Does anyone want some of those collectible cups from The Mandalorian and Grogu? I plan to buy a bunch and would love to sell or trade them to people on here!
Any of my followers want them for gifts? I'd be willing to do that too!
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open

Love Begins
RMH
d e v o n
Mike Driver
art blog(derogatory)
wallacepolsom
cherry valley forever
Peter Solarz
Stranger Things
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
Keni
trying on a metaphor
No title available
Jules of Nature

JBB: An Artblog!
DEAR READER
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
Acquired Stardust

No title available

seen from United Kingdom
seen from Italy

seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from Singapore

seen from Czechia
seen from United States

seen from France

seen from United Kingdom

seen from United Kingdom

seen from United States
seen from United States
@aspiringbelle
Does anyone want some of those collectible cups from The Mandalorian and Grogu? I plan to buy a bunch and would love to sell or trade them to people on here!
Any of my followers want them for gifts? I'd be willing to do that too!
He's got the Mona Lisa too? One wonders if Vandal Savage and Zatanna know about this...
The whole “protect the children” stuff makes a lot more sense when you realize that they treat their children like their possessions, so it’s less “let our children live their best lives” and more “don’t mess with my long term investment”
Corps in La Giselle by Mark Olich
Novels set during the height of COVID-19 fail to tell the full story of that era of mass death and despair.
This is a nice article on the literary aspects of COVID and how it is affecting the field of literature.
The counterintelligence threat level was raised by the Defense Intelligence Agency in recent weeks after growing concerns that Israeli espio
The counterintelligence threat level was raised by the Defense Intelligence Agency in recent weeks after growing concerns that Israeli espionage had become more aggressive than usual, sources say.
June 5, 2026, 7:13 PM MST
By Gordon Lubold, Courtney Kube and Dan De Luce
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is increasingly concerned about Israel ramping up its spying on the U.S., recently raising the counterintelligence threat level from America’s top ally in the Middle East to the highest level, according to two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official.
The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency in recent weeks issued the new counterintelligence threat assessment amid rising tensions between Israel and the U.S. over the way forward in the war with Iran, the officials said. They said the DIA posted an internal message, viewed by one of the current officials, that raised the level for Israel to “critical.”
The designation stems from concerns within the Pentagon that Israel is making a particular effort to surveil top U.S. officials to get information on the Trump administration’s internal deliberations and decision-making on the conflicts in the Middle East, the officials said.
The DIA assessment includes a seven-page document and features a chart, according to one of the current U.S. officials. The document says the assessment of Israel is that its ability to conduct human espionage and technical collection is at a “critical level,” according to the official.
It also identifies a series of specific incidents that heightened U.S. concerns, the official said.
A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., said in a statement that it is “completely false” that Israel spies on the U.S. “Israel does not gather intelligence on American entities, let alone US government officials,” the spokesperson said. “Israel intelligence collection efforts are aimed at its enemies, not its allies. Any claims to the contrary are either misinformed or politically motivated.”
The Pentagon declined to comment.
You know, there is ample evidence Israel interfered in 2016 expressly for Trump.
There have been officials arrested for spying for Israel.
Israel is bragging about war crimes. They started the war on Iran.
Will we sanction them? Will we expel their diplomats?
Their appearance comes amid battlefield setbacks and dropping public sentiment in Russia.
June 6, 2026, 6:03 AM MST
By Jane Lytvynenko
U.S. influencers and an administration official arrived in Russia just as Vladimir Putin, the country’s president, needed a publicity boost.
The small group of Americans flew in as the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, or SPIEF, often dubbed Russian Davos, opened on June 3 in the port city. The annual conference serves as a promotional vehicle for the country as Putin seeks to project strength and global power. Officials say this year they are receiving 20,000 guests from over 100 countries, with 76 countries sending high-level representatives.
Putin has increasingly faced setbacks on the battlefield as a Ukrainian drone strike campaign disrupts critical logistics routes and public support at home wanes. The forum opened to plumes of black smoke rising above St. Petersburg after a Ukrainian aerial attack damaged a naval base and an oil terminal, part of increased strikes targeting Russian oil infrastructure.
Candace Owens, a popular right-wing podcaster and a onetime ally of Donald Trump’s, became perhaps the most visible American guest at the forum, which also included Rodney Mims Cook Jr., chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which has been overseeing the White House ballroom construction. Elsewhere in Russia, manosphere bloggers Andrew and Tristan Tate, dual U.K.-U.S. citizens, have filmed from Moscow, where they took selfies in Red Square and sipped cocktails at a rooftop bar. They did not attend the forum.
Their presence may deliver a domestic propaganda victory to Putin, experts say, as Russians become dissatisfied with the cost of the war. The Ukrainian bombardments have constricted the supply of gas in the oil-rich country and there are reports of Russians in several regions having to line up at the pump for hours at a time.
“They want the propaganda value of implying that there’s some kind of economic thaw between the United States and Russia, which is not really the case,” said Michael Kimmage, the director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, a nonprofit policy research organization.
Russia’s troubles were sidelined at the St. Petersburg conference, which boasted a rich state media presence. A booth for RT, a state broadcaster sanctioned by the U.S., featured cocktails named Aperol Merz, referring to the German chancellor, and Long Epstein Island, named for the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. RT was sanctioned for its campaign to “recruit unwitting American influencers in support of their malign influence campaign,” according to a release by the U.S. Treasury Department at the time.
I wish there was a thaw. And inviting people like Owens and the Tates does not bode well for a country that is the leading foe of fascism and terrorism.
One day every single foreign national who willingly signed up to be a volunteer mercenary in the AFU to go murder and terrorise innocents in Donbass will be regarded with similar contempt by history as the tourists who paid to go on “Safaris” to hunt Muslims in Sarajevo during the Bosnian genocide.
I think that's too light. I think they should be looked on like the SS, and I hope they face justice.
Hello! Was wondering if you know of any good sources or general arguments to use when people claim things like the minsk agreement was never about russia helping the people of donbass and the lpr. I know largely this is unfortunately one of those conversations, where if people are already deciding to deny the actions of ukraine in the dpr and lpr it may be useless but I do think it'd be useful for me to know regardless in the event someone actually decides to listen
This might sound defeatist given that I spend a great deal of time trying to communicate things of that nature to fence-sitters, but if someone is so instinctively anti-Russia that they perceive even clear attempts at de-escalation which would've ensured the people of the DPR and LPR retained their sovereignty and democratic rights alongside a cessation of the violence as some inherently untrustworthy and duplicitous act, then they are frankly too far gone to reel back in.
Like the terms of the Minsk agreements are not a secret. You can argue about much regarding them, but not about the fact that they clearly prioritise the safety and sovereignty of donchane people. So my most honest answer is that there is probably literally nothing you can say that will move someone who is already familiar with Minsk yet nonetheless chooses to believe Russia had 0 intention of helping the Russian-speaking minority in the border regions and was actually the bad-faith actor in this equation. Ultimately someone like that is not animated by some great love or empathy for Ukraine, they’re animated by a deep-seated hatred and distrust of Russia, first and foremost. You cannot easily reason someone out of what is essentially racism, prejudice is not housed in the chamber of the mind governed by reason. You can sway them on many things. You can waver their support for the Maidanist Ukrainian regime. With enough evidence you might even get them to begrudgingly acknowledge that a genocide is taking place in Donbass(<- immensely difficult, but not impossible). But it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it would be to convince them that Russia is not forever and always acting in evil, subversive ways for evil, subversive self-serving ends. And if those are the terms of the discussion it will always be fruitless imo.
But if you wanna try nonetheless it’s good to keep in mind that what they're usually actually asking you to do is prove something that is ultimately impossible to prove: the purity of a state’s motivations. Like. Unless you can just... call Vladimir Putin up and have him personally relay to us his innermost thoughts at the time while twirling the phone cable and kicking his feeties, if we’re talking intentions we’re all just making inferences at the end of the day. The heart is the domain of Allah, not I, nor you. You cannot intuit intentions, and I don’t have vovochka’s number :(
What we can instead look at(and redirect them to) is what was materially taking place;
Millions of people in the Donbass region rejected the post-Maidan order and organised politically around demands for autonomy, federalisation, or outright independence from Kiev. And that opposition was not unfounded or unprovoked. For people in the east things like the massacre of activists in Odessa+the growing influence and acceptance of open fascists+the increasingly genocidal rhetoric toward Russian-speaking populations by those in power, to name a few, were taken as clear signs of what the new western-aligned political order had in store for them.
Like The DPR and LPR were not beamed down from the Kremlin one morning fully formed like Aphrodite from the sea foam. They emerged from a real political constituency with real grievances and fears and had real popular support. And the new Ukrainian government’s answer to that popular demand for sovereignty was military force; eight years of genocidal warfare, shelling, and displacement aimed at destroying a population that had made it very clear it no longer consented to being governed by the new regime.
So when people try to frame the conflict as though it began and escalated alone with Russian interference, they’re hoping u will just sidestep the accounts and fears and political aspirations of the millions of people who actually live in Donbass and whose, again, popular support made the republics even possible in the first place. That’s why the burden is always on proving Russia's ‘sincerity.’ Because if it was on explaining away the existence of a population that spent years resisting the post-Maidan Ukrainian state and were routinely violently denied their sovereignty, they would sound ghoulish. Because it is a ghoulish position to defend.
Like my support for the DPR and LPR, for the sovereignty of the people of Donbass, and for Russia’s role does not hinge on my believing that Russia is somehow the one state in the world that never acts according to its interests, because it isn’t and even if it was it would be impossible to prove. It hinges on the fact that there comes a point where u have to decide whether self-determination is a universal principle or one that only applies to populations whose humanity has been cosigned by the west+the fact Russia, regardless of intentions, was the only major state actor in this conflict materially supporting the people of Donbass while NATO states armed and politically backed the far-right regime massacring them.
As for Minsk, the terms of the agreements were literally structured around guarantees of Donbass’s autonomy, self-government, amnesty for resistance fighters, right to elections, constitutional reform, and a cessation of violence. Like I’d imagine it would be very difficult to argue that Donbass was an afterthought in an agreement whose central premise is very obvious upon reading was about resolving the status of Donbass😭
But for what it’s worth, I actually agree that Minsk was never intended to be implemented in good faith. Just not because of Russia. Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande straight up admitted afterwards that the agreements largely served as a ploy to buy time for Ukraine to strengthen itself militarily.
There is one side to stand on. That is the side of the Donbass and all who stand with them. The side that stands for democracy and self-determination, not dictatorship, cultural suppression, and territorial integrity.
On May 13th, French outlet RTL published an explosive report, entirely unremarked upon by English language media. It exposed how Ukrainian military and intelligence units are covertly operating in Mali on France’s behalf, “in coordination” with both ethnic Tuareg rebels and Al Qaeda-linked forces determined to crush the country’s revolutionary government. Furthermore, Kiev is keen to expand and escalate its African operations yet further, and destabilise neighbouring countries. Ukrainian militancy, long-encouraged by the CIA and MI6, has now decisively developed into an independent international threat.
In August 2020, elements of Mali’s military staged a coup, overthrowing Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. Ever since, its government has sought to neutralise Western influence locally, while pursuing radical economic policies for the good of the population. French forces were booted out in 2022 after almost a decade of occupation. Mali has instead looked to China and Russia for economic, military and political assistance, while founding the revolutionary Alliance of Sahel States (AES) with neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Polling shows Malians almost universally embrace their government, and its close alliance with Moscow. However, Bamako’s military administration has throughout its lifetime battled incursions from ethnic Tuareg rebels, backed by murderous extremist groups. Since late April, they have conducted combined offensives, capturing several towns, executing deadly strikes on major cities, attacking state buildings, and murdering Defense Minister Sadio Camara via car bomb. Moreover, government forces backed by Russia’s Africa Corps have been ejected from several key areas.
Bamako and Moscow characterise the bloody upheaval as a thwarted coup attempt. Nonetheless, the situation remains volatile, and potentially grave. RTL now reveals the Al-Qaeda-linked unrest has been orchestrated and practically supported all along by “Ukrainian soldiers on the ground, who are cooperating with the Tuareg rebels.” In turn, France can “continue to operate” in Mali “indirectly”. Through Kiev’s cutouts, Paris provides “operational support” to the unpopular and savage local counter-revolutionary insurgency, in the absence of her own occupying army.
Per RTL, “France relies in particular on numerous French-speaking Ukrainian soldiers who served in the Foreign Legion.” It’s not just French-sponsored Ukrainian soldiers attempting to foment civil war and regime change via brute force in Mali. Units of Kiev’s fearsome CIA and MI6-constructed military intelligence agency, the GUR, are also present in profusion. By “limiting its operational support to these Ukrainian proxies, France is thus avoiding direct cooperation with jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda” into the bargain:
“The Tuareg separatist rebels are seeking to weaken the junta in power in Bamako, while France and Ukraine want to overthrow the junta’s Russian backers, the former Wagner militia members (renamed the Afrika Korps) who did everything they could to drive France out of Africa. A sharing of interests…the Tuareg rebels have a longstanding relationship with French intelligence services in the Sahel.”
RTL reports how “a Franco-Ukrainian alliance” to crush anti-imperial governments in Africa has been long in the making. Strikingly, Kiev took the lead. At the start of 2025, Ukrainian intelligence proposed a “detailed plan” to their French counterparts, “to dislodge the juntas from the Sahel region, and push back the Russian enemy” from the continent altogether. Paris reportedly “did not follow up on this proposal, particularly due to security concerns.” Yet, “the lock has now been lifted.”
To date, a fusion of battle strategies “seems to favor the extremists, who are currently allied with Tuareg separatists” - not merely in Mali, but potentially wherever in the region Russian forces are present. As RTL notes, several Sahel countries harshly condemned Ukraine’s involvement in a brutal July 2024 rebel ambush, which allegedly killed 84 Wagner fighters and 47 Malian soldiers. At the time, a GUR spokesperson boasted how Kiev’s support to the rebels “enabled a successful military operation against Russian war criminals.”
Such was Ukraine’s openly advertised centrality to the bloodshed, West African governments issued statements making clear Kiev’s local “interference” was highly unwelcome. Several summoned their respective Ukrainian ambassadors for verbal drubbings. Such was the opprobrium, the BBC contemporaneously enquired whether the operation represented an “own goal in Africa,” threatening to wreck “peaceful Ukrainian diplomacy.” Undeterred, Kiev’s military and intelligence conniving in the Sahel has only ratcheted since. RTL records how this activity is “proving its worth in the region.” [...]
A lengthy essay published April 29th by Militarnyi, Ukraine’s most prominent military news site, lays bare Kiev’s brutal cloak-and-dagger strategy in Mali and beyond. Headlined Islamist Offensive in Mali: The Prospect of a Syrian Scenario, it details how the successes of Ukraine’s Al Qaeda army in Mali - including Camara’s assassination - are part of a wider military and intelligence operation concerned with “dislodging Russian-Chinese influence from the region” altogether. Damascus being overwhelmed by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in mere days in December 2024 was cited as inspiration. (It’s been publicly confirmed Kiev’s clandestine assistance was instrumental in toppling Assad.) [...]
Kiev’s alliance with Al-Qaeda in the Sahel amply demonstrates how it's CIA and MI6-assisted military and intelligence capabilities definitively represent a “growing danger”, to average citizens the world over. Kiev is openly plotting to replicate HTS’ violent takeover of Damascus, first in Mali, then in Burkina Faso and Niger. Militarised, extremist-occupied territories are to multiply, while economic warfare impoverishes and enfeebles the military governments, damaging their domestic popularity. Then, they can be brought to heel via forced capitulation, or outright regime change.
Her blood is just strawberry filling
We should introduce her to The Man in the Cube, if he hadn't transitioned.
(Spoilers in the article!)
in happier pride news i actually found this deeply heartwarming
that's solidarity baybeeee
Further context: Durham city council (Reform UK) cut funding and support for Pride. The Durham Miner's Association and other trade unions raised enough money for Durham Pride 2026 to go ahead - a direct call back to when Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) raised money for mining communities when Margaret Thatcher seized union funding during the miner strikes of 1984-85.
At the 1985 Labour party meet, the motion to support LGBT rights as a party was passed due to a block vote from mining unions.
Stephen Guy, the chair of the Durham Miners’ Association, said that when it became apparent Durham Pride was under threat, he took it upon himself to “encourage the trade union movement to step up and do the right thing, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the LGBT+ community […] They not only raised funds for us, but came to our communities, uplifted our spirits when they were down, and showed their solidarity.”
The CIA has stopped contributing to some intelligence assessments, including those related to the Iran war, produced by the office of the nation's top spy as disputes over intelligence-sharing and areas of responsibility boil over, say people familiar with the matter.
I support the CIA's labor action
We've had spies lie about Iraq WMD, lie about torture, lie about spying on citizens, lie about Russian hacking, lie about Syrian WMD, lie about the Hunter Biden Laptop, and lie about Iran. Now some are taking a stand. I hope more follow.
i get that americans love their cultural imperialism, but it really does piss me off that june is “international” pride month just because something happened in the united states.
in aotearoa, june isn’t our pride, it’s theirs. marsha p johnson and sylvia rivera are their historical figures, not ours. the phrase that “you owe your rights to Black trans women” is true there, but here we owe our rights to (mostly) Māori historical figures. i have the freedoms i do because of the legacy of an entirely different set of people operating in an entirely different context at entirely different times.
But because of american cultural imperialism, most queer people in Aotearoa don’t even know our own queer history. Carmen Rupe, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, the Dorian Society, Gillian Laundon, Georgina Beyer, and the Wolfenden Association are some of our queer history. We should know their names! we should know what they did for us! but because of the power of the american imperial machine, we don’t.
our national pride month should be july, the month that the Homosexual Law Reform Act passed in 1986. our two largest cities hold their pride festivals in february and march, respectively. american queer history has very little (or nothing, depending on who you ask) to do with our queer history. anecdotally, from my own queries, queer youth in aotearoa know more about american queer history than our own.
anyway, happy pride, americans. i’m truly sorry that most of you don’t see the negative impact your nation’s culture has on the rest of the world. and to the rest of the world reading this, try searching for your own country and culture’s queer history, don’t accept the american narratives as your own. we deserve our own histories divorced from the cultural hegemony of the USA.
And that's why we need to share things! I don't know about any of the above except Georgina! No matter the country, you have things to teach us!
The newspaper's editorial board warned that giving Bill Pulte access to sensitive intelligence could threaten national security and the rule
The newspaper's editorial board warned that giving Bill Pulte access to sensitive intelligence could threaten national security and the rule of law.
By Lee Moran
Jun 4, 2026, 05:03 AM EDT
Updated Jun 4, 2026
The New York Times editorial board issued a blistering rebuke of Donald Trump’s decision to appoint Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, replacing former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard who quit as DNI last month.
“This Man Should Not Be in Charge of National Intelligence,” the board boldly declared with its headline on a damning editorial published Wednesday.
Did they say the Hunter Biden Laptop was Russian?
If so, we can discount it.
There are far better Trump critics to listen to- those who actually question the "intelligence" community, many of whom got Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Russiagate right, like the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
Interesting coincidence on the front page…