"The pentathlon consisted of running, jumping, discus, javelin throwing, and wrestling.

The implicit notion here is that athletic prowess is directly related to war, although (see next tweet) the pentathlete is apparently a youth without the fearsomeness of a full man."

Thread on age and beauty with a fair bit on sport and war.

https://twitter.com/AncPhi/status/1611815467404099585

Best of luck to the nationalists in Brazil fighting to preserve their home. If Lula is given the ability to run Brazil, it will become a communist hellhole.

It pains me to see some military and law enforcement agents side with the system. The majority know it is wrong, but they prefer a paycheck over morals. The ones on film standing down are doing the right thing.

The fact that Lula was even “elected” despite being a communist who was previously locked up on corruption charges is beyond me. Watching the American blue checkmarks meltdown over this is incredible.

Any good commentary on Brazil out there?

🇧🇷⚡ — Reports by police in the Federal District show that they are afraid that there are not enough police to contain the wave of protesters that are in Brasilia.

Brazilian Army surrounds the Brasilia Federal Command barracks and prevents the Federal District Military Police from entering

https://twitter.com/GraduatedBen/status/1612304476660011009?t=HYlWRRX4TkOoO-bh2UK2kw&s=19

🇧🇷 Scene of Brazilian Patriots at the National Congress

"Banquets had their hierarchical order. Their highest form, the blót, was especially sacred and was dedicated to the gods. The beer, too, served in immense bowls, was consecrated according to special rituals. Later, this custom scandalized the Christians. Just as the latter preserved the use of the horse, although only for riding and not for sacrificing, they also continued to be voracious drinkers of beer, but only on the condition that no godi participated in the making of the beer. Otherwise, the devil would insinuate himself into the malt. Among other miracles that have passed down to us concerning Saint Columba, we are told that he caused a bowl of beer to shatter by making the sign of the cross over it. This beer had been consecrated to Wodan, and the Swabians were gathered around the bowl; we are told that in their language the bowl was known as the cupa. This must be a Latinized version of Kump or Kumpf, which is the term that is used even today among Swabians to refer to a “trough”.

Thus, they sat at their table awaiting the arrival of Wod or Wodan, who was later transformed along with his horses, dogs and wild boars into the “wild hunters”, although his power outlasted the era of Charlemagne. Until quite recently, the peasants of Holstein even reserved the last sheaf of wheat “for Wod’s horse”:

Wode, Wode,
Here is the forage for your horse!

This religious form of ecstatic intoxication must have favored a relative silence. It lacked the enthusiasm of the feasts, with their songs, poetic recitals, combats, toasts and emptied horns."

"Russia won death, a land littered with the corpses of its soldiers" says Zelensky.

https://twitter.com/baronitaigas/status/1612594476786282497?t=fSh_1RVHpYZpK8Nir-X6sA&s=19

"The ISIS recruiter swiftly ended our conversation as soon as I requested to meet face to face. Which I actually appreciated. I preferred rejection over the alternative: of being graciously invited to my own beheading party.

You get funny looks from people at home when you tell them you’re going to Iraq. You could almost tell them anything else and would receive, in exchange, some understanding. But tell them you’re going on an adventure in a shithole country (a technical term as you’ll soon discover when squatting for relief) and most people look at you concerned, bewildered, even angry – like you should be stopped. Even a friend from Afghanistan condemned my psychology:

“What we would say about you, in our language, is that ‘You have an itchy asshole.’”

Why?

“Because ‘You’re looking to get f—ed.’”

This friend is not entirely wrong. I certainly have an itch, although I’m not too sure it’s specifically anatomical. It’s something else “inside” that needs scratching."

https://americanmind.org/salvo/seven-ruined-pillars/

🇷🇺🇺🇦⚡The units of PMC "Wagner" took control of the entire territory of Soledar. A cauldron has been formed in the center of the city, in which urban battles are being fought.

The number of prisoners will be announced today.

Once again I want to emphasize that no units participated in the assault on Soledar, except for the fighters of the Wagner PMC.

press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of wagner himself is also in Soledar

New Chief of General Staff for the Russian side:

"According to the U.S. military, the "Gerasimov Doctrine" represents the most complete embodiment of the latest achievements of Russian military thought in a new type of warfare, which demonstrates the unprecedented integration of all capabilities of national influence to achieve strategic advantages. Based on the discreteness of the idea of war, which was established in Russian culture by Leo Tolstoy's classic novel War and Peace, the Gerasimov doctrine has blurred the lines between the polarized states of "war" and "peace," introducing a kind of analog to the Western idea of an intermediate continuum or "gray zone".[citation needed] American analysts point out that the Russian military's use of the new developments surprisingly inverts some of the fundamental paradigms of armed confrontation that were laid down in the works of Carl von Clausewitz and have been considered immutable for centuries.[16]

For example, Clausewitz's denoscription of war as a "continuation of politics, but by other means" no longer applies in the "Gerasimov doctrine" because it does not consider war as a continuation of politics, but politics as a continuation of war, emphasizing that the effective conduct of politics may involve a broader arsenal of non-military means and methods. Similarly, the Gerasimov Doctrine forces a reconsideration of several other important tenets, such as Clausewitz's military-theoretical understanding of the "centre of gravity" as a key point of effort."

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

"Combat footage. The view from the other side. AFU in their trench, they are shooting in different directions suggesting they are surrounded."

https://twitter.com/Nikolai11449196/status/1613250490250465281

"RT: According to 🇺🇦 servicemen who surrendered, during the assault on Soledar, AFU & Guard units lost almost 16-17 battalions. W/ large number of wounded/missing, total AFU losses *in Soledar* since autumn may be ≈20-25k."

https://twitter.com/defnotfsb/status/1613166600709967874

Insane video.

Ukrainian units overwhelmed and confused. They do not drop their weapons, saying "Allies. Allies." to the Russian.
Perhaps due to shock. Then are killed.

https://twitter.com/media_saboteur/status/1613277034884612096