The Awakening @dawn-sleeper - Tumblr Blog

"the fuck is happening in ukraine??" for the ignorant [23feb22]

THIS IS NOT EXHAUSTIVE. I have left out happenings. As I typed this more movement was reported. This is happening NOW.

Here is a map of Ukrainian oblasts (regions)

Direct your eyeballs to the eastern (that's on the right of the map) oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk. These two oblasts make up the Donets Coal Basin, or Donbas region, of Ukraine. coal coal coal.

Hold them in your mind.

On this map above you can see an outline of the Russian separatist-controlled area of Eastern Ukraine. Please note that the Russian separatist-controlled area is not analogous to the oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk. When on 21 February 2022 Putin declared recognition of the Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LNR) as independent, we did not know if he meant just those cities and the surrounding Russian separatist-controlled areas OR the entirety of the oblasts. Where these borders are is incredibly important because Putin will use any excuse to declare a Ukrainian provocation. This ambiguity is to his advantage. [This is besides the fact that Putin has no fucking right to declare any of this land independent, or take any of it for Russia in the coming days.]

The Russian separatists, of course, claim the entirety of the oblasts, and Putin recognizes those claims. Russia has come to the "aid" of the separatists to defend against Ukrainian "aggression."

Tonight (23 February 2022), President Zelenskyy of Ukraine tried to speak to Putin on the phone, but was rebuffed. He gave a brief update to his people in Ukrainian, and then a long speech to the Russian people in Russian. Below is text of a translation of that speech from Max Seddon on twitter [thread starts here, good follow]:

We are divided by a shared border of more than 2,000 kilometers. Almost 200,000 of your troops and thousands of military vehicles are standing alongside it. Your leadership has ordered them to move forward, onto another country's territory. This step could be the start of a big war on the European continent. The whole world is talking about what could happen any day now. Any provocation. Any flare-up – one that could burn everything.

They're telling you that this flame will liberate the people of Ukraine, but the Ukrainian people are free. They remember their past and are building their future. Ukraine on your TV news and the real Ukraine are two totally different countries. Ours is real.

There is more, click above link to read.

Russia is going to invade Ukraine, and not just the Russian separatist-controlled regions that were recently declared independent republics by Putin. This is colonization. Ukraine has a rich history and culture separate from Russia (its history and culture is MUCH OLDER than that of Russia, even). Putin denies this and claims that Ukraine is Russian. This is false and ahistorical.

(But why are there so many Russian-speakers in Donetsk and Luhansk? Well perhaps because the Soviets committed genocide in the 1930s and purposely starved millions of Ukrainians so that ethnic Russians could move onto their land. Search "Holodomor" if this is new information to you.)

The UN Security Council has called an emergency meeting for 9:30pm EST (I'm posting this at 7:22 PM EST)

The mayor of Kyiv, Vitaly Klitschko, has declared an emergency.

Airports are closed in Eastern Ukraine.

reasonandempathy

adeleneblack

this is also how i became a leftist after being raising very traditional/conservative/catholic tbh

hearing them break down ‘bad’ leftist ideas and i was just sitting there waiting for the bad part that didn’t come…and i’m like….yes? you should probably give free lunches to kids when their parents can’t afford to feed them dinner? why do you not want this?

trying to figure out politics was me just moving further to the left the more i learned about pretty much every single issue because of the traditional/catholic parts of my upbringing which is why i’m so baffled that so much of my family falls much more red than blue and i’ll probably never understand how that happened

i’ve had family straight up ask me why i support programs like free lunch and i had to explain that i support them because they taught me that i should care about other people and try to make the world a better place and the golden rule…they never seem to have an answer for when i ask them back why they don’t support those same programs

pengychan

brunhiddensmusings

i continue to find it odd how the far right hide behind religon when everything i know about the big J is that he would absolutely insist on universal healthcare, affordable housing programs, and food aid for anyone who even needed it a little

elucubrare

The chronicle of the monk Herbert of Reichenau for the year 1021 ends “My brother Werner was born on November 1.“

1021 was not an uneventful year. The emperor began a campaign into Italy. Illustrious abbots died. There was an earthquake. But Herbert took the time to note, at the end of the year, that his brother was born.

Of such acts of tenderness is history made.

lloerwyn-deactivated20201104

This post broke through the shell of crustiness on my medievalist heart and made me go ‘aww’.

marzipanandminutiae

There was a medieval parenting manual that recommended parents smack pieces of furniture their toddlers bumped into and scold the furniture for being so naughty as to get in the way, so that the kids would laugh and forget about their bumps and bruises

I read that and my heart melted

(source: Medieval Women by Deirdre Jackson. She cited the primary source but I cannot for the life of me find the book to check what it was called)

shredsandpatches

We should hold a thousandth birthday party for Werner in a couple of years.

theoutcastrogue

In 11th century Constantinople, the historian, philosopher, monk, and general insufferable know-it-all Michael Psellos once wrote a letter to his infant grandson. He begins like this:

“Perhaps I will not live to see you, dearest newborn and offspring of my soul, when you reach adolescence, if God so wishes it, or when you mature; for the days of my life are failing and the time approaches when its thread will be cut short. I have therefore decided to address this speech to you in advance of that day and reciprocate your innate charm with the graces of speech. I should be ungrateful and entirely thoughtless if at a time when your perceptions and thoughts are undeveloped (though as far as I alone am concerned you are perfect in these respects, insofar as you hear my voice and feel my affection, cling to my neck, slip into my embrace, and put up with my annoying kisses), I should be ungrateful, I say, if I myself failed to render to you a fitting return.”

He then goes on to praise his grandson, who is the most HANDSOME and INTELLIGENT and RATIONAL child ever born. (No seriously, he calls a four-month-old baby “rational” – rationality and moderation were considered important virtues so OBVIOUSLY his grandson was full of them.)

He observes every little thing the baby does – breastfeeding, taking baths, fussing, babytalking – with unrestrained marvel and delight, complete with flowery descriptions:

“[Your eyes] moved cheerfully, whenever a smile was about to come upon you. It sufficed for me to take note of this only once—I needed no Delphic tripod or bacchic ecstasy—to prophesy without hesitation from the kindly look in your eyes that you were about to laugh. And, true enough, you moved your lip slightly, blushed, and, behold! you laughed.”

He takes special pride that the baby likes him, and puts himself in the picture too:

“And when I would see you becoming perplexed, I immediately snatched you away from your toys, took you up in my hands, and lifted you up in the air until you were full of joy.”

He wishes him to lead a happy life. He calls him “my living pearl, the ornament of my soul”. And he ends the letter like this:

“May you obtain all that you love, but especially education and good sense, which alone can elevate the soul to its proper beauty and which constitute understanding of the more profound things. I wrote all this for you while holding you in my arms and kissing you insatiably.”

Isn’t it incredible? Translation by Anthony Kaldellis, from Mothers and Sons, Fathers and Daughters: The Byzantine Family of Michael Psellos (University of Notre Dame Press, 2006).

minitafan-deactivated20251020

Werner’s thousand birthday is this year.

v-ahavta

I would like to note that Hermann of Reichenau was born in July of 1013: in 1021, he was only eight. (In the paragraph preceding his mention of baby Werner, he mentions that “I, Hermann, began to be taught my letters on 15 September.”) He had been living in the care of the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Reichenau for about a year. He was born with a few different motor disabilities, including cerebral palsy and possibly ALS or spinal muscular atrophy. By the time he was seven his parents, the Count and Countess of Alfthausen, became unable to provide him with the care he needed, so they brought him to the abbey. But they visited, or wrote to him, to let him know that he now had a baby brother. And he, armed with his new skill in letters and two or three months of lessons, made sure to write it down.

(Later in the chronicle [the date isn’t listed in the Google Books preview], he writes that Werner has also become a monk at Reichenau, calls him “an extremely learned young man, truly dedicated to religion”, and adds with pride that he and another monk undertook a secret pilgrimage with the permission of the abbot.)

Sources:

https://books.google.com/books?id=PW8CEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=on+november+1st+1021+my+brother+was+born&source=bl&ots=l0q-uL6JVH&sig=ACfU3U2KChYr_dJPKl0MkYXZCugekJhyrw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjI7tmR1ffzAhXMTTABHanfC2MQ6AF6BAgNEAM#v=onepage&q=on%20november%201st%201021%20my%20brother%20was%20born&f=false

Three of the most important chronicles of eleventh-century Germany were composed in the south-western duchy of Swabia. The chronicles reveal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_of_Reichenau

Hermann of Reichenau - Wikipedia

#wholesome #ref

modern-politics111

yellowpoet

My aesthetic: when you take off your glasses on a highway and all the lights go soft and smudged, a trail of amber behind you like a quiet afterthought

troyetroyetroye

My aesthetic: keeping my own glasses on so I can see the road and not die

momoiroinkremade

theriu

Im so sorry youve been trapped in the passenger seat all these years Yellow.

yellowpoet

GOD PLEASE LET ME OUT I MISS MY FAMILY

dovewithscales

This post is simultaneously an example of what’s wrong with Tumblr and what’s right with Tumblr.

bringhimdown

They became notorious for trying to harass Asian women off the internet. The racial trauma of the past year has only emboldened them.

bringhimdown

Here’s the archived thread.

88 votes and 27 comments so far on Reddit

Seriously BEGGING multimillion dollar companies to AT LEAST do a background check on the talent they hire.

bringhimdown

Racist too.

dirhwangdaseul-archived

wondered always why he and akwafina seemed to get along ofc it's the anti blackness

dykebluejay

lesbians and bisexuals need to unionize and start biting people

roll1uptwice

maswartz

socialjusticeinamerica

Christian Fundamentalism, how it has been co-opted by billionaire Republikkkans, how they have added it to their arsenal, and what you can do to resist the fascist 1%. A verbose insomnia fueled rant.

#ref

sioltach

making your own stuff is so important, like I never hear enough about how making everything with your own hands is sacred time spent with yourself. that’s mostly being taken away from us through having all we need being sold at stores, the relationship to craft humans have had for millennia’s is gone. so it’s all about rebuilding that close relationship with the things that keep us alive and feeling good about ourselves! It’s something I could talk about forever

sidereusimber

xenosagaepisodeone

we need unfluencers. we need unfluencer culture. we need people that tank the value of brands and make things terminally uncool by just associating with them. how do we boil this site down to it’s essence and spread it like a viral disease.

bishonen

trans woman telling people to stop using the fucky term “womxn” because its a bullshit attempt at being ~inclusive of trans women~ that ends up transmisogynistic and this has me losing my mind