Yup, inspired by the Sand Kingdom level in Mario Odyssey. The game director Kenta Motokura had visited Mexico and he wanted it to inform the level.

www.mariowiki.com/Sand_Kingdom

Perfect example of Turkish hypocrisy in the video as well - a free Palestine banner is visible drapped over the advertisements while a very visible display of the crass way minorities are treated in Turkey is on full display.

Political operatives in Washington and news rooms across the US busy getting the script ready to spin this away.

The US might get in the short run what it wants in Syria, but I won't be surprised if in the short run there'll be serious blowback from this country becoming a laboratory for religious fundamentalism to thrive in.

This is his response to a question regarding to the Trump's administration abandonment of the SDF. He seems to imply that the SDF were ripping off the US.

It's a very callous way to treat a group that did most of the anti-IS activity in Syria and paid in blood for it.

And apropos of nothing, a good reminder that Tom Barrack is in the Epstein files.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

These two pictures have often stayed with me. The first, a hope for the future as the world left the cold war behind it. The second, frustration over the West discarding Kurds once they became inconvenient.

We see American politicians, especially on the right, talk about how the US "mistreats" allies, but they oddly bring up Israel which has never been mistreated by the US. The Kurds, on the other hand, have been thrown under the bus several times in the past 10 years.

Get a compatible external disc drive, they aren't too hard to come by.

I think a lot of post-mortems on the IS focus too much on the withdrawal of the US from Iraq in 2011 during Obama's first term. Not to say that shouldn't be scrutinized, but it ignores Maliki's own role in that action and his heavy-handed rule that destabilized Iraq to the point of virtual collapse.

He is able to exploit the horsetrading of government formation to push for the ability to lead a government. Thanks to short memories and a political system unable to hold politicians unaccountable, he is able to escape judgement for his abuses.

In the subsequent years, in both the war against the IS and in the aftermath, Maliki doubled down in his sectarian rhetoric and strongman posturing. He continued to lead a faction of supporters in parliament to keep him protected and destabilize the agenda of any prime minister after him

With the IS moving closer to Baghdad and the Iraq military no where to be seen, Maliki hid in Baghdad and deployed the remnants of the army into the streets in response to calls for him to resign. Only with pressure from both Iran and the US did he begrudgingly resign in September of 2014.

In summer 2014, the IS captured Mosul and formally emerged onto the international stage and merged with its Syrian affiliate. The Iraq military imploded, including the Dijla Force, and the IS quickly expanded, causing massacres of ethnic and religious minorities.

The IS and allied militias spread Anbar, Tikrit, Diyala, and Nineveh provinces. By early 2014, the government had lost control of Ramadi and Fallujah, while Mosul was being infiltrated. Maliki denied these setbacks and claimed news reporting these events were part of a foreign plot against him.

In Anbar Province, Sunni Arab-led protests emerged, inspired by the Arab Spring, frustrated by the inept governance in Baghdad. In response, Maliki deployed the military and caused a bloodbath, creating a crisis that terror groups like the Islamic State exploited

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anbar_c...

Nouri al-Maliki's second term as PM, 2010-2014, saw him attempt to centralize power and increasing aggression against Kurdish politicians in the KRG and Sunni Arab mayors and governors. He leveraged budget threats and using militias, as in the case of the "Dijla Operations Command"

aje.io/t8w6e

This is par the course for some Iran expats unfortunately. They'll go to bat for any group they see as an ally against the regime in Iran, no matter how odious or hypocritical it comes off as.