from 1999 to 2003. In 2007 a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate found that Iran stopped all nuclear weapon research in 2003 after the U.S. had destroyed Iran’s then arch-enemy Iraq. In 2011 the IAEA reported in detail of Iran’s former „structured program“. It agreed that it had stopped in 2003.

All that Netanyahoo now claims to have acquired is old and known stuff. He refers to an AMAD plan Iran had as if that was some new intelligence. But the IAEA documented AMAD and its development in 2011 (PDF, Annex, page 5). He uses the archive documents with details of well known former programs to declare that Iran has cheated and is not trustworthy. He says that gives Trump reason to disavow the nuclear agreement the U.S. and others had signed with Iran. That is bullshit.

One wonders where the pictures and files Netanyahoo presented are coming from. I have a hunch that these were not obtained from a „warehouse“ in Iran but exfiltrated from a computer in Vienna where the IAEA analyzes the former Iranian research program from files Iran handed to it.

I had expected better from a serial liar. Some well forged documents or something more dramatic. This was just nonsense.

My feeling is that this is a diversion from an upcoming military(?) operation against Iran or its assets in Lebanon, Syria or Iraq.

Posted by b on April 30, 2018 at 01:06 PM | Permalink

Absolutely correct b. Something’s cooking and it won’t take long for the world to find out what it was.

Also, when responding to the Iranian threats to re-start their nuclear program, Mr Trump appears to have an answer pretty resolute i.e „They won’t be starting anything, you can bank on that“

One more thing I like to add. If Mr Trump withdraws US from the deal which is also endorsed by the UNSC, US will loose to IRAN in the war that follows-up.

Posted by: Fantome | Apr 30, 2018 1:18:54 PM | 1

Well, what’s up is war. Syria and Iran are still missing in the trophy collection.

Posted by: BX | Apr 30, 2018 1:20:34 PM | 2

Right now Netanyahu on CNN – Iran lied. Claims Israel has lots of stolen files.

Posted by: spudski | Apr 30, 2018 1:25:09 PM | 3

OH no! not the yellow cake saga again. Well, if they can get away with the Syrian chemical weapons attack that the white helmets can fix with a hose pipe, then anything goes. It looks as though the Skripal affair has lots more secrets to reveal. This story just keeps on giving and giving, although if you looked for it in MSM you wouldn’t find anything on it. I don’t understand why the missile defense system doesn’t appear to activate for the Iranian contingent in Syria. Is it because this was a surprise attack and the Syrians?Russians were caught off guard, or are the Iranians left to fend for themselves as far as air bombardment is concerned? I get the feeling that the West is probing and poking the bear a bit at a time with a stick to get a reaction. They may well be sorry what they wish for.

Posted by: john wilson | Apr 30, 2018 1:32:07 PM | 5

Doesn’t look like fake anti-establishment, swamp-drainer, poseur Trump has given himself ANY leeway…

with which he might counter or to move away from the numerous neocon nut cases hell-bent for WW3 whom he has permanently invited to his war cabinet golden shower party.

Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 30, 2018 1:36:25 PM | 6

Netanyahu is probably the most dangerous leader in this world, the raw lying and propaganda, its heinous. Not to mention this sick lunatic in Israel have some 300 nukes already themselves, IN SECRET!

Now he have come up with fake documents, trying to justify a war! Same jewish state that whine about antisemitism, this people are not sane…

Hopefully west dont accept this blatant sicko, because as usual, its not Israel that want to wage the war, no, the war must be fought by goyim europeans and especially americans.

With ugly pack of morons as Trump, POmpeo, Bolton, it doesnt look good.

This war hysteria just come weeks after the illegal and dangerous bombing of Syria. Netanyahu clarly is a psychopath.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 1:36:55 PM | 7

What is going on with those s300s? Russia needs to give Syria/Iran the means to defend themselves from these repeated acts of Israeli aggression. It should not be so easy for Israel to take out Iranian forces.

Posted by: Jayhawk2018 | Apr 30, 2018 1:37:18 PM | 8

The only way to kick the legs out of Iran in a manner that Israel cares about which would also hurt Assad would be to destroy Hezbollah. The only chance of doing that would be to go full war crime mode and use the most vicious thermobaric or possibly tactical nuclear weapons.

If we did that or enabled the Israelis to do that then we will have reached total depravity. At this point I believe the U.S. public is okay with bombing anyone as long as U.S. lives are not lost. If the Israelis do it we cheer, if we do it then it shows the rest of the world who is boss.

Posted by: Christian Chuba | Apr 30, 2018 1:40:17 PM | 9

Jayhawk2018

Russia is bust, they refused s300 and here we are, not only bombing of Syria but even Iran now?

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 1:40:41 PM | 10

This can all be easily followed all the way back to before the Iranian nuclear deal and a policy paper out of Brookings on how to set up Iran for war. Basically, it states make a deal with Iran then prove that although the West did its best, Iran broke the deal in whatever manner. Appears they have all the actors lined up. Now it begins. The war of words then war. Like we haven’t seen this before.

Posted by: LJ Smith | Apr 30, 2018 1:40:54 PM | 11

Nuttyyahoo is dangerous BECAUSE he is thoroughly enabled by the FUKUS, but especially the US in EVERY way – politically, monetarily, morally, and and he is promoted on every television network and mainstream media outlet.

Trump has become increasingly dangerous because he has surrounded himself with Pompeo, Bolton, Nikki Haley, Nuttyyahoo…

Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 30, 2018 1:48:46 PM | 13

Holy jumping f***, the „yellow cake“ BS again. You’d think these war mongering morons could be more inventive.

Posted by: ben | Apr 30, 2018 1:52:18 PM | 14

Where will it end? Russia allows it to continue. Then remains who? Pakistan? Are we profitting? US has become monster.

Posted by: Jared | Apr 30, 2018 1:54:26 PM | 15

„That was lame.“

US/UK/Israel are not even trying for convincing narratives now. Sounds like F-35 was used to hit the ammo dumps in Syria. Maybe the zionists figure they have F35 bugs ironed out and its time to put it to work against Iran.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:03:51 PM | 16

Nikki Haley aka Nimrata Randhawa, is obviously a mental lightweight and a „yes man“ for positive reinforcement & public relations/messaging purposes.

The others are genuinely depraved, lunatic warmongers whom maintain the ability to string together sentences.

Wonder where the Kagans are in all this. Cheering from the sidelines? Seems they’d be invited.

Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 30, 2018 2:03:57 PM | 17

Didn’t an American Green Beret from IIRC a nuke snoop/radiological team just die reecently in Niger?

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Apr 30, 2018 2:13:18 PM | 18

I think b was being sarcastic although Netanyahu and Bolton really are dumb and arrogant enough to try it.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Apr 30, 2018 2:19:08 PM | 19

Actually Iran has a long-time investment in uranium mines in Namibia, from the Shah’s time, and Ahmadinejad even visited Niger in Apr 2013 while that country was looking to diversify its uranium sales away from the French Areva. There’s nothing „secret“ about any of this, uranium is a fuel for reactors.

Posted by: Cyrus | Apr 30, 2018 2:20:01 PM | 20

… What I like about this story is that, even though smearing Iran doesn’t make any sense, narratives that don’t make sense are ’normal‘ for that bloodthirsty experiment in social engineering known as „Israel“. One wonders whether, if the „Israelis“ are serious about attacking Iran, then shouldn’t they be encouraged to give it a try, just to see what happens? If they’re not worried about blowback from Iran and Hezbollah, why should anyone else lose any sleep over it? When Medvedev was President of Russia he said in an interview (with Zacharia) on a US network that ab attack on Iran would create an „unimaginable refugee catastrophe“. Ironically (or Russian-ly), he didn’t say for whom it would be catastrophic…

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 30, 2018 2:20:13 PM | 21

The JCPOA is not a treaty it’s an agreement between the US president and some other countries. The fact that a US president would seek any agreement with its mortal enemy Iran (as dictated by Israel) is ridiculous, but Obama needed something positive for his presidential library besides mandatory medical insurance (Obamacare) so there you go.

So now there’s a new president who ran on a campaign of scrapping the Iran nuclear agreement (and Obamacare) and he’s doing it. It’s no surprise to Ayatollah Khamenei: Oct 6, 2013– Iran’s Leader “Optimistic” about Rowhani’s US Diplomacy, but Skeptical of Washington, Israel

Certainly, we are pessimistic about the Americans. We do not trust them. We consider the government of the United States of America as an unreliable, arrogant, illogical, and trespassing government, which is badly possessed and dominated by the international Zionist network. They are forced to appease the extorter and forged regime that has occupied Palestine to observe the illegitimate desires and interests of the international Zionist network. They ought to be flexible against it for the interests of the international Zionist network. They call it America’s interests, whereas America’s national interests entirely contradict what they are doing today in support of the forged regime. The government of the United States of America is blackmailing the entire world, appeasing the forged Zionist regime. We witness these facts. We do not trust the US government. We trust our own officials. We are optimist and we want them (officials) to take right and firm steps carefully and considering all aspects. They should not forget national interests even for a second. The important point for the Islamic Republic’s system is the internal strength of the structure of the Islamic Republic, the internal strength of the Iranian nation. This has managed to protect the country, national unity, respect to great ideals of the Islamic Republic, and respect to the national honor. The Iranian nation is a dear nation. The revolution gave honor back to them. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 2:21:40 PM | 22

Also, there was actually never any evidence of a nuclear weapons research program prior to 2003 either. The IAEA has specifically gone on record stating in 2009 that it has „no concrete proof that this is or has been a nuclear weapons program in Iran“. Gareth Porter has written more about the 2003 allegations and Israel’s later attempts to undermine the NIE by insisting that there was evidence of „continued“ nuclear weapons work. The worst that the IAEA could ever say it actually found in Iran, were „fragmented and incomplete feasibility studies“ that were „relevant to“ nukes — none of which is in any way a violation of the NPT which actually ENCOURAGES the sharing of technology „relevant to“ nuclear weapons including data from nuclear test explosions.

Posted by: Cyrus | Apr 30, 2018 2:25:01 PM | 23

Wow! The anti-corruption probe into Nuttyyahoo’s activities must be coming close to arresting him; so, to avoid arrest, he must start an actual war of aggression. Only problem is the Zionists like their Outlaw allies are incapable of actually defeating anyone they might attack.

What the Zionists are scared to death of is becoming irrelevant; their Airstrip 1 existence no longer of any value to the Imperialist Empires that created the Zionist state for their own geopolitical machinations. Is there any real reason to militarily attack the Zionists beyond reclaiming Golan? If Lebanon becomes strong enough–I’d argue it’s already–then a simple containment policy coupled with the international BDS movement will be more than enough to facilitate internal political change within the Apartheid State over time–containment will take several years to work as it did on South Africa. Zionist racism has destabilized itself. Talk about a state ripe for being Color Revolutionized. Those are the reasons for the easily seen and rebutted lies of a very desperate politico wanting very much to avoid prison for crimes he committed against his own nation, not the many War Crimes against others.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:26:38 PM | 24

Cyrus

„Also, there was actually never any evidence of a nuclear weapons research program prior to 2003 either“

INdeed, b better fix that desinformation.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:29:26 PM | 25

doesn’t make sense …FUKUS does war on Iran, Iran closes the Gulf …oil goes to 200/ barrel ….US does a superb imitation of a Dead Fly.

Posted by: Breadonwaters | Apr 30, 2018 2:34:35 PM | 26

B.: I had expected better from him. Some well forged documents or something more dramatic. This was just nonsense. ______________________________________________

This is another example of a trend I’ve been on about lately. You’re quite right; the quality of the Western/ME hegemony’s Big Lies is deteriorating markedly before our eyes. But only the minority who are willing and able to keep their eyes wide open seem to notice.

It’s hard to tell if the proliferation of weak and incredible fabrications is based on the Big Liars‘ belief that the public is, or has become, so benighted and bamboozled that they’ll swallow anything, or if it’s an indication that they are running on empty. But, whether it’s due to hubris or degenerate incompetence, it indeed looks as if they aren’t even trying any more.

Then again, as you also point out, Bibi’s anticlimactic histrionics are on a par with his comical September, 2012 performance at the UN, where he produced that cartoon drawing of a „bomb“ in order to flog the typically mendacious and hysterical claim that the noble, harmless State of Israel was in imminent danger of destruction from the „Iranian bomb“.

It’s one thing when zealous Hasbarists, amateur or professional, troll/spam Internet comments boards with their rigidly fatuous, fantastic, Zionist Israel-serving talking points. One expects unsophisticated, fully-indoctrinated True Believers to spew rote talking points and dogma that insult the intelligence of anyone outside the Zionist Hive Mind.

But the fact that Israel’s leaders and authorities shamelessly rely on such childish props to sell their genocidal policies and actions suggests both hubris and abiding contempt for the rest of the world.

It’s hard to believe that Bibi and his allies and supporters don’t know that they’re insulting the rest of the world’s intelligence. I think there’s a word for this. Chutzpah, maybe?

Posted by: Ort | Apr 30, 2018 2:36:07 PM | 27

https://www.bitchute.com/video/IF7ZwfM4tQQK/

This is an absolutely stunning breaking interview of the Syrian independent member of parliament Fares Shehabi by the bbc hardtalk program. The msm typically try to aggressively browbeat non-western interviewees that they disagree with. Unfortunately, most of the interviewees either get cowed or they get emotional and angry.

Fares Shehabi instead is factually and rationally aggressive, fact by fact, counter-argument by counter-argument, not allowing the bbc interviewer to shut him up. It is a model of how to deal with the msm.

the msm have already managed to get the interview wiped off youtube. but it is still available here

http://www.syrianews.cc/syrian-mp-fares-shehabi-pummels-bbc-colonialist-sackur/

download it and upload it and torrent it everywhere you can so that they cannot wipe it off the net.

crossposted

Posted by: anon | Apr 30, 2018 2:36:12 PM | 28

@b and 19: please clarify re Steele and Skripal reference re Net’s „documents“

Posted by: Sid2 | Apr 30, 2018 2:40:25 PM | 29

@Peter AU 1 16 Sounds like F-35 was used to hit the ammo dumps in Syria What’s your reason for saying this. We established at the previous threat that GBU-39 glide bombs were used. They are a stand-off weapon and I believe that the F-35 is incapobale of carrying them.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 2:48:38 PM | 30

anon @ 27

The interview appears to be deleted from the second link also.

Posted by: spudski | Apr 30, 2018 2:54:45 PM | 31

spudski 30

No I just watched its there. Scoll down a bit.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:55:47 PM | 32

Thanks very much, Anonymous @31.

Posted by: spudski | Apr 30, 2018 2:58:00 PM | 33

„unhinged“ = arrogance turns into stupidity? The latest in the continuing Net-job droning on and on „war with Iran“ might not go as well as he expects, given resistance to withdrawal from the JCPOA. A more easily applied application of „arrogance turns into stupidity“ is the White House Correspondents Dinner this weekend roasting Press Sec Sanders. James Woods‘ response did it nicely at „low class trash.“ More of this sort of thing will indeed be „a gift“ to the Republicans in the upcoming elections.

http://theduran.com/james-woods-crushes-white-house-correspondents-dinner-comedian-michelle-wolf/

Posted by: Sid2 | Apr 30, 2018 2:59:38 PM | 34

it’s getting harder and harder to tell what’s really going on. Sites like this are useful, but can only read between the lines: they simply do not have the resources to independantly uncover and vet primary sources of information. More the pity that our establishment news organizations are totally corrupt and have no credibility. That’s a bigger loss than one might at first realize.

That said, it’s interesting that Israel seems to be going real crazy now and not acting as it usually does through its proxies in Washington. I posit two possible interpretations, based on what I would expect as blowback from Trump’s latest Syrian missile strike.

1. The US strike really was successful, Russian air defenses are impotent against US weaponry, and Israel and the US elites feel that it’s now open season on Israel and Iran etc. Open skies, blast away!

2. The US strike was a failure, and Russian air defenses are potentially totally changing the game. Israel and US elites are going nuts and determined to strike hard and fast before the window of opportunity closes, and because they are just in general pissed off at having been defied (‚how dare they defend themselves from our holy humanitarian missile strike?‘). Israel is determined to build momentum for war before the military option becomes untenable. Even if Russian air defenses really are that good, the West can still prevail in the middle east through overwhelming massed attacks… for now…

Note that my thinking posits that our elites will go crazy regardless of what happens – which fits with past experience, but is not perhaps what Karl Popper would have called „falsifiable.“

Posted by: TG | Apr 30, 2018 3:11:12 PM | 36

@Fec 34 The F-35 is not capable of GBU-39 carry, also these glide bombs could be released over international water which safeguards the delivery system.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 3:15:23 PM | 37

If Nikki Haley was supposedly voted most likable US politician hence I suggest, lock the US insane asylum and throw out the key, since now anything will be blabbermouthed and nothing of substance will really happen except some unwitting crisis actors will die, a fact of inhumane cruelty of imperial rulers.

Where are dire warnings from Russia about severe consequences if Syria attacked. Russians lost credibility of their threats which is even worse if they have never made them.

I do not know what it would take for people to see what cruel charade all this is, what would it take for people to realize that it is all Roman type of theater of wilderness and pain and we are audience and targets of this propaganda of fear of global nuke war and destruction that they want us to believe is behind all this cruel soap opera.

There will be no global war since there are no fundamental conflicts within global elites despite what propaganda from all sides claims and that including b, trying to make sense of utter unadulterated nonsense of MSM, for those establishment people in west who are already in it are not idiots but rational people who do that immoral, opportunist job for money knowing what they lie about, knowing that there is no danger of global nuke catastrophe whatsoever, otherwise they would act more sober like it was during Cold War.

However, there is logic in this madness, namely to forcefully align nations with discredited ruling elites who attempt to take role of saviors, when no other method of control over population works any more and policies of deliberated destruction of welfare and civil society, openly provoked mass unrest or revolution and instigated natural growth of working class movements in self defense. Warmongering was classical ploy against discontented population used many times in history and nor mere speculation.

Spreading of fear of global anihilation among populations is the ultimate objective of this unheard of verbal and acting belligerence on world stage, which upon examination of basic socioeconomic facts especially soundness and calm of global financial system indicates mood of world peace and love among oligarchic elites who have a good thing going while sheeple are orderly dying of starvation and fear.

But I guess even on this quite brainy blog people are more interested in menacing tabloid surrealism than boring naked truth. Otherwise, b would not have much to write about in his devastating reports on masive MSM lying, with implicit hope that one day may be NYT writes some truth.

It ain’s gonna happen b , their business is lies yours it seems is to skillfully debunk them, these are ironically two sides of the same coin of unsubstantiated hope of making any difference anymore.

Posted by: Kalen | Apr 30, 2018 3:16:34 PM | 38

Israel will not risk Jews so they will stick to launching air strikes from Lebanon. All of the characters will be happy to use another mercenary army of goys to attack the Syrian gov and it’s allies. Especially attractive might be to use these to buttress the SDF to hold onto eastern Syria or to attack Turk aligned forces.

Posted by: Alaric | Apr 30, 2018 3:43:34 PM | 42

unfortunately the majority only read headlines. In a world where evidence matters not, details of Bibi Nuttuyahoo’s claim 1999-2003 is a side show.

Bibi is setting the stage for his managing director, D. J. Trump, to „honourably“ withdraw from the JCPOA on May 12 and to pressure the other signatories.

There are somethings larger – I do hope someone (Russia or China) will grant Iran their nuclear umbrella. And Kim, do make a note to self.

The Anglo-Zionists are deep in pretexts to coverup:

1. the black swan flying under heavy wings with $230 trillion global debt must be brought down. Not nearly enough in the ESF.

2.Revelations on the recent 100 missiles hoax to retaliate for the ‚chemical attack‘ that was not. Can’t disappear Robert Fisk’s expose – he is widely read..

3. Christoper Steele’s Case on the dock wherein he will be deposed. Oh wait, where is he in hiding with the Skripals?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

@ 8, re Russia delivery of S-300s to Syria. Don’t count on it as Israel’s and Russia’s militaries „have an arrangement to avoid aerial conflict over Syria.“ Last week Russia’s Ambassador to Israel made that clear.

Posted by: Likklemore | Apr 30, 2018 3:48:57 PM | 43

Looks to me like trump is groveling before the Saudis for keeping the petrodollar. Hence he is walking out of the Iran deal despite its geopolitical risk, and trying to show some fireworks in Syria. What’s the half life of this show? More, or less than Trump’s average ejaculation time?

Posted by: meme | Apr 30, 2018 3:49:50 PM | 44

Putin blocking the delivery of S-300 in Syria against the demands of the Russian Military

This was discussed by Putin with General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on April 20. The Russian military, they told the President, want the go-ahead to deploy S-300 missile batteries to cover Syrian and Iranian forces against US and Israeli attack from the air. They believe Israeli threats to attack the S-300 batteries as soon as they are operational are a bluff which Russia must call if Russia’s positions in Syria, and Iran itself, are not to come under subsequent attack from the American-Israeli combination. Testing the threat in Syria, they argue, is the less threatening, less costly option than encouraging the Americans and Israelis to prepare their offensive against Iran. Putin won’t agree.

To respond to Putin’s reluctance, the General Staff and the Defence Ministry have devised a step short of the S-300, but with potentially enough defensive power to intercept or deter American and Israeli air attacks. This is the deployment of more Russian electronic warfare systems with the capacity to jam the surveillance, targeting, fire control and command signals on which the attackers rely. It is the Samson Haircut option – deprive the giant of control of his firepower, blind him.

Silently, Putin has decided to protect Deripaska; not to call the US attack on Rusal an act of war; and to test the Americans with an offer of armistice. International bankers close to Russian business believe it is a Russian illusion that an armistice with the US can be anything but temporary; pursuing it is a miscalculation of US intentions, the sources add. They warn that new attacks will come.

http://johnhelmer.net/the-samson-haircut-option-one-step-before-russia-opens-fire-on-american-israeli-forces/#more-19116

Putin Reportedly “Ready For Deep Concessions”, Seeks Deal With Trump

He understands Russia can’t compete with the West economically and he doesn’t plan to go to war with the West.

Kremlin has ordered officials to curb their anti-U.S. rhetoric.

Putin’s decision explains why lawmakers Monday suddenly pulled a draft law that would’ve imposed sweeping counter-sanctions on U.S. companies, two of the people said.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-18/putin-reportedly-ready-deep-concessions-seeks-deal-trump

Russian Senators to soften counter sanctions against US

RBC: Russian senators to water down Moscow’s response to US sanctions. Two Federation Council members told the newspaper that the final version of the amendments to the ‘anti-sanctions’ bill initiated by State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and leaders of all parliamentary factions, will be “quite mild.”

http://tass.com/pressreview/1001647

Russia not to take action against US diplomatic property – diplomat

More: http://tass.com/politics/1002504

Posted by: Passer by | Apr 30, 2018 3:53:05 PM | 46

Don and Peter.

That’s a lot better than what I had. Beast mode. Hilarious.

For all I know, they shoved it out the back of a C-17.

Posted by: Fec | Apr 30, 2018 3:54:08 PM | 47

By the huge ammount of trolls totally blocking comments at RT English ( and I suppose at any other media )with thousands of botted likes under their comments to rise them to the top of view, I would say they are preparing something big, since I have not seen this level of trolling ( which implies having RT news about this topic blocked for comments as if a DDOS attack would be happening in fact )since the beginning of the Syrian war at some MSM where I started commenting supporting Syria.

Posted by: From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 3:58:55 PM | 48

Passer by | Apr 30, 2018 3:53:05 PM | 45 I believe Putin is playing for time. The March 1 weaponry display didn’t include production numbers but I think it is a safe bet they don’t exist in sufficient numbers..yet.

So US&Co have a small window left to create hell on earth for as many as possible and they IMO will hit Iran before the football playoffs that Putin so wants to go smoothly.

I would assume Iran is/was responsible for Iranian defense of these sites so I am surprised they didn’t respond, maybe there was no time?? Couldn’t Russia have warned them?? And does anyone know what weaponry the Russians brought into Syria recently under cover of smoke?

Posted by: frances | Apr 30, 2018 4:02:55 PM | 49

I’ve no doubt that for a lot of people the question of F-35 usage anywhere near a combat zone is a so-what issue, but for those of us who have struggled for years to bring some truth about this fault-filled much-delayed program through the fog of corruption, it’s important to maintain that the current fleet of expensive pre-production F-35 prototypes is truly worthless.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 4:08:50 PM | 50

Likklemore

Uh, that is the reason Russia should use S300. Then, there wouldnt be any „aerial conflict“ over Syrian sovereign airspace to begin with.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:09:58 PM | 51

@ frances 48 US&Co . . will hit Iran before the football playoffs And how might they „hit Iran?“ Do you mean hit the country itself with a military attack?

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 4:13:42 PM | 52

Israel has said that it will take out any S-300 in Syria, and that would include any nearby Russians.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 4:15:24 PM | 53

From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 3:58:55 PM | 47 You’re right, pretty amazing, I did manage to post two comments debunking the docs, but it took forever.

Posted by: frances | Apr 30, 2018 4:18:37 PM | 54

@ frances

I think the World Cup is playing a big role in the decision making as you have said. There is a lot at stake: investments already made and international exposure also. I can’t wait for it to be finished so we can get back to war !! (sarc)

Posted by: imoverit | Apr 30, 2018 4:20:46 PM | 56

Israel could start its assassination program, carry out sabotage, airstrikes, there is no limit to the sick regime and the sick western media accetpance of the same unhinged behavior by Israel.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:32:44 PM | 57

Posted by: frances | Apr 30, 2018 4:18:37 PM | 53

Go out of tha site and come in again to post your comment, This you must do it with every comment you want to post, as I have discovered so far, but who is to tire with this invasion and what is at stake? Not me…. I am noticing that they are already tyring indeed, and start desisting. One of my comments was deleted while still tipping….and the keyboard gets blocked when you saty there a while, but if you go out and come in again you will be able to post. Try it.

Posted by: From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 4:37:17 PM | 58

the hero of hebrew history above is a great man did obaama not give him 30 billion in war arms. did germany not give him 5 free dolphin class submarines for samson option. does german public funds pay compensation cover amounting to a trillion euros by the year 2070. the man is a god he can drop and fire depleted uraniun ,drop dialed down nuke bombs kill president,primeminister sell usa top secret files to china and russia via operation talpiot can he not listen and blackmail the world. who else can kill gaza semites by the 10s of thousands and then call critic anti semite this man benji is a king maker bow down for you are not fit to lick his precious fingers

Posted by: charles drake | Apr 30, 2018 4:38:45 PM | 59

From the resistance

Re: trolls at RT commenting commenting and liking troll comments to many thousands. I have seen this before so its not a new thing, I wonder who initiate this, most likely western states spy orgs.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:41:20 PM | 60

Does NuttyYahoo’s document collection include the plans for nuclear triggers that the CIA gave to them via Operation Merlin?

Posted by: Curtis | Apr 30, 2018 4:44:15 PM | 61

Et al–

Russia began its Syria intervention with an S-400 deployed in Latakia and has introduced several more since, one being in Sept 2017. Syria also has the BUK-M2E AA system and the Pantsir to go with its older and upgraded S-200 systems along with who knows what else. Just what was off loaded from Russian supply vessels under the cover of smoke last week (don’t know if such veiling’s continuing)? My guess is more AA systems of the type causing Zionists on both sides of Atlantic to freakout.

As for the Zionists attacking Iranian military bases, those Iran uses in Syria are joint-use with Syria regardless of what’s said by Zionists; so, any such attack will need to be aimed at Iran proper. The consequences for the region would be horrible–particularly for Zionists and Saudis: Dimona would be leveled as would Saudi oil infrastructure. The fallout and other pollution would be appalling. If the Zionists want to keep their skin, they’ll arrest Nutty before he gets his get-out-of-jail war started.

Zionists know they’ve lost and are contained and constrained, so they’re moving into desperation mode. Too bad they lack the courage to put a pistol to their head and pull the trigger.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:45:37 PM | 62

to all those who say the F35 can not use the GBU-39, well what about the upgrade to this weapon the GBU-53/B which it can…

here is a pic of 4 loaded on F35 http://www.navair.navy.mil/img/uploads/2012209CA001-159.jpg imbedded date on this image is 7/27/2012

also note the small diameter bomb has been adapted to be launched from HIMARS mlrs. So, the story of ground launched weapons used could have been this version of the weapons used in addition to air launches.

SDB weapons can also be used from drones…

Posted by: the original Paul | Apr 30, 2018 4:46:33 PM | 63

I have trouble in believing that Trump will really attack Iran, just because of some new fake evidence from Netanyahu. N’s been trying this forever.

The basic point is that Trump’s electorate don’t want real war, with American deaths. So far, it’s been like that, 102 missiles following 59 Tomahawks,and no effect.

Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 30, 2018 4:47:05 PM | 64

Laguerre

Trump is dumb enough, Pompeo, Bolton, Trump, I mean you cant get worse, these are the most sick hawks and Trump have already showed that he could attack states illegally Syria, with no proof whatsoever. Stop hoping on Trump.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:58:29 PM | 65

Posted by: TG | Apr 30, 2018 3:11:12 PM | 35

Israel is in a position to attack but not to defend. Israel’s problem is not Iran but the Palestinians.

John Helmer seems to think that Russia has decided on electronic warfare, that would be reason for panic as Israel’s (and US) stuff is completely dependent on electronics.

Posted by: somebody | Apr 30, 2018 5:00:07 PM | 66

One guy has traced the „Paul Bright“ bot IP to KSA..but I do not know how the hell it could be done…

Posted by: From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 5:05:31 PM | 67

It’s clearer and clearer that Russia is at best impotent, but more likely complicit.

Posted by: paul | Apr 30, 2018 5:07:14 PM | 68

Its absolutely disgusting to see comments on social media majorities uncritically belive Netanyahu.

Posted by: Robert D | Apr 30, 2018 5:12:43 PM | 69

„Trump is dumb enough,“

yes but not to the degree where he has to justify American dead.

Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 30, 2018 5:16:15 PM | 70

„It’s clearer and clearer that Russia is at best impotent,“ Frankly that’s fantasy.

Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 30, 2018 5:25:04 PM | 71

@Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:26:38 PM | 23 „the Imperialist Empires that created the Zionist state for their own geopolitical machinations“ Read a book once in a while. Some racial-supremacist, religious-supremacist Ashkenazi zionist jews created Israel for their own machinations, and no-one else’s. Israel is not Airstrip One. It serves no masters other than bigoted zionist jews.

@Posted by: Ort | Apr 30, 2018 2:36:07 PM | 26 Convince the plebian mob, and you convince most of society. Dissenters are drowned out, or hounded. Jewish-owned/run companies control most of the Western world’s major news media.

@Peter AU 1 16 „Sounds like F-35 was used to hit the ammo dumps in Syria“ F-35 is a POS. Ammo dumps hit by old technology – ground-launched ATACMS missiles with unitary penetrating warheads. ATACMS = supersonic, manoueverable, non-ballistic flight path, hard to shoot down, big @%!$ impact and kaboom.

Posted by: 3.14159kalteckaltectowthatline | Apr 30, 2018 5:29:53 PM | 72

Laguerre

No hes right, russia is backstabbing as usual.

Posted by: Robert d | Apr 30, 2018 5:31:46 PM | 73

There were a number of reasons for the Balfour Declaration, but one of the major ones was defense of the Suez Canal, vital for communications to India. The Turks had already attacked the canal twice by 1917. The Brits wanted a local group on the spot that would help to defend the canal. A Jewish settlement filled the bill.

Posted by: lysias | Apr 30, 2018 5:43:03 PM | 74

And in 1956 they did precisely that. But by that time the British Empire was too far gone to be able to make proper use of that support.

Posted by: lysias | Apr 30, 2018 5:47:03 PM | 75

@Cyrus | Apr 30, 2018 2:20:01 PM | 20 As background knowledge that most overlook, Iran is one of the top sources for uranium ore, unfortunately it is contaminated with molybdenum making it almost useless for high grading. That is a primary reason for their investment in uranium in Africa.

Posted by: Bakerpete | Apr 30, 2018 5:48:45 PM | 76

Embedded in the news story (link below) is a video claimed to be of one of the bombs dropped during the attack described in the news story.

I have no way of knowing yet how many bombs were dropped in all nor what they were exactly. The report of the attack registering 2.6 on the Richter scale suggests that at least one hit was something VERY big. I am inclined to believe that this blast in the video is entirely independent of the earth-shaking explosion.

The explosion in the video is obviously of a uranium-based warhead. The brilliant white flash is NOT a nuclear (fission or fusion) flash (no mushroom shaped up-draft), and it is followed immediately by a scattering of equally brilliant white sparks and leaves a major fire burning. The sparks are bits of the warhead (which is actually made of a uranium-based alloy — at least 95% uranium) designed to shatter upon ignition in order to give access to air (oxygen) to all the metal mass of the warhead, thus enabling it all to burn simultaneously (i.e. within a few seconds of the initial ignition) and create maximum heat/destruction. The smaller the pieces, the better they burn in such an explosion.

When the uranium is ignited, it burns at +/- 6,000°C. creating heat on par with a nuclear explosion (but without that horribly inconvenient mushroom-shaped cloud). This one looks like a thermobaric bomb (a reworked up-graded, „enhanced“, uraniumized version of the „daisy cutter“ first used in Vietnam).

Visible near the end of the (brief) video are other, small explosions, which could be of the same magnitude but much farther away or which could be the result of other weapons near the same site but of much smaller power.

This bomb appears to be similar to those used in southern Lebanon in 2006. The United Nations Environmental Program’s post-conflict assessment unit found that those warheads had been made of low enriched uranium.

Noteworthy, and in contradiction to the official version of an attack on arms depots, is the lack of any cascade of explosions that such an attack would trigger among the arms in the depot. After the invasion of Iraq, there was an attack on a United States arms depot, and it was recorded on a fair number of videos, some quite good, all, as far as I know, long since flushed down the memory hole. The noise of the depot’s arms exploding was unmistakable, and there were major firey elements flying everywhere from those secondary explosions. There is none of that here.

Iranian missiles destroyed in ‚bunker busting‘ Syria strikes: Report #SyriaWar

Hama and Aleppo attacks destroy major arms depots and cause minor earthquake, according to reports, days after Israel threatened Iran http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/syrian-army-says-enemy-rocket-attacks-strike-military-bases-886095650

No news site is perfect — much less infallible. However, Middle East Eye I have found to be one of the more reliable. Hence, I am inclined to take seriously anything that they publish, even when it does not seem to make sense to me.

R.J.P.

Posted by: Robet James Parsons | Apr 30, 2018 5:50:46 PM | 77

Russia’s non-intervention in the attack last night will only encourage further attacks.

Posted by: Perimtr | Apr 30, 2018 5:53:21 PM | 78

Russia could easily give Syria the s300 system. But Putin clearly does not want to hurt his buddy Netanyahu’s feelings. They are always so chummy you can see there is a mutual respect between them whenever they meet. Russia is only in Syria to fight terrorism. They will obviously not confront Israel and go to war, and that is of course, understandable. But whats even worse is that they seem to refuse to give Syria/Iran the means to defend themselves from Israeli attacks.If its true Putin is blocking the delivery himself against the request of the Russian Army, that is even more shameful.I guess in terms of preventing a World War, it is good that Putin is chummy with Netanyahu.However a regional war is looking very likely at this point.Unfortunately the only way Israel will learn is by being smashed in the teeth. I’m sure in time Syria, Iran or Hezbollah will have to teach them another lesson.

Posted by: Jayhawk2018 | Apr 30, 2018 6:03:45 PM | 79

It’s hilarious when some idiot suggests I read a book when almost my entire knowledge-base comes from various written sources including several thousand books over the years.

Seems the Zionist desalination program’s insufficient to solve Palestine’s water crisis, which is the primary reason Lebanon’s been invaded by them. Jordan’s situation is even worse as it has less water and faster growing population. Here’s one brief look at the problem but lacks specifics about the Zionist’s contribution–they don’t want to share with any non-Zionist. The Zionists new desalination plants would be juicy targets (yes, I know they aren’t supposed to be targeted, but tell that to the Killer Coalition Outlaws), more important than Dimona.

Or maybe it’s that Nutty has his own private Death Wish.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 6:26:03 PM | 80

@Posted by: Robet James Parsons | Apr 30, 2018 5:50:46 PM | 76

The fire-station in HOms 35km away from the strike main point was also targetted in a clear intend to avoid fire-fighters going to suffocate the huge fires in the aftermath, which is a despicable act much in line with Israel usual behavior.

Also, by attacking the „Zainabydoun Brigade“, where the young died soldiers belonged, Israel is clearly trying to provoke the Shia sector of the resitance, and especially Hezbollah,in the verge of the Lebanese Parlimentary Elections to be hold 6th May, where hezbollah could well consolidate, more if needed, its role as one of the main political forces in Lebanon with which Israel and the US will find it more difficult to continue labelling it as a terrorist organization…

Posted by: From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 6:28:00 PM | 81

A lot of Russian oligarchs are dual Israeli or American -Russian citizens. Even in the Soviet era while they provided just enough support to prevent the Arab countries from being totally defeated they stopped short of giving them enough to threaten Israel or defeat them. Putin has made peace with a number of the oligarchs that remain in Russia but he has to take care not to get the pro Israeli -US faction riled or threaten their overseas financial interests which Trump has threatened to do with sanctions targeted at the oligarchs

So Russia will prevent Syria from being totally overwhelmed but concede the US the northeast oil rich fields and Israel gets the gas fields in Golan. They will allow isolated missile attacks and bombing by US and Israel that both resort to for show to appease their hawks. In the meantime if Assad has an accident or gets overthrown due to economic reasons then israel and US may get their puppet state and Russia/Iran may exit. Then on to Lebanon and Iran.

Wars are not fought to be won anymore. They are fought to be long lasting. Perpetual War Abroad is Peace at Home

Posted by: Pft | Apr 30, 2018 6:50:46 PM | 82

Not one Arab country gave a damn about Israel’s nuclear weapons, becasue they knew Israel would never attack them.

the donmeh house of Saud did NOT say it was going to build a nuclear arsenal becasue Israel has one.

Nope —

the mi6 donmeh house Saud said it is going to build a nuclear arsenal if they think Iran will produce nuclear weapons.

There you have it.

Posted by: charles drake | Apr 30, 2018 7:04:31 PM | 83

The strike on the Aleppo targets (only some civilian buildings were hit, either there was a glitch or they simply didn’t care what they hit) seems to have been carried out by Israeli aircraft releasing glide bombs from turkish (and/or US) controlled air space, similar to the 2007 warehouse attack.

As for the Hama strike, it seems that for the first time ballistic missiles instead of cruise missiles were used. These are more challenging targets than subsonic cruise missiles because of their high speed (The Scud for instance reaches Mach 5 / 1.7 km/s).

The „Pantsir“, the most modern short range AD system in syrian service is suitable for targets up to a speed of Mach 3 / 1 km/s. A new high speed missile for the system should enable it for target speeds of several km/s, but it is only scheduled to become available in 2019.

The most modern medium range system is the „Buk“ which is able to combat targets with a speed of up to 1.2 km/s in the M2 version. The M3 version gets up to 3 km/s but it is only available since 2016 and therefore not likely to be in Syrian service.

Syria does not have modern long range air defence systems with ABM capability like S300/S400. Note that because of the target speed the range of an AD system is lower against ballistic missiles, S-400 with its standard 48N6DM missile has a range of 240 km against aircraft, but only 60 km against ballistic missiles. Therefore the Russian S-400 system in Khmeimim was not in a position to do anything against the strike.

So the current capabilities of Syrian AD against ballistic missile threats don’t look too good – the S-300 really is needed.

Posted by: Menschmaschine | Apr 30, 2018 7:04:54 PM | 84

A 95% uranium „anything“ is not possible, and would kill anyone trying to manufacture it, or transport, load, store etc., if it did not go fissile in the first place…

Dont pull facts out of your ass here, OK?

regards

Posted by: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 7:11:02 PM | 85

Canthama at SyrPers provides this from the SAA’s FB:

Canthama: „I believe this an important statement from the folks of the SAA FB (not official SAA but with ex SAA and with deep connections to the SAA leadership).

„It confirms some of the info we shared early today, limited damaged, but it brings hints of a possible attack from the ground and not long distance missiles, that would explain the lack of SyAAD activity. Worth following this info.“

SAA FB:“We had a long post regarding last night and we were asked to put it on hold for the time being. We can however say that almost all the speculations and analysis that are circulating social media are false.

„A storage depot was hit by GBU-39B glide bombs not coming from the sea or South/West; the attack is highly suspected to be ground launched but we cannot confirm this.

„The type of ammunition targeted was insignificant, grad rockets and several other domestic munition; there was no sophisticated weaponry whatsoever; also, the level of attack was insignificant as well.

„What created the huge explosions was the fact that one of the major storage depots caught fire and exploded which resulted in what you saw.

„No side publicly claimed responsibility for the attack but that doesn’t mean the Syrian command isn’t aware of the side and the intention.

„Finally, and this message is to those in non-official military media; in cases of foreign aggression no one should be spreading any sort of information that they aren’t sure of, rather they should wait an official statement or only stick to the aftermath in their reports, rather than jumping into spreading rumors and analysis-based reports then calling it news.

„For the time being, we cannot answer more than what’s written here but perhaps soon we can have a long explanation posted.“

Canthama recommends this piece by Adam Garrie which I too find interesting. However, Garrie’s incorrect about the lack of fatalities; Canthama specifically posted these four–Captain Fadi Othman, Lt Hassan Zuhair, Suleiman Mohsen Al Malhami, Yahya Mohammed Alsaleem–out of an initial 13 reported KIA.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 7:11:34 PM | 86

There is nothing new about Netanyahu’s nonsense-as everyone seems to realise: the only justification for his party and his particular brand of fascism is the belief that there can be no peace for Jewish people generally, and Israelis in particular until all potential opponents have been wiped out or terrorised into slavery. And he has managed to convince most Israelis of this-something which means that in moral and political, and probably clinical terms too, they are insane- beyond the reach of reason. What is new and makes the situation very dangerous is that the US is going along with this for the ride. It has run out of ideas on how to deal with the gathering storm of consequences from eighty years of arrogance and careless neglect of the inevitable fall out from its self indulgent policies. And Trump, under constant pressure from the idiots running the Deep State, has no conception of the implications of the little games that he is playing and encouraging others (see Netanyahu above) to play. In his mind he is starring in an extempore version of the Godfather. Way down at the bottom of things worth mentioning is the fact that the UK government is in an even bigger crisis. It is clearly doomed unless the world ends first, which is something it is happy to consider. May and her allies (who include the Blairite Labour party and almost all the political class including the SNP and the Liberals) will (as the recent attacks in Syria showed) go along with Trump whatever happens, which means that the other ‚eyes‘ the White Commonwealth of Canada, Australia etc will do the same. This is the problem with empires in decline, they become suicidal. And having reconciled themselves with death they lose any inhibitions. Poor old Putin just doesn’t understand that: for years it has been clearer and clearer that Russia and China were rational, legalistic and diplomatic while the ‚west‘ reverted to its barbaric ways, defying rules, breaking treaties, laughing at international law, drunken berserkers running amok employing the weapons that they have been accumulating for decades because fearing that the end is near they fear nothing else. The future holds no hope for them. Putin who sees only the reality that the US remains both enviably rich and powerful cannot understand how unstable and dangerous it has become. As to China, nothing surprises its leadership any more which is why it spends all day lifting weights and eating high protein foods, ready to defend itself and studiously avoiding involvement.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 30, 2018 7:13:34 PM | 87

I’m still in shook Putin didn’t place 300s in Syria long, long ago. He really can be behind the curve at times. How could have thought the Empire would not grow more brazen in aggression?

Posted by: timbers | Apr 30, 2018 7:33:08 PM | 88

Here is a well thought out thread that analyses Bibi’s claims. Including that Israel probably hacked into the IAEA systems to get some of the data, in particular a photo of the ’new‘ storage site.

https://twitter.com/yarbatman/status/991064102314369025

Posted by: JohninMK | Apr 30, 2018 7:38:16 PM | 89

Excellent bevin @86.

Here is former Sweden foreign minister Carl Bildt, in a tweet immediately after Netanyahu’s remarks: “Nothing really new in @netanyahu Iran speech. Confirms that Iran closed down nuclear weapons program in 2003. Continued technology efforts. In peinciple all of this well known. No allegation that Iran cheats on 2015 nuclear deal.”

Posted by: fairleft | Apr 30, 2018 8:05:02 PM | 90

@karlof1 85 the [GB-39B glide bomb] attack is highly suspected to be ground launched but we cannot confirm this. Mar 10, 2015 Boeing, Saab Unveil Ground Launched SDB

The system essentially sticks a GBU-39B small diameter bomb, widely used by the US military and a number of international customers, on the front of a M26 rocket. The M26 is set to be demilitarized by 2018 under a set of cluster munitions treaties, meaning the GLSDB program would essentially be recycling an item that countries were planning to stockpile or scrap. The weapon is designed to be launched out of a multiple launch rocket system (MLRS), used by a number of US allies already, avoiding the need to design a new launch system. That MLRS can hold six weapons per pod, with two pods per vehicle. . .here

There would be evidence of the rocket, methinks.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 8:10:43 PM | 91

„I’m still in shook Putin didn’t place 300s in Syria long, long ago“

Shocked? Lol

Israel ordered Putin not to sell the S-300 to Syria 7 years ago. It is a well known info. „Western Partners“ demanded that Russia never sells anything like that to Syria. Russia also complied with US sanctions against Iran and refused to sell them the S-300 until the JCPOA was signed. Even now, Russia offers the S-400 to Turkey and Saudi Arabia but not to Iran.

Not only that, but there is an agreement between Putin and Netanyahu where Russia allows Israel to bomb targets in Syria without any retaliation.

You see, Putin is begging to be admitted in the Western Club, as an equal. This is why he is doing those things. But they still don’t want him, as they want full control over Russia. They do not recognize „equals“. What he wants is that several different oligarhies carve up the world between themselves (multipolar world), and so that his group can control Russia and the surrounding areas (its sphere of influence). What they want is only one oligarchy to rule them all (unipolar world).

Syria is just a chip for Putin in that game to be part of the NWO.

Posted by: Observer | Apr 30, 2018 8:16:55 PM | 92

@timbers 87

„I’m still in shook Putin didn’t place 300s in Syria long, long ago“

Shocked? Lol

Not only that, but there is an agreement between Putin and Netanyahu where Russia allows Israel to bomb targets in Syria without any retaliation.

Syria is just a chip for Putin in that game to be part of the NWO.

Posted by: Sea Breeze | Apr 30, 2018 8:18:55 PM | 93

Re: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 7:11:02 PM | 84

You don’t know what you are talking about.

For example, nuclear fuel rods are made of low enriched uranium typically containing 3% to 5% U-235, with the other 95-97% being pure uranium-238. While you wouldn’t want them in your pocket 24/7, you certainly could hold them in your hand without any great danger.

Even a sub-critical mass of uranium-235 is not going to go fissile and it will not „kill anyone trying to manufacture it, or transport, load, store etc.“

Please do a little homework before you rudely go off on someone without having any idea what you are talking about.

Posted by: Perimetr | Apr 30, 2018 8:19:52 PM | 94

@bevin 86 the US is going along with this for the ride No, for the money. The simple fact is that AIPAC and Israel have an iron grip on each and every member of the US Congress. It’s been established that Israel rules, and Congressmembers get „contributions“ and trips to Israel and other perks. On the other hand, if any Congress member who gives a slight little anti-Israel (i.e. anti-Semitic) peep will become an ex-Congressmember. It’s happened, with highly-financed opposition to a deviant’s transgression at the next biannual election. One example is Cynthia McKinney (links broken.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 8:30:39 PM | 95

@52 I don’t understand that argument, Don.

The Russians can unload any S-300 delivery at Tartus. There is zero chance that the Israelis will bomb them while they remain inside a Russian military base.

And those missiles can stay there while the Russians train up the Syrians in their use. Again, attacking while they remain inside Tartus is a no-go.

And the S-300’s are road-mobile. They can be driven out of Tartus to their eventual operational deployment, which means that they leave the protection of Tartus only when they are capable of defending themselves.

Or, in short: Israeli plans are predicated on taking out those missiles before they can be made operational. But they can be made operational while they are still inside a Russian military base protected by S-400 defences, and by the time they leave that protection the Syrians are already able to shoot down any attackers.

Posted by: Yeah, Right | Apr 30, 2018 8:33:06 PM | 96

The only thing using a 95% uranium level is a fission weapon(supercritical reaction)…otherwise 95% is only found in top national R & D labs, working on fission efficiency…letting field grunts load a 95% uranium anything?…not in anyones imagination….

regards

Posted by: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 8:34:44 PM | 97

@ 92…do you understand why the majority is u238?

Posted by: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 8:39:02 PM | 98

You wrote „A 95% uranium „anything“ is not possible“. Maybe you meant something else, but that statement is hardly true.

Posted by: Perimetr | Apr 30, 2018 8:44:25 PM | 99

@97 we are not talking about a weapons R & D facility…we are talking applied munition in the field…scattering many kgs of 95% uranium in the field would be fairly easy to detect, and would bring you under immediate international scrutiny…

Posted by: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 8:49:38 PM | 100

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