Bulletins and News Discussion from August 12th to August 18th, 2024 - Marshall Plan: Now As Farce - COTW: Ireland
Image is of one of Ireland's only manned navy ships, the Samuel Beckett. Image sourced from this BBC article.
Putler has been HUMILIATED by the Kursk offensive and this proves that Russia's army is in tatters and unable even to defend its own territory. However, it is simultaneously true that Russia poses an existential threat to countries thousands of miles away, as this recent Politico article demonstrates. Ireland - a country that immediately springs to mind as one surrounded by enemies - is being bullied due to its lack of military.
Despite bearing responsibility for 16 percent of the EU’s territorial waters, and the fact that 75 percent of transatlantic undersea cables pass through or near Irish waters, Ireland is totally defenseless. And I mean completely unable to protect critical infrastructure, or even pretend to secure its own borders. [...] Ireland’s “navy” of six patrol vessels is currently operating with one operational ship due to chronic staff shortages. [...] Ireland simply has no undersea capabilities. How could it, when it barely spends 0.2 percent of GDP on security and defense? And it has, in effect, abdicated responsibility for protecting the Europe’s northwestern borders.
For all we know, the dreaded sea-people from the Bronze Age Collapse could soon emerge from the North Atlantic.
Unfortunately, things are even worse up in the skies. Ireland has no combat jets, and it’s the only country in Europe that can’t monitor its own airspace due to the lack of primary radar systems. Instead, the country has outsourced its security to Britain in a technically secret agreement between Dublin and London, which effectively cedes control over Irish air space to the Royal Air Force. This must be the luck of the Irish — smile and get someone else to protect you for free.
While this is very silly, rearmament has long been a part of US imperial strategy on an economic level. Desai, discussing the US imperial strategy in the WW2 period:
By 1947 [...] the domestic postwar consumer boom was nearing its end. While financing exports became more urgent, the 1946 elections returned a Congress unlikely to approve further loans. Now the Truman Administration concocted the ‘red menace’ to ‘scare the hell out of the country’, enunciated the Truman Doctrine of US support for armed resistance to ‘subjugation’ which launched the cold war, and Congress granted $400 million to prevent left-wing triumphs in Greece and Turkey in 1947.
One reading of history states that the US was so intimidated by the USSR that this forced a policy of massive arms production even outside of official wartime. Why this arms production is not occurring today can be puzzling, and (very reasonably) explained by neoliberals exporting industrial production overseas. However, a different historical reading can explain both the first Cold War, and the ongoing situation in which American weaponry is being almost purposefully given in insufficient numbers to give Ukraine a chance of victory and thus only prolonging their suffering (while generating massive profit for the military-industrial complex):
In this sense the Cold War was not the cause of US imperial policy but its effect. It combined financing exports with fighting combined development by national capitalisms as well as communism. When such ‘totalitarian regimes’ threatened ‘free peoples’, ‘America’s world economic responsibilities’ included aid to countries battling them.
By selling massively expensive weapons to Europe, America could simultaneously guarantee export markets for its industries, trap Europe into reliance on American industries at the expense of their own, and divert European funds away from constructing factories which could compete with American ones. Providing a way to defend against Soviet communism (and now Russian "imperialism") is merely a happy side-effect, and so the lack of effectiveness of American weaponry is causing no great panic among the military-industrial complex, nor an urgent plan to quintuple artillery shell production or Patriot missile production - the deals for F-35s and such are still there, and they are what matter.
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 Ireland! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section. Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war. Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language. https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one. https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts. https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel. https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator. https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps. https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language. https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language. https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses. https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
The president of Poland out there glorifying participation in the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Polish soldier defends the homeland, defends the values that we all believe in as part of a community of democratic countries. And so, within the framework of their service and of this ethos, they are also ready to give their life to their homeland and for their homeland. Just like Sergeant Mateusz Sitek did recently when defending the Polish border. Or as our soldiers have done for years in contingents outside of the country, in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I never wondered which of the world's islands was the dodo island, but it was Mauritius. Dodo-related exports have sadly flagged over the last few centuries
Former Soviet and Russian Heavy Aircraft Cruiser "Minsk" caught fire in Jiangsu, China.
The ship (Kiev class), built in 1972 and comissioned in 1978 by the Soviet Navy, was retired from service in 1993 (mainly due to high operating costs), kept as part of the Russian Navy's reserve until 1995 when it was sold to a South Korean company for scrapping, but due to protests, it was decided to sell it to a Chinese company instead. Curiously enough, the ship was saved from scrapping thanks to a chinese company who bought it and decided to turn it into the central attraction for a military theme park called "Minsk World", which opened in the year 2000. The company that handled the theme park went bankrupt and by 2016 the park was closed, however the ship was refitted several times in these years.
Lately she was seen in a somewhat precarious state, left moored at Jiangsu at a state of near abandonment. There's a famous video of a guy who managed to sneak into the actual ship and film it from inside, the inner workings of the ship were in a terrible condition by then and lots of bits and pieces were stripped off and stolen. Before the fire, the future of the ship was unclear as I don't think it actually belongs to the PLAN.
As to what caused the fire, is still unknown. Probably an electrical issue that sparked a fire, then the rest caught on. And since the ship barely has functioning systems (let alone a damage control crew), the fire was able to spread and cause significant damage. It is very likely the ship will not be repaired. In my opinion it will be acquired by the PLAN for whatever price it now has and used as a target ship, very valuable to test new generation of AShM systems. A ship in this condition cannot be brought back into service, the engines must be fully busted and China already operates modern aircraft carriers regardless (they just launched a supercarrier a few months ago, the Fujian). I do hope for it to be bought by the chinese government, have it repaired, refitted and placed on permanent display as a museum, kinda like the japanese did with the old battleship "Mikasa" of the pre-dreadnought type.
Pictures in the spoiler below.
spoiler
The interesting thing about these ships is that four were built in total. One was scrapped ("Novorossiysk"), "Minsk" and her sister ship "Kiev" were taken to China, the latter is now a "luxury hotel". It is very probable these ships were extensively studied by the PLAN as they planned (no pun intended) to expand their fleet with aircraft carriers, kinda like they did when the bought former australian aircraft carrier "Melbourne" for scrapping but before doing so naval architects studied the ship to learn first hand about aircraft carriers.
The fourth one, "Baku" (formerly known as Admiral Gorshkov), was decomissioned by Russia in 1996, sold to India in 2004, heavily modified and rebuilt, launched in 2008 and comissioned as the "Vikramaditya" by 2013/14, she now serves as the nation's flagship and one of the two aircraft carriers India operates (alongside "Vikrant").
i really love when there are big brawls in parliaments, like people punching each other in the face and shit. It gives politics a very realistic outlook, it makes it feel very alive and real. I want MY representatives to break some noses and kick opposition members while they're on the floor. I want my representatives to have fucking blood in their veins, none of that "yes uhm sir mr hitler sir let us uhm debate why we shouldn't exterminate non whites sir" liberal bullshit. NO MAN, go and punch that motherfucker in the nose RIGHT NOW.
(I'm talking about this in the context of a brawl which just happened in the Turkish Parliament)
I remember the puppet Korea used to have lots of brawls in their Parliament, aye, I can respect that. If people are punching, kicking and spittin' blood over politics, well, at least these people feel something. They're not truly dead inside. Plus it's fun to watch on video.
I loved that moment I think it was in Taiwan, where a member of parliament stole the bill from the opposition and ran away with it LMAO. That is so good. I want people like that.
this is an interesting article on mauretania's recent gold rush and the confluence of resource exploitation by parties large (france, canadian, russian interests) and small (gold smugglers, middlemen, local gangs and militia types), civil unrest, government instability, migration, and sectarianism. the author doesn't provide a ton of their own analysis, but shares the voices of a range of people involved in or affected by gold mining in this area.
Edit: in the interview the author provides a lot more historical analysis and is definitely worth listening to. It complements and adds to the article, not just repetitive.
I liked this bit
He asked me if I had read Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah, the fourteenth-century study of empire that describes history as a continuous cycling of power: groups hardened and given common purpose by life on the frontier move to overthrow ruling classes that have grown soft and decadent in centers of power, only to become effete, sedentary rulers themselves. ‘It is a good explanation of what is going on in Africa now,’ Ely said. ‘The power change happens in all civilizations. Savage people that live on the fringes gather and become dominant, and they take the power. The story here is not new.’
I guess the hard times make hard men and hard men make good times or whatever the fascist nerd quote is has deep roots, hah
Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu received an Olympic bronze medal in gymnastics at a ceremony in Bucharest after it was stripped of her US competitor Jordan Chiles for a procedural rule violation
Musicians at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra have expressed a vote of no confidence in the managing director, after a pianist's performance was cancelled over comments he made about the conflict in Gaza.
Jayson Gillham was scheduled to perform on Thursday, but his performance was removed from the schedule after he made comments about the killing of journalists in Gaza.
In an email to ticketholders of Sunday's performance, the MSO said it did not condone the use of its stage as "a platform for expressing personal views", and apologised for any "offence and distress" caused by the comments.
The MSO has since admitted it "made an error" in pulling Gillham's performance and was working with the musician to reschedule the concert.
In a letter shared with the ABC, musicians said the decision to pull the concert had served to highlight an ongoing pattern of issues at the MSO, and called for the Orchestra's managing director and chief operating officer to stand down and to conduct a full investigation into the decision to cancel the concert.
"Despite ongoing attempts to engage with senior leadership and provide feedback through formal channels … the response from management has been insufficient, and in many cases dismissive," the letter read.
"The result has been a work environment characterised by poor communication, a lack of accountability, and continuingly declining morale."
The letter claimed numerous decisions made without consulting staff have resulted in "significant negative artistic and financial impacts on the MSO".
The musicians said they reached the decision by way of "overwhelming majority vote."
In a statement from the MSO, the board said it would commit to conducting an "independent external review" into the events leading up to the decision to cancel Gillham's concert, and the processes following it.
"The Board determined a formal review would provide transparency and certainty for our people — including our musicians, management and employees — and our broader community of audience members, supporters and other stakeholders," the statement read.
"The review will help ensure our policies and processes reflect best practice in the contemporary environment."
Lula da Silva wants to use Supreme Court decisions to negotiate a “fair” relationship with Congress. The President thinks it is normal for a congressman to want funds to carry out work in his city, but says it is not right for Congress to have a “secret budget”.
Seems like this is good news for Lula and bad news to the Far-Right Legislative. The Supreme Court is taking away power from the congress and returning the control of the goverment's budget back to the Executive.
Colombia government says it will not unilaterally end ELN peace talks - Reuters
Article
Colombia's government will not unilaterally end peace talks with rebels from the National Liberation Army (ELN), its peace delegation said on Thursday, even though a ceasefire between the two sides expired earlier this month.
Vera Grabe, head of the government's delegation, and Senator Ivan Cepeda, said it was up to the rebel group to make decisions about the future of the talks, which restarted in late 2022 under leftist President Gustavo Petro's total peace policy.
"The purpose of this government is to complete the peace process with the National Liberation Army. We're not going to be the ones to take the step of breaking off the negotiations," Cepeda said at a press conference in Bogota.
ELN top commander Antonio Garcia posted a statement from the group on X on Thursday that said the peace talks were in "crisis" and the rebel group needed "to know if the government would keep its word" and uphold a future deal.
It added that peace talks could resume if the government removed ELN from its list of organized armed groups later this month.
Colombia's six decades of conflict have left more than 450,000 people dead, and the government hopes to negotiate an end to ELN's role in the violence.
A six-month ceasefire between the two sides expired this month, and Colombia's government has said military operations against the rebel group would restart.
The ELN has said it would not attack the military, but warned it would defend itself as needed. After six rounds of talks, the negotiations hit a crisis when the government met separately in May with an ELN faction in Narino province to negotiate its handover of weapons and reintegration into society.
ELN central leadership said the move undermined the larger peace talks. In its statement on Thursday, the group called for a "technical extension" of the ceasefire through Aug. 23 to enable the government to delist ELN as an organized armed group, a step it said was due more than a year ago. After that, peace talks could resume, the ELN said.
democrats be like: hell yeah, kamala is popular with the kids. she's so fucking rad and 1337. they'll love her more when she sends another 80 billion dollars of aid to "israel".
The OAS seems to be planning another voting against Venezuela (a country that is not part of OAS since 2019). But it seems Mexico, Brazil and Colombia will pressure the OAS members to vote against it again.
I have started noticing, in the last year or so, a reversal in WestTM in regard to green energy rhetoric (EV and solar in particular) and is becoming worse and worse as time goes by.
This is not the usual global warming denial. In fact you rarely see outright denialist any more (what are they gonna argue about any more anyway, since it is plainly obvious what is happening in the world...).
What you do see from MSM, to YT channels, to everything, is an effort to downplay or even dismiss the potential positive impact EV and solar technology could have and already has in regard to global warming and our way of life in general.
It's quite obvious that this is a result of what is happening in China.
I believe Burgeristan and their puppets thought (10+ years ago) that they would become world leaders in EV, solar and other green technologies.
They thought they could monopolize the industry and sell it to the rest of the world as the only possible solution.
If you didn't subscribe to their, ridiculously overpriced, Greenflix service you would be deemed a barbarian third world nation that leads humanity to catastrophy (which of course we, the West, had nothing to do with...) and you would have many sanctions imposed on you.
So for a time almost everyone went along with green technology in WestTM*.
Green roofs, green roads, green new deals, you name it.=
There was only one problem.
Burgeristan is run by complete idiots.
They thought that we are in the 30s and 40s where US still had semi-competent captains of industry that could compete with the rest of the world or that they had a political elite that was actually capable of multi-year planning and wasn't completely subservient to the economic elite.
Instead what they got was the Cybertruck and Solar Freaking Roadways.
So what now?
I believe the rhetoric against EVs and Solar is gonna get much worse for starters. The "China is spying on you don't buy from them" is not gonna fly for long.
What we are gonna see more and more is a focus on the technologies themselves. "These technologies are not viable/profitable" is what you are gonna hear.
The next step will probably be Burgerland developing their own version of "green technology". Maybe focus on hydrogen, "clean coal", maybe something else who knows**. They will probably give it some asinine name like "Green Freedom" or something...
Then they will try to create a new Edison vs. Tesla, Direct vs Alternative Current situation and will use their military/economic influence to force countries to adopt their inferior technology.
They will fail of course because again they are run by complete idiots (and I'm not even taking politicians into account, they have no say in this anyway...)
but what else are they gonna do at this point. They can no longer compete with China. This is their only play.
So when that finally fails (because you know at the end of the day even puppet nation have a survival instinct) all that they will have left will be an empty anti-China rhetoric.
Their barbarian germanic protestant syphilitic brains could not imagine a "non-white" nation surpassing them. But here we are.
So instead of taking all the ill gained surplus value they extracted from the rest of the world for 300 years and actually invest it in something sustainable, they just want to go and kill their neighbor's mule.
Judging by what is happening in the last year or so, I would say we might see a complete reversal in 2-4 years with people that previously where telling you to vote insert status-quo party otherwise "X guy comes and it's the end of the world (due to global warming)" now they will call you a China puppet for wanting the most affordable green high-tech in the world made by China.
Sorry for the long thread. I was thinking about making a post about it but I'm not sure people outside the news mega give a damn about these things anyway.
*Fossil fuel industry at that point was playing both sides. They knew that the world moving from fossil fuels was inevitable, but they wanted that transition to happen on their own terms. It had to be gradual so that they kept making superprofits and they had to create and control the new "green" monopoly.
**I wouldn't be surprised at all if lets say someone like Elon Musk does 180 in regard to EVs. Maybe he will pivot to another technology or maybe even he finds an excuse to outright sell Tesla (somehow...) and pivot to another grift altogether. That's if he manages not to go bust until then...
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are planning to use charges with warheads containing radioactive substances to attack the Kursk and Zaporizhzhya NPPs — RIA Novosti, citing the Russian security agency
...
A large number of Western journalists gathered in Sumy and Zaporozhye amid Kiev’s preparations for an attack on the Kursk and Zaporozhye nuclear power plants, Lebedev, coordinator of the pro-Russian underground, told RIA Novosti
The Venezuelan Supreme Court has reportedly started the review of electoral evidence submitted by candidates and political parties concerning July 28's presidential elections. It did not (as far as we know) establish a deadline for a final ruling
Diosdado Cabello Denounces Extreme Right’s Violent Plan for August 17 in Venezuela - Telesur
Article
Regarding the violent plans, he indicated that they involve Petare and come from “people outside: Álvaro Uribe, groups of sicarios”.
The first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, denounced on Thursday that the extreme right’s opposition is devising a plan to generate new violent events in the country on Saturday, August 17.
Insisting that this plan is being organized with gangs from the parish of Petare, in the state of Miranda, the Chavista politician stated that “this is not a false positive. None of that (…) we are not interested in violence, it is interested in others, terrorists”, he reflected.
Similarly, the leader of the PSUV urged Venezuelans to be alert to the possible incidence of the extreme right. Indicating that the people of the parish mirandina is extraordinary, wonderful, Diosdado Cabello reaffirmed that there are “gangs of criminals who want to assume, as if it were a territory to generate violence”.
He also said, in relation to the violent plans involving that territory coming from “people outside: Álvaro Uribe, groups of sicarios”, referring to the former Colombian president.
Meanwhile, he noted that the opposition for the Sabbath day look for people who generate violence, and “kill other people of themselves”.
In the program that he leads, Con el Mazo Dando, Diosdado Cabello presented an audio, where he heard, he claimed, two criminals. One of them calls himself the “Puma,” talking about what they have planned to do on coming Saturday, August 17.
According to Diosdado Cabello, the audio was presented to show evidence of “what they are preparing. “I denounce it, because Madam and Sir, we told you before the elections: take care of your children, do not allow them to manipulate you”.
A leading source in Hamas: one of the occupation's conditions for ceasefire is to insist on keeping occupation military forces in the "Philadelphi Axis"
A leading source in Hamas: one of the occupation's conditions for ceasefire is to have the right to veto the names of prisoners and to exile prisoners outside Palestine
A leading source in Hamas: The movement will not accept less than a natural return (meaning everyone and not just the women and children) of the displaced and an exchange deal without the occupation's conditions
Symposium: What does Ukraine's incursion into Russia really mean?
Ten experts gauge the short and long term effects of Kyiv’s bold invasion on the war
Jasen J. Castillo, Co-Director, Albritton Center for Grand Strategy, George H.W. Bush School of Government, Texas A&M University
Ukraine's attack reminds me of Germany's audacious Western offensive in 1944 that surprised the Allies, made gains, and ended with a defeat at the Battle of the Bulge, which then wasted manpower and equipment it needed months later on the Eastern Front.
Monica Duffy Toft, Professor of International Politics and Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
On the material axis, Ukraine may be able to temporarily degrade Russia’s ability to launch missile attacks against Ukrainian targets, the most sensitive of which involve the deliberate and systematic harm of Ukraine’s noncombatants. But in material terms, not much can be expected in terms of lasting impact. Ukraine will be forced to retreat from Russia, and its surviving troops and equipment will be redistributed, after rest and refit, to other critical areas of Ukraine’s front with Russia.
Ivan Eland, Director of the Independent Institute’s Center on Peace & Liberty.
Although Ukraine has insisted that its intent is not to hold captured land in Russia, one might then ask what purpose the incursion serves.
Mark Episkopos, Eurasia Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and Adjunct Professor of History at Marymount University
Russia appears to have thwarted the AFU’s attempts to significantly expand its initial beachhead, and Ukraine lacks the long-term capacity to hold even the modest territory that it is currently contesting.
Lyle Goldstein, Director of Asia Development, Defense Priorities, and visiting Professor at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
No doubt the operation has served its primary end to embarrass the Kremlin and so dramatically alter the conventional narrative on the war. Still, legitimate questions can be asked regarding the wisdom of the new offensive.
John Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, and non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute
Ukraine’s invasion (of Kursk) was a major strategic blunder, which will accelerate its defeat.
Sumantra Maitra, Director of research and outreach, the American Ideas Institute, author of “Sources of Russian Aggression”
If Ukraine taking the war to Russia was to bring Russia to negotiate from a position of weakness, it will fail, simply because Ukrainians don't have the manpower to sustain this push and subsequent occupation.
Rajan Menon, non-resident senior fellow at Defense Priorities and the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Chair Emeritus in International Relations at the Powell School, City College of New York/City University of New York.
Once Russia mounts a persistent counterattack, will Ukraine muster the logistical capabilities, troop numbers, firepower, and air defenses required to sustain its soldiers in Kursk? Will Russia be forced to redeploy forces from Donetsk (so far it has used reserves and troops from the Kharkiv and Kupiansk fronts)? Or will Russia foil Ukraine’s Kursk offensive, transforming the current euphoria into a blame-game in which Ukraine’s leaders are attacked for dispatching to Kursk troops that were badly needed elsewhere? It’s too early to tell.
Peter Rutland, professor of government and the Colin and Nancy Campbell Chair for Global Issues and Democratic Thought at Wesleyan University
Irrespective of the military costs and benefits of the raid, there is no doubt that it has been a political coup for Kyiv.
Stephen Walt, Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Yale University
The Ukrainian incursion into Russia is a sideshow intended to bolster Ukrainian morale and give the West confidence to keep backing Kyiv, but it will not affect the outcome of the war.
The expert consensus is in. This is a Tik Tok offensive.
The class-action law firm Schubert, Jonckheer & Kolbe said in a news release that the stolen file includes 277.1 gigabytes of data, and includes names, address histories, relatives and Social Security numbers dating back at least three decades.
According to a post from a cybersecurity expert on X, formerly Twitter, USDoD claims to be selling the 2.9 billion records for citizens of the U.S., U.K. and Canada on the dark web for $3.5 million.
Since the information was posted for sale in April, others have released different copies of the data, according to the cybersecurity and technology news site Bleeping Computer.
A hacker known as "Fenice" leaked the most complete version of the data for free on a forum in August, Bleeping Computer reported. introduce a little anarchy. .. or someone didn't pay the ransom.
Why are we just finding this out now when they knew about it for 8 months?!
In an interview with Rádio Gaúcha, Lula said that he doesn't consider Venezuela a dictatorship, but an “unpleasant regime”. When asked about Maduro's statements that cast doubt on the elections in Brazil, he replied: “No problem, he has the right to question”
Lula says he disagrees with the Workers' Party (PT, his party) note recognizing Maduro's election, and that 'Venezuela's problem will be solved by Venezuela'. “It may be a more authoritarian government, but it's not a dictatorship,” says Lula about Venezuela.
While people here are posting about how the Ukrainian raid into the Kursk oblast is having tremendous casualties while simultaneously failing to achieve anything of military importance, Danish government broadcaster DR is publishing articles like this (machine translation):
With its incursion into Russia, Ukraine has become an occupying power: 'They have several obligations'
Each day, Ukrainians seem to be capturing more and more territory in Russia.
It appears that Ukrainians are maintaining momentum in their advance into the Russian region of Kursk.
Full article
According to Oleksandr Syrskyi, head of Ukraine's armed forces, the country's soldiers have managed to capture more territory over the past 24 hours, and Ukraine now controls an area of about 1,150 square kilometers.
This is reported by The Guardian.
Earlier today, the same Oleksandr Syrskyi informed President Zelenskyy that the city of Sudzha in Kursk "has been successfully liberated from Russian forces." The president announced this on X.
Read also: Russians are being evacuated on a large scale: 'The house shook, and all the windows rattled'
A Ukrainian military office is now being established, which according to the army, is meant to ensure order and meet the needs of the local population. Ukraine now bears a moral responsibility.
Ukraine as an Occupying Power
With Ukraine's military incursion into Russia, the country is de facto an occupying power. With this title comes a certain responsibility, which is likely why the military office is being set up.
This is according to Anders Puck Nielsen, a military analyst at the Defense Academy.
"They have several obligations to take care of society and governance, and they have set up an office for this purpose."
Read also: Ukrainian military reports fewer rocket attacks on the eastern front: 'There used to be 30 to 60 a day. Now it's at most 10'
According to the military analyst, the new office gives the impression that "this is more or less a permanent institution."
"This has become a very big headache for the Russians."
Anders Puck Nielsen, military analyst, Defense Academy
"In other words, they intend to stay there for a long time," says Puck Nielsen.
And it is not at all unlikely that the Ukrainian presence in Russia could last much longer, he points out. Russia has yet to mount "a proper response."
"If the Ukrainians focus on digging in and entrenching themselves in the area, it could become quite difficult for the Russians to dislodge them," says Anders Puck Nielsen.
Headache in the Kremlin
Since the incursion into Russia, there has been speculation about how long the offensive might continue. Perhaps it was only a matter of days before Russian forces would push the enemy back and recapture the area.
But the offensive is now on its tenth day, and if Russia is to succeed in pushing the Ukrainians back, the manpower will likely need to come from the front line in southeastern Ukraine, estimates Anders Puck Nielsen.
"They probably don't have reserves ready to do it, so it could take some time."
Moreover, the Russians have another problem. While fighting has been ongoing along the front line, the border between Russia and Ukraine has become "full of holes," giving Ukraine the potential to perform the same maneuver elsewhere along the border.
"This has become a very big headache for the Russians. It's both because they now have a challenge in evicting the Ukrainians, which could be difficult. But they also have a future challenge in ensuring this doesn't happen again," says Anders Puck Nielsen.
Read also: While drones swarm over border regions, tens of thousands of Russians are being evacuated
Gavin Roberts studied anti-price gouging laws some states passed during the pandemic. One of the biggest effects he observed, especially at grocery stores, was that these laws motivated people “to go buy goods more than they would if prices had risen.”
When prices are high, in most cases, the best policy action in response is actually taking no action, Roberts, the chair of Weber State University’s economics department, told CNN.
That would cause consumers who are deterred by, say, high prices of beef, to instead purchase another type of meat or protein. That helps keep beef on the grocery store shelves for people who want it enough to pay the higher prices.
liberal economist says the problem with anti-price gouging laws is that the poor are then not adequately disincentivized from buying food that rich people might prefer they have exclusive access to rather than having to risk sharing.
long (kinda?) effort post about china and planning that im putting in here because it's tangentially related to some news stuff and i like a lot of people who frequent this mega
Fellow Newsheads,
I wouldn't call myself an anti-"Dengist" (for lack of a better term). I think it was a dangerous gamble, and one that ended up working out amazingly. Still, I still think cybernetic planning holds the greatest potential for growth and especially efficiency over any other system, and I'm not even sure if there's any good arguments against it (maybe too vulnerable to cyberattacks?), with how well it seemed to work basically immediately as an incomplete system on slow computers in Chile, and how corporate giants like walmart and amazon use it to incredible effect (and I have to imagine Chinese companies use it too, no?). With phones faster than supercomputers in 1995 (at least), I feel like a modern Cybersyn would be so crazy! So, I feel like any socialist country should work towards establishing an economy wide fully integrated cybernetic planning system as soon as possible. However, China is in a unique situation.
From outside of the party, it seems like China's current path is like boiling the frog, both domestically and internationally. If they tried to move to a fully planned system in a short period of time (<5 years?) it will cause the bourgeoisie to panic and flee the country and take as much money as they can (and iirc capital flight has really stepped it up recently), as well as potentially causing massive unrest. I imagine they also want to keep baiting the US into believing there's even a slight chance that China will be taken over by a bourgeoisie counterrevolution, to help and blunt US aggression. Internationally they strive to be a true force for peace, refusing to pass unilateral sanctions unless in response to a trade war, so that the imperialist nations can hang themselves with their own rope while maintaining stability and growth by dodging sanctions. But still, the CPC are Marxists, so they must know their mixed economy can't go on forever (unless the neoliberal/neoclassical economic ideas that kaplya/droplet/shipwrecks asserts have begun to take root in China grow worse instead of beginning to recede eventually D: ), and must transition back to full planning eventually. How long will this take? Right now, seems like decades (although maybe we'll get lucky and get a bunch of week-decades in the next few years lol).
So to the main thing I wanted to discuss, that I admit will ultimately be nearly entirely speculation due to the potential timeframe, how close the CPC plays its cards to its chest, and the world changing events that will undoubtedly happen (Israel collapsing for sure, potential war between China and Amerikkka, etc.), how will this actually look as they transition back? Will it all just be random huge companies collapsing and China either going "lol, lmao" and letting them go bankrupt or nationalizing them, or will they begin to take more aggressive measures (eg flat out nationalizing companies for the slightest misstep)? Are they just biding their time until Xi decides to ? /j Or feel free to say why something in the rest of my post is bad, sure there's plenty to pick on.
kinda effort because it's a vibes based discussion i'm not actually putting in any links or anything because I dont think they're really necessary for anything I've said but i did put effort into this :)
Price controls are capitalism, Dim Fool. It implies existence of market pricing and price leadership. It is supposed to restrain the excesses.
In an ideal market shown in textbooks there would be no price gouging because they assume perfect competition. There would be no price flexibility. With oligopolies, price controls are meant to constrain the markups on goods, the capitalist earns a profit, just lower.
If it were under public ownership, the Government gets to set the price that is most socially appropriate. Like in GDR bread prices was fixed at 1 Mark for literally decades.
Yea if there were shortages or if demand was too high the markets would be empty but this was because of resource constraints not corporate price fuckery.
Elon Musk and Gleen Greenwald attacks Brazil again, and the Brazilian battle between the Supreme Court and the far-right legislative.
Elon Musk Tries to make an exposed (using US law as an example) against Supreme Court Judge Alexandre Moraes in Attempt to get the judge impeached (which won't ever happened because the Lula aligned Liberals control the senate).
Phase 2 of Musk's "free Bolsonaro" campaign has begun, with help from sidekick Greenwald, who's released WhatsApp chats from Supreme Court Justice Moraes' staff showing him "informally directing" an Electoral Court investigation. The problem is there's nothing illegal about it.
In the pages of Folha de S. Paulo, Glenn uses US law to claim his leaked messages prove that the Supreme Federal Court (STF) minister illegally acted 'outside the procedural framework' by having his staff request Superior Electoral Court (TSE) reports on investigation suspects.
The problem with this argument is that,when the chats took place, Moraes was also President of the Superior Electoral Court, conducting a court police investigation into the January 8 coup attempt. In other words, he asked staff to request reports issued by his own subordinates.
Furthermore, Brazilian law 9.504 grants the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) police powers to make requests that support investigations.
Moraes, who stepped down from the Electoral Court presidency this year, says, ""It would be schizophrenic for me, as the president of the Superior Electoral Court, to issue an order to myself."
"Especially since, as the president of the TSE, in exercising police powers, I had the authority, under the law, to order the creation of the reports. This investigative method is still possible today."
"This sharing of evidence, which is a method approved by the Supreme Court, would now involve me issuing an order to Minister Cármen [Lúcia], who is the current president of the Electoral Court. As president, TSE, she would direct the advisory team to prepare the report."
On the issue, Legal scholar Renato Ribeiro de Almeida says, "the minister shared electoral matters with the Electoral Court (TSE), while matters of a criminal nature were sent to the Supreme Court office."
"In this case the same individual, Alexandre de Moraes, occupied two positions, one at the TSE at that time and another at the Supreme Court but this is a discussion about who holds positions at the TSE."
"Our legislation states that three Supreme Court ministers serve on the TSE, including in the roles of president and vice president. Therefore, there is no irregularity in this regard."
Journalist Reinaldo Azevedo says, "One may dislike the fact that three of the seven judges of the TSE are also Supreme Court judges; one may dislike the fact that the electoral court has an Integrated Center for Fighting Disinformation and Defending Democracy;
"one may dislike the police powers that the electoral court possesses. Well, try to change the law. But don't call what is legal "non-procedural" just because you can't use the word "illegal."
Greenwald's phony "smoking gun" has been greeted with delight by Brazil's far right. Prosperity Gospel Pastor/Senador Damares Alves - who claims to have once "spoken to Jesus in a guava tree", has filed an impeachment request against Moraes.
On this, journalist and political scientist Leonardo Sakamoto writes, "Despite the outcry from the Bolsonaro opposition, there is no chance in the foreseeable future that the Senate will approve an impeachment of the minister."
"However, the far right will use the case to try to equate Jair's situation with Lula's in the Lava Jato investigation (a weak comparison), in an attempt to reinforce their narrative of persecution."
Meanwhile, Musk, Greenwald, Eduardo Bolsonaro and their wealthy allies have been holding a two-day, twitter circle jerk pushing this false narrative to bury any exposure of the fact that nothing illegal happened, in a flooding attack against the right to freedom of information.
Bottom line: In less than 2 months, Brazil will hold mayoral elections in 5565 municipalities. The timing of Greenwald and Musk's attack against the Electoral Court seems designed to strengthen far right candidates. Therefore, it looks like a case of foreign election meddling.
Finally, although it seems highly unlikely, impeaching Justice Moraes, a conservative who was appointed by coup President Michel Temer, would give Lula the opportunity to nominate his 3rd Supreme Court Justice in 2 years.
Supreme Court Justice Flavio Dino (who was called a “Communist” by Lula, because he was until recently a member of the Brazilian Communist Party) suspends the payment of tax credits. Decision is valid until transparency measures are put in place
Justice Flávio Dino, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), ordered on Wednesday (14) the suspension of the execution of the impositive amendments to the Union Budget. According to the decision, payment should be suspended until the Legislative and Executive branches create transparency and traceability measures for the funds.
The minister's decision was motivated by an action filed with the Court by the Liberty and Socialism Party (Left). The party claimed that the model of individual and bench amendments for federal deputies and senators makes preventive control of spending “impossible”.
The party also argued that the model causes “disruption” in the separation of powers by shifting part of the budget management from the Executive to the Legislative.
In ruling on the issue, Dino understood that the suspension of the amendments is necessary to avoid irreparable damage to the public coffers. According to the decision, only amendments earmarked for works in progress and to deal with public calamities can be paid.
“The resulting damage is irreparable or difficult to repair, as it is very laborious and time-consuming to reimburse the treasury millions or billions of reais, in the event of a future investigation into responsibility for hypothetical illegalities, such as non-existent surgeries, ghost roads, health costs with no results for the population, unfeasible projects in NGOs, purchase of cold bills, among other anomalies of possible configuration,” said the minister.
Dino also said that the portion of the budget allocated to parliamentarians could make spending on public policies unfeasible.
“The percentage of commitment of the discretionary portion of the budget tends to evolve more and more randomly and make it impossible to achieve public policies, reaching the core of the principle of separation of powers, whose effectiveness must be immediately safeguarded,” he concluded.
Last week, Flávio Dino also maintained the suspension of the so-called “Pix amendments” to the Union Budget.
The amendments were created by Constitutional Amendment 105 of 2019 and allow deputies and senators to allocate individual amendments to the Union Budget through special transfers. Under the measure, the transfers do not require the indication of programs and the signing of agreements.
The minister understood that the implementation of the amendments can continue in the case of works in progress and public calamities. The release of funds is conditional on meeting transparency and traceability requirements.
The Legislative basically destroyed the powers of the Executive during Bolsonaro's presidency, they actively worked to remove all powers from the president and Bolsonaro agreed to it. It seems that there is a faction in Brazil that has been trying to install a parliamentarist goverment since the 1960s. Which seemed to have been support by the US, and goes against the referendum that happening during the 1980's and 1990's about Republicanism, Monarchism, Presidentialism and Parliamentarism, in which the people voted for a Presidential Republic.
But now they've run into a big problem, the Supreme Court, which is really powerful and is mainly aligned with Lula's government. They absolutely hate Bolsonaro because he has always attacked them and hates their party, the Liberal Party. What's really funny is that there's nothing the legislature can do to stop the Supreme Court, if they remove a judge, Lula would have the chance to choose the replacement. And if they limit a judge's power, they will still form a majority against the legislature, as there are only two Bolsonaro judges there.
I don't think this has really circulated on Twitter because it's only been covered by Arab and Hebrew press with some translations by Jacob Magid etc but here is the ten principles the U.S. is allegedly sponsoring in a document they've drafted with allied Arab states. 🧵
"Meaningful pathway to an independent Palestinian state" seems to be the language that the U.S. has landed on for a peace process they hope to establish will almost certainly lead to anything but an independent Palestinian state.
— Emissary of Night 🔆🍉 (@EmissaryOfNight) August 16, 2024
"The international community must support the Palestinian people in rebuilding their lives in the Gaza Strip, including through extraordinary investments in humanitarian, reconstruction, and economic development needs....cont
"This requires the opening of land crossings into the Gaza Strip and the unimpeded and sustainable flow of humanitarian and reconstruction assistance. Gaza’s neighbors must support and facilitate this process."
Groups that espouse the use of violence or commit terrorist attacks against civilians cannot govern or dictate Gaza’s future. cont
"All terrorist organizations and armed groups must disarm and renounce violence. A disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration mechanism will facilitate this process in Gaza"
"Israel must withdraw from the Gaza Strip with no reduction in its territory or reoccupation. There must be no forced displacement from Gaza and Palestinians must be allowed to return to all their communities in Gaza."
"The West Bank and the Gaza Strip must ultimately be reunified under the sole authority of the Palestinian Authority, including civil governance and security responsibilities. cont
"The transitional period of Palestinian-led governance will require unique arrangements and support and contributions from international partners."
"An enduring end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and end to the occupation can only be achieved through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization that resolve all final status issues. cont
"We fully support steps to resume final status negotiations to achieve the goal of two states for two peoples enjoying mutual recognition and full equal rights for all their citizens."
"Palestinians deserve to live in dignity and security in an independent, contiguous, and viable state of their own and Israelis deserve to live in security and to be accepted, recognized, and integrated into the region, in a two-state solution negotiated on the basis cont
...of the June 4, 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps and a just and agreed solution for Palestinian refugees, as envisioned in the Arab Peace Initiative"
"An end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict requires a coordinated regional effort. The possibility of normalization between Saudi Arabia and other Arab statesa nd Israel with concrete progress toward a two-state solution cont
...is a promising avenue to achieving peace, security, and regional integration that will benefit all."
"Unilateral actions and violations by the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority that undermine progress towards the two-state solution must end, including the expansion of settlements and outposts and the glorification of terrorism and violence. cont
...The Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority must uphold the rule of law and reject violence and incitement to violence, whether committed by officials or members of the public."
"The parties must implement commitments made in prior agreements, including at Aqaba and Sharm al-Sheikh in 2023, and uphold the historic status quo at the Holy sites in Jerusalem and respect the special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. cont
...We recognize the deep connection of people of many faiths to Jerusalem and that the boundaries in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations."
"The Palestinian Authority must implement a comprehensive reform agenda, focused on good governance, transparency, fighting corruption, and education and welfare reform." /end of principles.
"Notably, the US vision does not advocate a “time-bound, irreversible pathway to a Palestinian state,” as Blinken has repeatedly insisted will be necessary for Saudi Arabia to agree to normalize relations with Israel." Times of Israel. https://t.co/vqyLnUnec7
Assuming this is accurate, the only way this deal gets accepted is if the Palestinians living in Gaza are truly broken. The idea that not only "terrorists," but any "armed group" in Gaza should lay down their weapons while the colonizers get to keep their nuclear weapons is preposterous. That they would trade their arms for the promise of an unimpeded flow of aid. This is the exact state of affairs which lead to Gaza being turned into the biggest concentration camp in history, with the colonizers literally imposing quotas on the number of calories being shipped into the ghetto.
The idea that a "transitional period" needs to be imposed from outside. Installing the PA in Gaza will work just about as smoothly as installing Guaido in Venezuela. It's a farce.
If this is seriously what they're pushing in these negotiations, these negotiations will not last very long. Jacking off into a toilet would be a more effective use of our diplomatic resources.
A representative from the Vatican City State delivered credentials to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, giving legitimacy to his government in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church.
Far-Right latino catholics and protestants really pissed rn lol.
Donald Trump criticizes Kamala Harris and says that the Democrat, if elected, will implement a “communist system” in which “everyone has access to health care”.
Visiting someone who has cable news on. First time i've seen cable news in a long time, and there's a lot of super carefully engineered psychic damage inducing electoral propaganda. And you know what? American electoralism isn't just largely pointless, it's actively evil. It's indoctrinating people in to a completely false reality disconnected from any either domestic or foreign political realities.
Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki defended today his decision to invite Palestine instead of Israel to the peace ceremony.
The threats from U.S. and its vassals to boycott the annual event to commemorate the hibakusha could not work on the mayor, whose parents were a-bomb survivors.
On 2 August 2024, Suzuki announced that Israeli ambassador Gilad Cohen was not invited to the ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki due to concerns over potential protests related to the Israel–Hamas war. In response, the ambassadors of the United States and the United Kingdom chose not to attend the event on 9 August and sent lower-ranked diplomats instead. The ambassadors of Russia and Belarus were also not invited to the ceremony, while the Palestinian ambassador was invited.
Another Biden gaffe? Earlier today, US President Joe Biden said that the idea of new elections, proposed jointly by Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, was a good idea and that he would support it. And that Washington would maintain a line of contact with the Maduro government to negotiate this.
However, later today, Joe Biden, or a member of the White House administration, denied that Biden supports a new election in Venezuela. Saying that President Joe Biden didn't understand the question and insisting that the United States would recognize Gonzalez because “it's clear that he won”. But they also say that the elections were neither fair nor clean.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said the opposition is not in favor of repeating the presidential elections in the country, following a suggestion from Brazil and support from the United States. "The will of the people is respected."
He also said that many risked their lives in this electoral process, and that many were murdered by the regime, and that it would be "disrespectful" to talk about repeating elections. "If Maduro doesn't like the result again, will they repeat the elections a third time?"
I guess Gonzalez literally vanished from the world? Last I heard Machado and Gonzalez were hiding in someplace. Probably not even in Venezuela anymore.
There's a huge media push on and many of the stories coming out of there are spinning acts of desparation or straight up war crimes as heroic. There is a white triangle symbol for whatever the fuck reason to counter Russia's Z. "Stunned Putin". Yeah sure it did
Such as Ukrop suicide APC that rammed a Russian checkpoint. It got stopped hard, and then drone bombed, and it's occupants neutralized but isn't that exciting boys!
It's all very
Bots are out in force saying how it's a good thing the west is blowing their money and old equipment turning into a burn pit. "So many orcs at a fraction of the annual trillion plus dollar budget!" Hurr hurrrr!
Canada's foreign worker program a 'breeding ground for contemporary slavery,' says UN report
Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program serves as a "breeding ground for contemporary slavery," according to a scathing UN report examining Canada's efforts to limit unfair labour.
The program allows employers to hire foreign workers to fill temporary jobs when they can't find qualified Canadians. The number of workers employed through the program has grown considerably in recent years. According to the UN report, there were just over 84,000 permit holders in 2018. In 2022, there were nearly 136,000. Most of them worked in agriculture and related labour sectors.
The report, written by UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery Tomoya Obokata, says the program puts workers in an unfair power imbalance with their employers.
For example, if a worker is fired, they may be deported. Some workers are deliberately not informed of their rights or too fearful to report exploitative working conditions, wrote Obokata. Many of them are also ensnared in debt bondage while participating in the programs, according to the report.
Because workers lack access to justice, they are at risk of a variety of other abuses, Obokata wrote.
It's almost funny how quickly the libs pulled out the Nuremberg defense for Kkkamala in regards to her active participation in the Gaza genocide and her complete unwillingness to actually take a stand separate from Biden's.
What's the news on WHO declaring black plague and monkeypox, pandemics and CDC adding Birdflu to watch list? Has there been human spread and any data on where/how much?
The willful killing of unarmed soldiers, especially when there is a good chance of taking them prisoners, is certainly a war crime.
It is astonishing that Christopher Miller of the Financial Times reports of it without further comment.
How Ukraine pulled off its biggest gamble: invading Russia (archived) - Financial Times, Aug 12, 2024
As Volodymyr prepared to enter Russian territory, adrenaline ran through his veins. It was not lost on him that 81 years ago, another battle in Russia’s Kursk region marked a turning point for Europe.
...
“We entered Russian territory for the first time at 1pm on Tuesday [August 6],” Volodymyr said. “We were among the first to enter there.”
To his astonishment, his unit faced no resistance as their eight-wheeled, 20 tonne US Stryker fighting vehicle stormed across the border in broad daylight.
They soon encountered a Russian unit “sitting in the forest, drinking coffee at a table”, Volodymyr recalled. “Then our Stryker drives right into their table.
“We killed many of them on the first day,” he said. “Because they were unarmed and didn’t expect us.”
Not wanting to end up like their comrades, he added, “dozens” of stunned Russian soldiers simply laid down their weapons and surrendered.
"81 years ago, another battle in Russia’s Kursk region marked a turning point for Europe," writes Miller. He and others should consider what that really means. If I remember correctly, the German fascists and their Ukrainian allies also committed war crimes - and lost the fight.
Lula da Silva and Gustavo Petro demand answers, but avoid 'jumping the gun' on Venezuela: 'Respect sovereignty'
Presidents say it's important 'not to guess' about another country's politics, but call for the results to be made public. Lula also spoke publicly about a suggestion he had made at a ministerial meeting last week, to hold new elections in the country. He said that he could not publicly recognize Maduro's election because the Venezuelan “still owes explanations”.
“I still don't recognize it, he knows that he owes an explanationto the world. There are several ways out, or a coalition government, a composition. A lot of people didn't vote for me and I brought everyone into the government. (...) I don't want to behave passionately and rashly, I want results. If he [Maduro] has any sense, he could try to call on the Venezuelan people, maybe even call new elections,” he said.
Mexican Chief Executive Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that he would not speak to Presidents Lula (Brazil) and Gustavo Petro (Colombia) until the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) had issued a position on the country's elections. Without Obrador, Lula called Petro on Wednesday to continue negotiations on Venezuela. The two should maintain this dialogue with Maduro over the next few days to avoid an escalation of tension in the neighboring country.
I saw some Liberal anti-leftist media outlets with clickbait articles saying that "Lula/Petro/AMLO REFUSED to RECOGNIZE Maduro's Victory and is now going to BREAK RELATIONS and nuke VUVUZELA!" But Lula and Petro just said the same stuff they have been saying since the election results.
A couple days/weeks/months back the german government coalition decided to ban the nazi magazine 'compact'
Now this would've actually been a good thing I would've said about the german government in the last decade sadly today the german courts ruled the ban unconstitutional, freedom of the press trumps being a nazi rag I suppose.
I just had an epiphany: This Kursk offensive is the exact reason Zaluzhny was kicked out and replaced with Syrsky back in February!
Zaluzhny would never agree to such a harebrained waste of troops and resources, but Syrsky, the butcher of Bakhmut, who tried to hold onto that city for no gain whatsoever and doesn't give a rats ass about Ukrainian lives, certainly would.
Ukraine is so funny. There are literally two real sectors of the front that decide the long-term future of the war, the south in Zaporozhye Oblast, and the urban areas in Donetsk. We all like to talk about Kupiansk, Kherson and the Kharkov regions, but the war didn't drastically change when Russia controlled them, and it didn't change when Ukraine took them. The south with its relation to Crimea and the population centers in Donetsk is where the conditions for victory are set for both sides. So what does Ukraine do, they take out some of their best brigades and battalions from Zaporozhye and Donetsk, and send them on a useless adventure in Kursk. Yes they captured a bunch of villages and towns and HUMILIATED Pootin, but Russia have now obliterated Ukrainian defence lines near Pokrovsk and Toretsk and have moved into the connecting towns a few kilometers from Pokrovsk and into the suburbs of Toretsk itself. Absolutely incredible IQ by the Ukrainian command.
In an investigation published Wednesday, the outlets reported that the suspect is a Ukrainian diving instructor, named only as Volodymyr Z. for privacy reasons.
Holy shit Zelenskyy personally blew up the pipelines.
RFK Jr. attempted to meet with Kamala Harris to discuss the possibility of serving in her administration in exchange for her endorsement. However, Kamala Harris and her advisers did not respond to the meeting offer nor did they express interest in the proposal.
To Confront Rising Neofascism, the Latin American Left Must Rediscover Itself - This dossier presents a broad overview of the Latin American far right’s political, economic, and cultural programmes and how the absence of a real left political project that secures better living conditions has thrown different fractions of the working class into the grip of neofascism.
Venezuela Is a Marvellous Country in Motion: The Thirty-Second Newsletter (2024) - Venezuela’s opposition yet again cries fraud in the 28 July presidential but fails to provide evidence. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Chavistas, their frustrations grounded in the understanding that the US-hybrid war is the root of the crisis, take to the streets and chant no volverán: they [the oligarchy] will not return.
Zak Cope, third-worldist marxist and author of Divided World Divided Class and mentioned fairly regularly on Hexbear, has gone completely off the deep end. October 7th was too much for him.
He's now stated his full support for free-market capitalism and colonialism, and is advocating for the rules-based international order as a way to protect from Russian and communist influence, is drawing equivalencies between Nazis and the Soviets, is saying that unequal exchange is not real, centralized planning is impossible, quoting Thatcher, etc.
For many western leftists, now that oppressed people are actually beginning to fight back in (necessarily imperfect) ways, rather than being pitiable victims marching into the sea as Gandhi wished, all left-wing values go out the window and they realize their class interests are aligned against these uprisings. I must admit that I thought a big exposure to the literature and even writing a significant book on the subject would inoculate a person against taking the complete opposite values less than a year after they held those values, but Zionism is a stubborn little tumor which can rapidly take over the body once it awakens.
They are trying to get prisoner exchanges, these prisoners (probably captured conscripts in the attacks) are requesting an exchange for Azov fighters, likely the ones captured in Mariupol.
Requesting thoughts from the New Mega Economic Bureau:
I do believe the prospects for the Israeli economy are very grim (inshallah). They've lost a huge number of citizens to emigration, disability, and death. The economy relied quite a bit on over 200k Palestinian workers who Israel has said they don't intend on welcoming back. I think they will stick to that, and their plans for replacing those workers from others from places like India I don't think will pan out (both for logistical reasons and because Israelis are deeply racist). I can't imagine they will be able to draw immigrants like they used to and will likely bleed more citizens as they've shown their own people just how precarious their lives there are. The tourism industry there is dead. Their reputation in surveillance and security - an important export industry for them - has taken a massive reputational hit. I doubt Intel will want to continue on there.
When the potential destruction of the Israeli economy (and thus, by extension, the Israeli state) is brought up, a perfectly understandable retort is that the US will do whatever they need to to prop up the Israeli economy. That's what I more or less what I think at least on the surface. But the question I have been asking myself is: is it even possible for the US to prop up the Israeli economy?
My understanding is that all "aid" from the US to Israel takes the form of US dollars being used to purchase US-made munitions and military equipment. The money never touches Israeli hands, is never sent through the Isreali economy, and is not used for anything "productive" from the Israeli economic perspective. And this the general modus operandi for US foreign aid - the foreign country doesn't get cash and they CERTAINLY aren't granted like, the ability to recruit US firms to build facilities there. So point being... sure, the US can take USD and buy not just military gear from the US MIC, but they can also buy food from US farmers, cars from US manufacturers, etc. They can make sure Israel has food to eat and coal to keep power plants running. But all of that won't actually do anything for the real, productive economy of Israel.
Oct 7 has shattered the very foundations of the productive economy of Israel - industrial capital, in the language of vol 2 of Capital. And these fundamental problems that have been created cannot be cured with US foreign aid. If I'm right then I don't think there's any the US can do in order to rescue the Israeli economy in the long run.
Come on do something Mr Khamenei, my hexbear reputation is on the line here. What if my son finds out that his dad became TinyPenis after being let down by the Axis of Resistance
The president of México AMLO, on the election in Venezuela , mentions that everything was going well until Sunday night when things started to go wrong. He claims that the following Tuesday, the secretary of USA, Anthony Blinken, the OAS and more countries came out to demonstrate in favor of a candidate. He proposed to wait for the resolution of the electoral bodies
Mexico refused to take any action other than waiting for the Venezuelan Supreme Court to prove that the elections were fair and that Maduro won. Brazil and Colombia tried to reach an agreement to hold another election, but this was quickly ruled out as an option, because no one accepted this and Gonzalez said he would refuse this option, because he basically said that there is no way he could win an election against Maduro.
The liberal newspapers in Brazil and Colombia, from what I've seen, are already saying that Lula and Petro will probably end up recognizing Maduro, since they really need to have diplomatic relations with Venezuela. They keep trying to push a narrative that Lula and Petro are bad because they are supporting the ebiquitous dictator Maduro and this will affect the electoral results of their coalitions.
The US seems to keep saying that Gonzalez won, but they don't really recognize it. Gonzalez and Machado are currently hiding somewhere, probably in Panama or Miami. Diplomats from Panama, Peru and Argentina have been expelled from Venezuela. Meanwhile, Maduro has banned Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter and Tik Tok. The situation on the streets seemed to have calmed down, apart from an unrelated gas explosion accident, nothing really happened.
Brazil said that it does not recognize Gonzalez electoral results documents, and will wait for the CNE and Supreme Court results. I believe Colombia also is going to do the same.
#If Your Main Circle isn't Discussing Death to Israel then it's Time to Elevate Your Circle #893 3/6
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://oec.world/en/games/tradle
spoiler
integrated circuits had me thinking SE Asia, but I considered the coconut (and the small size of the exports) and guessed around in the Pacific
Donald Trump Accuses the European Union of Interfering in Upcoming Elections
It happened in the preview of an interview with the magnate also a tycoon of the technological, Elon Musk. Republican candidate for US presidency, Donald Trump, accused on Monday the European Union (EU) of trying to interfere in the US elections, after Brussels warned that it monitors the spread of hate messages on the social network X, just before its owner, Elon Musk, issued an interview with the former president.
According to a message from Steven Cheung, spokesman for the Republican candidate, «The European Union should take care of its own affairs rather than trying to interfere in the US presidential elections». «Let us be very clear: the European Union is an enemy of freedom of expression and has no authority whatsoever to dictate how we campaign,» he stressed.
Cheung went further and blamed US President Joe Biden and Democratic Vice President and candidate Kamala Harris for the fact that «an undemocratic foreign organization feels emboldened enough to tell this country what it should do».
In an interview for Al Mayadeen, former Iranian diplomat Amir al-Mousawi revealed that Iran has been threatened with a nuclear strike.
Al-Mousawi emphasized that the country has affirmed that any nuclear attack would be met with a proportional response. According to al-Mousawi, those conveying the threats were met with far stronger responses.
Moreover, he urged the people to disregard unfounded claims of alleged Iranian "cowardice" circulating on social media. Al-Mousawi concluded by affirming that Iran is fully prepared to counter the Zionist entity, alongside its allies, in full force.
Mr Raue said nominations were completed for council areas, like Sydney's Inner West Council, where the Liberal Party would struggle to secure wards, while some conservative strongholds missed out.
He said there were at least seven whole council areas and over 40 wards across probably a dozen councils where they either have not nominated candidates or not nominated enough candidates to get a box above the line.
"It's on a pretty big scale like it is possibly like as many as 50 Liberal council seats that they might not get because of this," he said.
"People who've run for election or worked in a party office, which I did in a past life, a long time ago, this is your nightmare scenario.
"I think it's just literally a matter of they had a lot of forms to fill in and submit, and they couldn't get them all done in time."
It seems that the potential retaliation by Iran and Hizbullah against Israel may hinge on the outcome of tomorrow's ceasefire talks in Doha. This connection has been indicated by multiple sources: Iran's UN envoy mentioned it last week, three Iranian officials conveyed this to Reuters yesterday, and today, Nabih Berri, the Lebanese parliament speaker and close Hizbullah ally, referred to the upcoming talks as "the last shot". However, given that Israel is more likely to scupper the talks, especially considering new demands it has reportedly added, and its longstanding aversion to a cease-fire, it's more probable that Iran and Hizbullah are merely engaging in a perfunctory exercise, ready to take action once these negotiations inevitably conclude without yielding any meaningful results.
Iran and Hizbullah appear to be allowing this last ditch diplomatic attempt to run its course despite their recognition that these talks have been weaponised against the Resistance Axis: first, to buy Israel more time at the Palestinians' expense, and second, to delay or limit the expected retaliation from Iran and Hizbullah. But responding is an existential matter, particularly for Hizbullah. While longer term deterrence remains elusive, Hizbullah is seeking to restore immediate deterrence so that Israel doesn't expand its "phase 3" assassination campaign or its attrition-focused drone warfare strategy from Gaza into Beirut. As such, this delay will do little to blunt the intended impact of Hizbullah's and Iran's retaliatory strike(s).
out with another banger. In this case, he attempted to describe the "progressive" society in an instagram post. This is what he does when he's not starving children or sending our last remaining gold reserves abroad.
It reads:
PRISON: THE IDEAL PROGRESSIVE SOCIETY
There's no need to work (SO COOL)
Free housing (BASED)
Free Healthcare (HELL YEAH)
Free Education (LET'S FUCKING GOO)
Free Services (BASED)
Lots of gay sex ( )
Everyone receives the same treatment (COOL)
Everyone is on the same economic level (AWESOME)
Only those who belong to the forces have weapons (mf right here describing capitalism)
Yesterday I spoke how I believe the bourgeoisie is in it's decadent phase. This is another example: This man is steering the ship of a massive nation and is at the head of the capitalist regime that exists here in Argentina, and this is all he is able to produce: starvation for children and very mediocre ideas for social media. These people are not enlightened, at all, this man is spreading mediocrity all around the place. He's infecting others with his rot. Sometimes I say, yeah, let this man conquer the world, because the more he think he's winning, the more he negates his (and by extension their) own existence.
Does lacrosse being at the 2028 Olympics mean the Iroquois Nation gets to be represented for the first time at an Olympics?
Edit: I looked into it and it’s up to the US Olympic committee of they’ll be able to. Would be a bad look if a country that pretends to care about cultural genocide in China bars them from competing.
Fumio Kishida announces that he will step down as Prime Minister of Japan. Kishida's decision not to run for re-election as president of the Liberal Democratic Party comes amid a scandal over campaign funds that dropped his approval rating to 21% in June.
I highly recommend the Electronic Intifada’s live broadcast on YouTube on Wednesdays. It keeps my burning hatred of the US and Israel going. John Elmer is great for talking about the actual fight going on.
Random thought. The first time I encountered the Russian Meddling story was on the Samantha B show. I was still a lib (rad-lib whatever) and took it mostly at face value. I did think to myself that seems like a cool gig in a region where opportunities are limited.
But how the hell was Samantha B the one to “break” this. I assume it was fed to her and the show’s producers.
Over half of families with children had to stop buying basic foods because they couldn’t afford them, a UNICEF report has found
In Argentina, over one million children are skipping meals each day because their families cannot afford food, according to a UNICEF report published Tuesday. The number of households who cannot make ends meet has risen significantly since 2022.
An April study of households with children found that 7% of children and teens, and 30% of adults, had to skip at least one meal a day because they couldn’t afford food. The report showed that seven in 10 children were poor in April. Poverty was defined as either economic poverty or deprivation of basic needs such as education, social protection, or adequate housing.
In a context of growing economic and social inequality, 52% of households with kids stopped buying essential foods because they could no longer afford them. This is 11 percentage points higher than in June 2023, and the highest since UNICEF started conducting these surveys in 2020. This number represents 3.3 million households, which are home to almost 7 million children.
According to UNICEF’s data, 90% of these homes stopped buying milk, meat and other similar products. “The intake of foods crucial for the nutrition of children and teenagers (meat, vegetables, fruit and dairy) has significantly dropped, while it has increased in the case of cheaper and less nutritious foods (pasta, flour and bread),” the report read. In 48% of the homes surveyed, the monthly income wasn’t sufficient to cover basic household expenses. This was seven points higher than last year, and 15 points higher than in June 2022.
The situation gets worse when the head of the household is unemployed, on welfare, or a single woman. Almost a quarter (23%) of families also stopped buying medicine, while 32% stopped going for medical or dental checkups. Many had to borrow money or spend their savings to cover basic expenses.
In the 12 months prior to the survey, a quarter of teenagers had jobs, UNICEF found. A further 12% were looking for work.
UNICEF’s numbers are in line with recent studies on poverty in Argentina. An analysis of official data by the Argentine Catholic University’s Social Debt Observatory released last week showed that seven out of 10 children were poor in the first quarter of 2024. Poverty hit 55% and destitution rose to 20% in the first three months of the year, the observatory found.
The damage this is doing simply cannot be calculated. The very social fabric is being destroyed, slowly but surely. Of course, ancaps and their fascist and liberal allies will see this as "mere numbers", "poverty rates can go down actually" they'll say. Yes, sure, but the damage malnutrition does to a child marks them for life. A child that doesn't have access to quality food at that age develops problems that will follow them for the rest of their lives. This is absolutely degrading the material conditions in which we live, it's degrading people who never had a shot on their lifes. The effects will be truly felt in 20, 30 and 40 years.
I listened to the and discussion. I feel like 75% of my brain just died by just listening to musk try to make an argument that was not 100% racist.
I have mixed feelings over all this show. In one hand it's pure insanity, richest man in the world is a massive white supremacist and will push for such agenda. But on the other... this is it, this is the best the bourgeoisie has - Trump and Musk. That's all there is, Trump speaks incoherent things about "nuclear" (Still don't know if he refers to nukes or nuclear energy, I think he's unsure as well) and Elon is.. pathetic. He's a ridiculously mediocre man, everything he does is mediocre, the more he shows himself the more mediocre he appears. He is that, he is the embodiment of the bourgeoisie in it's decadent phase, one phase they will never recover from.
Y'all are not going to believe what the official newspaper of Lehi (aka the Stern Gang), the Zionist terrorist group that split from Irgun over wanting to ally with the Nazis, and counted first Likud PM Yitzhak Shamir among its members, was called.
when the retaliation comes I hope it targets American surface vessels as well. the USA is directly culpable for those chunks of viscera being weighed into bags for burial
Happening now: Israeli ambassador to the UN goes on hysterical genocidal screed at UNSC, stops himself every 2 seconds to emphasize that Arabs are terrorists, and again every 4 seconds to scream and moan about the UNSC falling for “terrorist lies”, ends Hitlerite speech with “WE ARE THE DEFENDERS OF CIVILIZATION” and storms out of the room
Man, TikTok libs who were fully on board with Palestine a month ago have just fully switched over to being huge Kamala Harris stans and the hate for people who continue to care about the Palestinian genocide is pretty palapable.
This isn't really News but it's just a pretty crazy shift in vibes that has me, as an American, feeling like no American can be trusted with access to any power ever.
I feel like maybe a PRC appointed viceroy might be the way to go in the future or something.
Hey does anyone have some good articles or news sources on migrants in New York? My conservative mother wont shut up about how "they are getting free hotels" and shit, and I want some solid numbers beyond just saying "stop being a racist asshole"
Trump as reverse Guaido is becoming more real by the day:
"If something happens with this election, which would be a horror show, we'll meet the next time in Venezuela, because it'll be a far safer place to meet than our country," Trump said to Musk. "OK, so we'll go. You and I will go, and we'll have a meeting and dinner in Venezuela."
Trump had alleged that Venezuela has released violent criminals from its jails and sent them to the United States to reduce its own crime rate.
"Their crime rate is coming down and our crime rate is going through the roof. And it's so simple. And you haven't seen anything yet because these people have come into our country and they're just getting acclimated and they don't know about being politically correct, law enforcement or lack of law enforcement and our police. I have to just end with this. We have great police," he said.
Venezuelan Congress to debate law to regulate social networks
The bill will be included in the so-called "Antifascist Law" and comes after an escalation of tension between the government and social networks
The president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, said on Monday (12) that he will discuss the regulation of social networks in the country. According to him, the idea is to include this debate in the Law Against Fascism, which is already in force. The announcement was made during a meeting of the Venezuelan Security Council.
"Venezuela needs to regulate the functioning of social networks, we are not pioneers in this matter. More than 70 countries, which make up 40% of the UN [United Nations], have already regulated the operation of social networks," he said.
For Jorge Rodríguez, this type of regulation will aim to combat the spread of hatred and fake news on the networks and will be important not only to "defend the institutions", but also to "guarantee the well-being of Venezuelans". The government also announced the creation of the Cybersecurity Council, to think about strategies and manage issues related to networks in Venezuela.
the two people arguing in the middle part of the video are saying "Habibi let me blow it up 🥺 ; no I'll do it; habibi, by Allah let me do it I have sinned a lot in my life let me do it 🥺 ; okay let's do it together"
Some communist from the West Bank posted on TheDeprogram saying they overheard that PFLP members are being arrested by the occupation forces in Nablus, Jenin, etc. even the 80+ year olds who can no longer walk.
On holiday and a bunch of yanks and white south africans having an open conversation about how the idf can kill anyone in their sleep and how apartheid wasnt exactly nice but at least it was good for the economy. First time ive encountered the famed zionist lib. Awful people.
I don't suppose anyone is still playing for Sy Hersh's substack? I'm interested to see what his Israeli and US sources have told him about why Iran hasn't retaliated, given how wrong some of his earlier reporting on this conflict was lol.
The only thing I'd want to add to Mikael's excellent analysis here is that the Russians are actually fighting a much more conventional area defense than we've seen in the very static fighting in the Donbass. They're not trying to stop Ukrainian drives at the screen line like we saw in the Hundred Days, they're instead diverting them into engagement areas between their front line of screening troops and the main defensive line 5-10km to the rear and destroying them there. Ergo why we've seen Ukrainian units just go on these long runs in the last couple days - way past where the front line should be - and then get wiped out in what look like complex ambushes. That's... actually just how you do a very normal area defense.
Why have the Russians changed tactics? Two reasons. First, in Kursk they - paradoxically - have space to fight. The Donbass is a cramped theater where real estate is at an absolute premium. They're either backing up into the sea, key lines of communication, or critical urban areas there. There's actual operational space in rural Kursk. Second and relatedly, the "forward" defense we're used to seeing in the Donbass will not inflict crippling casualties on an attacker quickly for the simple reason that attacks often fail in the "cone of fire" in no man's land or even behind the attacker's front line, allowing defeated units to easily withdraw. In a conventional defense the attacker is defeated in a kill zone behind the screen line and it is far easier to annihilate an attacking force. Ergo why we're now seeing huge AFU equipment losses, with entire Ukrainian companies burning out behind the ostensible Russian "front."
Having found themselves in battle with the AFU's strategic reserves, the Russians now very much intend to use the Battle of Sudzha-Korenevo to destroy as much of those reserves as possible. Even if that means scaring some war mappers on the internet.
Remember five years ago when every westerner was lining up to service Jimmy Lai and was going apoplectic that China was going to gulag everyone in Hong Kong? Weird how nobody still gives a shit
Putin - at talks with Palestinian President Abbas: Everyone knows very well that today Russia, unfortunately, must defend its interests, protect its people with weapons in hand, but what is happening in the Middle East, what is happening in Palestine, certainly does not go unnoticed on our part. Esteemed Mr. President, dear friends, allow me, first of all, to warmly welcome you to Moscow, we have not seen each other for two years, although we are constantly in contact, and I am very glad to see you - you and your delegation.
I heard about Japan raising interest rates which collapsed some segment of people who were schemin and tradin but was that all there was to it? Are the underlying reasons behind Japan's change important to the global economy?
Also, I guess Intel died in their quarterly earnings report, which looked bad for AI development.
Is this just a flash in the pan, or is this all supposed to mean something? Is the economy just chugging along or what? Does line go up?
it's interesting that there has been zero coverage on Hezbollah successfully striking an Israeli base with many missiles with none of them being intercepted
Under the reign of King Brandon the Feeble-minded, the people languished in despair, but with Kamala the Awkward enthroned upon the Throne of Skulls, it seemed as though the very heavens smiled anew upon the realm. Priests and sages divined hopeful prophecies of triumph over the Orange Troll King, reading them in the entrails of their sacrifices. They proclaimed Kamala the Awkward as pure and unsullied by sin. The might of the Orange Troll King appeared to wane, and he grew weak and weary. The scandalous revelations of the unnatural proclivities of his lieutenant, known as the Vance, bewildered and demoralized the trollish hordes.
So diminished was the power of the Orange Troll King that he found himself compelled to ride up to Lord Elon the Divorced, to abase himself and kiss his ring, indulging in the latter's disgraceful vanity, all in the desperate hope of forging an alliance with him and his repulsive subterranean minions.
Today, on Libs and Their Takes: "African safari big game hunting" except the "refuge" is Isntrael, the life being "preserved" is Zionist Jews, and the "game" being hunted to secure its funding is Palestinians.
Update on the uprising of Arab tribes against US-proxies (SDF) in Deir Ez-zor. A lot of complex moves being made. SDF has put the villages of Hasakah and Qamishli under complete siege depriving them of food and water. Death to America.
One of the cited articles in this piece is about SDF releasing hundreds of captured ISIS fighters last month in what Syrian commentators cynically call Washington's "catch and release program." Basically they use SDF prisons as hospitals and holding facilities and then let them out and give them guns when it is useful to do so.
I fear a possible outcome where apartheid falls but all its rapists and murderers goes unpunished. Their crimes are too severe to be forgiven. But I fear it's existence most
havent been active (other than reading comments) on the news mega since I started my new job, felt like logging in to say I'm convinced the dooming about russia must come from too much reddit usage, Ive gone back to lurking on there a lot more during the day when im at my job because I dont really want my chud coworkers leaning over my shoulder and seeing me be on a socialist website, and there are constant posts on the front page about the kursk offensive and how terrible and humiliating it is for russia and how russia is now days from collapse. idk which is more embarrassing, if this is their own genuine analysis or they're being swayed by the most astroturfed site in existence
i can't sub to the_dunk_tank on hexbear for some reason so i'm gonna post this here. I found a video of jim cramer saying how he manipulates stocks, it 100% mirrors what we've been seeing in the stock market recently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DJlogbrDcA&t=1s
he can't shut the fuck up about the shady shit he's doing despite the host trying to pivot away from it
So this might end up being cope, but I'm starting to think we are seeing a modern version of the Battle of the Bulge happen in Kursk.
At first, it seems like a major L for Putin as the thinly guarded Russian border is overwhelmed by what looks like another PR stunt by Ukraine. But after a couple of days it becomes obvious that this is actually a major offensive by Ukraine. As Ukraine pours in thousands of troops from the Donbass front into Kursk. We are now getting reports that Ukraine planned to go much further into Kursk than they did and possibly wanted to capture the nuclear plant in Kurchatov to do some kind of nuclear blackmail to force Russia to make major concessions.
This obviously isn't working as their incursion been halted/severely slowed down. Sure it's another propaganda W, but they are taking massive casualties, while simultaneously weakening the Donbass front and failing to force the withdrawal of substantial Russian forces from Donbass. Even Ukraine NAFO cheerleaders aren't happy about this one.
So Ukraine now has to choices: Option A is to double down and pray they can hold out and make some gains and remove some Russian troops from the Donbass. Or option B which is to cut their losses and take the L (Ironically what Hitler did several decades ago during the Battle of Kursk).
Either way is would be some kind of poetic irony if the modern Kursk battle ended up being the nail in the coffin for the Kiev regime just like the 1943 battle of Kursk was described as the "last gasp of Nazi aggression" for Germany.
News mega gang, listen up. Based on vibes, pit in my stomach, voice tone of family in Beirut, and the spirits of George Hawi and Kamal Jumblatt speaking to me:
Iran and Hezbollah will be attacking Israel before Sunday. If it doesn't happen, I'll show my face here again on Sunday and you're all allowed to call me a dumbass.
I wonder what Fitch is actually basing their Israel debt downgrade on (besides arbitrary ratios).
Maybe they think Shekel would depreciate but in that case they could go ask their sugar daddy for Dollars. So long as Israeli state exists, Israeli shekels will too, sadly.
Maybe Fitch does think Hezbollah and Iran will destroy the Zionist entity.
Or the Israeli state implodes from internal conflict.
Or they think US will cut them off and force them to default on their foreign currency debt (lol) like they did with Russia and Iran.
Fitch also downgraded Finland's credit, which is further provoking austerity measures already being taken:
Global credit rating agency Fitch has downgraded Finland's outlook to AA+, reports Taloussanomat.
The agency blamed weak economic growth and the government's insufficient policy measures to balance the state budget.
Fitch believes that current government austerity measures will slow, but not stop the growth of public debt.
Commenting on the news, Finance Minister Riikka Purra (Finns) posted on the ministry's website that the "announcement regarding the credit rating outlook must be taken seriously, and in my opinion, it underscores the importance of implementing the measures decided in the government budget framework session."
Ahead of last weekend, Purra presented next year's budget proposal which saw the budget deficit increase to 12.2 billion euros from the 10.7 billion anticipated this past spring. She attributed the increase in debt to a weaker economic situation than previously expected.
during the Hillary and Biden campaigns against Trump, we reasoned that the democrats didn't plaster pics of Trump and Epstein together everywhere and engage in attacks based on the allegations against Trump because Hillary had the Billdawg millstone around her neck, and Biden didn't want to highlight his own treatment of women and girls.
why or why won't Bombala Harris bring it out as an attack this cycle? (if this should be its own post, tell me)
& trying to do a live Twitter interview right now apparently. Trump's team don't seem to be able to get his mic working right. There's just a lot of bumping noises of a mic being moved around.
Edit:
Elon claims technical difficulties are due to a "massive DDOS attack" by people afraid to let Trump speak.
Elon starts by rambling about the assassination to Trump for several minutes before asking "How was it for you?"
Trump responds "Not great. Not great" with a bit of a laugh.
Trump talking about how close the shot came but that he was lucky the shooter missed from so close by talking golf: "it's like not sinking a two foot putt"
Trump just implied he would have talked to Elon from the afterlife if he'd been killed: "if I hadn't turned my head just then we'd be doing this from a very different place, I'd be in a very different place right now"
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she is convinced that Edmundo González will be sworn in as the new head of state on January 10, 2025, when the new period of government begins, despite the official proclamation of Nicolás Maduro as the winner of the July 28 presidential elections
Huge Article
In an interview with Agencia EFE, the former Liberal MP reiterated that the candidate of the Democratic Unity Platform (PUD) won the elections "overwhelmingly"
"Edmundo González will be the new head of state and the new commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, and that depends on what we all do, all Venezuelans inside and outside the country. I trust the Venezuelan people and that's why I know that on January 10th we will have a new president," Machado said.
Machado said that the "whole world knows" that Maduro, in power since 2013, lost the elections and is trying to carry out "the biggest fraud in history" by insisting on his victory, with the help of the institutions and the military leadership.
"Maduro today has zero legitimacy, no legitimacy at all, and therefore it is a moment in which the international community has to leave a very clear red line linked to respect for popular sovereignty," she continued. She also said she hoped that foreign governments would "firmly and unequivocally make Maduro understand that what he is doing, using repressive forces against innocent citizens, which is unacceptable".
The former deputy also predicts that in the coming days, voices critical of Chavismo will continue to grow, because, according to her, the aim is to apply "all the pressure necessary to make Maduro understand that his best option is to accept the terms of a negotiation", something that the dictator has already publicly rejected, as he insists that he won the elections.
Regarding the role that the military should play in this eventual transition, she believes that their most important task is to make Maduro understand "that they are not going to repress the people" and that "they will fulfill the constitutional mandate to enforce popular sovereignty". "It is precisely Nicolás Maduro who is using military force to prevent the transition, [it is he] who has entrenched himself - surrounded by members of the military high command - to ignore the will expressed by the people," she reiterated about the Armed Forces, whose leadership has expressed its unrestricted support for the Chavista leader.
The opposition leader explained that, although the specific points of a transition "are the subject of such negotiations", it is important to highlight "the willingness" of the opposition "to move forward along this path", both with Maduro and with senior military or civilian officials. "It's the best option Maduro has today, and it may be the only one, because trying to maintain himself by force, based exclusively on the use of violence, is unsustainable in Venezuela today," he said.
While maintaining "permanent contact" with González, who is also in hiding, Machado said that it is up to both of them to "continue to increase the pressure", a task they hope to accomplish with the support of Venezuelans and the international community so that "this civic and peaceful protest stays alive".
Asked about the decision to keep her whereabouts hidden, despite the fact that the Attorney General's Office has stated that there is no arrest warrant against her, she recalled that Maduro himself labeled her a terrorist and asked to have her sent to prison, while "hundreds of other leaders are also in hiding" due to these threats, just when the dictator called for extreme police and military control. "We are all working towards the same goal. We will win, we will not leave the streets, we will continue to take this message to the whole world. Edmundo González Urrutia is the elected president, what matters is that the sovereign will of the people is upheld," he concluded.
"We will not leave the streets", but she is hiding?
"Spaces" between Elon Musk and Donald Trump break down and the billionaire claims to be the target of a "cyber attack" on the X platform (formerly Twitter).
372 years ago, on this day in 1652, the Act for the Settlement of Ireland was passed by the English Parliament, preceding the greatest exercise in ethnic cleansing in early modern Europe.
TikTok suspended President Maduro’s LIVE feature for a week, as his account broadcasted today’s Council of State/ National Defense Council meeting. They suspended it because the AG showed acts of violence in his presentation —violence which the authorities found on TikTok.
Do we have any romanian comrades here? I have a direct friend in Romania I speak to every day who would be susceptible to socialist ideas but has a view that "socialism and communism are public enemy no 1" and "my family had 5 people detained and executed".
I really like this person and while I can talk about most countries I am absolutely not informed enough to talk about Romania. I'd love a starting point or something.
If you remove the English Army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organization of the Socialist Republic your efforts will be in vain. England will still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs
Ireland was pretty cool when I had the chance to visit. Folks seem to have decent foreign policy takes and they hate the English so props to em
Me rambling about Ireland
spoiler
Speed limits were hilarious to me, like you'll be driving down a road out in some rural field that's like 1.5 lanes wide but it goes both ways and it bends around trees and bushes that go right up to the road but the speed limit will be like 80kph
Also Dublin seemed to be run by gangs of children? Like we'd just see 60 or so kids riding the train to the harbor just to sit on the walls or I once turned a corner and saw 2 kids getting talked to by police for doing hijinks but there were 20-30 kids standing around and laughing at them for getting caught. Seemed like a combination of economic malaise and accessible public transport.
West Ireland was neat, Galway was an absolute gem and the Cliffs of Moher alone were definitely worth the trip. Couldn't see myself living in Ireland though, it rains 75 times a day and rent is outrageous
Ireland's military is pathetically weak and underfunded. Ireland does need a proper military, but not because of Russia. So often I see redditors shrieking about how Russia could invade Ireland at any moment if they wanted to - like they think Russia is an existential enemy of Ireland.
Ireland needs a functioning military because there is a foreign imperialist country occupying the north of our country, and is the only actual threat to our national security. The UK is the only country which has invaded Ireland in the past 1000 years, and has done a very good job of oppressing and colonising, and now liberal dipshits think we should join NATO and team up with the British because of fucking Russia.
I got banned from /r/latestagecapitalism for clearing up confusion about the US not having any leftist parties by saying the DSA is a leftist org. Mods at /r/lsc are apparently deeply, deeply serious. I apologized for assuming people progressively move to the left from liberal thought and am now fully aware that everyone only wakes up as revolutionaries. My bad.
Going forward I shall never assume the best out of baby leftist and spit in their faces if they aren't throwing molotovs at police cars.
Russians are really on the verge of turning the Donbass front into a rout at this point. Very little of the Ukrainian 2014 defensive line that hasn't been surpassed, with the final section of it (around "New York" whose actual name escapes me right now) falling apart right now.
With it behind them, the Ukrainians have basically no ability to dig in and stop the Russians anywhere in the Donetsk oblast. Whatever happens in Kursk, embarrassing as it is for the Russian state, will not reverse the much more impactful gains the Russian army is making, and does not change the fact that the only thing standing between the Russian army and the Dniepr is time.
We're very much leaving the regime of "stare at a static line on the map every day for the past year and a half"
These measures are enacted to protect citizens and prevent potential terrorist acts. On Saturday, the Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) initiated a counterterrorism operation (CTO) regime across the Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk regions in response to recent security threats.
The move comes after a Ukrainian attack in the Kursk region, which has resulted in civilian casualties and the destruction of residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure.
The NAC emphasized that the CTO’s legal framework includes the implementation of necessary measures and temporary restrictions under Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Combating Terrorism.”
These measures are aimed at ensuring the safety of the population, maintaining public order, and enhancing the protection of critical infrastructure.
The text reads, “Chebekino, Belgorod region, Russia. A Ukrainian drone deliberately attacks a civilian building and enters an apartment with an open window. The 75-year-old woman who lived there died in the explosion.”
Meanwhile, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko informed that twelve people are in critical condition following a large-scale Ukrainian assault on Russia’s Kursk region that began on Tuesday.
“55 people, including 8 children, are receiving inpatient treatment following shelling by Ukraine in the Kursk region,” he said and mentioned that 20 victims, including 2 children received outpatient care, adding that medical teams continued to work in the region and all victims were receiving the necessary medical assistance.
Russia declared a state of emergency in the Kursk region due to the tense situation there. The Defense Ministry said that a military operation to defeat the Ukrainian forces in Kursk was ongoing. The Ukrainian side lost 945 troops and 102 military vehicles since the start of the incursion.
Lebanese-Syrian Journalist Laith Marouf (who operates Free Palestine TV out of South Lebanon) gives an honest assessment and guidance for the "solidarity movments" in the imperial core. I don't know who the podcast host is but Laith is great.
I’ve had the 2008 film Hunger in my queue for some time now, maybe I’ll watch it this week in honor of COTW. Fassbender plays Bobby Sands, apparently it’s very good.
98% of Americans know absolutely nothing about the IRA or the Irish struggles for liberation writ large. The other 2% think they know about it because they watched Sons of Anarchy.
I want to wholeheartedly recommend ‘Anois ar theacht an tSamhraidh’: Ireland, colonialism and the unfinished revolution by Robbie McVeigh and Bill Rolston. It's a wonderful book about the tensions in Ireland of being a colonised society that was still integrated into the British Empire in a way other British colonies weren't, and how ultimately its decolonialisation process remains uniquely unfinished due to its position in the EU and the broader "white" world. Ireland has this enormous liberatory potential, and you see a lot of Irish sympathies to Palestine and other oppressed peoples, but ultimately the country still exists with the framework of a wealthy white Western state. Without rejecting those terms and forging it's own path, Ireland's decolonial process will remain unfinished and the nation in a moribund state.
A bit late but wanted to share, a 10minute talk by Taimur Rahman
YouTube - Imperialism and Historical Conjuncture Today
This is why understanding the opportunities that multipolarity places before the revolutionary movements of the world is crucial to turning the tide of history in our favor. BRICS represents an economic magnetic pole that for all those countries that want to escape the grip of IMF led austerity.
Article about Brazil's Minister of Finance during the Dictatorship (1964 - 1985) and his legacy and relation with the SocDem goverments due to their shared criticism of Neoliberalism.
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In an interview, journalist Breno Altman commented on the career of Delfim Netto, former Minister of Finance and former federal deputy who died at the age of 96 in the early hours of Monday (12). The economist had been hospitalized since last Monday (5) at Hospital Israeli Albert Einstein due to complications in his health.
Delfim Netto, as he was known, headed the Ministry of Finance between 1967 and 1974, during the period of the military dictatorship in which the country experienced the so-called "economic miracle", during the governments of generals Arthur da Costa e Silva and Emílio Garrastazu Médici. Despite the expansion of the economy in some sectors, inequality escalated to stratospheric levels.
He was also one of the signatories of Institutional Act No. 5, which increased repression in the country. In 2021, in an interview with UOL, the economist said that, if he could, he would sign the decree again. In the same interview, however, he backed away from the idea. "I would sign the AI-5 again. I've always said that. That was a revolutionary process, you have to read the newspapers from that time. People don't know history, they judge the past as if it were the present. It was right at the time, but you don't know the future," he said.
On the Bolsonaro administration Netto said, “the combination of the current government with the pandemic and global warming is a perfect storm. The problems are political. We have a dysfunctional system." He also supported the elections of Lula da Silva in 2002, 2006 and 2022. He was critical of the goverments of the neoliberal of FHC and far-right politican Jair Bolsonaro.
According to Altman, Delfim was "the most famous economist of the Brazilian industrial bourgeoisie in the post-World War II period, along with Roberto Campos". "Delfim Netto was from a different economic school. If we want to play with words, he was a 'right-wing Keynesian'. He added to Keynes' theories an essential factor for the bourgeoisie of the peripheral countries: the super-exploitation of labor. The great attraction that peripheral countries had to attract capital was low wages and few rights," he said.
The journalist explained that although Delfim Netto was a right-wing reactionary, he ended up getting closer to progressive sectors. "Delfim was, in his own way, reactionary and right-wing, a developmentalist. Not all developmentalists are left-wing. In that historical period, he expressed the vocation of a certain sector of the Brazilian bourgeoisie to industrialize the country. [...] This Brazilian bourgeoisie willing to industrialize and develop the country disappeared after decades of rentierism. It disappeared to such an extent that Delfim Netto, in relative terms, became a progressive character. He began to express a vocation to develop the country that brought him closer, not ideologically, but in practical terms, to Lula and the Workers' Party (PT)."
Breno Altman points out that Delfim Netto ended his life in a place where he was viewed with a certain amount of sympathy by left-wing sectors. "He was a character who moved through the country's different political eras, leaving a deeply reactionary level and ending his life in a place where he was seen with a certain sympathy by the forces of the left, because he still held up the banner of industrialization. He comes to see the PT governments as the last possibility for the country's reindustrialization," he says.
I spent a week in Ireland with my wife while she was early in her pregnancy and it was wonderful. Dublin is an extremely cool city and the rest of the country that I saw was beautiful. I'd like to go back to hang out but also meet local communists; there were obvious signs of them everywhere.
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Feel free to post or recommend any books, essays, studies, articles, and even stories related to Ireland.
If you know a lot about the country and want to share your knowledge and opinions, here are some questions to get you started if you wish:
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What is the general ideology of the political elite? Do they tend to be protectionist nationalists, or are they more free trade globalists? Are they compradors put there by foreign powers? Are they socialists with wide support by the population?
What are the most important domestic political issues that make the country different from other places in the region or world? Are there any peculiar problems that have continued existing despite years or decades with different parties?
Is the country generally stable? Are there large daily protests or are things calm on average? Is the ruling party/coalition generally harmonious or are there frequent arguments or even threats?
Is there a particular country to which this country has a very impactful relationship over the years, for good or bad reasons? Which one, and why?
What are the political factions in the country? What are the major parties, and what segments of the country do they attract?
Are there any smaller parties that nonetheless have had significant influence? Are there notable separatist movements?
How socially progressive or conservative is the country generally? To what degree is there equality between men and women, as well as different races and ethnic groups? Are LGBTQIA+ rights protected?
Give a basic overview of the last 50 or 100 years. What's the historical trend of politics, the economy, social issues, etc - rise or decline? Were they always independent or were they once occupied, and how have things been since independence if applicable?
If you want, go even further back in history. Were there any kingdoms or empires that once governed the area?
iran clearly doesnt really give a shit about the suffering of the palestinian ppl so much as it gives a shit abt securing its own safety and stability and like whatever, i didnt expect any different, but it's really grating to see them come out with a new statement every day or two being like "we are totally gonna fucking kill the zionist entity guys just wait and see, plans are in motion, our brave palestinian people will not be left waiting" throughout all of this. shit or get off the pot, losers. i used to have some positive feeling for them but they just let israel get away with the most heinous violation of their sovereignty and didn't do a thing. Hezbollah and Yemen make them look pathetic by comparison.