Holy shit, apparently the parliamentary leader of Zelenskyy's party (Davyd Arakhamia) just came out and confirmed that Ukraine was in fact offered a peace deal early on and that Boris Johnson was involved in talking them out of it

https://youtu.be/g5hrJNGZxYE?si=5gsVlKj-kh8NWGp-

(The interview clip is in Ukrainian, but you can do auto-translate)

I'm subscribed to it and I think it's really good! They get writers from all around the world and I really like how the magazine frequently has articles from places you might not hear much about otherwise. They're definitely not ultras either; I think the general views of the magazine are pretty close to this site actually (pro-AES, pro-LGBT)

Have there been any updates with the huge explosion in Odessa? I can't seem to find much about it. It seems like all of the live cameras are still down too

Just then, as luck would have it, the police came down on us with a search warrant. They had found somewhere a postal receipt for a letter which Lyakhovsky had written to Vladimir Ilyich. The letter was about a tombstone for Fedoseyev, and this was a good enough excuse for the gendarmes to make a search. This was done in May 1899. They found the letter--quite an innocent one--and went through our correspondence without finding anything of interest. By old habit acquired in St. Petersburg, we kept our illegal correspondence apart from the rest. It was not much of a hiding place, though--the bottom shelf of the bookcase. Vladimir Ilyich pushed up a bench for the gendarmes to stand on, and they began their search from the top shelves, which were lined with various statistical publications. They got so tired they did not even look at the bottom shelf, and were satisfied with my statement that it only contained my books on pedagogics.

I'm reading through Krupskaya's memoir right now and she mentions this story! I'll post the excerpt in a bit :lenin-cat:

I found it! :marx-hi:

you walk out onto the street

people are milling around happily

buildings are no longer designed with imposing security features

violence has all but disappeared thanks to sudden material abundance

people are no longer forced to purchase a beverage just to sit down and talk in public spaces

the architecture has been redesigned to be more accommodating for pedestrians

seating areas seem widely available

people sit and talk among themselves

even strangers seem capable of breaking into conversation easily

you feel as if you've wandered into a massive public museum or some other noncommercial public space

but even this comparison doesn't feel quite right

you realize you've never been to a place quite like this

you decide to take the train to your old home

you're confused as you reach the train station and find the turnstiles have disappeared

you walk in unobstructed

the screen indicates that your train should be there shortly

you assume that you've arrived just on time

you then realize that the track has been expanded massively

automated maglev trains glide silently in and out of the station every thirty seconds

no advertisements are pasted on the station's walls

these have been replaced with noticeboards informing commuters of gatherings or work opportunities

commuters occupy themselves with tablet-style devices

unlike in the capitalist era they do not appear to be distracting themselves with facebook or games

some seem to be reading complex scientific and philosophical treatises

unburdened by mind-numbing hours of work they have the time and energy to expand their minds

others seem to be watching live-feeds of independently produced entertainment

total automation has apparently allowed people to spend their time more creatively

you ask a fellow commuter about recent events

you ask about unemployment

you ask about financial collapse

you ask about austerity

you ask about the wars in the Middle East

you ask about the possibility of inter-imperial conflict

he smiles wisely

"Those are all things of the past now, comrade."

he speaks with a thick German accent

his snowy white beard makes him look like a professional Santa Claus

his fashion sense seems anachronistic in this futuristic era

it is then that you realize who it is

it's Marx

you begin to sob as you feel a burden lift from your body

a weight disappears that you didn't even know was there

Marx places a paternal hand on your shoulder and then draws you into a loving embrace

"I told you it was inevitable, comrade."

I don't have a tiktok but I've seen some of James Rehwald's videos (jrehwald15 on tiktok) and they're excellent. Also I found this twitter thread recently which seemed to have a lot of good leftist tiktoks! So hopefully you can find some good accounts there: https://nitter.net/hilaryagro/status/1643981590354350088?s=20

HAVE A GOOD DAY BASIL :soviet-heart:

I really hope so! Those games were great and deserve more love. It would be amazing to see remakes in that art style :comfy:

deleted by creator

I played through both the first and second games starting last fall and I unironically think they might be some of the best games I've played. Really loved the plot and characters and loved how the gameplay itself was integrated with the story progression. I know the series isn't for everyone, but yeah I will always recommend this series if someone doesn't mind difficult games. I can't wait for the Bachelor route later this year and I'm also really excited to see what they do with the Changeling route down the line 👀

I've played a lot of games since I was a kid and I've always preferred the flipped y axis for some reason. I think it's because it follows the actual camera if that makes sense. Like when you move the stick up, the in-game camera moves up which causes you to look down. It's weird though since I don't use the flipped x axis, even though the same logic applies there as well

Finally getting a colonoscopy next weekend after having 10+ years of chronic GI problems. Hopefully they can find out what's wrong and I can take steps to improve my quality of life, since these problems have been pretty debilitating. It's nice to know that I might actually be able to get my body to cooperate with me at some point.