rule

context is that it's a folder on Windows that isn't shown by default so you have to open the "run" menu then type it in. Like a cheatcode for a computer.

or at least that's how it felt the first time I found it when I was like 12 trying to find my Minecraft screenshots

when I was in middle school I racked up over half a YEAR playtime in Minecraft and gave myself carpel tunnel. I only played Minecraft 1.8.9 which was at least 10 versions out of date by that point. I never even made anything I just played on Hypixel.

I did get full superior dragon armor in Hypixel Skyblock by spotting that you could buy a fish for 2 coins but sell it for like 20 coins if you craft it into bait because people are lazy. So I bought and sold millions of fish 2,500 at a time.
I later found that you could just craft dragon armor using shards and sell them on the auction house for about 100k profit and made BANK before other people caught on.

I loved finding those little market loopholes. Sad that nerds eventually caught on and made websites to automate it, and that the game went pay to win. Those were some good times though.

also hot take but dwarvern mines ruined the game. It's "SKYblock" not "infinite land block"

Used up a perfect piece of scrap, too. Now I'll have to make a glueup for the body of the righty version.
I'm going to leave the lefty 90% finished and do the final 10% if I ever find a need for it.

The Marriage Partner of My Dreams Turned Out To Be… My Female Junior at Work?!

Drag queens are cool. Conservative women are gross. And that is what passes for journalism in 2025.

“I’m gay and a member of the sexual minority”, Japanese volleyball player Rui Takahashi of Suntory Sunbirds Osaka comes out.

Artist: Sushispin | pixiv | danbooru

Full quality: .jpg 6 MB (2160 × 3840)

Burkina Faso took a significant step towards economic independence and industrial development with the inauguration of its first gold refinery, RAFFINOR-BF.

President Ibrahim Traoré highlighted the strategic importance of this initiative, which aims to control the entire value chain of the extractive industry, starting with gold.

The refinery, inaugurated this Monday, is expected to generate more wealth, create jobs, and improve the control of domestic financial flows.

RELATED: Sahel States Launch Fraternity Week in Burkina Faso to Forge ‘Firm and Free’ Regional Identity

“In everything related to the extractive industry, we want to have the entire value chain under control, and we are starting with gold,” Traoré emphasized. “As I mentioned before, there are many other metals in our subsurface that we want to extract, but we want to control everything down to the smallest detail,” he added.

Traoré stressed that Burkina Faso’s gold should be processed and certified within the country. “Refining gold in our territory will generate more wealth, create qualified jobs, strengthen the traceability of our production, and improve control over financial flows. Additionally, it will enable us to combat illicit practices more effectively, such as fraud, smuggling, and money laundering,” he stated.

#BurkinaFaso | President Ibrahim Traoré inaugurated the country’s first gold refinery, allowing Burkina Faso to process and certify more of its mineral wealth domestically instead of exporting it in raw form.#IbrahimTraore #Gold #EconomicSovereignty #Africa #teleSUREnglish pic.twitter.com/cmziJ4GDp7

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) September 29, 2026

The refinery is the first of its kind in Burkina Faso, built to the highest international standards for transforming gold into ingots with a purity of 99.99%. The Minister of Mines, Yacouba Zabré Gouba, highlighted that this facility ensures that Burkina Faso’s gold is processed, controlled, validated, and certified within the country.

“From now on, Burkina Faso’s gold will not only be extracted within Burkina Faso but will also be processed, controlled, validated, and certified in Burkina Faso,” declared the Minister of State, Emile Zerbo.

Industrial Development

The construction of the refinery, costing over 11 billion CFA francs (around 19 millons dollars), was entirely funded by the Burkinabé State. This initiative underscores the government’s commitment to developing various sectors of the economy. Traoré’s vision extends beyond gold to other minerals such as manganese, copper, and zinc. “Our ambition is no longer to be just a country that extracts its raw materials and exports them; we want to refine all our metals right here,” he said.

The inauguration of RAFFINOR-BF marks a pivotal moment in Burkina Faso’s industrial development. By controlling the entire value chain, the country aims to maximize the economic benefits of its natural resources. This move not only enhances domestic economic stability but also positions Burkina Faso as a key player in the global mining industry.

The refinery’s high standards and advanced technology ensure that the gold produced meets international quality benchmarks, making it competitive on the global market. This strategic investment is expected to attract further investments in the mining sector, fostering economic growth and job creation.

By processing and certifying the gold within the country, Burkina Faso can better monitor its financial flows and combat illicit activities. This level of control is crucial for maintaining the integrity of the mining industry and ensuring that the benefits of gold extraction are fully realized by the Burkinabé government.

Le premier lingot d’or frappé du sigle RBF, raffiné au Burkina Faso. Les temps anciens ne reviendront plus jamais. La puissance va irrémédiablement changer de camp. What a time to be alive! pic.twitter.com/RaIK8OZm6o

— Nathalie Yamb (@Nath_Yamb) September 28, 2026

The inauguration of RAFFINOR-BF is a testament to Burkina Faso’s commitment to economic sovereignty and industrial development. As the country continues to invest in its mining sector, it is poised to become a leader in the global gold market, generating wealth and creating opportunities for its people.

From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

Software created by University of Queensland scientists could help AI platforms overcome a blind spot limiting their value in plant research. UQ Ph.D. student Tianqi Wei said even advanced vision-language models (VLMs) had difficulty interpreting images of microscopic plant details.

From Biology News - Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology via This RSS Feed.

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful An Open Letter to the Honorable People of the United States of America Indeed, God does not alter the affairs of a people until they alter their own affairs. —The Holy Qur’an 13:11 To the honorable people of the United States of America—the scholars, the students, and the media persons, We begin this letter by saluting the noble souls of God’s greatest prophets—Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, may His peace and blessings be upon them all. Seven months ago, the US military, launched an unprovoked war, in violation of the international law, against Iran by attacking an elementary school in Minab, murdering 168 innocent schoolchildren along with their teachers. Simultaneously, they attacked the offices of Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, martyring His Eminence and several members of his family, including his 14-month-old granddaughter. To date, the war has claimed the lives of more than 3600 Iranians, the vast majority of them civilians, including 400 children. Eight universities, three hospitals, and eight schools have been bombed. Yet, despite the unprecedented acts of cruelty and violence suffered by the Iranian nation during this war, the United States and Israel have suffered a crushing defeat, while the Islamic Republic of Iran has achieved a decisive victory. As the first casualty of the endless wars waged by the US government has without exception been the truth, with the American people perpetually receiving the greatest harm as the result of the US government’s campaign of deception, we wish to highlight some of the facts that are being withheld from the American public. After all, it is the American taxpayers who will have to bear the cost of America’s unjust wars, and so they deserve to know the truth. Let’s start by considering a few questions. Why has Iran prevailed in its conflict with the U.S., whose military enjoys an annual budget one hundred times that of Iran’s armed forces and possesses a stockpile of weapons and munitions that dwarfs what is available to the Iranian military by an enormously lopsided ratio?

• Why do Iranians chant, “Death to America”? Are they hostile to the American people?
• The US government claims that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) is a terrorist organization. Is this true?
• Why have the vast and extensive efforts of the U.S. government over the past nearly five decades to restore its domination over the Iranian people continually failed?
• Why is the US, if the present course continues, rapidly heading toward decline?
• How will the present war between Iran and the U.S. unfold and end? How can the American people protect themselves from the consequences of their government’s unjust aggression and shield themselves against the worst harms of the impending collapse? These are the questions we wish to consider in this letter. We will be candid and forthright. Should you doubt the honesty in the answers we provide to the foregoing questions, you can make a short trip to any part of Iran you wish—possibly even the Strait of Hormuz—and personally ascertain for yourselves the verity of our assertions.
• Why Is Iran the Victor? Why has Iran won the war despite having a defense budget only one percent that of the United States? Perhaps, the first reaction you may have to this question is credulity: “On what grounds do you claim that Iran is the victor?” To determine which side has won the war, we need to see which side has achieved its objectives. American and Israeli officials initially stated that the objectives of their assault on Iran were regime change and partition of Iran. However, after failing to achieve either objective, they started blurting out a changing list of objectives, announcing a new objective with every passing week, and this betrayed the absence of a coherent strategy in prosecuting the war. The US President has expressed thirteen different targets for the war once the failure of the first two objectives was clear: Iran’s unconditional surrender; seizing Kharg Island and taking control of Iran’s oil; a ground invasion and occupation of Iranian territory; the destruction of all industrial infrastructure; the destruction of all energy infrastructure and returning Iran to the Stone Age; the destruction of Iranian civilization; launching Operation Freedom and taking control of the Strait of Hormuz; debilitating Iran’s economy by preventing all exports and imports; destroying Iran’s nuclear industry; destroying Iran’s missile and drone capabilities; annexing the Strait of Hormuz to US territory and imposing a 20 percent toll; destroying Iran’s air defenses and taking control of Iranian airspace; and ending Iran’s support for Islamic resistance groups in the region. The United States and Israel expended thousands of bombs and missiles, striking government and residential buildings, dozens of less-advanced and lower-tier weapons-manufacturing facilities, and a number of decommissioned military installations. Yet, aside from damaging several buildings tied to Iran’s nuclear industry and a limited number of air-defense sites, they failed to achieve any of their declared objectives. Now, nearly seven months into this unjust war, the US military—the largest and costliest military in the history of the world—has scored no wins, and that is all the more humiliating when we consider that it fought the war in collaboration with the Israeli military, which claims to be the world’s fourth-largest military power. Additionally, Israel and US have failed to realize one of their ulterior motives in instigating this war—diverting the world’s attention from Israel’s horrific crimes against Palestinians. The issue of Israel’s genocide in Gaza remains at the forefront of global public concern. Concrete Evidence of Iran’s Victory Iran’s victory is not limited to thwarting the enemy in achieving its objectives. The armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran decimated American bases located in the Persian Gulf region. Iranian strikes neutralized a significant number of advanced American military assets—including more than 200 expensive strategic drones, 12 tanker and transport aircraft, 30 fighter jets, at least one AWACS aircraft, dozens of helicopters, and dozens of high-value radar and air-defense batteries—and substantially degraded the infrastructure at US bases in the region, destroying more than 350 primary facilities and structures, while the operational capability of 18 US bases was reduced to nearly zero. Arguably, however, the greatest consequence of this war has been the damage it has done to America’s reputation as the world’s sole superpower and the irreparable and gaping cracks it has created in the edifice of U.S. global hegemony. The U.S. can no longer boast of its status as the world’s hegemon. The points we will cover below make this truth sufficiently clear. More important than all of these, however, are Iran’s remarkable strategic wins.

1. The gains the US government had made in its decades-long cognitive and cultural warfare in weakening Iran’s national and religious values and alienating Iranian youth from their cultural heritage were largely neutralized. America’s heinous attack on the Minab Elementary School and its grave miscalculation in aligning itself with the deeply unpopular Israeli regime and martyring the Supreme Leader made the criminal nature of America’s ruling class tangible to the younger generations of Iranians. By strengthening the determination of the Iranian youth to resist and oppose the tyranny of global hegemony, the American-Israeli war reinvigorated the Islamic Republic and ensured that it will thrive for at least several decades to come.
2. The media campaign by the U.S. government designed to mislead the American public by stoking hatred against Iran has considerably weakened. Contrary to the best efforts of the U.S. government, Iran’s standing in American public opinion is actually improving, while Americans’ awareness of—and hostility toward—the principal force behind the war, Israel, is visibly increasing.
3. National solidarity in Iran has grown significantly stronger as a result of the war. The efforts of the U.S. government at laying the groundwork for the partition of Iran over the past five decades have been foiled, its various ethnic groups being ever prouder of their national identity.
4. For the first time in history, Iran has exerted, and retained, operational control over the Strait of Hormuz. Consequently, American warships were forced to flee deep into the Indian Ocean. Not a single U.S. vessel can now dock at the vaunted U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
5. Not only did Iran retain its missile and drone stockpiles largely intact; it ramped up production of weapons and munitions and, amazingly, developed more advanced iterations even as the war raged on.
6. With each passing day of the war, Iran’s air-defense capabilities became more mature and powerful. Iran successfully shot down the most advanced American and Israeli aircraft, including some equipped with the latest stealth technology.
7. At the beginning of the war, people in the streets of Manama and Doha witnessed American military personnel fleeing their bases. They were reportedly running around in their underwear, looking for places to hide. In the following days and weeks, official U.S. military statements announced the withdrawal of successively larger numbers of American forces from the region. American bases have come to resemble ghost towns, and there is now serious discussion in the corridors of American power about the dissolution of these bases.
8. The war led to a substantial growth in Iran’s support for the Resistance Front. In the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the Presidents of Iran and the U.S., American officials begrudgingly acknowledged the inseparable alliance of the various resistance groups within the region.
9. Trump did not and could not destroy the Iranian civilization, which now, thanks to the war, shines brighter than ever before. Iran has gained a far higher standing in the eyes of people around the world. The cultural influence and standing of Iranian civilization are far greater than they were before the war. To verify this, you can travel to a few countries and pose as an Iranian, and the admiring welcome you will receive from people of different faith and nationalities will speak volumes. 10.Iran’s victory has endowed people all around the world with a heightened degree of political consciousness and a revitalized sense of self-confidence. This will in time serve as a powerful source of change, leading to seismic transformation in how people exercise their will to self-determination and stand up to oppression and injustice.
10. The illegal move by the U.S. military to halt the free movement of ships in the Indian Ocean—which the Trump administration misleadingly calls “a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz”—has in fact led to greater growth in Iran’s domestic production and a sharp boost in its economic engagement with its neighbors. 12.The martyrdom of Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei has shone a spotlight on the concept of wilayat al-faqih (“the rule of the jurisprudent”) in the global arena, introducing the reality of this religiopolitical office to the world and debunking the lies that try to falsely portray wilayat al-faqih as a form of dictatorship. The historic funeral procession of the martyred Supreme Leader, which saw the participation of over 40 million mourners in Iran and Iraq, served as a globally reverberating vindication of the superior moral and political legitimacy of the system of governance at the heart of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Though painful, the martyrdom of Iran’s Supreme Leader did not lead, as American and Israeli politicians had hoped, to the disintegration of the Islamic Republic, and this was a testament to the resilience of a political system rooted in the will of the people. The martyrdom of Imam Khamenei demonstrated to the whole world that wilayat al-faqih is not an ordinary political office but is one founded on mutual affection and trust between a leader and his people. Wilayat al-faqih is the embodiment of all godly virtues in the political sphere. It was wilayat al-faqih that empowered Iran to stand firm against diabolical powers with incomparably greater firepower by enabling the country’s armed forces to fight successfully using only domestically produced weapons and munitions; that succeeded in winning the hearts of people around the world despite overwhelming hostility from thousands of media outlets with virtually limitless resources affiliated with the world’s superpower; that ensured that not a single store shelf has been left empty in spite of 47 years of “crippling” sanctions; that facilitated the fastest rate of scientific progress in the world in the face of the most severe scientific and technological constraints; and that makes a leader who is capable of ruling for 37 years while maintaining a lifestyle resembling that of the lower echelons of the society and refraining from allocating any special privileges to himself or his loved ones. The Main Factors Underpinning Iran’s Victory The main factor behind Iran’s victory is not drones and missiles. The United States and Israel possess more powerful and more advanced missiles and drones, plus a variety of other forms of weaponry that Iran lacks. The principal reason for Iran’s victory is threefold:
11. The Quran’s superior doctrine and worldview
12. The Iranian nation’s faith in and unity around the tenets of the Quran
13. The competent and righteous leadership of a man of God
14. The Quran’s Superior Doctrine and Worldview Iran is the birthplace of the most controversial and, at the same time, the most misunderstood political revolution in the modern era—a revolution founded on the Quran and the teachings of the most noble of divine guides. In a word, the underlying foundation of the Islamic Revolution of Iran is the Quran’s divinely revealed doctrine and worldview. Honesty, liberty, equality, social equity, respect for the rights of others, political discernment, compassion, and the priority of human values over personal desires are among the basic social principles that stem from this Quranic doctrine. The Quran proclaims all human beings brothers and sisters and servants of God. No race, color, ethnicity, or nation is given pride of place in Islam. Humanity is of one cloth, and an assault on a single human being is an assault on all of humanity. The political philosophy upon which the intellectual foundations of the Islamic Republic are founded is informed by the central elements of the divine mandate of God’s prophets, especially an unqualified trust in God and an uncompromising struggle for justice. The Quran teaches us to neither oppress nor succumb to oppression. In this light, one of the principal missions pursued by the leadership of the Islamic Republic has been a tireless effort to strengthen Iran, empowering it to protect and promote the Quranic values enshrined in Iran’s constitution and safeguard the integrity and autonomy of the nation against the unrelenting attacks of the forces of evil. Iran’s leaders feel personally obligated to fight ignorance and injustice and defend truth, justice, and freedom. To surrender to the enemies of truth and justice would mean nothing less than resigning ourselves to the evisceration of the sacred values of the Quran and is therefore out of the question. It is this resolute determination to fight for truth and justice that constitutes the inexhaustible source of the power that fuels the Iranian nation in its decades-long refusal to surrender, despite the persistent hostility of the world’s mightiest powers.
15. The Iranian Nation’s Faith in and Unity around the Tenets of the Quran The incredible spirit of resistance and struggle that permeates the nation of Iran stems from a deep faith in the Quran. The Iranian psyche is fundamentally shaped by real historical role models who personified the tenets of the Quran—towering figures of godliness who are revered in Iran as legends worthy of devotion and imitation. Any nation that looks up to these role models will undoubtedly be invincible. Therefore, if you want to know the secret to Iran’s invincibility, you must read about the tragedy of Karbala and come to know Imam Husayn (peace be upon him), the archetypal exemplification of standing up for justice and welcoming death with open arms in defense of the truth. He bravely fought a fierce battle despite his thirst, continuing to fight even after witnessing all his men slain before his eyes, and never succumbing to the forces of evil. If you want to understand why the Iranians are not intimidated by the extreme brutality of the American war machine after witnessing the mass killing of the children of Minab Elementary School and the assassination of their leader, you must read the tragedy of Karbala. Read how Imam Husayn’s adolescent nephew, Abdullah, rushed to protect his uncle with his bare hands and died in his uncle’s arms. Read how Imam Husayn’s infant son, Ali al-Asghar, had his throat rent by an enemy arrow, dying in his father’s embrace. You wonder why Iranians—the people and the leadership alike—do not yield to the alluring promises the U.S. government dangles before them? Find the secret in the story of Hazrat Abbas, Imam Husayn’s devoted and loyal brother who, the day before Ashura, rebuffed a proposal by an enemy commander to give him amnesty if he agreed to leave his brother and who on the Day of Ashura lost both arms and then his life attempting to deliver some water to the parched children of his brother’s camp. You wish to know how, against all odds, the Iranian nation has successfully withstood 47 years of severe economic hardship and endless plots and is not only surviving but is thriving? The answer is to be found in the account of Lady Zaynab’s epic endurance. Lady Zaynab, Imam Husayn’s beloved sister, patiently managed Imam Husayn’s camp and lovingly tended to the children in the midst of a siege in which water was scarce or unavailable. Lady Zaynab, who is revered in the Shia faith alongside such noble women as the Virgin Mary and Lady Fatimah, shaped and safeguarded Imam Husayn’s legacy by delivering fiery speeches in captivity and while facing her ruthless captors that rivaled in eloquence those of any Arab orator, by protecting Imam Husayn’s surviving son, and by competently leading the caravan of the captives of Karbala. Such are the stories that Iranians imbibe and internalize as they grow up.
16. The Competent and Righteous Leadership of a Man of God Arguably, the primary factor responsible for Iran’s victory in its clash with two armies that enjoy almost limitless resources is having a leader who is carefully chosen in accordance with a set of criteria inspired by the tenets of the Quran, a leader whose virtue, justness, and competence must be ascertained beyond any reasonable doubt by a body of independent and learned jurists appointed directly by the people. Imam Sayyid Mujtaba Khamenei is Iran’s third supreme leader. Appointed as the new supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran following his father’s brutal assassination, he is a respected jurisprudent and seminary professor with a taste for poetry and the arts who spent months on the warfront when he was a teenager. He has considerable experience in political, military, and security matters, having served for years as a special representative and adviser for the late Supreme Leader. Ayatollah Sayyid Mujtaba Khamenei has, in the few months he has assumed the role, proven his mettle by steering the country through perhaps what is one of the most turbulent times in its history and has commanded the Iranian armed forces so competently as to decisively push back two of the world’s mightiest armies and bring two of the world’s most technologically advanced powers to their knees. Imam Sayyid Mujtaba Khamenei, as those who have known him for more than two decades will tell you, is a God-fearing, compassionate, and kind man, a deeply spiritual ascetic, a courageous leader, and a deeply knowledgeable and wise scholar. Only a leader with such a personality and such virtues can lead a nation of believers to victory against the most powerful armies in the world. This is the type of leadership that the U.S. lacks. According to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the position of “Leader” (rahbar)—Iran’s head of state and the commander-in-chief of its armed forces—must be filled by a wali al-faqih, a “jurisprudent ruler,” who is selected by a body of jurists, or “experts,” who are in turn appointed by the Iranian people in direct popular elections. The Constitution specifies five characteristics that the Leader must possess. The Leader must be (1) a faqih, an expert in Islamic scholarship, (2) “just,” who invariably prefers the greater good of the people over all other considerations, (3) pious, that is, careful to avoid sin and vice, (4) aware of the political and social currents and circumstances of the time, and (5) brave. Today the person who verifiably possesses all five virtues is Imam Sayyid Mujtaba Khamenei. Wali al-faqih is a unique form of governance that is designed on the model of leadership personified by Prophet Muhammad and Imam Ali—the wisest, most compassionate, and most courageous leaders in human history. In occupying the office of wali al-faqih, Imam Sayyid Mujtaba Khamenei has an apt role model that he can look up to and emulate—the martyred supreme leader, Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a cowardly assassination mission ordered by the Trump administration. Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei ruled for 37 years with justice and compassion. Thus, despite the numerous hardships the country has experienced and the decades-long psychological campaigns that successive U.S. administrations have orchestrated to tarnish his image and drive a wedge between Iran’s people and its leadership, the late Supreme Leader acquired such a place in the hearts of the Iranian people that throngs of mourners, comfortably numbering in the tens of millions, poured into the streets of Tehran, Qom, and Mashhad to participate in his days-long funeral ceremony and bid him farewell. But Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei was beloved not just by Iranians but by people all around the world. In Iraq, a country that fought an eight-year war with Iran under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, an estimated 12 million mourners accompanied his body in a 23-hour procession stretching along an 80-kilometer route. The Iraqi mourners wept as though they were grieving the loss of a dearly loved old friend. And it is certain that, if a funeral procession had also been held in London or New York, similar scenes would have unfolded. The Main Cause Responsible for the Defeat of the U.S. and Israel The defeat of a military comprised of forces that suffer from low morale and lack a strong sense of purpose and is led by arrogant commanders who are blinded by a complacent sense of self-assurance stemming from their confidence in their vast arsenal and abundant resources should come as no surprise to anyone. The U.S. military has been continuously engaged in pointless and fruitless wars for 70 years, with the consequence that American service members have grown increasingly disillusioned over the decades, as evidenced by the high suicide and drug-abuse rates among veterans. The main problem afflicting the U.S. military is that its forces have no clear idea why they are asked over and over to fight for causes that are utterly meaningless and irrelevant to them. American service members cannot fathom why their leaders deploy them to far-flung regions throughout the world to participate in confrontations that have not produced a favorable or beneficial outcome. Why should underprivileged American men and women risk their lives for opaque objectives that seem to mean nothing to anyone except the ruling elite, who seem to have no qualms blithely sacrificing the lives of their fellow countrymen and -women while they go on with their ordinary lives pursuing their personal interests at the expense of ordinary Americans? Why should the U.S. military throw its weight around for Israel, a racist and murderous regime that is not constrained by any moral boundaries and has no commitment to human rights? The U.S. military is governed by a crooked ethos that condones cruelty, violence, and the killing of innocent children, an ethos that has no truly inspiring models in the real world. It is for this reason that American officials have to resort to fictional movies and computer games to motivate the rank-and-file of the armed forces. In other words, American forces are intellectually and morally hollow, and consequently, when the U.S. military is confronted by an able opponent, it is shamefully incompetent—a paper tiger, if you will. Little wonder, then, that Iran defeated the mighty U.S. military. If we were to boil down all of the problems that have caused the defeat of the American military, we would have to point to one glaring deficiency—a deficiency in competent leadership. If you wish to assess the validity of this statement, one quick and easy comparison would suffice: Gauge the current commander-in-chief of the United States against the same criteria on the basis of which Iran’s commander-in-chief is selected—knowledge, justness, piety, social and political insight, and courage. The result that such comparison yields is, without any exaggeration, jarring: Not only is the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces lacking in these virtues; he embodies their polar opposites. America’s national security and the lives of its servicemembers are entrusted to someone who is not only an inveterate liar but is also an insanely avaricious man whose only motivation in life is the accumulation of greater wealth. He conducts American foreign policy in accordance with his personal interests, flaunting the bribes he takes from the heads of wealthy nations. Rather than managing international relations through official government institutions, he appoints members of his family and his business partners to function as his representatives on the international stage. He calibrates the pace of war not on the basis of American national interests but in line with factors conducive to compounding his personal wealth, making announcements and publishing social-media posts pertaining to the war that are intended solely to make his purchase and sale of stocks more lucrative. It is perfectly clear which of the two leaders God supports. And it is equally clear that in a confrontation between oppressed believers who seek nothing more than justice and an overbearing and oppressive power, the United States, which does not hesitate to murder innocent women and children, God will not stand by the oppressor’s side. The president of the United States constantly boasts of commanding the mightiest military in the history of the world. He fails to understand that this very fact is the greatest proof of his incompetence and that of all his predecessors, because despite possessing such a mighty military, the U.S. has time and time again been defeated. In Vietnam, American forces left behind an enduring legacy of disgrace; in Afghanistan, they were forced to flee; in Iraq, they were practically expelled; in Yemen, they had to back out before being bogged down in another “forever war”; and today, they have suffered their greatest defeat at the hands of the beleaguered but resilient and faithful forces of Iran. Victory does not result from superior material capabilities. God is more powerful than any and all worldly powers, and whichever side He supports is undoubtedly victorious. It was God’s power that enabled Noah to prevail over the oppressors by means of the Deluge, that rescued Abraham from Nimrod’s fire, that delivered Joseph from the depths of the well and made him ruler of Egypt, and that led Moses and his people across the sea while drowning Pharaoh and his mighty army. The same God who empowered Jesus to bring the dead back to life now wishes to drown the Pharaoh of our age, and He will. The Common Pain That Iranians and Americans Share Are Iranians Hostile to the American people? The nations of Iran and America are both, each in their own way, victims of the oppression of the occupants of the White House—which should, if names were to reflect reality, aptly be named “the House of Oppression.” The root of the pain the two nations share is that the evil occupants of the White House, who come to power in elections that are dominated by misleading propaganda campaigns, do not truly represent the American people. They only represent the interests of an elite cohort of powerful Zionist capitalists. To win over this cohort, American leaders violate not only the rights of other nations but also those of the American people, and they consistently place the interests of this small but powerful cohort above the interests of their own people. The injustice that the occupants of the White House subject the American people to is no less than that to which they subject other nations. In fact, one could argue that in some respects the injustice that Americans are made to suffer by their leaders is even greater. There are numerous factors that clearly demonstrate this truth. ● The United States has four percent of the world’s population but 20 percent of its prisoners. This is despite the fact that many acts considered crimes in other countries are not crimes in the United States. ● Every year, more than 1,300 Americans are shot and killed by police in the streets—a figure that is unmatched anywhere else in the world, not even in China or India, although each has a population of about 1.5 billion. ● The occupants of the White House have long employed the age-old strategy of “divide and conquer” not only to maintain their coercive domination over other nations so as to plunder their resources but also in relation to the American people. If Americans only opened their eyes and looked around, they would visibly behold the deep divisions and factions that their rulers have created in American society. The polarization and factional anger that pervade American society today are at levels not seen since the Civil War. ● The occupants of the White House have for over five decades now sacrificed the interests of the American people, as well as those of all other nations, for securing the diabolical ambitions of Israel. This perverse devotion to Israel has become even more pronounced in the past decade. As the U.S. marches headlong toward the precipice of a major economic crisis, with tens of millions of Americans living below the poverty line and the overwhelming portion of the national wealth accumulated at the top one percent of the population, the government is providing billions of dollars every year in grants paid by hardworking American taxpayers to Israel to fund its ravenous, genocidal military. ● By imposing ungodly levels of taxes on Americans in order to finance the trillions of dollars needed for the endless wars the military-industrial complex ignites in regions thousands of miles away, U.S. leaders exacerbate their country’s inflation, unemployment, and poverty and cause the deaths of American servicemembers while inflicting death and devastation on the people of other nations. These factors, deliberately planned and executed by U.S. administrations over many decades, have significantly weakened the U.S. Home to a large concentration of the world’s top scientists, intellectuals, artists, and athletes, the United States of America could be the most beloved country in the world. Yet because of the nefarious actions perpetrated by its corrupt politicians, America is today viewed across the globe as a disgraced, despised, and debilitated behemoth. The U.S. government has long oppressed and impoverished both its own people and the people of other countries. Therefore, we genuinely mean it when we say that Iranians and Americans have been wronged by the same cohort of elite actors. We share the same pain. The Meaning of “Death to America” In light of what has been said, it should be fairly obvious that the phrase “Death to America,” which Iranians have been chanting since the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, does not in any way express any ill will toward the American people, who have themselves suffered from the same oppression. “Death to America” is a prayer for the eradication of the diabolical ruling elite whose seat of power is the White House. It is a cry born of the pain of oppression. Do the oppressed not have the right to wish death upon the evil oppressors responsible for killing their brothers, sisters, parents, and children, for plundering their natural resources, and for denigrating their millennia-old cultural heritage? The men enthroned at the White House oppress both Iranians and Americans. The difference between the two nations is that, as Iranians, we have made up our mind to free ourselves from their oppression, and we are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices, because Islam requires believers to stand up to tyrants who only understand the language of power, whose first inclination is to bully and humiliate those weaker than them, and who—for all their disingenuous talk of human rights and human dignity—are more than willing to resort to oppression, repression, and ethnic, racial, and financial discrimination. Iran, in a word, is determined to confront with force any tyrannical power that is hostile to the elevating and liberating tenets of Islam and seeks to oppress the noble people of Iran. But toward the people of other nations—including the hardworking and honest people of America—Iran not only harbors no ill-will but is ready to offer any help they may need to liberate themselves from the tyranny of oppressive powers. No genuinely popular revolution in history has escaped the hostility of the powers that be. Nevertheless, the hostility that the American government has directed at the people of Iran in the course of the last 47 years is of a scope and ferocity that has rarely been witnessed in human history. The countless instances of American hostility toward Iran can fill volumes, and so a complete review of the long list of crimes and wrongs committed by successive U.S. administrations against the people of Iran is obviously beyond what we can consider here. Nonetheless, recounting a few examples of these crimes and wrongs would be enough to convince any unbiased American that Iranians should not be faulted for chanting “Death to America.” A Brief List of America’s Wrongs and Crimes in Its 73-Year History of Meddling in Iran “The Den of Espionage” The war that the U.S. initiated on February 28, 2026, by blatantly killing Iran’s Supreme Leader (which any historian would tell you is a truly unprecedented act of aggression), was not the beginning of hostilities between Iran and the U.S. This war is only the latest chapter in a well-documented history of wrongs and crimes that stretches 73 years back. The beginning of America’s hostility toward Iranians was in 1953, the year in which the CIA aided and abetted the Shah’s regime to stage a coup and topple the legitimate and popular government of Iran, headed by the Americanophile prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh. As a result of this coup, the Shah, who had cowardly fled the country, returned with a restored sense of confidence, ruling for the next several decades with an iron fist. The Shah’s newly formed security agency, SAVAK, which the CIA and Mossad helped shape, brutally tortured and murdered anyone who dared to raise a dissenting voice. The 1953 coup marked the beginning of America’s involvement in Iran, and over the decades the U.S. government exploited Iran’s natural resources and utilized its strategic geopolitical location to exert greater control over the entire region. Meanwhile, American officials and military personnel—numbering in the tens of thousands—roamed Iran freely, denigrating Iranians’ sense of national pride by shamelessly committing blatant crimes with absolute impunity. Frustrated with all the oppression and corruption, Iranians overthrew the Shah in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, ending 25 years of U.S.-backed brutality. When the Iranian people undertook the revolution, they had no animus toward any other nation—not even the U.S. They simply wanted to be free, to control their own resources, and to preserve and practice their national and religious values. But immediately after the fall of the Shah’s dictatorship, the U.S. embassy in Tehran—which historical records show housed a very large CIA station and thus came to be known in Iran as “the Den of Espionage”—actively undertook efforts to undermine and overthrow the newly formed Islamic Republic. Utilizing its embassy as a command-and-control center, the U.S. government armed and organized insurgent factions within Iran’s numerous minority ethnic groups, which are generally concentrated along the borders, encouraging them to fight Iran’s fledgling government by stirring up unrest and perpetrating heinous mass killings. Simultaneously, the U.S. embassy was coordinating with monarchist elements within Iran’s military ranks to stage a military coup. In the first couple of years after the Islamic Revolution, several attempted coups were foiled. It was only natural, then, that Iranians deemed it necessary to shut down the American embassy—“the Den of Espionage”—and put an end to its subversive activities. Domestic Terrorism Violent domestic terrorism was another form that America’s hostility toward Iran took in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution. The organizations, which were backed by the U.S. government, established a large terror network that claimed the lives of many thousands of civilians. These terrorist groups wreaked havoc in Iran, committing all sorts of heinous crimes—individual and mass assassinations, devastating bombings, hijackings, kidnappings, and torture—all with America’s knowing support. These inhuman acts of domestic terrorism claimed the lives of 20,000 Iranians—a president, a prime minister, a head of the judiciary, a number of government ministers, several dozen members of the Parliament, scientists, and ordinary citizens from all walks of life. Eight Long Years of Devastating War When the U.S. realized that acts of domestic terrorism were not enough to destroy the Islamic Republic, as the terrorist groups lacked any popular support, it took an even more deadly approach. Spurred and supported by the U.S. government, Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s bloodthirsty dictator, launched an unprovoked war on Iran in 1980 that lasted eight years, claiming the lives of over 200,000 Iranians. Several years into the war, when it was becoming increasingly clear that the Baathist military of Iraq was incapable of achieving any meaningful victory, the U.S. military established a joint operations command center with the Baathist military and brought warships into the region in an effort to open another front in the war on Iran and, in this way, save Saddam’s military from a disgraceful defeat. The U.S. effectively entered the war directly, attacking Iranian ships and oil platforms. Moreover, ramping up its hostility toward the Iranian people to new heights, the U.S., together with its European allies, armed Saddam’s regime with chemical weapons, which it then used to kill Iranian and Iraqi civilians. In another instance of its crimes against humanity, the U.S. military directly and deliberately attacked an Iranian passenger airplane over the Persian Gulf. On July 3, 1988, two missiles fired from an American warship struck an Airbus 300 passenger airplane, Flight IR655, killing all 290 men, women, and children aboard. Adding insult to injury, the warship’s captain was later awarded a medal of honor for his service for the period of time that included the downing of the Iranian passenger airplane. Economic Sanctions, Psychological Warfare and Support for Terrorist Groups Having failed to bring Iran to heel by imposing eight years of brutal war on the Iranian people, the American government—which had already stolen billions of dollars of Iranian assets held in U.S. banks and imposed some sanctions on Iran—tried a new approach. The U.S. government implemented an unprecedented package of economic sanctions on Iran to stifle the country’s economy. At the same time, the U.S. intensified its policy of psychological warfare against the Iranian people—a policy that had been adopted under the Carter administration as part of a broader effort to overthrow the Islamic Republic and promote the establishment of an alternative pro-Western government. Recruiting members of the terrorist groups that had failed miserably, despite their brutal acts, to undermine the Islamic Republic, the American government supported the founding of dozens of anti-Iranian satellite television networks based in the U.S. and Europe. These television networks, which operated under the supervision of American and European intelligence agencies, unleashed a broad onslaught of toxic propaganda campaigns designed to destabilize Iran and weaken the Islamic Republic. Moreover, turning to an old tactic in its regime-change playbook, the U.S. government armed and funded terrorist groups and recruited violent thugs to incite unrest and sow fear in Iran. But this strategy, despite costing many Iranian lives and causing enormous emotional and financial pain to numerous families and communities throughout Iran, also ended in failure. Birthing ISIS All its previous attempts having failed in achieving their intended goal, the U.S. government unveiled a much more sinister and destructive strategy—creating an ostensibly indigenous ruthless regional terror group, ISIS, that carried out untold atrocities, slaughtering thousands of civilians in Syria, Iraq, and Iran. But to America’s disappointment, the terror and death caused by ISIS served to shape and solidify “the Resistance Front,” a coalition of groups allied with Iran around their shared objective of defeating terror and opposing its creator, the United States of America. The central figure who in a short time succeeded in designing and constructing the Resistance Front was none other than the highly spiritual and incredibly brave commander—the legendary General Qasem Soleimani. In a highly innovative and effective campaign that baffled the most experienced Western military analysts, the coalition he formed succeeded in eradicating ISIS within a few short years, in spite of all the clandestine support the terror group was receiving from Israel and successive U.S. administrations. Consequently, in a final act of revenge, the U.S. military, acting on President Trump’s order, killed General Soleimani in a cowardly attack while he was on an official visit to Iraq. How telling that any fleeting success that the American military has had in recent decades has come in the form of one-off cowardly assassinations and abductions. America’s Continued Hostility and the 12-Day War These were only some of the more prominent acts of hostility committed by the U.S. government against the Iranian people. But U.S. hostility in the past several decades has also been manifested in more subtle and less noticeable forms. There has not been a day that has gone by in which Iran has not suffered—directly or indirectly—from America’s villainous acts. ● The occupation of Afghanistan resulted in a steep increase in drug production there—a development actively supported by American military leadership—and this in turn facilitated the widespread distribution of cheap illegal drugs among Iranian youth. ● By promoting pornography and extramarital sexual relationships through a deliberate and intensifying cyberspace campaign, the U.S. has tried to undermine the traditional values underpinning Iranian culture and thereby weakening the institution of the family. ● The numerous terror cells that have emerged in and around Iran, with American support and funding, have carried out atrocious acts of violence—bombing or setting fire to religious institutions, mosques, and libraries and assassinating eminent religious and cultural figures as well as numerous ordinary Iranians. ● The pharmaceutical sanctions the American government has imposed on Iran have led to the deaths of people affected by butterfly skin disease (epidermolysis bullosa). These, and numerous other plots, were all foiled by the Iranian nation. After seeing all the plots it had executed through proxies and third parties effectively neutralized, the American government had only one option left—direct military conflict. In June 2025, the United States of America, joined by the Zionist regime of Israel, started an intense air campaign attacking, in a “shock and awe” assault, a large number of critical Iranian military and civilian targets. Yet this war, which lasted 12 days, also ended in America’s defeat. Though the assault resulted in the martyrdom of more than 1,000 Iranians, including 120 children and dozens of scientists and university students, it showed that Iran could take on the U.S. and Israel at once and come out triumphant. Armed Insurgency The United States and Israel attributed their defeat in the 12-Day War to Iran’s internal stability, believing that creating internal turmoil prior to an attack would guarantee victory. Accordingly, in January 2026, they instigated unrest by deploying operatives, funneling large quantities of weapons, and waging coordinated psychological and media campaigns. CIA and Mossad agents infiltrated peaceful demonstrations—sparked by economic hardship resulting largely from the inhumane sanctions imposed by the U.S.—and turned them into violent clashes, resulting in the martyrdom of more than 2,300 innocent Iranians. Their objective was to pin the blame on the Iranian government, polarizing society and providing a pretext for the U.S. to intervene under the guise of supporting the protestors. However, this highly orchestrated conspiracy, like all previous American plots, collapsed. Recognizing the enemy’s hostile intent, the Iranian people maintained their solidarity, and this allowed law-enforcement forces to swiftly restore order. The Last War Instead of learning from its failures and putting an earnest effort into understanding the root causes of being rebuffed, thwarted, and defeated by the Islamic Republic for 47 years, the foolish government of the U.S. once again decided to double down and push ahead with its strategically flawed approach to Iran. Thus, on February 28, 2026, the American military, once again in collaboration with Israel, launched a new war against Iran. This is the war that, as we are writing this piece, is still ongoing. With every passing day, more and more indications of Iran’s victory come to light, while America’s position grows increasingly precarious. We have no doubt, given the righteousness of Iran’s cause and the enormous number of God-fearing and pious souls brutally murdered in American and Israeli strikes, that the U.S. will experience the bitter taste of ultimate defeat. No Feeling of Hostility toward the American People The foregoing list of acts of hostility committed by the U.S. government against Iran is in no way an indictment of the American people. It is, rather, the shameful record of the inhuman crimes of America’s political leaders. In this light, the true meaning of “Death to America” is “Death to the crimes perpetrated by the American elite.” It is, in a word, not an expression of ill will toward the American people. And we are certain that if the American people truly understood the reality of the evil their leaders commit in their name, they would disavow their leaders—as they gradually are doing—and would stand by the people of Iran in indicting their common oppressor. Little wonder, then, that over the past 47 years, no U.S. president has been willing to sit across from an Iranian1 journalist and answer his or her questions in a free and fair interview that would be broadcast on American media. American presidents are perfectly aware that if such an interview were to take place, they could not convince their fellow Americans of the legitimacy of America’s incurably belligerent and rapacious foreign policy, especially toward Iran. They know that Americans would agree with the people of Iran in condemning American leaders. The IRGC and Accusations of Terrorism Throughout history, hegemons have always been insincere in how they manipulate concepts to suit their nefarious ends. They offer skewed definitions and misguided applications of concepts that are important to public opinion in order to justify their evil agendas. In the contemporary world, terrorism and human rights are two concepts that have been tortured and abused by the U.S. and its allies in their attempt to secure their predatory domination over the world and their own people. One of the most duplicitous political games the U.S. has engaged in in recent decades is to impute the universally loathed concept of terrorism mainly to those countries and groups that are the primary victims of terrorism, while the U.S. is by far the world’s greatest state sponsor of terrorism.

Continued in comments.

Every now and then after a big rain these crop up in my basement. No obvious cracks or anything where they pop out of the unfinished concrete floor. I try to dispose of them without too much opportunity to shake of spores, and then douse the floor with bleach, but I also admire their ability to grow with no apparent nutrients.

"Soviet Ukraine"? Sounds like RuZZian propaganda!

So y’know, my doc has asked me multiple times now about whether I was in special education. I remember before kindergarten going in to the room across from the nurse’s where I did a few block puzzles, y’know, make a staircase with blocks, yadda yadda. I scored pretty well. Side story: I remember scoring 40/40 on the entrance exam to the Syracuse Academy of Science after I was effectively expelled from Solvay. 98 on ASVAB; 450+ on extended APFT. But y’know, early on, teacher aides would pull me aside frequently and sometimes take me to two different classrooms. One was the special ed room, the other was an activity room (?). Like, ESL met there. Everybody went there at some point at every grade; it was a specialized room.

But, I remember telling my mom about this once when I was in first grade and my mom got super pissed, but not at me. I remember that. Realizing my mom was getting angry. It often led to a chain reaction where my dad would get angry. Weird how I’m damaged and differently abled. But y’know, my mom got on the phone, bitched at the school for a hot minute, and I didn’t see those rooms again except for the normative discourse and routine of the moment (?).

I remember when I was 2/3, I wrote a greentext about this before, but my mom took me to the place that was bought by Sylvan later on, and I fucked up by getting stuck in a tube, and my mom was angry I didn’t get into that program so I had to go to the one around the block.

A random memory: the last day of kindergarten, all the parents were there for their kids. Mine were. I insisted I go home on the bus to ride with my imaginary friends. Literally the only kid on the bus. The fucking sperg child I was!

I tried relentlessly to learn to ride my bike to make my mom proud. I learned when I was nine, a ways before she died. Little league was hell, with my dad being the coach who got kicked off the field permenantly for screaming death threats at the kids (me especially). I was kept in minors with the third n fourth graders when I was in sixth grade because my dad insisted that I was not good enough, and I wasn’t good at hitting the ball - I literally did not understand what “keep your eye on the ball” meant - but I was fast and did ok in outfield and short stop.

This reminds me of a memory of me making a meal in sixth grade to be graded by our parents. I chose hot dogs and beans. I did nothing wrong. There was nothing wrong with the meal. I didn’t perform like Gordon fucking Ramsay manning the grill top on the stove. He gave me a 75; literally every other parent gave their kid a 100.

I remember he took me out for driving. Nonstop belittling. Everything I did was wrong. It was like I was going ninety around corners. Like, I’m analyzing all these old memories. This is insane! And the direction I wanted to take this was to first/second/third/fourth grade, where I was in the accelerated math and reading groups, but then from fifth on, I was in the regular ELA classes because the teachers didn’t understand why I was having problems.

Likewise, y’know, the reason I was originally being taken to the other classrooms was because I didn’t understand how all the kids knew all the rules. No one explained the rules ever! Other kids had telepathy and just instantly knew shit! And when I was in the one classroom, they would ask me all sorts of questions about my imaginary friends and how I solved this n that problem and how I felt.

I never received any therapy for my mother finding out she had HIV two months after I was born and dying up until I was nine when she finally passed in horrific fashion. That is insane to me. I had no mental health skills whatsoever while I broke myself down to perform for my negligent, narcissistic abuser! And I forgive him, but this is the shit my homonid ass be processing while I’m going through this spell of healing from my traumas. It ain’t bad, but it fucked more in the head than Ed Kemper’s victims, that’s fer shur…