A lot has happened in Lebanon over these last couple years and I haven't given a breakdown on the situation across the country because I didn't know wtf was going on most of the time. Everything is finally settling down so I think I can approach this now. I'm going to skip the events of the war because I have talked about those already. I'll just compare the situation before and after the war.

Situation October 6

Lebanon is a total shitshow in every possible way. The economy has totally collapsed. The politicians are all the same ones from 1990, the gangsters who were lucky enough to not get car-bombed during the Civil War. The government doesn't function anymore. Even the lowliest civil service job is appointed through patronage from one of the gangs parties based on a complicated scheme where power is divided among a dozen religious sects. That system has broken down and nothing is getting down now. For example they can't remove a pile of 2,000 tons of decaying explosives before it explodes or provide power for more than a few hours per day. The presidency has been vacant for a year because the various factions refuse to compromise with each other.

Background note: The President of Lebanon is elected by the parliament, not a popular vote. He needs a 2/3 vote so there has to be consensus. He must be a Maronite Christian.

Every one of the parties I talk about below are from the civil war. I've written extensively about all of them. It's not really necessary to understand this but if you have any questions about them, I probably answered it there. If you haven't read them, short story: They're all buttholes.

Who is to blame for the impasse? There's a lot to throw around.

• The Sunnis for whatever can't come up with any unifying leader beyond Saad Hariri, who is too busy licking caviar off a whore's nipple in Ibiza to inspire political change.

• The Christians are divided. FPM, a vehicle that the last president used to support his megalomaniacal Napoleon-inspired ambitions. He's way too old now so he's turned it over to his son-in-law who is notorious for being even more corrupt, greedy, and r-slurred than your average Lebanese politician.

• The Lebanese Forces during the war was basically the mafia controlling and "protecting" Christian areas. Now they've reinvented themselves as a political party, but they're still run by literal serial killer whose main job during the war was doing massacres and gang hits against Christian rivals. But now he's got a bunch of r-slurred zoomers supporting him, because hey, who care's about his body count if it was a long time ago?

• Marada is a small Christian party that represents the interests of the Franjieh family, who have strong support in one region of the country and close ties to Syria. Notable because he's Hezbollah's favorite and his opponent in the election Geagea personally murdered his entire family.

• The Druze still are completely loyal to Walid Joumblatt. He knows that his sect is a small minority so he throws his weight behind whoever is going to win. At least when he's not too busy smoking weed and shitposting on Twitter.

• Amal is basically all the Shi'a who don't back Hezbollah. Maybe they're secular. Maybe they're normal Shi'a who just don't buy into Ayatollah Khomeini's Vilayat-e Faqih heresy. They don't have the luxury of idealism since most factions in the country and most regional countries are gunning for the Shi'a right now. Led by Nabih Berri, speaker of parliament and a genius for using political patronage to wheel and deal for what he wants. Lots of blood on his hands too from the war.

Hezbollah is important enough to get more than a bullet point. I don't know what to call this organization. It's an army, a militia, a political party, and a welfare system. They gained a lot of prestige for driving the Israeli occupiers out in 2000 after a long guerilla war. Everyone was like "cool, now that the war is over you can give up your weapons". But they found bullshit excuses to not demobilize and resentment has been building since then. Most of the corruption in the country isn't done directly by them, but they use their military power to block anyone from fixing the government, because if they did it would order them to disarm.

They're in trouble now. A lot of their popularity came from social programs that they did in impoverished mostly-Shi'a areas that the government didn't give a shit about. That was funded by Iran. With the sanctions and general decay of the regime, Iran is in serious trouble and has had to cut their donations way back. The population is really pissed off at the complete breakdown of the government and is smart enough to realize that Hezbollah is cockblocking any effort to reform it to solve their problems.

Even more serious, the Assad regime in Syria has dominated Lebanon for most of the last 60 years. Most of these factions have been allied with them at one time or another, but their power has greatly weakened after the Syrian Civil War left the regime as a crippled fragment of the country. Now it's Hezbollah who are most dependent on them. Iran delivers weapons to them through Syria, so they can't keep building up their rocket arsenal without it.

Israel and Hezbollah have both been remarkably good about keeping the cease-fire since 2006. Hezbollah is deterred by Israel's completely overwhelming military power and the damage they suffered in 2006. Israel is deterred by their humiliating defeat in the ground war in 2006 and Hezbollah's massive arsenal of 150,000 rockets, many of which are long-range precision-guided missiles in the same league as ATACMS.

Now

The situation has radically changed in the last few months, more than I've seen in my life time. To summarize the parts of the war important for us here: It turns out that Hezbollah's huge rocket arsenal was vastly exaggerated by the Israelis. The 150,000 rockets didn't exist. The Israelis have infiltrated their organization to an astonishing degree and kill most of their leadership. The Assad regime collapsed like a wet piece of cardboard.

The good news is that the "Shiite Duo" (Hezbollah and Amal) that has cockblocked any kind of reform in Lebanon is not able to do so any longer. They can't be completely ignored, but they can't stop the nation from making progress. Hezbollah is in complete disarray. Their leaders are dead and every means of communication they have is presumably compromised. Just as they can't coordinate their military forces, they probably can't even come up with any political policy. The collapse of Assad's regime means that they can't rearm and replace the weapons lost in this war.

The general public already was very turned off on them before the war started as they were the most powerful faction so they were most to blame for the country's dysfunction. They might have won some moderate degree in sympathy if they had won victories on the battlefield like in 2006 but their catastrophic military defeats have completely undermined their whole raison d'etre. The said that we have to tolerate a "resistance" group outside of the government's control because they were the only ones who could protect the country against Israeli aggression. That made a lot of sense in 1990s, not very much sense afterward, and it makes no sense now. The completely failed to do any damage with their vaunted rockets and on the ground the IDF was too smart to play their game and just didn't attack. So if you're a Christian, a Sunni, or probably most of the Shi'a who don't have a zealot personality type, all Hezbollah managed to accomplish was to drag the whole country into a war and then lose it. Remind me again, why do we let these people have their own private army?

After the cease-fire a president was finally elected after 2 years. The Shiite Duo stopped insisting on Franjieh, who would never have won because if he's president he might remember that Geagea killed his dog (and the rest of his entire family) and go John Wick on him. The winner is commander of the armed forces Joseph Aoun, no relation to commander of the armed forces Michel Aoun who was the last president. ("Aoun" is like "Smith" and they always go to the army for a compromise candidate.)

Joseph Aoun

He seems like a good choice. He joined the army in 1983. During the Civil War he fought for Michel Aoun against the Lebanese Forces of Samir Geagea in the 1990 "War of Elimination" when the army tried to wipe out the gangsters terrorizing Christians and assert the authority of the state. Notice that I mentioned both of these people above and this is the second presidential candidate who fought against Geagea. Are you guys starting to understand why this soap opera is so interesting?

Word is that he's always been very apolitical and gets along with everyone. He did military training in the USA and Syria. His election is approved by Saudi Arabia, the USA, Qatar, France, all the major factions in Lebanon. (Notice this is the one country in the world where their soveriegnty is such a joke that other countries openly declare which candidate they're voting for.) We can only pray that he ends up like Fuad Chehab, the one successful Lebanese president, who was put into power by the US with the same idea, that he was an apolitical compromise candidate who everyone in the country and the region could accept. He went on to create the good times of the 1960s, so who knows, anything could happen.

Hezbollah is playing hard to get, whining about his choice of prime minister, but this is a negotiation tactic. The other factions, even the Maronite patriarch, have said that nobody will be excluded. By this they mean that Hezbollah will get some representation in the cabinet.

Future

What does the future hold for the Lebanese? Hopefully a hot twink with a nice car who can get you a green card. But we're going to look at the national level.

I am very very cautiously optimistic about this new government. I can't think of a single time since 1975 when there was a government that might be willing and able to act like this is a real adult grown-up country. Not even because of Hezbollah. They were just a symptom. The real problem was the Assad regime. There was no way Lebanon could even try to improve itself as long as that existed. They had their tentacles into every part of society. I don't expect we're gonna see true democracy like the USA in 1864 break out tomorrow, but this is legit the first time most of the people in this country could even begin to start trying to make progress in reforming their political system. I mean heck, they might even start breaking down the barriers between the religious sects like everyone has been promising to do since 1943.

There's a lot of dangers left though. Hezbollah and Assad getting the shit kicked out of them brings a lot of opportunities but there's a lot of potential ways to frick this up. I know I'm a nattering nabob of negativity, but I've been saying for decades that when we get rid of them we have to have a plan for how to replace them.

One immediate concern is the Alawis in Lebanon. They have a neighborhood in Tripoli. The population is, I dunno, maybe 10k. There was a lot of fighting between them and the local (Sunni) population several years ago. Not to mention during the Civil War. Now they're totally isolated deep in the territory of people who have really intense reasons to hate them. There's been a lot of cases of isolated communities like this getting massacred. Although on the bright side, those were during wartime and since the Alawis are no real threat to them anymore they'll probably be fine.

Second is the Shi'a. It's difficult for me to follow what's going on with them because they don't post much in English unless it's straight-up propaganda like al-Manar. What I know is, most of them have zero interest in Hezbollah's corruption, its wars, its heresies imported from Iran, its weirdo restrictions on your social life, among other things. They backed them because there is a real legitimate fear among everyone that the other two sects will gang up and wipe you out. The Lebanese Shi'a now have no friends in the world except Iran, which is completely impotent at the moment with a regime bankrupt financially and morally and on the edge of collapse. In my boomer times, the US would have stepped in to reassure these people that they're not about to get genocided.

Third is the Israelis doing their usual bullshit. Signed a "cease-fire" and kept firing. I guess the implicit understanding was if Hezbollah stops shooting rockets they'll stop blowing away all the apartment buildings in Beirut. In the news they report every little detail of the treaty, but it's understood that most of those are just for show and won't be followed. But Israeli domestic politics once again goes against its national interests. They're not going to leave a couple of the villages on the border that they promised to in the cease-fire. This is very typical of Israeli diplomacy: Always break every agreement a little bit just to remind them that you've got the upper hand and they can't do anything about it. Which dooms them to eventually be in constant war with everyone, but at least in the case of Smotrich and Ben Gvir that's exactly the point. The people they forced out of these villages, Christians and Muslims, are not just going to forget about it. And there's already psycho fringe Israelis trying to build settlements there. They're the fringe now, but once they've got facts on the ground, they'll make sure this keeps going for generations.

Fourth is what Hezbollah does when they're in a corner. In 2006 they won a conventional war which was incredibly shocking. Now their conventional army is destroyed. If they go back to fighting, they're gonna go back to guerilla warfare. And they're really good at that. And if they're really desperate, they'll go back to terrorism. You dipshits call them a "terrorist organization" because you think "terrorist" is a synonym for "bad". They stopped doing terrorism a long time ago but it's not because they found Jesus and became nice. If they get desperate they'll go back to it. And it won't be in Israel.

Hopes

Everything is going right for Lebanon right now except for Israel continuing to bomb them. If the cabinet there just has anybody who wants to accept that they won a war and not prolong it, everything will be fine. The ball is in their court.

ITT hysteria over food shortages, mocking Americans wanting good wages and wanting the brown wage slaves back in the fields

Theres more in the thread

I'm not used to liberal spaces anymore its weird to see them all mocking Americans for wanting money, advocating for CA separating and valuing illegal immigrants so much.

Personally I only think there will be prices increases on specific crops for now, and if Trump doesn't pull back farmers will just purchase automated picking machines they only didn't before because mexicans were that cheap

https://rdrama.net/post/343469/rslurs-blame-the-plane-crash-in/7811985#context

Why this grabbin a full handful on the way out

Introducing your new Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. Congratulations to @TulsiGabbard on her confirmation. Now go give the deep state hell for what they’ve done! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/8JCiiFgEoM

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) February 12, 2025

Living Pod by David Green

originally from Archigram

Do you hear that sound? The creaking and groaning? That was the sound of all of the people who played this game 30 years ago rising from their coffin to defend its honor.

I don't think it is worth it gramps as this game has aged so poorly it should be laid to rest with you. And I'm not just talking about the graphics or overall polish, there is barely even a game there.

There are almost no decisions to make in terms of your build. Almost optimal stat choices can be described in anywhere from a sentence to a word depending on which one of the 3 classes you chose (hint the magic user puts points into magic). Even the fights barely have you making any decisions. Early levels with the warrior have you sitting in a doorway wacking who ever comes in range while later levels have you chugging potions because dodging is 100% impossible. Playing a mage is more interesting as you have a sizable selection of spells but half of them are just Blast Baddie Fire or Blast Baddie Ice and you just find which one is better and stick with that.

The one place where user choice does come into play is the itemization. You get many different magic items throughout the game which can have pretty interesting upsides. Its not perfect and it definitely doesn't make up for the rest of the game though.

That isn't to say the game is all bad. The visuals aren't perfect but some of the enemies have pretty cool death animations. But even the best of this game isn't especially good, there are hundreds of games that have better visuals, fallout 1 is a good example of another sprite based isometric game that looks much better.

Also the Sorcerer is BIPOC, DEI much?

On February 11 A man hanged themself at parking garage wrapped in trans flag. Included was suicide note declaring hatred of America and Trump. Their last wish was to be laid rest in the Gulf of Mexico so that he would not be buried anywhere in the Amerikkka. On february 12 the body of water was renamed to Gulf of America.

Shut the fuck up you fat cunt#recasteggman https://t.co/orHxDvCAjK

— Rogue (Blaze) 🇵🇸 (@blazetherogue) February 13, 2025

A voice actor did something you didn’t like? https://t.co/zze99qtuwm pic.twitter.com/3gjMbSlIGL

— Manlet Thorin (@ManletThorin) February 12, 2025

some people r demanding a recast because theyre cancel happy cute twinks

<smaww> (im nyot twans thwough) </smaww>

This has been a woot-blog.

feel like that moment has well and truly passed, everyone I know has increased their meat consumption and takes collagen peptides now

I recently polled my people and this is what they wanted me to write about. Fortunately I can use declassified CIA documents for most of my research.

There were multiple huge crises in the Middle East in 1958 that seemed like they were going to lead the world into war. There was even a major deployment of US troops there. But you never hear about them. Why? Because there wasn't a war. I'm going to tell you some stories about what scared the heck out of everyone in the USA and the Middle East but they managed to get it under control. Think of it as the anti-Chernobyl.

Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue. Yeah, those were the days.

Syria

The first big crisis of the year, the one that got everything rolling, was Syria's admission to the United Arab Republic. Or to say it another way, Syria being annexed by Egypt. Every state in the region and the superpowers had been expecting something like this to happen eventually since World War II. Now it seemed that the balance of power had been overturned and all of the pent-up conflicts in the Middle East were about to blow up.

I'm guessing it wasn't really a 99.99% vote in favor of it because Nasser had grave misgivings about this and could barely be persuaded to.

Syria was the most failed "failed state" that you could imagine. It owes its existence to the French demand at the end of World War I that after all their sacrifices they deserved their own chunk of the Ottoman Empire. In 1946 it gained its independence but it didn't have much of a national identity other than being the land that France used to own. It was widely expected that it would soon be absorbed into a larger Arab state with Iraq and Jordan. But for extremely complicated reasons this didn't happen and little Syria survived.

Notice how everything he mentions being in "Syria" is in what we call "Lebanon" now.

Soon it wished it hadn't survived. After independence Syria had about one successful coup every two years and countless failed ones. By 1958 most of the factions had been purged from political life and it was Ba'athists who held a tenuous grip on power. They couldn't even trust their fellow Ba'athists, and worse, the Communists were becoming dangerously powerful. And nobody likes a commie. In order to make sure they didn't seize control, in January 1958 Syria's leaders came up with a creative strategy: Become part of Egypt.

One of the main factions that briefly held power there in the early 1950s was the batshit crazy SSNP. I heard the British were supporting them back then.

Egypt

This was pretty crazy but not as crazy as it sounds. There was a strong desire across the region to unite into one Arab nation. What is the heart of the Arab nation? Egypt. And its leader Nasser was the only one who could do this. Two years earlier in the Suez Crisis, Eisenhower ordered Britain and France back into their cucksheds and forbid them to invade other countries anymore. But Arabs saw this as a great victory where Nasser stood up to the colonial powers and defeated them, which at least had a kernel of truth to it. Many people across all the Arab world considered him to be their leader and were annoyed that their country hadn't joined him yet.

Some of the most extreme cope I've ever seen. British troops withdrawing in humiliation from Egypt under American orders, never to return.

The only problem is, how do you get Nasser onboard? He wants to to unify the Arabs, but he doesn't want to start out by being responsible for this basket case country that doesn't have its shit together. Eventually he agrees on a few conditions: The Syrian people have to vote for him. All political parties will be dissolved. The army will get out of politics.

The conservative monarchies are not about to take this lying down. The Saudis try to arrange a coup before unification can happen, but it is terribly inept. The King of Iraq, who kinda hoped he was gonna be the one to annex Syria and lead the Arab world, proposes merging with Jordan. It's another pro-British monarchy ruled by his brother so it makes sense in these dangerous times. The problem is, the Saudis are afraid of Nasser but they're also afraid of Iraq and Jordan getting too powerful, so they have trouble coordinating a response.

This is what the government of Iraq was like in the 1950s. I wonder what will happen to them...

The UAR

On February 22 Egypt and Syria join together as the United Arab Republic.

• The kings of Iraq and Jordan are worried that this will lead the many Nasserists among their own people to overthrow them.

• King of Saudi Arabia is too busy dealing with getting overthrown by his brother to do much.

• President Chamoun of Lebanon is extremely alarmed. The domestic situation is already really screwed up and the last thing he needs is Nasserists on 80% of the country's border.

• Israel doesn't really care since both Egypt and Syria are already hostile to them. Their only problem is if Iraq and Jordan merge because Iraq would be the senior partner and they are not fans of the whole Zionism thing.

• The British are desperate to keep alive the Arab monarchies they set up after WWI. Their whole imperial plan was to build these up and now they only have Iraq and Jordan left.

• The USA is ambivalent. Nasser is hard to deal with, but at least he kept the commies out of the region.

• The Soviets are probably as mad as Boris Badenov when one of his plots fails.

Epilogue

Nasser soon sends Egyptians to take over key government positions away from Syria. The Ba'athists are understandably butthurt as they're the ones who invited the Egyptians to come and now they're getting pushed out of power and having their newspapers shut down. The Egyptians probably figure that if these people are so incapable of running their own lives that they ask us to take over their country, they can't be trusted in leadership roles. There's also less obvious divisions, like business people being butthurt about how the Egyptians don't understand that their economy is different. These tensions were already obviously before the year was out. In 1961, a coup topples the Egyptians. Like so many others who tried to control Syria in this era, they lasted about two years.

Damascus, 1950s. According to some redditor.

Happy Lunar New Year to the dramanauts who celebrate it. 2025 is the Year of the Snake.

I made this for @NotX (definitely not @X, formerly chiobu) even though he never actually asked for it.

The following have sparks. Which one do you like best?

Update: Slightly more than a day later, 1 has 36 votes, 2 has 15 votes, and 3 has 21 votes. I will submit 1.

Yes, I realize that you wouldn't actually hold firecrackers like that. I copied the design from something on Google because I waited too long to start drawing this and couldn't come up with a better design that wasn't too similar to the previous ones. I started it around January 24.

^{The tiger is by @Dramarama. The others are by me.}

Without Firecrackers

The title is a reference to @TwoLargeSnakesMating, former rDrama codecel who left rDrama in early 2023

(Drawn with Inkscape, referenced )

Your average modern era "video game award" show experience pic.twitter.com/UZhKnPNoWb

— Kabrutus (@kabrutusrambo) February 16, 2025

https://nypost.com/2025/02/17/us-news/doge-discovers-4-7-trillion-in-treasury-payments-were-missing-critical-code/

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doge-says-found-nearly-untraceable-budget-line-item-responsible-4-7t-payments

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/doge-4-7t-treasury-payments-untraceable-b2700115.html

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doge-finds-47-trillion-virtually-untraceable-treasury-payments

mmt of this Sept 10th 2001 speech that Donald Rumsfeld gave as Sec of Defense early on in Bush's first term

!superheroes

Hi! It's now February, and you know what that means - it's time for our annual Donkey Kong December celebration!!!!

Unlike last year (but like the year before!), this time around there are

NEW BADGES

and as you know I am extremely sleep deprived, so I will mostly be just copypasting from this thread here https://rdrama.net/post/156812/diddykongdancediddykongscaredkongmaxxing-event-badges-galore-diddykongscareddiddykongdance

NOTE: Badges appear on profiles in the order they were granted, so I will be paying out in order so as to spell K-O-N-G. So if you're just doing the G (name and stuff), that will be paid out after the event.

SUBMIT A DONKEY-KONG THEMED BANNER TO EARN YOUR K. No low effort, quality control will be exercised. You know the drill by now with how banners work.

Protip: Here is a fantastic Donkey Kong font - https://fontmeme.com/donkey-kong-font/. There are a huge number of Donkey Kong assets out there if you don't feel like creating your own.

Submit here: https://rdrama.net/submit/banners

SUBMIT A DONKEY KONG-THEMED SIDEBAR PIECE TO EARN YOUR O. Requirements: Must incorporate Marsey or another mascot (bardfinn counts if you want). No low effort, quality control will be exercised.

Submit here: https://rdrama.net/submit/sidebar

N

SUBMIT A DONKEY-KONG THEMED MARSEY or DONKEY KONG EMOJI TO EARN YOUR N. Requirements: None for Marseys, you know the drill with those by now. For straight up DK emojis, these need to be transparent background animated assets from the games. No low effort Marseys, quality control will be exercised.

Submit here: https://rdrama.net/submit/emojis

NOTE: Game assets should be submit under the new "Donkey Kong" category. Marseys still go under Marsey.

ROCK A KONG-THEMED NAME (USE "KONG" SOMEWHERE), PFP AND PRONOUNS TO EARN YOUR G. It really is that simple. The G symbolizes that you are a real and true G. Anthems, profile backgrounds, and banners aren't required because I don't have time to check all of that, but it is strongly encouraged. If you're found to have de-konged yourself before the end of the event (TBD at this time), you will LOSE YOUR G.

If you've kongmaxxed your name, leave a comment in this thread - https://rdrama.net/post/338843 - and I will review at end of event and badge those who stayed true to the faith.

BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE

ALL COINS FROM VOTES ARE DOUBLED

THAT'S EIGHT COINS PER THREAD VOTE AND TWO COINS PER COMMENT VOTE

AND ALSO
LOOTBOXES ARE BACK IN THE SHOP

It's so beautiful

Also skaven are now s

It sucks to be a jew

https://old.reddit.com/r/h3h3productions/comments/1ikrkky/ethan_responds_to_snark_saying_the_girl_that/

https://old.reddit.com/r/GenZ/comments/1ilhf6w/gen_z_voters_are_5_times_more_likely_than_older/

https://old.reddit.com/r/anime_titties/comments/1iky1hn/hamas_makes_gaunt_israeli_hostages_thank_captors/

https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1ilc6yx/ministers_call_to_destroy_hamas_after_hostages/

https://old.reddit.com/r/moderatepolitics/comments/1iktici/frailty_of_israeli_hostages_freed_by_hamas_sparks/

https://old.reddit.com/r/ThatsInsane/comments/1iky962/released_hostage_eli_sharabi_said_i_am_so_happy/

https://old.reddit.com/r/berlinsocialclub/comments/1ilceoi/is_anyone_else_feeling_increasingly_unsafe_in/

https://old.reddit.com/r/ThatsInsane/comments/1iky962/released_hostage_eli_sharabi_said_i_am_so_happy/

Canada sucks

https://old.reddit.com/r/AskCanada/comments/1iksglo/a_brutal_view_of_trumps_america_do_you_agree/

The point of Trump's policies is to cause a famine

according to redditards

https://old.reddit.com/r/illinois/comments/1il4woi/the_soybean_innovation_lab_at_uiuc_is_closing/

https://old.reddit.com/r/farming/comments/1il50e8/were_these_people_really_helping_growers_in/

https://old.reddit.com/r/Shitstatistssay/comments/1il5the/my_research_was_so_valuable_that_people_only_paid/

Redditards are The dumbest people on earth

https://old.reddit.com/r/anime_titties/comments/1ildkct/independent_media_in_russia_and_ukraine_lose/

One more for the road

https://old.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/1ikz74c/the_usa_is_committing_genocide_against_the/