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Bulletins and News Discussion from March 4th to March 10th, 2024 - The Coalition of Losers - COTW: Pakistan

Image is of a protest in Pakistan after the attempted assassination of Imran Khan in November 2022.

What a clusterfuck of an election.

Imran Khan, the previous official Prime Minister of Pakistan, was removed by the command of the United States in April 2022 in a no confidence motion. This made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. Imran Khan and his supporters have protested since then against the Pakistani state, which is more-or-less governed by the military despite the furnishings of civilian rule. This has ranged from largely peaceful protests to trying to burn down and occupy houses and headquarters.

It was assumed by the Pakistani elite that they could make the problem go away by arresting Imran Khan and effectively forcing many PTI candidates to run as independents while hounding them with police raids and stopping them from campaigning - and adding salt on the wound by disabling social media access and mobile services on the day of the election to make it more difficult to co-ordinate. Fortunately, these people don't seem to quite understand how the internet works in the current day, and so Khan's supporters started up WhatsApp groups and improvised websites and apps to spread the word about which candidates to vote for, leading to Khan's party getting the plurality, though not the majority, of votes in the election.

This has created a rather depressed mood in the Pakistani elite. A coalition of eight parties joined together, obviously excluding the PTI, but this coalition is shaky and lacks much legitimacy, with two major parties inside it, the PML-N and PPP, being ideologically opposed on several issues. It has been regarded as "the coalition of losers" by Khan's supporters. The new Prime Minister is Shehbaz Sharif, who also ruled from April 2022 until August 2023 and is the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, who served as Prime Minister three times before in the last few decades. With inflation at 30% and the economy greatly struggling, there are fears that things may only stay together for months, not years, before the coalition fragments and something else has to be done.

Your Monday briefing is here in the comments and here on the website. Your Thursday briefing is here in the comments and here on the website. Your Sundary briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.

The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Pakistan! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

1093 评论

  • Yemeni forces attacked the cargo ship True Confidence in the Gulf of Aden, after which it caught fire.

    Al Jazeera reports this with reference to the Houthi press service.

    Two sailors were killed, the British embassy in Sana'a said.

    According to the AP, the ship is owned by Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Management.

    Reuters claims that it is owned by a Greek company with no connection to the United States, and that the ship was flying the flag of Barbados.

    Ambrey, which specializes in maritime security, claims that the attacked bulk carrier is still American.

    Pretty interesting how every time Ansarallah strikes another ship, media falls over itself to say it’s “Greek owned, Lebanese flagged, heading towards Cyprus” or some shit to try and make Ansarallah look like reckless terrorists, but it always comes out eventually it was indeed US/UK/Israeli connected in some major way. They deliberately omit the connections and only report on everything else. In one article they will mention the flag but omit the owner, in another they will omit the flag but mention the owner. It’s such obvious bad faith propaganda on their parts

  • Democrats say they aren’t worried about the “Uncommitted” campaign because it isn’t garnering that much support, when in reality people will just sit out the election if they don’t like your candidate.

    Funny enough, this always makes me think of an episode of Kitchen Nightmares where Gordon Ramsay once said something that really stuck with me. A restaurant was failing due to the low quality of its food, and people were sending their food back to the kitchen saying that it was no good. The owner/chef were shocked because they said this never happens, and it must just be because Gordon Ramsay was there influencing their decision. Ramsay said that in the restaurant business, almost all restaurants stay afloat due to repeat customers. He went on to say that it may be true that people are sending food back now because they know he’s here, but on a normal day it’s different. If you go out to eat and the food is low quality, the vast majority of people don’t send food back, they just never come back to your restaurant.

    This so perfectly encapsulates how the “Uncommitted” vote in the Democrat primaries is actually an underrepresentation of people who will not vote for Biden on Election Day. It is much more difficult to go out to a predetermined primary election and vote for nobody than it is to simply stay home and not vote at all.

    Democrats will lose a sizable chunk of voters as a result of this election cycle, many of them forever. This alienation event is almost certainly going to be larger than the Bernie 2016 and 2020 events, and is probably going to be the largest since NAFTA. If you are a young person, it is just so blatantly obvious that democrats have almost no policy overlap with you.

  • Exactly 1 month ago Sweden ended their investigation into the NordStream pipeline, saying it lacked jurisdiction on the issue. Today they join NATO officially.

    How much circumstantial evidence do we need to conclusively say NATO INTENTIONALLY caused one of the worst environmental disasters of all time?

  • Residents in Areeha named one of the streets in the city after the American pilot Aaron Bushnell, who self-immolated in front of the occupation embassy in Washington, in solidarity with Palestine and in rejection of his country's position supporting the genocide war waged against #Gaza. This sign of appreciation from Palestine comes just a week after a government order in Sana'a, Yemen put Aaron's face on billboards across

  • The ICJ has refused South Africa's request for the court to issue demands for the

    to cease it's campaign on last Monday, reverting to their empty statements of "ensuring the safety of Palestinian civilians". On the flip side, Nicaragua has filed a seperate suit against
    for complicity in genocide. Ireland has imposed sanctions and Brazil is the latest country to sever relations with the apartheid regime.

    Damn this photo still goes hard. Death to ISISrael

    To top it off, the South African government has very openly stated that the West has no grounds to speak of human rights, validating the

    • The ICJ has refused South Africa's request

      Real talk: aren't they worried that global south is going to remember this and question the validity of a court that can't even bring itself to ask for a ceasefire during a genocide? I mean this is just giving credence to the notion that the ICJ/ICC and by extension the UN aren't actually there to protect and advocate for human rights irrespective of national allegiances.

      This is just going to destroy the credibility of the UN in the eyes of the global south. It's literally the dumbest thing you could possibly do.

  • As of 22h00 SAST, there is again a total communications blackout in the entire Gaza Strip.

    The total amount of water also entering the strip, of which 97% is contaminated, is less than 7 million liters daily. This is half a million liters below that of Johannesburg's Berea suburb by contrast, which has 1/50th the population.

    The intentional annual homicide rate also stands at 3,500/100K, 100 times greater than that of South Africa.

    ICJ does not consider this urgent BTW.

  • I don't think the Zionists actually want this "temporary ceasefire" deal to happen. They want it to be rejected so they can say "oh, we wanted peace, but Kkkkhhhhamas refuses" and then re-intensify their genocidal bombing and starvation campaigns.

  • Israeli settlers have walked past the military without issue and are walking directly to the humanitarian aid trucks headed to Gaza in order to stop them.

    [...]

    These people brought their babies with them to a highly sensitive and militarized zone on the border of Gaza in order to celebrate illegally blocking humanitarian assistance meant for a desperate and starving Palestinian population that has been bombarded with 2,000 pound bombs for 5 months

    [video]

    Tweet

  • Holy fuck, San Francisco is evil. This passed 63-37:

    Shall the City require single adults age 65 and under with no dependent children who receive City public assistance benefits and whom the City reasonably suspects are dependent on illegal drugs to participate in screening, evaluation and treatment for drug dependency for those adults to be eligible for most of those benefits?

  • I am going to go fucking postal.

    Q: How does the Pentagon address the apparent paradox of providing bombs to Israel on the one hand and ready-to-eat meals to the Palestinians on the other?

    PENTAGON: Israel has an inherent right to defend itself.

    [video]

    Tweet

  • New NYMag long form profile of Biden has some banger quotes from Biden's melted brain

    I asked Biden if he intended to apply more pressure on Israel’s leaders, and, for the first time that day, he did not jab back at the question. “I understand the anger and the rage” sparked by October 7th, he said. “But you can’t let the rage consume you to the point where you lose the moral high ground.”

    I asked Biden what he would do in a second term to protect abortion access at the federal level. “Pass Roe v. Wade as the law of the land,” he said. Democrats would need to win control of the House of Representatives and gain seats in the Senate, but Biden expressed confidence. “A few more elections like we’ve seen taking place in the states” would suffice, he said. “You’re seeing the country changing.” Then, reiterating his position on Roe, he said, “I’ve never been supportive of, you know, ‘It’s my body, I can do what I want with it.’ But I have been supportive of the notion that this is probably the most rational allocation of responsibility that all the major religions have signed on and debated over the last thousand years.”

  • It's already happening with the text spam, despite my growing plethera of blocked numbers, that the Democrats are going shotgun anything breadcrumbs to ignore or move on from the genocide. Rolling out Bend the Knee Bernie. Rolling out Kyle Cucklinsky. Other trying to raise decimated worthless stale crumbs up from the depths of the abyss of future nothingness they are. The can kicking "pragmatic" tone deaf farts they blow at you and proudly claim historic "accomplishments" shall be mocked and dismissed as the absence of material improvements and lies that they are.

    It is our duty to not ever let these fuckers off the hook and bully them and their mouthpieces harder than ever.

    IN NOVEMBER WE REMEMBER.

  • 143 Greenlandic women who had contraceptive spirals inserted without proper consent in the 1969's and 1970's has filed a human rights lawsuit against the Danish state. Each of the victims are demanding a compensation of USD 44.000 for violation of their right to family life among other offenses

    The so-called Spiral Campaign was a eugenics programme in the years 1966 to 1975 initiated by Danish colonial administrators in Greenland who were alarmed over a rising number of Inuit children born out of wedlock. Indigenous girls as young as 13 had contraceptive spirals inserted by Danish colonial health professionals often without asking them or their parents for consent and without informing victims about the procedure. Several victims have told how they experienced the procedure as forced. Victims experienced high rates of complications as the spirals inserted were sized for adult women who had given birth and not for the teenagers who received them. Complications were made worse by victims lacking proper information about the procedure and many victims suffered lasting injuries.

    The Danish government promised to make an official investigation of the Spiral Campaign in 2022 but has been dragging it's feet, leading to a diplomatic crisis with the government of Greenland last year. Danish officials refuse to make statement regarding compensations as long as the investigation is ongoing.

    The victims are not content with waiting for the investigation that is due to be finished next year though. They see the investigation as a stalling tactic and according to their lawyer the scope of the official investigation is not to assign culpability or to assess compensation and as the oldest victim is 85 there is no time for further delays.

    In recent years the Danish state has settled human rights lawsuits with 26 Greenlandic legally fatherless children, six survivors of a 1950's experiment to assimilate Inuit children into Danish culture and 46 Danish men who were abused at an orphanage as children and paid out compensations. No steps has been made to settle this case though and if it goes to trial it will be the largest human rights case in Danish legal history.

  • Shut the fuck up: Pro-Zionist Danish PM Booed Off Stage By Anti-genocide Protesters

    Friday night Danish succdem prime minister Mette Frederiksen was booed off stage by anti-genocide protesters at an international women's day event in Copenhagen where she was scheduled to give a speech about "girls' and women's rights".

    Shortly after beginning her speech Frederiksen was interrupted by a man shouting "stop your hypocrisy!", which resulted in cheers and applause among the crowd. Several protestors began shouting "Free Palestine!" and "genocide in Palestine!". A part of the crowd was discontent with the disruption and applauded Frederiksen who then attempted to continue her speech, only to be immediately cut short by chants of "Free Palestine" and "shut the fuck up" from protestors who had unfurled Palestinian flags and hung banners from the balconies of the venue.

    Frederiksen made several attempts to ignore the protesters and continue her speech but eventually she gave up and went off stage. She then immediately left the building together with three other government ministers who were scheduled to appear at the event. One of the ministers described the vibes of the venue going from "good" to "unsafe and unpleasant".

    Protesters distributed flyers among the crowd with the headline "Mette Frederiksen is not a feminist", describing the atrocities done to Palestinian girls and women by the genocidal zionist occupiers.

    Frederiksen has declined to give interviews about the protest. Instead, following her usual style of preferring strictly controlled one-way communication, she has made a both whiny and pompous post on Facebook saying that "Unfortunately there was so much shouting that I couldn't get through with my words. Thanks to all of you who insisted on the democratic dialogue. Luckily you were the most." She goes on to write "I hope it will give cause to thought. Our democracy is only as strong as we make it".

    With Denmark being an American satellite state it is no surprise that establishment politics in the Nordic country is near-universally pro-zionist. However, throughout her career Frederiksen has been more vocal than most about her support for the settler-colonialist project in Palestine than most politicians. She has made nebulous accusations against the left of "anti-semitism", attempted to pass an "official definition of anti-semitism" that labelled anti-zionism as antisemitic and keenly collaborated with the illegal zionist entity as well as placed orders for weapons with the zionist arms manufacturer Elbit. Since the Al-Aqsa Flood happened her government has followed the American lead of condemning Palestinian resistance while handwringing over the suffering of the Palestinian people.

  • But a part of me wants Biden to win just to see what happens like how he continues to become a zombie on live TV every day. Like if now it's bad, imagine four more years lmao

  • Putin confirmed that Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles had been used for the first time in Ukraine (RIA)

    Russian President Vladimir Putin, during his address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, said that the Zircon complex had already been used in combat.

    “Obviously, we are talking about the use of the latest hypersonic missiles for attacks on military targets of Ukraine. Surely these missiles were used within the framework of the air defense as part of the so-called combined strikes, which involve the use of various types of weapons in one strike with synchronization in time and place. That is this is a combination, for example, of Zircons, Calibers, Geran UAVs, and Kh-101 long-range air-launched cruise missiles,” Murakhovsky said. In his opinion, no more than two or three Zircons were used in one strike, because this stage of use is a test of the weapon system in real combat conditions.

    “Most likely, combined strikes with the participation of Zircons were carried out against Ukrainian targets in areas most densely covered by layered air defense, including with the participation of Western Patriot-type systems, in order to confirm the capabilities of hypersonic missiles to overcome air defense. I think that in this regard there were targets have been selected for destruction in the Odessa or Kiev region,” Murakhovsky noted.

    The specialist added that, judging by the lack of “media activity” on this matter from the enemy, the missiles were not shot down. He recalled that the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles had previously confirmed their effectiveness in overcoming the layered air defense of Ukraine, which includes Western-style air defense systems.

    The Zircon missile was developed and produced at the Reutov NPO Mashinostroyenia (part of the Tactical Missiles Corporation). The missile has a range of 1000 kilometers and can reach a speed of Mach 9.

    Better start believing in it. Scramjet hypersonic cruise missiles are real.

  • Argentina's Foreign Minister, ancap Diana Mondino, remembers the passing of Akira Toriyama with this insane "how do you do fellow kids" post

    "Now and Forever"

    "SHRINK THE STATE

    ELIMINATE TAXES

    INCREASE FREEDOMS"

    Yeah, that's EXACTLY what Goku would have wanted... Anarcho-Capitalism. She never even watched Dragon Ball lmfao, she's a 65 year old demon.

    In other

    news, our ancap-in-chief
    gave a speech in his boyhood school, which is dangerously close to where I live. The school itself is a private one, made by the rich and only for the rich Anyway, he gave a speech to a bunch of kids, he spoke about Davos and how he "fought the Communists" there, he actually spoke alot about Communism and Socialism, saying how dangerous it is. To kids.

    However, during his speech, one kid fainted. He actually showed some compassion and ordered his medics to assist the kid. The speech resumed, he continued to talk about the dangers of Communism when ANOTHER KID FAINTED, this one was directly next to him (It was caught on live TV even). Compassion was gone by this point, and he made a joke about the kid fainting, because reasons. Terrible aura, Chávez walked by and said he smells of sulfur.

1093 评论