blonza

The Fire These Times Masterclasses

Beware of Small States: Lebanon since 1975 In this 5-parts class, you will get an overview of Lebanese history and politics from 1975, with a focus on the so-called ‘postwar’ from 1990 onward. We will go beyond sensationalist headlines and shallow coverage, and beyond simplistic, top-down explanations for the country. Instead of a linear timeline of events, which you can get from Wikipedia anyway, you will get a messy one. After all, politics is not linear. Political actors evoke events from the recent or not-so-recent past as part of their politics in the present. I will also use personal stories as someone who grew up in Lebanon in a very conservative, at times even Far Right, Christian environment, to explain how my own personal journey away from right-wing and towards left-wing, quasi-anarchist, politics helped me understand Lebanon better. Classes are on average 2 hours long, once a week.

Over the last few years, places like Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon have dominated the headlines. But if you want to actually learn what these places are like, what animates the people who live there, and what the future might be for them, you need to sit down and take it slow and learn from an expert. Elia Ayoub is one such expert for Lebanon, and his course on modern Lebanon, Lebanese identity, sectarianization, and the struggle for a better future in Lebanon is so illuminating. If you want you expand your thinking and approach this country with a new frame of mind, you should take a course with Ayoub.

Registrations are now open for the March-April class on modern Lebanese history and politics. All the info you need is here: thefirethesetimes.com/lebanonclass/
(Link also includes free resources on Lebanon)

And here's a nice testimony by @diplomatofnight.com who attended the January-February class

So tired, in my mind I read this as "The Iranian Frime Minister..."

ANNO DOMINI 2026

Aprite la ricerca della gazzetta ufficiale. Si può cercare per testo? No. Bisogna specificare l'anno e il numero.

Ok, specifichiamo numero=1 e anno=2026.

E poi cercate una cosa a caso, es: fsdkjreoi
E poi provate un simbolo tipo " ? (

www.gazzettaufficiale.it/ricerca/test...

Funny that this "vox populi" is never heard by European politicians...

(yes, also looking at you, Rob Jetten)

Russia launched its full-scale invasion exactly four years ago.

If anyone had told us, during that first month, that this would be the situation four years later, we would have instantly called it a massive Ukrainian victory and a staggering Russian defeat

YO WHAT

>Be israel
>America dumps $30 billion worth of hammers into your front yard
>Holy shit turns out I'm surrounded by nails

Just came under a MASSIVE PSYCHIC ASSAULT at the grocery store

This is the kind of thing a rich CEO says at the beginning of a science fiction movie to establish for the audience that he is a sociopath and the villain.

Iceland looks to fast-track vote on joining EU A referendum on resuming membership talks had been expected in 2027, but could come as early as this August.

🚨🚨Biggest #EU news of today: #Iceland looks to fast-track vote on joining EU as referendum on EU accession could come as early as August, departing from original plan for 2027 ref. 🧵
www.politico.eu/article/icel...

Stop staring at screens so much. Here's how. Why looking at a phone or computer hurts your eyes.

Except for our website! Keep staring at that, please.

www.popsci.com/health/how-t...

When a police officer killed a drug dealer who allegedly pointed a gun at him in Milan 3 weeks ago Salvini was everywhere supporting the officer. Now, he's desperately back-pedalling as the officer has been arrested for murder. He took bribes from the dealer & the gun was planted after the event

Ahah that's a great reaction! I'm not that zen

that's horrible, i'd be sooo pissed

two otters one is showing off her baby and the other is showing off a pipe with a headline that says that

being at the age where everyone you know is having children

'I want that fable on my desk, AESOP!'

Without the ability to import weapons from the US, fund themselves with cash from American narcotics users, circulate illegal tobacco in Canada or launder money through European-controlled tax havens then CJNG and other Mexican cartels would never have amassed this military power

No, sul caso Epstein non avevano ragione i complottisti Lo scandalo è una reale cospirazione circondata da teorie del complotto, la cui funzione è di fare da barriera cognitiva e da distrazione per proteggere il potere

6/ E lo scandalo Epstein è davvero una cospirazione, solo che è circondata da teorie del complotto.

Very very interesting thread.

Any place you'd like to visit in Italy?

When people say “race is a social construction” it can often seem abstract. The use of “Judeo-Christian” as a seemingly natural ethno-religious category—despite centuries of anti-Jewish expulsions, pogroms and mass killing—is a good example of a political project constructing identity to gain power.

Sometimes observers try too hard to find what they view as rational strategic logic in the behaviour of leaders and institutions that can get so culturally isolated that what seems nuts to everyone else can be constructed as genius level statesmanship inside an elite echo chamber

I really need people who think AI could usher in a golden age of luxury space communism some day to get that the only thing keeping elites from trying to kill all of us is the fact they need our labor and if that ever goes away stuff's gonna go sideways fast

Todays movie pirates don't understand the beauty and utility of a properly encoded sub 2gb Web rip. I don't want a 30gb copy of anything

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

People asking "how did Stanley Kubrick know with Eyes Wide Shut?" like suspecting your elites of gross sexual impropriety isn't something we've been doing since we were peasants

I hadn't heard about her in years. Thanks for this thread, it's hilarious. And she's still one of the best, for sure (to quote another president)

An extremely famous Irish professional wrestler, arguably at one point the most mainstream full time wrestler in North America in the late 2010s, named Becky Lynch currently has a heel gimmick on television which can just be summed up as a Trump impersonation

Here is a compilation of examples.

I sometimes use the "I know words. I have the best words" line

seriously, athletes often have a tough time as they get older, and athletic institutions should be primarily run and managed *by former athletes*. The IOC should sponsor management courses and the such like to ease the process, but these are smart people who know their own sports!