Bulletins and News Discussion from September 23rd to September 29th, 2024 - The War In The North
Image is of a Hezbollah missile attack on a military camp west of Jenin.
The situation between Hezbollah and Israel is rapidly escalating, with massive bombing campaigns on southern Lebanon by Israel predominantly on civilians (as the tunnels in South Lebanon are mostly unreachable to the Zionists, just like in Gaza), while Hezbollah and its allies respond with missile attacks predominantly on Israeli military facilities. Israel is spreading an evacuation order to the residents of southern Lebanese villages while also bombing their routes of escape and civilian infrastructure, similar to a terror tactic used widely in Gaza.
Northern Israel is currently under military censorship to hide their losses, so we get very little information other than what the Resistance provides and what videos and images get through the censors.
I don't know if Israel will dare a ground incursion soon, but it seems fairly likely in the coming days or weeks.
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. Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
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.
I'm here to publish the list of proposals, made both by the mod team in internal discussions and from proposals made by users last week, to be voted on by the news heads.
The process will be quite simple. Below this comment will be a series of comments from me.
They will follow the format of...
<Proposal Comment>
YES VOTE
NO VOTE
If you agree with the proposal, upvote the comment with YES VOTE. If you disagree with the proposal, upvote the comment with NO VOTE.
The voting margin to pass a proposal as approved shall be with a minimum floor of 36 upvotes, based on the rounded rough average of megathread upvotes of popular comments divided in half. Should a proposal be passed but prove to be controversial by also receiving a no vote of at least 26 votes, the proposal shall be tabled and reworked for presentation at a future megathread should the need arise.
Additionally, the floor will still be open to new proposals with a caveat that the minimum floor for acceptance for deliberation by the council of news mods shall be 31 upvotes. This is just in case someone is struck by the lightning of inspiration and wants to bring up an idea to shape the comm in a better direction.
The polls are now open.
Semper post, news hogs.
Edit: P.S, I know some of the proposals are kinda scuffed looking, if they pass I'll format them so they look like the others on the rule sidebar. chalk it up to my laziness lol
Edit 2: P.P.S Pig poop balls.
The voting period shall last until the megathread is locked.
It has officially started, no words can describe the feeling in my heart right now. I have lots to say to Iran and the Axis, but this is not the time nor place. May God keep everyone home in Lebanon safe and strengthen their resolve. It has felt inevitable for months now, but I hate that we're so close to winter with how cold it gets in Lebanon. My aunties in Beirut started gathering supplies a few days ago, they have plenty of canned goods and stuff like rice stored now. My stubborn communist uncle was a "nothing ever happens guy" though so we're grilling him in the family group chat now. My cousin is home in Beirut now, we were worried for him because he works in Tyre which will most likely be pulverised by the Zionists. May God give us the chance to witness the total destruction of this cancerous entity.
Waiting for a response for any message in the family group chat right now is fucking torture, I literally can't deal with it anymore. I've sent my wife and the kid to her mom's for a few days, they can't see me and my dad like this. The two hours it took for my uncle to see the message and respond today were absolute hell, fuck this life. My aunt has little kids no older than 14, what if something happens. I've called my cousin from my mom's side who has a little farm outside of Damascus in Syria, he can take in my dad's family from Beirut, but how the fuck will they even leave with this situation, and my cousin is already dirt poor, how will he feed them. Too many thoughts spinning, nowhere to scream them out, nowhere to go and nothing to do, I almost wish I was there.
Today my heart broke because that guy I posted about, whom I'm helping and trying to find more donors, I asked him what will they do if this https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/22/middleeast/netanyahu-gaza-hamas-expulsions-plan-intl/index.html happens. He told me they're tired, exhausted and staying on north, that he wishes to die because he's tired of seeing death... I broke. I literally broke and cried until I knocked myself with xanax because it was unbearable. I was practically saying goodbye to him and his family today. Three months, we knew each other three months, we shared our thoughts, I would comfort him, he would comfort me... A part of me died today. Saying goodbye to him was one of the most hurtful thing to experience for me. He is my friend and my friend told me he's waiting to die and if Netanyahu does this, they're staying to die. He told me not to be sad, which made me sob even harder.
Damn fucking Israel and damn fucking USA. I wish Netanyahu, his government, his army and his settlers that Israel collapses, that they lose everything and one by one gets mysteriously shot in the head. Fuck you, Biden! Netanyahu, choke! I hate you all so much, I wish you all die in a stampedo of people who will beat you to death. One of those foots in the head is mine. Drop dead, scum, I wish you nothing but death and death of your families, that your seed disappears, like my Palestinians lost everything, like they'll never have children and future. FUCK YOU!!!
I have a friend from Lebanon, I haven't heard from him in months. I don't know what's with his family in Lebanon, is he ok...
Fucking Israel is taking everything from us. We're maybe tertiary victim of this, but we are also victims. One year we're watching this genocide, nothing was solved, it's even worse now and now they mutilated Lebanese men and bombing their land. We're empty, depressed, defeated and helpless together with the primary victims. Nothing we did didn't made Biden to fucking get Israel at its place. It's only worse.
Israel will be dead, Palestine will be free. Fuck you, Zionists, fuck off and die and choke in your blood. Monsters. Nothing but monsters and scum.
I can't believe it, I just can't swallow this news. Nasrallah is the resistance, he's Hezbollah, he's the man that defeated Israel twice, he's the greatest man that the region produced in the last 50 years, he's the one that you could listen to for hours without being bored. What a loss, what a tragedy.
It's a black day, it's very hard to process. I'm frightened of what comes next.
With Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah's martyrdom marking a very significant moment in the history of the resistance, I think that it puts a natural stop to my effortpost about the history about the pan-Shia moment. I'm also just too demoralised and sad to continue writing, maybe I'll one day do another one of these in happier times. Thank you all for reading these, I can answer any questions if God gives me strength. I have one favor to ask, can someone please post this in the history or effortpost comms?
We're about to witness a lynching perpetrated by the Judicial Branch of the United States. There isn't a follow up to that sentence I could write that wouldn't get me thrown in a van.
Part one effortpost here, I chose number two. Sorry for any grammatical fuckups in advance, it was too long to proof read.
The Rise of the Collective Shia Identity: Part One
The year is 1978. Ayatollah Khomeini, the main voice of Shia Islamism has just been expelled from Najaf by Saddam Hussein. Najaf, the capital of Shia Islam and where the biggest Hawzas (Shia Islamic schools) are located, is a hotspot of political repression, executions, and arrests. The main Marja (basically Shia pope), Sayyid Abu Al Qasim Al Khoei is reduced to a strictly religious role, giving rulings about useless things like marriages and inheritance. His predecessor, Sayyid Muhsin Al Hakim, pushed the political buttons too hard with a ruling that deemed communists and Baathists as disbelievers, which made the Iraqi state go crazy and start a huge campaign of repression of anything political from the Shia elite. Khomeini’s development of the concept of Wilayat Al Faqih was very worrying for Baathist Iraq, so he was expelled from Najaf.
Shias in Iraq never got a place post-Sykes-Picot, with the Kingdom of Iraq being dominated by the Sunni Baghdadi elite. The period between 1958-1968 after the revolution was too chaotic and disjointed to produce an elite, with daily conflicts and coup attempts by adventurers with different ideologies. The Baathist period produced a new elite strictly dominated by Sunnis from Salahaddin Province, so the Shias just never got a seat at the table. Two ideologies penetrated the Shia mind, Islamism and Communism. Islamists were concentrated in Karbala and Najaf, two holy cities for Shia Islam. Communists where concentrated in Nasiriyah, Amarah and Basra, cities where poverty was rampant. Islamists were finally organised in the form of the Dawa Party, led by Musa Al Sadr’s cousin Muhammed Baqir Al Sadr. Musa Al Sadr would later rise as the spiritual leader of the Lebanese Shia community. Muhammed Baqir Al Sadr’s works and political activities really annoyed the Iraqi state, so he and his sister were executed by the state in 1980. Most of their followers were executed or exiled. Many of the influential families in Najaf and Karbala had some Persian ancestry, nearly all those families suffered from mass deportations as Saddam’s anti-Persian paranoia grew. The communists suffered from the same fate, with most communists either executed or exiled by the state due to their political activities.
Now we’re done with Iraq, let’s go to Iran. Shia Islamism is dead here too, the Shah’s security services arrests anyone with any political activity. Khomeini was successfully chased out 20 years ago, and there’s no organised political force that can even talk loudly without getting executed. The Shah is at least Shia Muslim on paper, he prays in public once every 10 years, visits the shrines in Qom and Mashhad occasionally, but to everyone with a functioning brain, this man is a disbeliever. There’s something brewing, but let’s wait with that story.
Let’s go to Lebanon. Shias in Lebanon are around half of the Muslim population. It’s hard to get exact numbers, but Shias are around 25% of the total population of the country. The Shia community here also never got a real seat at the table. The president holds most of the power and is always a Maronite. The prime minister gets fired every few weeks, but he’s always a Sunni and does nothing while the Maronite elite is pretending to be French and robbing the country. The speaker of the parliament is Shia, but toilet paper is more useful than that position. Feudalism didn’t really end in the Shia parts of Lebanon, most Shias were farmers who were getting fucked so hard on a daily basis that they didn’t have time to even think about politics. Remember we’re in 1978, where are the Shias in the middle of civil war? The answer is nowhere. The main sides are Maronites vs Sunni Muslims, communists and Palestinians. Shias were not a major factor here. The only notable Shia organization is the Amal Movement, led by Musa Al Sadr. Musa was a charismatic leader who would set the foundations of the modern Shia Lebanese identity, he was respected by all sectors of the cursed Lebanese society and his connections to Iran and Iraq were slowly starting to be important in a regional context. But nothing good lasts, as he was inexplicably disappeared and presumably killed by Gaddafi during a routine visit to Libya in August 1978.
Let’s go to Yemen and the Gulf. In Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Shias were an afterthought, they are 0% of the ruling families and have zero political representation. They’re allowed to do some rituals at home when no one sees, but if you open your mouth in public and say anything Shia Islamist, you’re getting disappeared and your whole family will probably be deported to Iran or something. Shias in Bahrain are the absolute majority and they’re significant minorities in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In Yemen, the Shias are not the same kind of Shia as in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon. The main group of Shia Muslims are either called Jaafari after the theological works of the sixth Shia Imam Jaafar Al Sadiq, or Ithna Ashari (Twelvers) due to their belief in twelve Imams after the Prophet Muhammed, starting with Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib and ending with Imam Muhammed Al Mahdi, also known as the Hidden Imam who according to Shia beliefs will reappear one day and basically set in motion the end of the physical world. The Shia of Yemen are known as Zaydis, after Zayd ibn Jaafar Al Sadiq, who the Zaidis recognized as 7th Imam, while the Twelvers recognized Musa ibn Jaafar Al Sadiq. The Zaidi Imamate in Northern Yemen continued for nearly a thousand years, but it could not withstand the post-WW2 chaos in the region and ended in nearly comic fashion after a coup led by local rivals and involvement from an exiled Iraqi officer. The Zaydi community here in 1978 is in disarray, with many converting to Sunni Islam out of convenience in a new world. There’s no organized Zaydi force or political party, they just farm in the highlands of Northern Yemen and chill out there. It is a fading group, but wait, something just happened in Yemen. Ali Abdullah Saleh, a Zaydi military officer from Sanaa, and one of the great adventurers of the 1900s in the Middle East, just did a military coup and took power in the failing state of North Yemen in July 1978.
How did this defeated religious group go from edges of the region to the dominant group in five countries and a political force that annoys America and Israel? We’ll find out in the next episode as we cover the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the formative value of the Iraq-Iran War, the failed Shaaban Revolution in Iraq, the rise of Hezbollah in the south of Lebanon, and the rise of the Houthi (Ansarallah) movement in Yemen.
Just before the UN meeting, Brazilian President Lula da Silva said: “The world is out of control. Nobody respects anybody.”
“The world is out of control. Nobody respects anybody. When the UN was created, it had 51 countries that were UN partners. Now there are 193. That means that more than 140 didn't take part when it was created. And the UN, which when it was created had the strength to create the State of Israel, doesn't have the courage to create the Palestinian State,” said the president at the event.
“The UN can't do it, it doesn't have the strength to decide. It wouldn't have been necessary to have had Russia's war with Ukraine, it wouldn't have been necessary to have had the genocide in the Gaza Strip, it wouldn't have been necessary to have had the invasion of Libya, the war in Iraq. All this could have been avoided if the UN had fulfilled its task of being a kind of world governance,” said Lula.
Hey, please read the first two parts of my effortpost on the evolution of the modern pan-shia ideology if you haven't done that already. Part three coming probably tomorrow, but I'm on 5k words in total already and I haven't even mentioned Syria and Bahrain in the last part, so this became a bit larger than expected lmao.
Biden says ‘time to finalise’ Gaza deal and ‘end this war’
US President Joe Biden has urged Israel and Hamas to finalise a months-old ceasefire proposal, telling the United Nations he was committed to ending the war on Gaza.
“Now is the time for the parties to finalise its terms,” he said of the deal brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
The deal will “bring the hostages home and secure security for Israel and Gaza free from Hamas’s grip, ease the suffering in Gaza and end this war,” Biden told the UN General Assembly.
I don’t recall Biden ever being more clear that what he wants isn’t a cease fire, it’s for Hamas to surrender. When he says “Gaza free from Hamas’ grip”, he’s saying he wants a Palestinian Authority situation - which is precisely what Israel wants. Literally everything he said there is just what Israel wants: return the hostages, keep Israel “secure”, and for Hamas to self-immolate and hand over Gaza to either to Zionist lapdogs or an international coalition of American lapdogs. The idea that this man is putting any pressure on Netanyahu is obviously ridiculous.
Looks like Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah will be buried in Karbala, Iraq, next to Imam Hussein. There's no more fitting spot on earth for him, I have made a promise to visit his grave as soon as possible. My wife has been feeling kinda homesick since birthing our son and she wants to go to Iraq for a few weeks, so there's a very good reason for me to follow along now.
Whatever bullshit you hear in the next few days from the US about trying to negotiate a ceasefire, remember that they just gifted the IDF another 8 billion dollars to subsidise their wars and genocide
Israel has never been more isolated, it’s unprecedented
Israel is going the way of apartheid South Africa & Rhodesia, two countries by the way that Israel was the last to support, even trying to get a nuclear weapon for South Africa.
Israel is going the way of all the British Colonies. Israel is going the way of Nazi Germany and of the slave owners across the Americas and the Caribbean.
There will come a day when Israeli apartheid falls. And historians will have plenty of documentation of who stood where when Israel carried out a holocaust in Gaza while terrorizing anyone who dared to intervene to stop a genocide.
I know I stand on the right side of history along with most of you.
To sum up, Israel is conducting genocide in Gaza, ethnically cleansing the West Bank, and massacring civilians in Lebanon, all at the same time. The violence and chaos that the Zionist regime perpetrates is staggering in scale. It must be stopped and dismantled.
The U.S. Embassy is not evacuating U.S. citizens at this time. There is a commercially available flight that U.S. citizens who expressed interest in departing Lebanon will have to book and pay directly with the airline.
On Monday, a city ban on any encampments on public land goes into effect, soon to be followed on Oct. 13 by another policy prohibiting camping on private land — essentially making it illegal to camp in the city. Violations can bring a $1,000 fine or a year in jail.
. . .
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said he plans to add more teeth to the ban by ordering the police department to arrest the most troublesome, continuously service-resistant homeless people in Fresno. It could mean scores of people tossed in jail.
"Service-resistant." Death to Fresno. Death to America.
Thank fucking god that Syria isn't a nation led by a comprador shithead and is allowing Lebanese refugees in via border crossings. Incredibly difficult situation for Assad given the state that Syria was already in, massive respect for not hesitating. Hoping that Iran and friends can get enough food in to the refugees to prevent the famine we're seeing in Gaza, as the numbers of displaced might reach the hundreds of thousands by the end of this war. Now would be a good time for Russia to help things out with its big agricultural sector, for example.
Watching Hasan just now, he had a clip on that I think is perfect example of how Israeli / US propaganda seeps into the national consciousness (don't know how to link Youtube without trackers, but you can see the clip for yourself by searching for the account "CBS Mornings" and the title is "Breaking down the Middle East conflict: Israel's strikes on Hezbollah, U.S. troop movements".
First off, CBS Mornings is the kind of generic news program that my boomer parents watch. Like most of the non-cable news networks, the public sees it as "impartial", if maybe a little boring.
OK, so in this clip, you have 3 news anchors. In other countries there may be news anchors who know what they are talking about... but that's definitely not the case in the US. They're just... dumbasses with communications degrees who got where they are at because they are conventionally attractive, articulate, and can speak with authority. They don't actually know about or understand these issues. They ask dumbass questions that dumbass Americans themselves might ask someone, all done without any pushback or probing follow-through of interviewees. Because they themselves have no actual understanding the world around them.
The person they are asking their questions to - Samantha Vinograd - is NOT a dumbass. She is, however, a CIA/State Dept asset and not even shy about it. She knows the company line very well. So you have three dumbasses asking a real pro what to think about Israel. And she knows exactly how to play that fiddle and how to frame it. She doesn't even need to prepare for challenging questions because they will never come.
So your typical American watches this, and all they need to know is placed right in front of them, without having to do any sort of critical thought. It's people who are seemingly asking "good" questions even though they're not and have no idea what's going on, getting those questions answered by just the right person that the CIA/State Dept wants there.
I don't have anything interesting to post right now so here's a picture of a PLA soldier on the disputed border with India. Nobody in the disputed territory is allowed guns so the PLA have polearms instead.
I’m convinced 95 percent of the users on the Lebanon subreddit don’t actually live in Lebanon. (In fact many of them admit this already)
There’s no fucking way all the posts that are like “fuck Hezbollah for doing this” while Israel carpet bombs the country are legit . For lack of a better word that shit is so cucked there’s no way this isn’t all from people whose family moved out like 40-100 years ago
look at this pathetic soon to be beheaded piece of shit, it's ridiculous
a life long nerd of capitalism who got to start the day in wall street, his pathetic little dream. Meanwhile, the argentinian province of Córdoba (where he won by a landslide, mind you) is being obliterated by fires (not strictly due to climate change or months long droughts, but by agro business like in the Amazon)
while he's celebrating the expansion of capitalism (which will end in it's ultimate demise), people are fleeing from their homes because his government butchered all regulations against forest fires. There are almost no state resources being mobilized to fight the fires, lots of them are being fought by regular people and volunteers.
also all argentinians bonds and shares in the exchange fell by 3% when milei spoke lmao. what a fucking baboon, with all respect to that noble animal
The relations between the United States and Brazil worsens.
The Clinton Foundation had invited Brazilian President Lula da Silva to speak at the event. This had been agreed with the event's security team and the president's security guards.
However, during the speech, President Lula da Silva and his team were barred. The reason was that President Joe Biden had arrived for a “surprise” visit to the event. Apparently, the American security guards tried to stop the Brazilian security guards. Lula da Silva refused to go there under the protection of the American security guards, believing that he would be safer with the Brazilian security guards.
The organizers of the event apparently got angry, and Lula da Silva and his team withdrew from the event. The atmosphere at the event completes the list of annoyances caused by the US to Brazil in the diplomatic marathon. Although the US government had implied that Itamaraty would mediate in conflicts with Venezuela following Nicolás Maduro's election, the State Department called a meeting to discuss the situation in the neighboring country with Argentina, which had its ambassador expelled by Maduro.
The government was also unhappy that the White House had sent a second-ranking US government official to the pro-democracy meeting called by Brazil at the UN, which will be attended, among others, by Emmanuel Macron, President of France, Pedro Sanchez, Prime Minister of Spain, Gabriel Boric, President of Chile, and Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia. All political allies of Lula da Silva.
The US does this shit, and then are surprised when these countries ally with China and Russia. Also, Democrats treating Global South leaders worse than fucking George Bush.
There's actually a critical lesson to draw from this and other Ukrainian fiascos, of which the Bakhmut saga and the Zaporozhie Hundred Days come to mind: Ukraine will have ended up losing this war in large part because it consistently tried to fight beyond its means.
The Ukrainians started this war with an enormous army, well in excess of what the Russians could and actually did commit to the fight in 2022. That huge force (the "First Army") was badly mauled in early 2022, but it was rejuvenated later that year by a combination of ruthless mobilization and massive aid from NATO. This convinced the Russian Stavka to transition to the defensive and consolidate their position in Ukraine, withdrawing troops from more exposed positions in east Kharkov and right-bank Kherson. Any serious assessment of the situation at that point would have been that the Russians had consolidated into a basically impregnable position that the AFU was incapable of breaching (lest we forget in the wake of Russia's totally unhindered withdrawal from the area, their attempts at reducing the Kherson bridgehead by force in mid-2022 were bloody disasters), and the correct course of action was to start digging in and negotiate a peace treaty in the meantime.
The Ukrainian leadership instead threw a disturbingly large portion of the "Second Army" into Prigozhin's meatgrinder in Bakhmut and then ordered not one but two large-scale counteroffensives into Zaporozhie and the Bakhmut flanks using the post-Bakhmut remains of the "Second Army" and their NATO-supplied "Third Army." Those failed with enormous losses, opening the way for Russia to transition back to the offensive in late 2023 and begin systematically rolling Ukraine out of the Donbass. The correct course of action at this point was, again, to find a tenable defensive line and start digging. Zelensky instead ordered a "Hail Mary" offensive in Kursk with the remnants of the "Third Army" and significant elements from a lightly-equipped "Fourth Army," hoping Russian border defenses were weak despite their having ample warning of Ukrainian designs on the border region (courtesy of several earlier, smaller raids) and plenty of time to prepare. It proceeded to fail with enormous losses - Ukrainian forces breached the border, began to exploit, and ran square into a Russian haymaker counter-punch that stopped them in their tracks. The Ukrainians then reinforced failure, sending massive reinforcements into a death pit in an attempt to keep a sliver of Russian soil under their flag as a middle finger to Putin.
And while this was happening the front in the Donbass started to collapse with Russian troops making large advances and seizing key terrain, in no small part because the AFU's resources had been systematically redirected to a tertiary operation far to the north. We've seen, again and again and again, that when the Ukrainians got resources and generated forces, rather than admitting they are the weaker power here and working to strengthen their positions and conciliate, they instead squandered them on hugely ambitious and equally doomed offensives. In 2023 these offensives were aimed at restoring their pre-2014 borders when Donetsk may as well have been on the Moon for them, while in 2024 their ambitions transitioned to the outright insanity of conquering southwest Russia despite the fact they'd been on the military back foot for the last year. These are the moves of a power setting objectives beyond its means to achieve, and they will probably end up dooming Ukraine as a sovereign state going forward.
What a fucking joke, Posy Parker is coming back to australia in under a month for a "conservative conference", and they're getting ready to round up Brown kids. I saw somewhere that a 13 year old got pepper sprayed in the face for carrying a Hezbollah flag yesterday as well.
Been feeling somewhat similarly lately. Like you know the world is gonna keep on spinning regardless, but if such open evil isn't extinguished, what hope is there for humanity?
Israeli soldier Moshe Avichzer was reportedly detained in July while vacationing in Marrakesh.
He is accused of committing war crimes in Gaza after completing a three-month tour of duty there.
Avichzer had shared photos from his vacation in Morocco shortly after posting images of himself amid destroyed Palestinian homes and rubble in Gaza.
Following protests by hundreds of Moroccans demanding his prosecution as a war criminal, a Moroccan court is now reportedly preparing to hear his case.
I normally feel very ashamed to be an American, but today it feels exceptionally so. If you don’t live in a country that is actively supporting this genocide, then consider yourself fortunate. It feels like shit being from this shithole. Death to America.
"I support a two-state solution!" is an extremely common liberal deflection technique when they are pressed to have an opinion on zionist atrocities.
In South Africa, the apartheid regime tried having a two-state solution as well by creating Bantustans, pro forma independent countries for black people carved out of South Africa proper, de facto under the total control of the white supremacist rulers of South Africa who controlled their borders and installed corrupt comprador rulers to keep the people in control.
Even if we ignore the fact that nobody in Palestine wants a partition, the indigenous population wants their country to be free, the zionists wants everything for themselves, a two-state solution in Palestine would be nothing but a rebranded Bantustan solution. They would be allowed to have a flag and a football team and a president but the west and the zionists would be in total control. It is highly unlikely that a pro forma independent Palestinian rump state would be allowed to control their own borders, airspace and territorial waters or to have armed forces capable of effectively defending them against the zionists. Being torn in half by the zionist entity, a rump Palestine would have a very hard time developing economically and the nation would be saturated by western NGO's, pumping money into ensuring that elites friendly to western imperialism govern.
In South Africa, the creation of Bantustans gave the regime an excuse to strip black Africans of their citizenship, as they were now considered "citizens" of one of the Bantustans, thereby making their existence even more precarious. One could easily imagine a similar process happening if western imperialists decided to actually make a two-state solution happen.
In the case of South Africa virtually nobody outside the Boer minority saw the Bantustans than anything other than what they were, a legalese fig leaf to justify apartheid. They remained universally unrecognised Internationally and they fell with the apartheid regime. Unlike back then liberals today are ready to play along with the creation of a Bantustan but the fact remains that no liberal reform or milquetoast half-measure will be able to protect Palestinians against the abuses of settler colonialism. They are in danger as long as Zionism holds any power in Palestine. Jews living in Palestine can not be free from hate and fascism before they live as equals with their neighbours. Palestine can only be free when it is free from the river to the sea.
It isn't wise to fall into the stupidity that is the Great Man Theory, even more so since we're leftists and we uphold other ideals. We seek to build movements from the ground up, leaders are important for articulation but our collective fates are NOT tied to them. The same goes for Nasrallah, he was indeed a great leader and very important for Hezbollah in it's resistance against the genocidal entity. His death is a heavy blow but the movement will continue because it has a great and noble goal -- the liberation of their land from the zionist occupier. He himself spoke about this, he himself was aware that he will die sooner or later, and he made it clear that the fight must go on despite this. Now, the man is a martyr, he's in a position where he can't be killed nor touched.
Let us not forget also that movements like Hezbollah have a different approach to death itself. A dead palestinian or a dead lebanese is a martyr, not something to hide or be ashamed of. People who die are mourned, cried but also celebrated, remembered, elevated to greatness even. That's a key difference between the arab resistance movements and the genocidal entity that is "Israel", one is not afraid to die, the other hides behind military hardware and will take the first plane out of Tel Aviv as Ansar Allah fires a missile or two. One proudly announces their dead as martyrs, vows to keep fighting for them, meanwhile "Israel" hides behind censorship and will never release their death toll in Gaza and the northern front, they're ashamed of their dead.
Leave the Great Man Theory for losers like the fascists, liberals and monarchists, those who will tie their fates to individuals. Mourn the death of a great leader, but go on. The path ahead is full of problems and obstacles, but one shall never lose track of the ultimate goal: the elimination of the genocidal entity that will mark an important victory in our greater anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and therefore anti-capitalist struggle.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Electoralism - one party is going to lose this November, and regardless of who loses it will be hilarious AF to laugh at the losers
you know, with the pager bombs and stuff, is this why everyone in congress was making such a big fuss about chinese manufactured electronics? that they were afraid china was gonna do what we're doing?
Are we at a point where we can start to blame Iran for their slow ass reaction times? I understand the strategic planning and patience and all that. But it just gets frustrating seeing the cities of Iran's "allies" get flattened every few years while the Iranians are chilling in the driving seat of the resistance while not even fucking touching the steering wheel. Hezbollah, Hamas, Ansarallah and Syria keep taking the devastating hits while Iran is egging everyone on. This doesn't feel like an equal relationship anymore like in the days of the Syrian Civil War when Iranians were on the frontlines of Aleppo and Mosul. Israel doesn't stop because Iran isn't protecting their allies anymore, they're using them as a sponge to suck up the hits while Iran is protected and trading with the likes of the UAE. I'm just rambling here, but it gets frustrating seeing Beirut getting pulverised and we can't even get a little drone strike from Iran despite failing to protect Haniyeh in fucking Tehran. Resistance leaders were safer in fucking Qatar than the supposed HQ of the resistance
1000 deaths upon any US soldier setting foot in Israel to take part in the massacre. A bullet from a ghoul to your dome is too merciful for you, but I'll settle for it.
It's hard not to feel stabbed in the back by Iran. All that Resistance Axis talk, but we're slowly realising that we're just their Ukraine, they want the fight to be to the last Lebanese, Gazan and Syrian, but not to the first Iranian. This is just brutal, we lost our finest men in Haniyeh, Nasrallah and countless others, while they're doing fucking deals under the table. This is not an equal relationship anymore, we're just the bumper for their safety. May God have mercy on Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, they would weep if they saw the state of the Axis today. I don't want to be full on doomer, but the concept of the Axis itself is eroding under this Iranian inaction and lack of will.
Remember when Kamala talked abt how america was finally not at war anymore at the debates (which in itself was bullshit too but all of its direct combat involvement left was low profile for people to care about)
Just had my a talk with somebody who seemed distraught about what was going in Lebanon asking me about what was hezbollah doing and if all thoses loses that the zionits are claiming are true. She is a really smart woman but it made me realise that most people aren't like the people here on this site who are well versed in how the empire function and the situation on the ground. It Shows the effectiveness of the total information blackout of the entity as well.
I just showed her video of hezbollah tunnels and talked quickly about the logistical network of the resistance.
A brief recap of events today on the Lebanon front.
The fascist Tel Aviv regime carried out another major act of aggression. Hundreds of Zionist genocidal airstrikes on Lebanon killed 492 civilians (and wounded 1,645 others). One Zionist attack tried, but failed, at assassinating Hezbollah resistance commander Ali Karaki. Other Zionist attacks assassinated three Shia clergymen in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah resistance forces struck back, firing 180 rockets at the Zionists’ Ramat David Airbase (southeast of Haifa) and the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems military industrial plant (in the Zevulun area north of Haifa). Other rockets struck the Zionist cities of Haifa, Tiberias, and Safad; the Yoav barracks; the Ein Zeitim military base; and several illegal settlements in the Zionist-occupied West Bank (Bruchin, Karnei Shomron, and Maale Shomron). A resistance ATGM also destroyed a “Merkava” tank near El Marj.
A recap of events from the Palestine/Lebanon front that occurred during the past 24 hours.
Lebanese Hezbollah resistance forces conducted Fadi-3 rocket strikes on the Zionists’ Ramat David airbase and a missile strike on a target near Zionist-occupied Jerusalem (al-Quds).
Islamic Resistance in Iraq forces conducted drone and missile strikes on the southern Zionist port city of Eilat; the northern Kiryat Shmona settlement; two military sites in the Zionist-occupied Golan Heights; and the illegal US occupation base in the Conoco gas field in Syria's northeastern Deir ez-Zor province. The Iraqi resistance movements also stated their readiness for open war with the Zionists and US imperialists in response to yesterday’s assassination of Lebanese resistance leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The Yemeni Armed Forces conducted a Palestine-2 ballistic missile strike on Tel Aviv’s “Ben Gurion Airport” during Zionist dictator Benjamin Netanyahu’s plane landing.
The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned yesterday’s Zionist assassination of Hassan Nasrallah and stated that Israel is responsible for the subsequent escalation. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated, “The world must not forget that the order was given from the United States. The Americans will never be able to absolve themselves of responsibility.” Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stated that the assassination was, “a crime that shows the Zionist entity has crossed all red lines.”
VIDEOS are coming out of NC, TN, GA, ect. Appalachia and Smokey mountain regions got wrecked hard. Like permanently changed landscape hard. Mostly the absofuck ton of rain flooding these valley towns like Asheville and Chimney Rock. Roadways bridges HULK SMASH. Jamed with logs ripped off from landslides and busted riverbanks.
Layers of mud and sediment blanket entire towns.
This is not going to be a quick or easy cleanup. The toll on lives is increasing as well. 64 was the latest number from what I've seen.
Since 2017, at least 87 people across the country have been killed after police officers rammed vehicles they were pursuing, often at extremely high speeds, a Chronicle investigation found.
Nearly half of those who died — 37 people, including seven children — were not the fleeing drivers. Instead, they were passengers or bystanders. In Tifton, Ga., a grandmother was killed when a fleeing car deliberately struck by police careened into her front yard.
Astounding cruelty
The wreck that killed Lakita Davis started with 5-hour Energy drinks and paper towels.
A clerk at a Dollar Store in Jonesboro, Ark., told police she saw Davis leave without paying one evening in October 2020. Davis, 35, drove away with her daughter, her daughter’s boyfriend and her stepson in a silver Honda Civic.
...
Moments later, Middlecoff sped toward Davis at more than 120 mph and deliberately rammed her car. The Civic veered off the road and flipped, landing on its hood.
“Crawl out, or you’re gonna get dog bit!” ordered Chris Shull, an officer with the Jonesboro Police Department, a K9 by his side, according to dash-camera and body-camera footage and documents from Jonesboro and Arkansas State Police.
“Driver, can you crawl out?” another officer asked. Davis didn’t answer.
Standing nearby, Shull said, “I gotta say, that was my first pursuit that was legit and justified, like, fit policy. That was awesome.”
Minutes later, Shull announced Davis was dead — and blamed her family.
“Congratulations, y’all just committed homicide, y’all just committed murder,” he told the passengers: Davis’ 18-year-old daughter, Octavia Jackson, who lay on a stretcher with bone fractures; her stepson, Octavius Moore, 15; and her daughter’s boyfriend, Taccorion Golden, 20, who broke his leg.
Fun theoretical exercise I'm currently working on for the @fortisanalysis side of things:
US refineries (total) only store about 40 million gallons of military-grade jet fuel at any given time, or about 36,400 flight hours for an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet launched from an aircraft carrier. For 40 x -18's per carrier, this is about 910 flight hours. A carrier holds roughly 3 million gallons of fuel for its wing, about 68 flight hours per bird. Now consider that a notional mixed complement of 20 x F-35's and 20 X F-15EX's operating out of Kadena AFB would consume about 62,400 gallons per hour combined. Thus, just a single carrier wing and a single AFB wing's complement of fighters (80 combined) theoretically all operating at once would drink 106,400 gal/hr.
So...
The net stores of military jet fuel immediately available from US refiners above the global contingency supplies managed by the Defense Logistics Agency at any time represents about 375 net flight hours for one carrier and one air wing...less than 16 days of high intensity air operations by far fewer assets than the US would throw into an all-out theater conflict in the Pacific Rim. DLA Energy ended FY2022 with 1.68 billion gallons of on hand inventory of jet fuel to serve the entire DOD combined inventory of 14,000+ aviation assets - cargo, fighter, rotary wing, bombers, drones, tankers, and recon. Which begs the question: How fast would two theaters of conflict burn through all contingency supplies of fuel? And what does DOD do when the well runs dry?
Reminder that for the Gulf War's air campaign, the US had nearly 6 months to prepare, move assets into place, build up whole new infrastructure, etc., right next to Iraq without the Iraqis being able to do much to respond. Westerners love to call back on that campaign to justify their belief that the US/NATO could totally destroy any opponent in just a few weeks with their superior air forces, but completely ignore the logistical realities of actually doing so. And today, with the proliferation of long-range precision munitions, actually managing to build up the concentrations of forces and supplies necessary for large campaigns like this is substantially more difficult - we see this already in Ukraine, with Russian deep strikes doing significant damage, taking out ammunition depots and arms shipments, and wiping out various gatherings of Ukrainian troops and mercenaries.
If Iraq had the ballistic missiles that Yemen wields today, things could have gone very differently back then.
edit: conflicted information about whether it was intercepted or not (you can imagine which side is saying it was intercepted) but it definitely at least reached the skies over Tel Aviv and was not detected/shot down before that point. I'm leaning on the side of "not intercepted" based on what I've seen but it's not clear yet. Apparently Ansarallah will make a statement in the coming hours.
edit2: looks like no hit, though maybe some injuries caused by accidents getting into shelters? it was unclear to me what actually caused the injuries (if real) so I was confused about whether it was a hit or not. anyway, still unclear what has happened and what the target(s) were, still waiting on the Ansarallah statement
I saw a TikTok video the other day with Shir Hever, a political economist born in the illegal zionist entity. In his view the zionist project is effectively over as "any regime that commits genocide also commits suicide".
He claims that every sector of the entity's economy is collapsing due to the genocide: tourism has disappeared, academic exchange with the rest of the world is ending and investment in the high tech sector is drying up fast. The settlers themselves are moving their money out of the entity as well with zionist pension funds increasingly preferring investments abroad over domestic.
Settlers are also leaving the entity like never before. Up to half a million settlers has left since the Al-Aqsa Flood and it is especially the highly educated with resources and prospects abroad who are leaving. It has become very hard to get a doctor's appointment due to the number of doctors leaving. Even the regime itself has no clear idea of how many are leaving, as the people at the central bureau of statistics who were supposed to do the calculations has also left.
According to Hever the zionist project has come to an end and the current system of injustice is coming apart. To him, emulating South Africa's transition away from apartheid is the only way forward of "Israelis" are to have a future in Palestine.
It's been seven hours, if Nasrallah was dead it'd be out by now, this is a media blitz designed to distract from the civilian deaths caused by the bombings, bombings that took place while the UN was in session and the perpetrator was participating
Hezbollah reports are straight up being ignored in favor of Reuter based "Hezbollah sources" because this media operation is nothing but an attempt to suffocate the story before it becomes an international scandal, there is evidence of active collusion or parallel coordination by all major western news orgs and even Al Jazeera, they're all pushing the Nasrallah angle over the civilians deaths
Fuck I bet Nasrallah knew about the deal for a ceasefire if Iran didn't counterattack and that made him think he was safe meeting an IRGC leader in Beirut, particularly in a densely populated highly civilian area.
So not only did they lie to Iran but they used the lie to Iran as a means of luring out and killing both Nasrallah and an IRGC leader (Deputy Commander Abbas Nilforoushan)
In 2018, scientists confirmed the Gulf of Oman contains one of the world's largest marine dead zones, where the ocean contains little or no oxygen and marine wildlife cannot exist. The dead zone encompasses nearly the entire 165,000-square-kilometre (63,700 sq mi) Gulf of Oman and equivalent to the size of Florida, United States of America. The cause is a combination of increased ocean warming and increased runoff of nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizers.
Beijing will continue to stand on the "side of justice and on the side of Arab brothers, including Lebanon," said Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Hopefully that converts to actual materiel support because I really want them to shoot some of these raiding jets down. Surely this is a good opportunity for China to actually field test some of these weapons for efficacy.
Allegedly Pezeshkian has put out a statement saying that they were promised a ceasefire if they did not retaliate for Haniyeh's death and they were lied to. (Obviously)
Goes to show how strong the demand is for a ceasefire. Every single time ive heard somebody reporting from Gaza it seems like every day the people are desperate to know when a ceasefire will arrive, making the demand on the side of the negotiators so high up as a priority but obviously the Zionists and US are just using it as a form of political warfare as thousands die.
Also seeing reports of a thwarted terrorist attack in Iran today. If this new status quo becomes consolidated, it looks like the regional war started yesterday.
A record large container ship has made the Arctic transit between Russia and China, saving a lot of time compared to the Suez route during the open water season.
NEW: The United States reportedly offered Iran significant sanctions relief and a guaranteed permanent ceasefire in Gaza based on Hamas' proposed terms (and Hamas was informed of this), in exchange for the Islamic Republic delaying its retaliation against Israel for Ismael Haniyeh; not a single sanction was lifted, nor was a ceasefire reached in Gaza
Embarrassing if true. If history teaches us anything, it's to never accept a deal like this from the US.
I'm doing ONE effortpost this week to explain some Lebanese/Arab intricacies while scrolling the news. What do the good people of the news mega want to read about?
A breakdown of the Lebanese Civil War and how it permanently fucked the country.
An explanation of how the modern Shia identity emerged post-1979 and how a small marginalized community basically became the face of anti-Israel jihad.
How Arab and Muslim attitudes towards Hezbollah changed between 2006 and 2024 due to their intervention in Syria.
Vote! But I'll probably just ignore the results and do the one I want
The USNS Big Horn was damaged after the ship refueled and replenished Navy vessels operating in the region, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and several guided-missile destroyers. The Navy official would not say where the incident occurred or what type of damage the replenishment oiler sustained.
Man why the fuck do I even use this site? One (1) person dies and the resistance is over, welp we did our best folks but I guess Israel won. Great Man theory is true, who knew. Hezbollah didn't level Tel Aviv in a week so it's done. Never mind that Israel is itching to kick off its own Vietnam with a ground invasion.
If you're going to just repeat Zionazi propaganda you might as well do it on Reddit, maybe they'll appreciate it.
It seems like the NYT is really ramping up anti-Iranian rhetoric lately. 26 articles (including some round-ups) since Sept. 18 have used the phrase "Iran-backed." Almost every article that even mentions anyone in the Axis of Resistance uses the phrase "Iran's proxies" or "Iranian proxies." This was not happening even a month or two ago. ("Iran-backed" is all over, yes, but "Iranian proxies" and its variants were mostly absent from the paper all summer.)
I can't get Google Trends to stop bugging out on me, but I wonder if this is the case for other State Department mouthpieces or if this is a NYT-specific editorial decision.
Southern Beirut suburbs are getting flattened and Israeli planes and warships are conducting other strikes that are getting close to Beirut International Airport. I can't believe it's happening again and again and again...
Hezbollah announces the martyrdom of its Secretary-General, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who led the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon since 1992.
"In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
{So let those fight in the way of Allah who exchange the life of this world for the Hereafter. And whoever fights in the way of Allah and is killed or victorious - We will give him a great reward.}
God Almighty is true
His Eminence, the Master of Resistance, the righteous servant, has passed away to be with his Lord and to His pleasure as a great martyr, a heroic, daring, brave, wise, insightful, and faithful leader, joining the caravan of martyrs of the eternal, luminous Karbala in the divine, faith-based path in the footsteps of the martyred prophets and imams.
His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, has joined his great and immortal martyred comrades, whose path he led for nearly thirty years, during which he led them from victory to victory, succeeding the Master of the Martyrs of the Islamic Resistance in 1992 until the liberation of Lebanon in 2000 and to the glorious divine victory in 2006 and all the battles of honor and sacrifice, arriving at the battle of support and heroism in support of Palestine, Gaza, and the oppressed Palestinian people.
We offer our condolences to the Master of the Age (may God hasten his reappearance), the Guardian of the Muslims, Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei, may his shadow endure, the great authorities, the mujahideen, the believers, the nation of resistance, our patient and struggling Lebanese people, the entire Islamic nation, all the free and oppressed people in the world, and his honorable and patient family. We congratulate His Eminence the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, may God be pleased with him, on receiving the highest divine medal, the Imam Hussein Medal, peace be upon him, fulfilling his most precious wishes and the highest ranks of faith and pure belief, as a martyr on the path of Jerusalem and Palestine. We offer our condolences and congratulations to his fellow martyrs who joined his pure and holy procession following the treacherous Zionist raid on the southern suburb.
The leadership of Hezbollah pledges to the highest, most sacred and most precious martyr in our journey full of sacrifices and martyrs that it will continue its jihad in confronting the enemy, in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defense of Lebanon and its steadfast and honorable people.
To the honorable mujahideen and the victorious and triumphant heroes of the Islamic Resistance, you are the trust of the beloved martyr Sayyid, and you are his brothers who were his impregnable shield and the jewel in the crown of heroism and sacrifice. Our leader, His Eminence the Sayyid, is still among us with his thought, spirit, line, and sacred approach, and you are committed to the pledge of loyalty and commitment to resistance and sacrifice until victory."
Just uncritically reported from NPR. No discussion of who is actually spreading conflict in the region. In fact Israel is mentioned 3 times in the article while Iran is mentioned 6 times including the headline. Palestine isn't mentioned at all, and Gaza appears only once, in the context of Iran supporting Hamas.
"In this room, a president's ability to communicate depends on the number of dollars in his budget, the number of warplanes he has (..) That’s why we're not heard when we vote to stop the genocide in Gaza..”
“When Gaza dies, all of humanity will die.” “It turns out that God's people were not the people of Israel.”
Lula da Silva, Brazil President
“It’s unjustified to keep Cuba on a unilateral list of states that supposedly promote terrorism and impose unilateral coercive measures that unduly penalize the most vulnerable populations."
Xiomara Castro, Honduras President
“Today I'm threatened by the same forces of capital that 15 years ago carried out a coup against President Manuel Zelaya (Her Husband). They threaten me because I have promoted structural changes in the economic model."
She called for a ceasefire in Lebanon before the United Nations. And also demands an end to the unjust blockades against Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela and demands that the United States remove Cuba from the list of ‘State Sponsors of Terrorism’.
Protests outside the Supreme National Security Council of Iran. There is reportedly a meeting underway there, presumably relating to Pezeshkian's failed sellout deal.
When a brutal fascist regime is waging a war of terror against civilians, you think of where your sympathies lie.
So has Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark's controversial foreign minister, who gave this statement to government broadcaster DR on September 26th 2024:
"I can certainly tell the difference between these countries. I know where my sympathy intuitively lies. I know which countries are democracies and which are not. But that doesn’t change the fact that, in the end, everyone has a responsibility to ensure this doesn’t spiral completely out of control."
The statement is an example of democracy washing where the alleged democratic nature of the illegal zionist entity is used to justify their atrocities and shift blame to the victims.
Journalists from a free and independent news outlet might have asked him follow-up questions such as:
Can an apartheid state be democratic?
Can a state be democratic when a majority of the people it governs is denied the vote?
How can war crimes be justified by the perpetrator's system of government?
Are the lives of civilians living under an allegedly "undemocratic" form of government worth less than those of people living under presumably "democratic" regimes?
Am I making an incorrect comparison by saying what the US did to Cambodia is the same thing that Israel doing to Gaza and Lebanon? The rationale for bombing Cambodia was that there were Vietnamese soldiers there, so fair game to wipe out entire villages in case maybe there was a Vietnamese soldier there? Seems to me that is the precise justification that Israel uses when they level a building with dozens of women and children.
A chunk of recent news has been about about why younger boys are turning more conservative while younger girls are not.
Has anyone considered that this is because of the musicians having a reduction in cultural influence? In the past, musicians were the primary cultural influencers of this age group. I think this is still true for women while I think men now primarily get their cultural influences from either videogame influencers or get sucked into manosphere(incelosphere) spaces via sports. I think the pipeline of sports into manosphere (particularly combat sports) is under-discussed.
I wonder too if covid damaging live music played a role in the shift too. Thinking back, the way boys used to try to "get girls" was via music and live gigs and stuff. The music had a positive influence on them. Whereas now they're inundated with shit about dominating and taking women like they're meat by these dickbags that onboard them into incelosphere via combat sports.
Watched some local news here in the EU and got to hear a lieutenant or something from a military academy being interviewed say that Iran doesn't want a direct confrontation with Israel, but wants to fight Israel "to the last Hezbollah member"
The Rise of the Collective Shia Identity: Part Three
We move 25 years into the future with part three, we’re now in the period after the defeat in ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the Houthi revolution in Yemen, Hezbollah’s victory against Israel in 2006, and the failure of the Bahraini Uprising in 2011.
We start in Yemen, which was reunited into one state after the end of the Cold War. The first president of the new reunited Yemeni state is no one other than Ali Abdullah Saleh, former president of North Yemen and one of our favourite adventurers like we said earlier. The first real event in the history of Yemen is the start of the 1994 civil war, which ended in a decisive victory for Ali Abdullah Saleh’s Republican forces over the remnants of the South Yemen Communist Party. The republican victory could not be achieved without the strong support by Sunni Jihadist forces who received massive concessions by Saleh in order to secure their support in the war. The growing voice of the hardline Sunni Islamists in Saleh’s government angered the Houthi family, who returned to Yemen from Iran somewhere around reunification, with the aim of reviving the Zaydi traditions that were slowly fading away as Yemen took a more “Sunni” character. It is clear that the Houthis’ stay in Iran led to them being greatly influenced by Khomeini’s pan-Shia ideology, as they founded a youth group called the Believing Youth when they returned to Yemen. The Believing Youth was a loose collection of after-school workshops and summer camps for kids in the mountains of North Yemen, where they would read works by Khomeini, Nasrallah and Al Sadr. The Believing Youth would grow in size, and by the early 00s, their presence would be felt even in Friday prayers in the Grand Mosque of the capital Sanaa. Like a true paranoid Arab government, the Yemeni government would ultimately decide to arrest Hussein Al Houthi, the founder of the BY and brother of the Abdul Malik Al Houthi that we all know and love. The government failed in their attempt to arrest Hussein Al Houthi, who retreated to the mountains of Saada and started a large insurgency again the Yemeni government. He would be killed in late 2004, but a low-level insurgency continued until the Arab Spring hit in 2011.
Yemen had some of the largest protests in the whole region, which turned violent very quickly. The escalation of the protests wasn’t surprising at all, Yemen was the poorest and the least developed Arab nation out of all the relevant ones, and Saleh had been ruling the country in some form for 33 years while achieving literally nothing of note. The Houthis and their supporters would become one of the largest factions against the government in peaceful protest, and later in armed struggle against a government long past its expiry date. After around a year of clashes everywhere in Yemen, Saleh would resign and sign a power transfer agreement in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a place where no real peace has ever been established. An election was held in 2012, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, Saleh’s best friend and former vice president would win the election with 100% of the votes in a real democracy moment. Saleh was there again in Yemen for Hadi’s inauguration. The Houthis, the southern secession movement and the Islamists all rightfully boycotted this sham election. Two years later, the Houthis would launch an offensive from the mountains towards the capital Sanaa and capture the capital very quickly after the collapse of the government forces. The Houthis then absorbed the bulk of the Yemeni Army and essentially became the new government itself, they’re not an armed group anymore, but the Yemeni state itself. When did the Houthis become a real “Shia” force and a part of the Axis of Resistance? Good question. The founding principles of the Believing Youth were explicitly Khomeinist, in response to the gradual Sunnification of the Zaydi Shia Yemenis after the final collapse of the Zaydi Imamate in the 1960s. There’s no proof of direct Iranian involvement in the founding of the group, nor any proof of direct support until the explosion of the conflict after the Arab Spring. Shiaism itself evolved with the absorption of the Houthis into the wider Shia umbrella, as it followed a similar previous step with the absorption of Assad’s Alawite faith into a wider Twelver-adjacent umbrella. The Houthis aren’t Hezbollah, where the founding itself was influenced directly by Iran, but they became closer and closer to Iran as their war with Saudi Arabia started in 2015. Just like the Iraq-Iran War became the origin story of all of the heroes of the new pan-Shia ideology, the Houthi victory in the war against Saudi Arabia and the Arab Alliance became the mythological origin of the first “pan-Shia” generation of Yemen. One such hero is Saleh Al Sammad, the first president of Yemen under Houthi rule, who was killed in a Saudi drone strike back in 2018. He received the Khomeinist martyr treatment, which was a first in Yemen. Shia-style mourning ceremonies have entered the Yemeni mainstream, and celebration of the Prophet’s birthday is now a big day in Yemen, in a clear departure from the hardline Sunni position that forbids that. The Houthis, or Ansarallah as they should be called, are now a fully integrated member of the pan-Shia movement despite not having a direct line back to Khomeini or the Al Sadr family.
We travel to Iraq again now. In 2003, something called the Iraq War, and the American Occupation happens. The Americans basically allow anyone that hates Saddam on their team, so the team that takes over the Iraqi state post-Saddam is a very dysfunctional one where Communists, Khomeinists, Kurdish nationalists, Sunni Muslim Brotherhood members, Liberal CIA assets, and random minority representants were supposed to pretend to play politics while the Americans were robbing the country. There was one crucial group that the Americans missed while building the political playhouse. That group was the Sadrists under the leadership of Muqtada Al Sadr, son of Muhammed Sadiq Al Sadr. The Sadrists split in two sometime in the late 90s, but no one had noticed that under the media suppression in Saddam’s Iraq and the general American disinterest in Iraqi attitudes while they were planning to invade Iraq. One group of Sadrists stayed in the Dawa Party and adopted more Khomeinist and pan-Shia ideas, while poorer Sadrists under Muqtada’s leadership from the slums were more into nationalist and isolationist policies within Iraq’s border. Muqtada’s group would later be called the Sadrist Movement and its military wing, the Mahdi Army, would become the main player in the Iraqi Insurgency against the American occupation and later in the sectarian civil war phase of the occupation. Muqtada’s eccentric behaviour continues to this day and the Sadrists still get themselves into wacky situations, as the group slowly morphs into a cult that finds itself on the fringes of Shiaism itself, but that’s an effortpost for another day. The Iraqi state found itself under pan-Shia Dawa Party rule from 2005 to 2018, but nothing formative happened on a state level, mostly due to the failure of the American occupation and the grave incompetence of the new cast in Iraq. The most notable change during that period was that Iran was slowly becoming the main foreign player in Iraq, after several missteps by the US and their Arab allies. The war against ISIS is when large sections of Iraqi Shia society were absorbed into the Iranian pan-Shia network with the creation of the Hashd Al Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units, or PMU for short). The PMU was essentially Iraq’s own Hezbollah, an explicitly pan-Shia organization that was created with a clear religious background. The creation of the PMU itself came after a ruling from Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, who is the current Grand Marja of the faith. He issued a ruling that called for global Shia jihad against ISIS after the collapse of the Iraqi Army and the fall of large cities such as Mosul, Fallujah and Tikrit into ISIS hands. Iranian government support through the IRGC was open and direct, with PMU head Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis and IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani being on the frontlines together and forming a shared war room. The pan-Shia framework of open commemoration of martyrs with clear religious messaging was fully imported to Iraq and became the dominant ideological marker in the Shia south of Iraq. I remember visiting Baghdad with my wife sometime before Covid and literally every single street in the capital had some pictures of martyrs.
Tenant unions protesting dismal living conditions at two apartment complexes in Kansas City, Missouri, have voted to withhold rent on October 1 if their demands are not met — the opening salvo in what organizers say is the first coordinated rent strike aimed at pressuring federal regulators to cap rent increases and protect tenants from abusive corporate landlords.
...
The Tenant Union Federation said tenants organizing in North Carolina, Michigan, Illinois, South Carolina, Kentucky, Montana and Illinois are preparing to join the picket line and vote in the coming weeks on withholding rent from corporate landlords that similarly benefit from federally guaranteed financing.
Hezbollah says its air defence units engaged and successfully forced two Israeli aircraft to leave Lebanese airspace “using appropriate weapons” near the Lebanese towns of Hula and Meiss el-Jabal.
Fighters also targeted the Kiryat Motzkin settlement with a barrage of rockets and carried out a second round of strikes with Fadi-1 missiles.
Israel has launched waves of deadly air strikes on Lebanon since Monday, killing nearly 700 people. The international community has warned against Israeli attacks on Lebanon as they raise the spectre of spreading the Gaza war regionally.
So after teamsters national do the smart thing by endorsing neither party as being pro-worker, locals in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin break ranks to endorse Kamala Harris for president
Joe Biden says Nasrallah's assassination “is a measure of justice for his many victims”, which include Americans, and calls for the two sides to accept diplomatic agreements to end the war. “It's time for the threats to Israel to be removed and for the Middle East to have stability,” he said.
anybody have that post-wwII historical excerpt that was posted on the old sub, where they US is dragging its feet on prosecuting some particularly heinous nazis, and the soviets are like "just shoot them! you know they are guilty!"
Malawi is the only African country to vote against the most recent UNGA resolution on 19 September which ordered "israel" to withdraw from Gaza and the West Bank. They also established an embassy on 24 April in Tel-Aviv, coincidentally when South Africa had already suspended relations with the Nazi entity. Another nation in Africa who is concerningly comfortable with "israel" is also just 1,300 kilometers from Gauteng.
China says it carried out a rare test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into international waters, sparking protests from neighbouring countries.
The launch on Wednesday – its first in more than 40 years - was “routine” and not aimed at any country or target, according to Beijing. Chinese media reported the government also gave “relevant countries” notice.
But Japan said it had not received a warning and expressed concerns, along with Australia and New Zealand.
The launch contributes to tensions across the Indo-Pacific region, with analysts saying it highlights China's increased long-range nuclear capabilities.
The US warned last year that China has built up its nuclear arsenal as part of a defence upgrade. An intercontinental ballistic missile can travel more 5,500km - putting China within striking range of the US mainland and Hawaii.
But Beijing’s arsenal is still estimated at less than a fifth of the size of the US's and Russia’s, and China has long maintained that its nuclear maintainance is only about deterrence.
On Wednesday, Beijing announced that the long-range missile was fired at 08:44 local time (04:44 GMT). It carried a dummy warhead and landed in the designated area - believed to be in the South Pacific.
Beijing's defence ministry added the test launch was "routine" and part of its "annual training".
But analysts said China was last known to have test-fired an ICBM internationally in the 1980s. Typically, it tests internally - having previously fired ICBMs west into the Taklamakan Desert in the Xinjiang region.
“This sort of testing is not unusual for other countries, including the United States, but is for China,” nuclear missile analyst Ankit Panda told the BBC.
China’s “ongoing nuclear modernisation” already has resulted in substantial changes, he said. This launch now appears to also show a change in its approach.
It has sparked immediate reaction from other countries. Japan said it had received “no notice” and expressed “serious concern” about Beijing’s military build-up.
Meanwhile, Australia said the action was "destabilising and raises the risk of miscalculation in the region” and that it had sought “an explanation” from Beijing. New Zealand called it “an unwelcome and concerning development”.
Mr Panda said he doesn't believe China’s actions were primarily designed to send a political message - “but no doubt this will be a stark reminder to the region and to the US that nuclear dynamics in Asia are quickly changing”.
Other analysts went further, saying it was another wake-up call for the US and its allies in the region.
“To Washington, the message is that direct intervention in a conflict across the Taiwan Strait would involve the American homeland being vulnerable to attack,” said Leif-Eric Easley, an international relations professor at Ewha Women's University in South Korea.
For US allies in Asia, the “provocative test… demonstrates China’s capabilities to fight on multiple fronts simultaneously," he added.
"Timing is everything," Drew Thompson, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, wrote on X.
"[China's] statement claims the launch does not target any country, but there are high-levels of tension between China and Japan, Philippines, and of course perpetual tension with Taiwan."
While the relationship between Beijing and Washington has improved in the past year, China's increasing assertiveness in the region remains a sticking point. Tensions have ramped up between China and the Philippines as their ships have repeatedly collided in disputed waters.
Last month, Japan scrambled fighter jets after it accused a Chinese spy plane of breaching its air space, a move that it called "utterly unacceptable".
Beijing's relationship with self-governed Taiwan is another source of strain.
Taiwan's defence ministry said earlier on Wednesday that China had been carrying out "intensive" missile firing and other drills recently. The same statement noted that it detected 23 Chinese military aircraft operating around Taiwan on "long-range missions".
Beijing routinely sends ships and aircraft into Taiwanese waters and airspace, called a "greyzone warfare" tactic meant to normalise the incursions.
In July, China suspended its nuclear arms control talks with Washington, in retaliation for the US's continued arms sales to Taiwan.
The US last year warned of China's nuclear modernisation although its numbers still far short of Washington's. The Pentagon estimated that China has more than 500 operational nuclear warheads in its arsenal, of which approximately 350 are ICBMs.
The report projected that China will reach over 1,000 warheads by 2030; the US and Russia each say they possess more than 5,000 warheads.
There also have been conflicts around the Chinese military’s Rocket Force, the elite unit managing its nuclear arsenal. An aggressive anti-corruption campaign led to the firing of two of its leaders last year.
Israeli Minister of "Diaspora Affairs & Combatting Antisemitism" calls for destroying the “hostile Shia population” in South Lebanon by establishing a “buffer zone free of enemy population.”
🔴 The Popular Front: The enemy is spreading illusions and lies, and the resistance is based on solid ground and strong will
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine confirmed that what the enemy and its terrorist army are doing is committing massacres against civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure, and there is no truth to the lies and illusions it is spreading about undermining the capabilities of the resistance, whether in Palestine or Lebanon.
The Front explained that the resistance's responses and operations in all fields prove that they are based on solid ground and a strong, unyielding will, and a sincere, steadfast incubator that time rarely produces in terms of loyalty, sincerity, sacrifice and redemption.
The Front stressed that the enemy is trying to sell illusions that no one else will buy, similar to its talk about destroying most of the resistance's missile capabilities or its talk about the end of the Gaza resistance, which was confirmed by the resistance operations in recent days despite the horror of the crimes committed by the occupation against our people and our people.
The Front saluted the heroes of the resistance in all arenas, especially the brothers, comrades in blood and field, in Hezbollah, who stood firm in the face of our enemy's criminal attack, and responded to the aggression with determination and strength.
The Front stressed that what is required today from the masses of our nation and our peoples, and the free and struggling people around the world, is to escalate the struggle against the forces of aggression and the parties supporting our criminal enemy, and to strengthen support for the resistance, its incubators, and our steadfast people rooted in their land.
Interesting tidbit of information in this article:
China now has the world’s only major stock market in which state-owned companies are valued on par with those in the private sector. Individual fortunes have shrunk dramatically over the past three years; the number of billionaires has fallen 35 per cent in China, even as it rose 12 per cent in the rest of the world.
spoiler
Last month, Colin Huang, founder of ecommerce powerhouse PDD, attracted the usual headlines when he rose to become China’s richest man. But shortly after, PDD surprised investors with a downbeat profit forecast. Its stock plummeted. Huang lost $14bn overnight, and ceded the top spot to Zhong Shanshan, founder of beverage giant Nongfu Spring. Within 24 hours, Nongfu Spring issued its own unexpectedly depressing outlook, and Zhong, too, soon slipped from first place on the rich lists.
On Chinese social media, chatter broke out about whether corporate leaders might be competitively devaluing their own stock prices to avoid the widening crackdown on excessive wealth, which is a centrepiece of leader Xi Jinping’s “common prosperity” campaign. It is not implausible to conclude, wrote one Wall Street broker, that “nobody wants to be the richest man in China” at a time when its government is turning more assertively socialist.
Whatever the true motive for these profit warnings, the way they were spun on Chinese social media reflects a real change in the national zeitgeist. When Deng Xiaoping became paramount leader in the late 1970s, he defanged the old Maoist hostility to wealth creation. To get rich would be “glorious” in his increasingly capitalist nation.
But there was a catch. It was glorious to get rich — just not too rich. China was generating far more wealth than other developing countries, yet its largest individual fortunes remained modest compared with those in much smaller economies, including Nigeria and Mexico. Even during the roaring boom of the 2000s, an unwritten cap seemed to remain: no single fortune would rise much higher than $10bn. China’s billionaire list was also unusual for the high rate of churn in its top ranks.
By the early 2010s, at least two tycoons had seen their net worth approach that decabillion-dollar barrier, only to land in jail on corruption charges instead. That is not to say the charges were baseless, only that the choice of targets did appear to reflect a lingering, levelling tendency among China’s leaders.
That instinct flowered anew under Xi. Coming to power in 2012, he launched a campaign against corruption that reached deep into the elite. The early targets were often public sector bigwigs — bureaucrats, Communist party princelings. With China’s economy slowing, the regime seemed reluctant to scare the one private-sector goose still laying golden eggs: big tech companies. Over the years, many Chinese would build fortunes bigger than $10bn. The first three to breach that threshold, and keep rising, were tech industry founders led by Jack Ma of Alibaba.
This quiet tolerance would turn in 2020, during the stimulus-driven market boom. China added nearly 240 billionaires — twice as many as the US — but late that same year Ma made a speech that helped bring this party to a halt. In a guarded but unmistakable critique, Ma questioned the direction of Communist party rule, warning that overregulation threatened to slow tech innovation, and that Chinese banks suffered from “pawnshop thinking”.
State retaliation was swift. Alibaba’s share price collapsed. Ma tumbled down the rich lists and dropped out of public view. Early the next year, Xi launched his common prosperity campaign and the crackdown spread to any company deemed out of step with its egalitarian values.
In this new era, it’s dangerous to get too rich. Stories abound of the state launching investigations against this business figure or that financier. The pressure is drying up venture capital funds, scaring the young away from lucrative professions such as investment banking. The number of millionaires leaving China has been rising and peaked last year at 15,000 — dwarfing the exodus from any other nation.
The private sector is in retreat. Since 2021, the stock market has been sliding, but state companies have grown their share of total market cap by more than a third to nearly 50 per cent. China now has the world’s only major stock market in which state-owned companies are valued on par with those in the private sector. Individual fortunes have shrunk dramatically over the past three years; the number of billionaires has fallen 35 per cent in China, even as it rose 12 per cent in the rest of the world.
China’s super-rich increasingly choose to lie low. Become the richest tycoon in the US and you might launch your own space programme. In India, you might throw gazillion-dollar weddings for your children. In China, you might look for a way to lose your new title — and the target on your back.
I only now checked the news today by accident, death to Israel. I feel completely sickened. Nasrallah was a greater man than any Israeli can ever be.
This is so blatantly an act of war. Lebanon is at war whether it is announced by either side or not. What will still be standing by the time troops begin moving? Maybe the whole nation will be treated like Gaza but the rubble will grind down the Israelis, but by god the death toll of that. They are losing more and more equivalents to North Vietnam or the like, a place that is secure and safe for planning operations.
The death of a leader is not game over, but if Israel can keep decapitating these organizations, an orderly and planned out resistance becomes more and more difficult.
I keep thinking of Finkelstein's story about his mother testifying against that female concentration camp guard and them walking out of the court and seeing the woman just walking around and his mother says "GET HER, THEY THINK WE ARE SHEEP" and him doing unspecified actions. Make them pay, they think you are sheep
I've watched a couple of minutes of Aaron Máté debating hasbara on Piers Morgan, and it always amazes me how natural they try to make settler colonialism. One of the debaters was Fleur Hassan.
Fleur Hassan-Nahoum is an Israeli politician, media expert and policy maker. She currently serves as Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem in charge of foreign relations, international economic development and tourism.
Fleur Hassan-Nahoum was born in London and grew up in Gibraltar. She is the daughter of Sir Joshua Hassan, who served as the first Mayor of Gibraltar and, later, also served as the first Chief Minister of Gibraltar,[2] and his second wife, Lady Marcelle Bensimon,[3] both of Moroccan and Portuguese Jewish origin.
Hassan-Nahoum grew up bilingual, speaking Spanish and English In 2001, Hassan-Nahoum emigrated to Israel.
Imagine having to debate settlers like this during the ongoing settler colonial genocide. They condescendingly talk to you about the "generous peace deals" they offered to the Palestinians and Iran being the puppet master of Hamas and Hezbollah.
It's crazy. Fuckin mad world. Go back to London for fucks sake.
Watching Iran bumble it's way through this war, I have to imagine is what it felt like to watch the post-Stalin Soviets abandon their allies one by one to fight Western dogs that got unlimited backing, out of the fear of a nuclear war with the West, until there was no one left and they were effectively encircled. All of the people driving NATO policy are the same freaks who were either in charge when the Cold War was happening, or were being groomed by them. I desperately hope they have finally learned their lesson that the West will not negotiate with them in good faith.
According to the announcement of IRIB, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforooshan was martyred in Israel's attack on Beirut, alongside Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
The Israeli regime carried out heavy airstrikes on Beirut's Dahie on Friday, leaving dozens of people killed and injured.
Hezbollah secretary-general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was also martyred in the Israeli strike, the Resistance Movement said in a statement on Saturday afternoon.
I'm watching MSNBC and they're talking about the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. The anchor is talking to a guy from the Such-and-Such Institute for Peace. He's used the terms "ground op", "tactically", "this could tarnish Israeli's brand", and "the deaths of innocents". Even the military guys (ex-generals and such) on CNN and MSNBC don't use lingo like that because they know it's ghoulish and creepy.
The former Moroccan head of government and current secretary general of the opposition Justice and Development Party (PJD), has called for a re-evaluation of Morocco's normalisation agreement with Israel, arguing that it “no longer has any reasonable, logical or moral basis” amid the ongoing “genocide” in Gaza.
He believes that “it is necessary to reconsider the normalisation agreements between Morocco and what is called Israel.”
This comes after months of protesting from the people of Morocco, my hopes aren't that high, but better than the ignoring that has been going on since October.
We have to stop calling Israel’s current military-security-terrorist campaign against Lebanon an escalation and start calling it a war. Not total war without ceilings yet, but war, nonetheless. Israel’s “shock and awe” offensive pursues short term tactical gains to make up for its strategic losses, while Hizbullah is aiming for longer term strategic objectives despite some tactical losses it has endured over the past week.
Israel's "fleeing forward" strategy comes with several unrealistic objectives, none of which are likely to be achieved:
pushing Hizbullah to retreat from the border and end its support front with Gaza
expel and displace people from South Lebanon to potentially use as a bargaining chip to return settlers to the North
demoralise and break the resolve of Resistance fighters and the Resistance community
significantly degrade Hizbullah’s military capabilities
The farcical claim that Lebanese households are harbouring cruise missiles is such a transparently absurd, lazy and crudely constructed Israeli fabrication that it appears to serve no purpose beyond being a tactic of blackmail to pressure Hizbullah into capitulating to Israel’s demands. Thus, when Israel claimed today that it struck a record 1,600+ “Hizbullah sites, mostly weapons stored within homes,” yesterday, this was an admission that it had surgically killed and displaced over 1600 families.
Since Israel’s mass terrorist offensive last Tuesday, Hizbullah’s strategy has been to escalate both horizontally, by widening the scope of attacks across Israel, and vertically, through intensified strikes and the introduction of new weapons, while holding back its advanced missiles for now. In doing so, it has extended the de facto security zone it established in northern Israel, reaching as far as Haifa, and increasing the number of displaced Israelis from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.
Hizbullah has limited its strikes to key strategic military targets, such as military installations and weapons factories, avoiding civilian targets and infrastructure, even as Israel persists in committing war crimes against Lebanese civilians. While Israel’s approach has been one of displacement and massacre, Hizbullah’s strategy has focused on displacement and paralysis. Its Resistance forces aim to weaken the IDF’s resolve and erode the resilience of Israel's home front through a strategy of combined military and economic attrition. Whether or not Hizbullah will escalate further by targeting civilian objects in Israel and risk unleashing Israel’s firepower against Beirut remains to be seen. This decision will likely depend on Hizbullah’s perception of a strategic need to retaliate rather than a desire for vengeance.
Hizbullah's ability to rebound from the pager attacks and the assassination of its senior commanders is a testament to its operational capability and its resilience in absorbing shocks to its command-and-control structure. Should Israel attempt a ground invasion of South Lebanon to create a buffer zone, Hizbullah will welcome it, as Nasrallah stated in his recent speech. This is where Hizbullah’s true strength lies: in close combat and preventing occupations. IDF troops would become sitting ducks for the Resistance’s advanced hybrid warfare tactics.
I'm on a little writing spree, so you're getting part two already. Sorry for no proofreading ofc.
The Rise of the Collective Shia Identity: Part Two
We continue the story around 15 years later, we’re now in the early 90s. Three significant events have taken place in the modern Shia story. The first and the most significant is the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the second is the Iraq-Iran War, the third is the formation of Hezbollah in South Lebanon and the real start of the Shia Lebanese story. We have to start with the Islamic Revolution. I won’t go into the details of how the Revolution happened and why it happened, but I will talk about what it meant at the time and what the consequences were. I will sum the events of the Revolution in three sentences. Mass protests break out in Iran against the Shah’s repression and economic inequality, which slowly takes a more Islamist character in opposition to the Shah’s pro-Western secular regime. The Islamization of the protests meant that some sort of spiritual leadership had to rise, Ayatollah Khomeini who was exiled in Paris becomes the spiritual leader and he manages to unify all sectors of the protest movement under his leadership. He then returned to Iran as the unopposed leader of the movement in the ending stage of the revolution and then consolidated the revolution in his vision of the new Iran working under his system of Wilayat al Faqih.
The success of the revolution in Iran led to the formation of the first modern Islamic state which draws its legitimacy from Shia Islam. Sykes-Picot created only kingdoms as in the Gulf and Iraq, and semi-functional weak republics like Syria and Lebanon. The establishment of Islamic Republic was significant on several levels. It was the first popular revolution which established an Islamic Republic, unlike the revolutions in states such as Egypt and Iraq, where military dictatorships were founded instead of the old comprador kingdoms. It also marked the end of nearly 2500 years of hereditary rule in Iran and old Persia. The events of the Islamic Revolution were frightening for the Gulf monarchies and for Iraq, as they realised the threat of Shia Islamism within their borders. One of Khomeini’s first promises after the success of the revolution was exporting the experience to other nations where “disbelievers” were in power and where Shias were barred from participating in controlling their destiny. The first seeds of a “Shia International” were planted by Khomeini very quickly. Shias in Iraq were very emboldened by Khomeini’s success, and political activities by the banned Dawa Party accelerated in late 1979 and early 1980, which ended after the execution of Muhammed Baqir Al Sadr in Iraq in 1980. If you were a Shia Islamist in Iraq in 1975 for example, you had nowhere to go, but if you needed to flee in 1980, you suddenly have a massive Shia neighbour that not only allows you to come as a refugee, but also fully supports your political activities and gives you weapons.
Saddam decided to not wait for the inevitable confrontation with the Islamic Republic of Iran and started a massive war in late 1980. The Iraq-Iran war is the most important moment in the formation of the “Shia International” and the formation of the first fully ideological generation of young Shias that would later change the world. Literally every single influential Shia character of the last 30 years had some degree of interaction with Ayatollah Khomeini or Muhammed Baqir Al Sadr or fought in the Iraq-Iran War. Qassem Soleimani fought in the war. Hadi Al Ameri, leader of Badr Brigades in Iraq fought in the war. Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah was a 16-year-old student under Al Sadr. The Houthi family lived in Qom in Iran after the revolution. Ali Khamenei was President of Iran during the war. Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis fought in the war. Even current president of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian fought in the war. Abdul Aziz Al Hakim, son of former Shia Grand Marja Muhsin Al Hakim fought in the war and later become president of Iraq for one month under the American occupation. Musa Al Sadr’s niece was married to Khomeini’s son Ahmed and Musa’s son was married to Khomeini’s granddaughter. The war itself was not that eventful, with both sides mostly in deadlock for eight years. The relevant part of the whole war was basically four battles. Iraqi capture of Khorramshahr and then the Iranian liberation of the city. Then the Iranian capture of Al Faw and the Iraqi liberation of the area. The Gulf monarchies went crazy in their support of Saddam during the war and gave him lots of money, mainly because they really wanted the defeat of Iran without shooting a bullet, which reminds us of a certain Ukrainian comedian who is getting duped now in a similar way.
The culture around the war is the most important part in the formation of the modern Shia identity in my opinion. In Christianity, the defining moment for the religion is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which presents Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice of humanity and the image of him bleeding on the cross is etched into the mind of every Christian. For Shia Muslims, the martyrdom of the grandson of Prophet Muhammed Imam Hussain and the wholesale murder of his entire family holds even more emotional value than the crucifixion of Jesus Christ does for Christians, because there’s no happy ending here and no Ascension to the sky. Hussain was slaughtered, his father Ali ibn Abu Talib had his skull shattered while leading morning prayers, and every single Imam was murdered in Shia beliefs. What the Iraq-Iran War did was a complete revival of the tradition of martyrdom in Shia Islam and the commemoration of martyrs became not only just an accepted practice, but also encouraged by the Iranian state. Iranian fighters that were deployed to the front wore headbands with Shia slogans such as “Ya Hussain”, “Ya Zahra” and “Ya Mahdi”, clerics held Qurans over the heads of the fighters when they were boarding trains and trucks to the front, and fighters didn’t only receive combat training at camps before reaching the front, but they also received religious lessons about the sacrifices of Hussain and his family and participated in the first sessions of state-sponsored “Matams” in modern history, where poems about martyrdom were recited while the religious Shia beat their chests. The official “music” of the Iranian state was no longer Googoosh in her skirt performing Persian Pop for the son of the Shah in his birthday party, but it was militarised and Islamised and became stuff like “Karbala Ma Darim” (“Karbala we’re coming”, a reference to the holy city of Karbala) and “Mamad Naboodi Babini” (“Mohammed you didn’t see it”, a reference to an Iranian solider that played a heroic role in the battle of Khorramshahr, but was martyred a few days before the liberation of the city). The names of the streets were changed, the names of metro stations were changed, the names of the city squares were changed. Pahlavi Street became Shahid Bahonar Street, the Tehran Metro now has over 15 stations named after some martyr, mostly from the Iraq-Iran War and the revolution. This complete transformation of Iranian society led to the creation of the concept of the Resistance itself in those years. What is the Iraq-Iran War called in Persian? Difaa e-Muqaddas, Holy Resistance.
Massive destruction in Haifa, and the size of the missiles is large. It is not possible to talk about the large number of dead and wounded (due to military censorship). Haifa is witnessing a large displacement, while the mayor appeals not to evacuate Haifa
It seems that there have been talks between the governments of Colombia, Chile and Brazil and the Lebanese government to evacuate their civilians from there (I believe that Brazil has the largest Lebanese diaspora in the world, along with Japanese and Italian immigrants). All these governments have already condemned Israel's bombings and Pager/Walkie Talkie explosions.
Multiple aerial bombs exploded around the camp of China's 22nd batch of peacekeeping troops in Lebanon on Thursday. The shockwaves and debris from the explosions damaged some facilities in the camp, but fortunately no one was injured, China Central Television reported on Saturday. The troops were in the midst of their daily peak physical training at the time of the explosions, and the bombing took place just 730 meters away from the camp, the report said.
Ken Klippenstein has been banned from Twitter for publishing the J.D. Vance dossier.
(it's >200 pages, but from a glance it mostly seems to be a paper trail of his "liberal ties" and being a "never-trumper." Very much opposition research targeted at right wingers)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
“So let those who exchange the life of this world for the Hereafter fight in the cause of God. And whoever fights in the cause of God and is killed or overcomes, We will give him a great reward yum﴾
God Almighty has spoken the truth
His Eminence the Master, the Master of Resistance, the righteous servant, has moved to the side of his Lord and His pleasure as a great martyr, a brave, heroic leader, a wise, insightful and faithful believer, joining the immortal caravan of martyrs of the luminous Karbala in the divine journey of faith in the footsteps of the prophets and martyred imams.
His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, joined his great and immortal martyrs, whose journey he led for nearly thirty years, during which he led them from victory to victory, succeeding the master of the martyrs of the Islamic Resistance in 1992 until the liberation of Lebanon in 2000 and until the divine, sustaining victory in 2006 and all the other battles of honor and redemption, until To the battle of support and heroism in support of Palestine, Gaza and the oppressed Palestinian people.
We offer our condolences to the owner of the era and time (may God bless him and grant him peace), the Guardian of the Muslims, Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei, may his shadow be long, the great authorities, the Mujahideen, the believers, the nation of resistance, our patient and Mujahid Lebanese people, the entire Islamic nation, all the free and oppressed in the world, and his honorable and patient family, and we congratulate His Eminence the Secretary General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah Radwan. May God grant him the highest divine honors, the Order of Imam Hussein, peace be upon him, fulfilling his most precious desires and the highest levels of faith and pure belief, as a martyr on the road to Jerusalem and Palestine. We condole and bless his fellow martyrs who joined his pure and sacred procession following the treacherous Zionist raid on the southern suburb.
The leadership of Hezbollah pledges to the highest, holiest and most precious martyr in our journey, full of sacrifices and martyrs, to continue its jihad in confronting the enemy, in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defense of Lebanon and its steadfast and honorable people.
And to the honorable mujahideen and the victorious and victorious heroes of the Islamic resistance, and you are the trust of the beloved martyr, and you are his brothers who were his impregnable shield and the crown jewel of heroism and redemption. Our leader, His Eminence, is still among us with his thought, spirit, line, and sacred approach, and you are in the pledge of loyalty and commitment to resistance and sacrifice until victory.
Russia is suing Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland at the ICJ for not living up to their international commitments to prevent terrorism over their lack of will to conduct real investigations of the Nordstream attacks:
Zakharova: Russia may make claims for terrorist attack on Nord Streams to new countries
MOSCOW, September 28 — RIA Novosti. Russia has filed pre-trial claims against four countries in connection with the investigation of the terrorist attacks on the Nord Stream pipeline, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RIA Novosti.
"The Russian Federation has officially filed pre-trial claims against Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland on the basis of the 1997 International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism," she said.
Read more...
According to the diplomat, other states that may have something to do with this terrorist attack are next in line.
She noted that the bombing of Russian export gas pipelines is a flagrant act of international terrorism, which falls under international treaties obliging states to prevent such acts, investigate their commission and cooperate with other countries to do so. But these obligations are not being fulfilled.
Thus, Switzerland, where the company operating Nord Stream is registered, did not even try to investigate the terrorist attack. Denmark and Sweden, in whose exclusive economic zones the explosions occurred, quickly closed their investigations without publishing any results. And Germany, where the end point of both gas pipelines is located, has still not reported a single positive result of the investigation, Zakharova listed.
"Moreover, the arrest warrants for suspects that Berlin recently sent out, according to its claims, were not executed and as a result, at least one suspect who was in Poland, according to the Polish prosecutor's office, managed to escape to the territory of Ukraine," the Foreign Ministry representative added.
She called the reaction of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk , who said that anyone concerned about the progress of the investigation into the terrorist attacks "should shut up," shameless.
"The West is not interested in conducting an effective investigation into the terrorist attack, despite the colossal damage caused to the European economy and environment by the blowing up of gas pipelines," the diplomat emphasized.
Zakharova recalled that Moscow has repeatedly sent requests to European countries for legal assistance in the investigation, but they have been rejected under far-fetched pretexts or without explanation at all, which contradicts the international legal obligations of these states.
If the issue is not resolved at the pre-trial stage, Moscow intends to appeal to the International Court of Justice , the Foreign Ministry representative noted.
"Russia is firmly committed to seeking to establish and bring to strict accountability all perpetrators, organizers and accomplices of the terrorist attack. International justice is not the domain of the West; it must and will work in the interests of the entire world, including and above all in the fight against international terrorism," she concluded.
The explosions on the Russian gas pipelines Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 occurred on September 26, 2022. According to Nord Stream AG, the accident is unprecedented and the repair time cannot be estimated. The Kremlin called this emergency an act of international terrorism.
According to American journalist Seymour Hersh , the explosives under the gas pipelines were planted by American divers during the NATO exercises Baltops 2022, and three months later the Norwegians detonated them. Moreover, President Joe Biden decided on the sabotage after more than nine months of secret discussions with the national security team, as he feared that Germany , which receives gas from Russia through the Nord Streams, would not want to participate in military aid to Ukraine . Washington denies these accusations.
Since people have been talking about nukes lately, if the IOF dropped a tactical nuke in southern Lebanon, how would people conclusively proof that a tactical nuke was actually dropped assuming that:
The Zionist entity lies about dropping the tactical nuke with a shit-eating grin
The US covers up the tactical nuke by falsifying radiation readings from their satellites
The US accuses the radiation readings picked up by Russian/Chinese/Iranian satellites of Russian/Chinese/Iranian disinformation
I guess my question is how obvious would it be that a tactical nuke was dropped instead of just a really large conventional bomb assuming you couldn't rely on detecting radiation from the crater?
A young man from Burkina Faso named Yannick Laurent Bado has created the first fully African-owned tyre brand, JEPEB. The company is set to produce 40,000 tyres per year that can handle rough African roads and off-road terrain for the African market which, up until now, has been dominated by imports.
I'm out of words. Piece of "content" shared by milei on his social media lmfao, be aware of the insane levels of cringe
it reads:
"Damn"
"We are totally fucked"
"Relax, Elon"
"You're not alone. We'll fight together"
It's 95% AI generated lmao, the world is completely wrong. There's a HUGE CUBA, europe is no more (good ending) and there's commies everywhere plus massive Palestine.
The US Conoco occupation base in northern Deir Ezzor, #Syria, came under heavy missile and drone bombardment, according to #AlMayadeen's correspondent.
Our correspondent in #Baghdad reported that a missile barrage struck the headquarters of the armored division of US troops stationed at the occupied Conoco oil field, in a direct hit against US military facilities.
I hope everyone gets the chance to take a deep breath today and maybe step out to touch grass for a bit.
Nasrallah's death is heavy news whether you're an optimist or a pessimist. It doesn't do the Resistance any favors, but it's also not going to kill the will to fight.
It is going to get people like us emotional and heated though. Conflicts are rarely smooth affairs and while this is a big hit, it's also not the first setback. That's how it goes, whether the path leads to victory or defeat. Sacrifice is inevitable. Be sure to take care of yourself if the situation is getting you stressed out. And if you have the energy, don't forget to support any comrades who may be taking this extra hard for whatever reason.
The death of Nasrallah will probably to lead to the election of a more radical leadership since he was a moderate back when he became general secretary, we will have to wait and see which faction wins, maybe a Sinwar like character ends up taking over.
People ask how has the resistance in Gaza suffered less security and intelligence threats than the resistance in Lebanon? Gaza does not have a US embassy.
Since 4 am this morning, Hezbollah has targeted the following:
🇮🇱 The IDF's 'Amos' logistical base for the Northern Command, with Fadi-1 rockets.
🇮🇱 An explosive materials factory in the 'Zikhron' area, with Fadi rockets.
🇮🇱 'Meggiddo' military airport west of Afula, with Fadi-2 rockets.
🇮🇱 Kiryat Shmona settlement, with 'lob bombs'.
🇮🇱 Logistical warehouses of the IDF's 146th Division at 'Naftali' base with a missile barrage.
The vague "Kiryat Shmona settlement" is the most interesting one they listed here as it's just outright targeting of the settlement. It's also the one we have the most videos of impacts.
But with the on-ramp ending, missed payments will now be reported to national credit agencies again. Even one missed payment can severely damage someone’s credit report and reduce their credit score dramatically. While some loan loan servicers may not report missed payments until the borrower is 90 days past due, missed or delinquent payments can technically be reported after just 30 days.
And with Fresh Start ending on September 30, as well, student loan defaults can also be reported again to national credit bureaus. Federal law generally prohibits the ongoing reporting of defaulted accounts for more than seven and a half years, so long-defaulted loans may not reappear on some borrowers’ credit reports. But more recent defaults will start to be reported again, potentially inflicting severe credit report damage from some people. This could impact their ability to rent an apartment, take out a car loan, or pass a background check for a job.
The leader of the Sayyid ash-Shuhada Brigades, part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, directly threatens the UAE, saying it is the "first line of fire" if a larger war erupts, and that the militia's drones, which have reached Israel, can easily reach "alternative locations".
Brazil will present a Chinese-Brazilian peace plan for Ukraine to the countries of the Global South by the end of the week, Reuters reports.
The meeting, which will take place on September 27 in New York, is expected to include Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the UAE and other countries from the Global South. Representatives of European countries were not invited to the meeting.
The meeting will be chaired by Brazil's top foreign policy adviser, Celso Amorim, who will try to persuade those present to support the six-point Brazil-China plan. In particular, this concerns an immediate ceasefire, de-escalation and the beginning of peace negotiations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
Our beloved mayor has been indicted for taking bribes from Turkish officials. 2024 is such a wild timeline. Adams is a piece of shit, basically his entire staff has already resigned because the FBI kept raiding their homes, and he's still pledging not to resign. Pretty hilarious stuff.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted Thursday on charges that he took illegal campaign contributions and bribes from foreign nationals, including lavish overseas trips, in exchange for favors that included helping Turkish officials bypass a fire inspection for a new diplomatic tower in the city.
Adams, a Democrat and former police captain, faces conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery charges in a five-count indictment outlining a decade-long trail of corruption that began when he served as an elected official in Brooklyn and continued through his mayoral administration.
The Zionist criminals should know that they are too small to cause significant damage to the strong construction of Hezbollah in Lebanon. All the resistance forces in the region are with Hezbollah & support it.
The fate of this region will be determined by the resistance forces & at the head of them is the proud Hezbollah.
Today, Lebanon, by the grace and power of God, will make the malicious and disgraceful aggressor regret its actions.
It is the duty of all Muslims to stand with the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah, using all their resources, and to assist them in their confrontation with the usurping, oppressive, and vile regime.
EDIT:
Another version that seems more reliable and thorough:
— 🇮🇷 The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khamenei, has released a statement:
'The killing of defenseless people in Lebanon, on the one hand, once again revealed the ferocity of the Zionist rabid dogs to everyone, and on the other hand, it proved the short-sightedness and idiotic policy of the leaders of the usurping regime. The terrorist gang ruling the Zionist regime did not learn from their one-year criminal war in Gaza and failed to understand that the mass killing of women, children and civilians cannot affect the strong structure of the resistance's organization and destroy it. Now they are trying the same foolish policy in Lebanon.
The Zionist criminals should know that they are too small to cause significant damage to the strong structure of Hezbollah in Lebanon. All the resistance forces of the region are with Hezbollah and support it. The fate of this region will be determined by the resistance forces and at the head of them is the proud Hezbollah.
The people of Lebanon have not forgotten that once upon a time, the military of the Zionist regime used to put Beirut under their boots. It was Hezbollah that cut off their legs and made Lebanon free and proud. Even today Lebanon will make the aggressor and evil dark enemies regret their actions.
It is obligatory for all Muslims to stand proudly with the people of Lebanon and Hezbollah with all their resources and help it in confronting the usurping, cruel and evil regime.
Norwegian in [pager explosion] case is wanted internationally
The Norwegian [Rinson Jose] who is connected to the sale of exploding pagers in Lebanon was yesterday officially reported missing.
On Thursday, Kripos [The National Criminal Investigation Service] issued an international wanted notice for the person, the police said.
On Monday, NRK could report that the Norwegian was still not back at work. The employer said they were going to have a meeting with the police to report him missing.
Apparently no one, including his friends and family, has heard from him since the first terror attack in Lebanon. Rinson got on a plane for a business trip to Boston the day of the attack, but never checked into his hotel or showed up at the conference he was there to attend. All traces of him ends in the U.S.
Friends and family claim they had no knowledge of the firm (Norta Global) he was running in Bulgaria. Rinson's social media profiles only shows him running a company called NortaLink, which is based in Norway. His profile also shows up on Founders Nation, a website that aims to connect Israeli entrepreneurs and co-founders.
The Russian Federation strongly condemns the political assassination of the Hezbollah leader committed by Israel, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry noted that the Russian Federation strongly urges Israel to immediately cease hostilities. Israel bears full responsibility for any subsequent escalation.
Following the assassination of Sheikh Nasrallah, Iran said it could send troops to Lebanon, NBC reports.
"Officials will certainly give permission for the deployment of troops in Lebanon and the Golan Heights," said Ayatollah Mohammad Hassan Akhtari, Iran's deputy minister for international affairs.
"We can send troops to Lebanon to fight Israel, as we did in 1981," he added.
It's the top of the hour so I checked cable news to see coverage about Lebanon.
CNN. They're covering it right now.
MSNBC. Presidential election news. I shouldn't be surprised but holy fuck.
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Edit 1
It's 11 minutes past the top of the hour - MSNBC is still doing presidential election news. They're surely doing that all the way to the first ads of the hour.
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Edit 2
Sorry, Onion. MSNBC puts the Onion News Network to shame.
It's the top of the next hour and I went back to MSNBC. They actually covered the situation in Lebanon starting with "Now we go to Tel Aviv..." which is unsurprising but darkly funny. And then their correspondent and the anchor talked about the "possibility for destruction on both sides" for two whole minutes before the anchor segued with "The DNC is taunting Trump to participate in a second debate..."
If Hezbollah focuses their strikes on the Israeli electrical grid, they could benefit from the West's shortage of electrical equipment (that Ukraine also urgently needs).
If they do it slowly and methodically, they can possibly avoid giving the US a reason to intervene.
Resistance fighters return to #Gaza with the bodies of IOF soldiers after infiltrating settlements. Another group of resistance fighters in northern #Gaza roams the streets of Jabalia camp with seized IOF vehicles.
Amid the rapidly changing situation and the torrent of emotions after a year of livestreamed genocide in Gaza, now being extended by Israel to Lebanon, it is hard to maintain a long view. But doing so is essential for sound analysis.
It is worth remembering this: In almost any asymmetrical war, when the strongest side – the invader or colonizer – goes on the offensive, it often appears to achieve quick and stunning success.
Institute for the Study of War, an imperialist think thank wrote:
Iran, Hezbollah, and the rest of the Axis of Resistance appear to be preparing for an Israeli ground operation into Lebanon. The IDF has observed around 40,000 Iranian-backed Iraqi, Syrian, and Houthi militants concentrate around the Syrian border with the Golan Heights, according to Israeli media. It is unclear why and when the Axis of Resistance deployed these militants or whether they were already in the area.
I remember reading an article from an Iranian outlet that Iran's response to Haniyeh assassination isn't necessarily aerial and it could be on the ground like opening a new front in Syria. Now I see what happened.
Fascists won in Austria with 29%(+13%). New gouvernment will be probably fascist & conservative. Conservative lost 11%, Green party lost 6%. Eurocommunist got 2,5% and no mandate.
Denmark's authoritarian Social Democrat leader Mette Frederiksen has weighed in on how to solve "the conflict in the Middle East".
According to her, the "only viable" way to go is the so-called "two-state solution", the liberal fatamorgana that neither indigenous Palestinians nor the zionist settlers wants. She claims that this will "Reassure 'Israel' that the country exists and that it's people can be safe" and that "the Palestinian people also get a state". She did not elaborate on whether that Palestinian state should have similar reassurances.
However, in the words of government broadcaster DR: "Hamas does not recognize that 'Israel' should even be there and the current 'Israeli' government are against a two-state solution". However, the Danish leader knows what to do, the "international community" should simply "take over and say that this is not just a matter for the middle east, it is a matter for the entire world and therefore we must force a two-state solution through."
I am happy to be governed by adults in the room making realistic and workable policies instead of dreaming up naive idealist castles in the sky.
Just saw an interview on AusBC news with someone from the american university of Beirut who claimed Hezbollah is unable to do war, lots of footage of smoking buildings in lebanon, nothing of what's happening within 'israel', very cool, I wipe away a tear with a yanky flag hanky
Westoid media is embarrassing itself greatly right now. The big, "reputable" outlets (AP, Reuters, etc) just regurgitated an old, already debunked story about a Chinese nuclear sub sinking.
Moody's cuts Israel's rating, warns of drop to 'junk'
Sept 27 (Reuters) - Moody's on Friday downgraded Israel's credit rating two notches to "Baa1" from "A2" and maintained a negative outlook amid escalation of the conflict in the region with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
"The key driver for the downgrade is our view that geopolitical risk has intensified significantly further, to very high levels, with material negative consequences for Israel's creditworthiness in both the near and longer term," Moody's said.
The downgrade kept Israel's rating three notches into investment grade. However, Moody's warned that uncertainties over the country's security and its longer-term economic growth prospects "are much higher than is typical at the Baa rating level." A drop below that level would mean Israel would lose its investment grade rating.
"The ratings would likely be downgraded further, potentially by multiple notches, if the current heightened tensions with Hezbollah turned into a full-scale conflict," Moody's said.
Typically, a loss of investment grade rating means a spike in the cost of servicing debt, and it could force some investors to sell their holdings - further pressuring lower the market price of Israel's bonds.
Rating agency Fitch downgraded Israel's credit rating to "A" from "A-plus" last month, and kept the rating outlook negative.
good morning, comrades. several comments in the rules request thread were about solid links and substantive main comments in order to build discussion. while i am not sure strict rules are required (there is something to be said for making sure people aren’t so concerned over self-esteem or “real leftism” that they stop talking), i do enjoy discussion based on links from good sources. also, there are people who post very good links and videos from telegram and twitter of primary events, so i am going to try and link analysis of things that have happened in the past few days.
as such, for at least this week, i will be posting what i think are the top three-ish naked capitalism articles of the day, along with some commentary. think of it as a bootleg and abbreviated rip-off of comrade 72T’s bulletins. if it looks like i have time for it with work and people like it, i will do my best to continue.
A breakdown of the recent German state elections in Brandenburg, as well as a general picture of the German economic and political trajectory (bad). i think it is worth extending some mental sympathy to BSW, since unlike many other ‘patsocs’, they wish to RETVRN to the GDR, a real and decent place, instead of purely nationalist fantasy. Many of the people involved, including Ms. Wagenknecht, were adults when the Berlin Wall came down.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/09/atlanticism-or-sovereignty-fight-in-germany-continues-with-latest-state-election.html
A good explanation of how the ocean is getting warmer, and also a good example of runaway warming/ climate feedback loops. i will say that i think arctic-news’ estimation of up to 18 degrees celsius warming is a bit sensationalist, but sources i prefer suggest 7 to 10 degrees if no mass action is taken and we actually get worse at emissions (the current trajectory), which is still “we all die” territory.
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2024/09/high-temperatures-despite-la-nina.html
A very brief report about Ukrainian military activity in Syria. Interesting to think about in context of “is this World War 3 yet?” Also a clear sign of Ukraine lacking a plan for victory (in what universe does a base outside Aleppo effect anything in the Donbass?). Since we know that all Ukrainian ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) is USamerican, you have to wonder what Uncle Sam wanted destroyed in Syria last week (and what the entity was doing to that Iranian base).
https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukrainian-special-forces-syria
Chud's are gonna go on about this for a while, searches in conjunction with the assassination attempt by that nafo dude led to cops finding his son had hundreds of child porn images.
so here's a question, is there somewhere it was articulated specifically, by Iran/Hezbollah/Hamas leadership, that this 'boil the frog' attrition is their coordinated strategy? And that this strategy was reached because they're nervous about the zionist nuclear arsenal?
this is my read of the predominant interpretation from the news mega posters, but is this something sourced from actors in the conflict or just what people here think is going on?
State that there is currently no leadership and therefor no Decicion making Majority on Cease Fire Negotiation or Further Escalation can be made , until further Notice Hezbollah will follow Nasrallahs last Orders "to not let the evacuated Return to Galilea", You Expect the Consolidation of a New Leadership in 6 to 12 Months or so.
likely used United States-made 900kg (2,000-pound) bombs in the strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and levelled residential buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier this week, The Washington Post reports.
Citing three experts who analysed videos of Friday’s strikes, posted by the Israeli Air Force, the Post said on Sunday that at least some of the bombs were US-made “BLU-109s and JDAM guidance kits”.
BLU-109s are bunker-buster heavy bombs and JDAM kits are guidance systems that attach to munitions to help attack a specific target.
A 2,000-pound bomb has a destruction radius of 35 metres (115 feet), according to the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA), which conducts defence policy research and analysis.
Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s longtime chief, was killed in Friday’s strike on the group’s underground headquarters. Israel dropped what local media said were “bunker-busting” bombs and flattened about six buildings, while trying to kill Nasrallah.
The attack also devastated the entire neighbourhood, turning several apartment buildings into rubble.
Less videos are happening today. I suspect the population is now listening to the media and military requests not to publish video. The number of sirens going off seems to be about the same so I don't think Hezbollah have reduced their operation.
a banger of an article in the paper of the smaller finnish communist party (ML), concerning genocide and how finland liked to partake and still does tbh translation below
The policies of the Finnish occupation regime in Karelia during the Second World War are again being discussed in the public eye in the context of a trial in the Republic of Karelia in Petrozavodsk. Finland is accused of war crimes and genocide against the Karelian population.
The events in Karelia are a complex and long story that cannot be honoured in a single article. I recommend to everyone Tomi Mäkinen's series of articles published in Työkansan Sanomat on
Itä-Karjalan miehitys ja suomalaisten perustamat keskitysleirit 1941–44 (the occupation of East Karelia and the concentration camps set up by the Finns), and Marja-Leena Mikkola's book Menetetty lapsuus (Lost Childhood), on which the series of articles is based.
Mäkinen's series of articles and Mikkola's book describe Finnish actions from the perspective of Karelian and Karelian Russian survivors. In addition, several skilled writers have published articles on fascism and Finnish fascism in Työkansan Sanomat and on the Ktp website.
In short, the Finns who invaded Soviet Karelia in the Continuation War, inspired by the Greater Finland ideology, finnic tribalism and the practices of their allies in Nazi Germany, set up concentration camps where ethnic cleansing was carried out.
The Finns distinguished between the 'non-ethnic', i.e. Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Tatars and Latvians, and what they considered 'Finns', i.e. ethnic Karelians, Vepsians, Ingrians, Estonians and Mordvians, and sought to turn the ''Finnic'' into Finns.
All those in the camps experienced extreme physical, mental and cultural oppression. Thousands of men, women and children died from forced labour, starvation and punishments.
There is no doubt that Russia could or would use this trial for anti-Finnish propaganda today. The regime in capitalist Russia does not itself have a particular devotion to the rights of minorities. However, this fact should not justify the way in which genocide accusations are handled in Finland. Karelians have the right at any time to bring past events to light and demand accountability from Finland.
The Finnish media's response to the accusations has been to play down the events of the Continuation War, to accuse those involved of being Russian propagandists and to complain about unfair and dishonest historical research which 'claims that Finland was a fascist country that committed genocide'.
Unfortunately, in the light of Finnish historiography, this is not surprising. Finland has always responded to criticism of the state's actions from independence until the end of the Second World War with a strong defensive stance.
The Finnish government has been "forced" to ban political parties, imprison, torture and kill political opponents. The state "accidentally" had links with criminal fascist groups. Finland "had a difficult choice" between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Finland " was forced " to choose the Nazis. And even when they set up concentration camps, the Finns did it for a reason more noble than the other genocidaires. And all the deaths were accidents.
Such whining is all over the history books of our country. All the Finnish rulers from the beginning to the end are just blue-eyed, silly little children who do nothing wrong, but at the same time all the evil is done in self-defence. Refusing to accept responsibility is an extremely dangerous act, both for our past and for our future.
In the current situation, in which the state is again preparing itself for war, such a view of history and cognitive dissonance tends to be forgotten as if by magic. However, this is a time when fascism, war crimes and genocide should be better known and understood.
No matter what the imperialists want, this current war will end one day, and then we will be left wondering how thousands more have died, how the war feels so absurd again.
Genocidal nationalism in our culture is not just about ourselves and our own actions. The tradition of keeping quiet and following the bigger picture was seen again when Finland abstained in October 2023 in the UN vote on the Gaza ceasefire. This vote in Finland was preceded by a barrage of news reports calling Palestinians and pro-Palestinians terrorists and talking about Israeli self-defence.
Here are all the articles that are referenced in the article. i will not translate these but https://www.deepl.com/en/translator is decent with finnish, just work around the words a bit if they seems wonky
Israel rejects french USA ceasefire deal.
Israel is off the rails. Imperialists cant control it anymore.
By the guardian:
"Benjamin Netanyahu rules out US-French ceasefire proposal
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has ruled out a ceasefire proposal between Israel and Hezbollah, saying “The news about a ceasefire – not true. This is an American-French proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond.”
It said, instead, that “the prime minister instructed the IDF to continue the fighting with full force”. Over 600 people have been killed and thousands wounded in Lebanon since Israel began an intense bombing campaign on Monday.
Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz joined the prime minister in ruling out Israel accepting a US-French proposed 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
In a message posted to social media, Katz said: “There will be no ceasefire in the north. We will continue to fight against the terrorist organization Hezbollah with all our might until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”
About 60,000 Israelis have fled their homes in northern Israel due to continual fighting between Israel, Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli forces based in Lebanon. On the Lebanese side of the UN-drawn blue line that separates the two countries, tens of thousands of Lebanese have also been internally displaced.
Earlier Israel’s hardline far-right finance minister, who has previously described it as his life’s mission to thwart the creation of a Palestinian state, also rejected the idea of a ceasefire. Bezalel Smotrich said “The campaign in the north should end in one scenario – crushing Hezbollah.”
Israel’s military claimed that overnight it struck “approximately 75 terror targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation” in Beqaa and in southern Lebanon. Authorities in Lebanon reported at least four more people killed this morning, and that 23 Syrians, mostly women and children, were killed by an Israeli strike on Younine in Lebanon during the night.
The US and France had called for a temporary ceasefire to make way for broader negotiations. The joint statement issued by US president Joe Biden and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron said: “It is time for a settlement on the Israel-Lebanon border that ensures safety and security to enable civilians to return to their homes. The exchange of fire since October 7th, and in particular over the past two weeks, threatens a much broader conflict, and harm to civilians.”
The Jerusalem Post earlier reported that community leaders of northern Israel are unhappy with the prospect of a ceasefire, with one regional council’s chairman saying “There is a time for negotiations, this is not the time. This is a time for war.” "
🔴 Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine:
—
In the coming days, the resistance will shatter the enemy's euphoria and make it pay for its crimes.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine mourned the martyred leaders who ascended in the enemy's attacks and massacres in recent days in Lebanon, especially the leaders accompanying His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah.
The Front stressed that despite the serious loss of these important leaders, these losses will not weaken the resistance, nor affect its capability or determination in the battle. Rather, it will increase its determination to continue the battle to support the resistance in the Gaza Strip and defend its people.
The Front stressed that the resistance, in all its factions on all fronts, today is more cohesive and determined than ever before, and is able to manage the battle with competence, backed by an unrelenting fighting will and a firm determination to deter this criminal enemy, regardless of the challenges, the crimes of the occupation, and the loss of heroic leaders.
The Front stressed that the zionist bet on massacres and assassinations has miscalculated. The coming days will expose the enemy's illusions and shatter its false euphoria, when it starts paying heavy prices for its brutal crimes.
The Front concluded its statement, stressing that the resistance today is more aware and determined to continue the same path and honor the blood of the martyred leaders. The coming days will prove that the blood of these leaders will remain fuel for the continuation and escalation of the resistance. There will be no retreat from the path of confrontation, no matter how great the sacrifices are.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Central Media Department
29 September 2024
Haven't had time to check in on the video front much today but a cursory glance suggests very little has changed compared to yesterday. Regular sirens everywhere in the country, some videos of missiles but not as much as day one, etc etc.
Another morning, another day of Israel ruining the news cycle with their genocidal war crimes. So tired of their bullshit, I just want to read about horserace electoralism and laugh at malding chuds and libs.
A lot of dooming in this thread. Nasrallah is a massive loss, he'll be missed and honoured as a true hero. But we're really missing the forest for the trees here. What's next for Israel? What wins do they even have left? What happens when tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and every day after that, when the rockets keep flying into northern Israel, when the settlers are still unable to return to their homes, when the residents of Haifa keep running for cover? Nasrallah has already won, the decline of the entity is baked in. There's nothing for them to do but death, death at a mass scale, but none of it changes the game. Hezbollah will keep pounding the Israelis, and a thousand Nasrallahs wait in the ranks. Leaders are important, but when the people have resolve you cannot stop them. If you need some hope today watch The Battle of Algiers, it shows how even if you kill everybody, you eliminate all the leaders, you cannot kill the movement. You cannot win.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission adopted measures announced on Friday that ask exchanges to validate carbon offset derivatives, which base their prices on those of financial instruments bought by companies to offset emissions.
Earlier this summer, Treasury secretary Janet Yellen unveiled guidelines for developers selling credits, and for the companies buying them to offset emissions. Former US climate envoy John Kerry has also thrown his weight behind carbon credit markets, launching a state department-led initiative in 2022 aimed at decarbonising regional power sectors.
Despite the political momentum behind efforts to develop voluntary carbon markets, Behnam cautioned that the energy transition would “take decades”.
“This notion that we’re going to be able to just transition to renewables in the near future and not rely on carbon-based energy sources . . . it’s not reality, right?” said [CFTC chair Rostin] Behnam. “The transition is going to take time.”
A missile fired from Lebanon impacted a target in the occupied West Bank where fires broke out on Saturday night.
An hour after the missile attack, sirens sounded in the coastal city settlement of Nahariya, where unidentified aerial objects were detected flying over the area.
Article
The Israeli occupation's military command said that at least one missile was launched from Lebanon and impacted a settlement in the occupied West Bank, near occupied al-Quds, late on Saturday night.
Circulated footage showed a missile impacting its Israeli target after sirens sounded in multiple illegal Israeli settlements near al-Quds, including Ma'ale Adumim, at 10:05 pm (local time).
Later, more footage emerged of the site of the impact, where Israeli authorities had gathered to assess the damage and where a large fire had erupted.
Since then, the Israeli military command has been warily silent about the long-range attack from Lebanon.
Israeli military assets have come under several attacks by the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon - Hezbollah in the past few days, however, this marks the first instance where a missile has been fired at the area.
Moreover, Israeli media reported that a building in the suburbs of occupied al-Quds was damaged and that settlements in the area suffered from a power outage. Other outlets reported that the missile impacted an Israeli base in Ma'ale Adumim.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent said the missile impacted near an Israeli colonial outpost, Mitzpe Hagit, near Ma'ale Admumim.
Drones swarm Nahariya
An hour after the missile attack, sirens sounded in the coastal city settlement of Nahariya, where unidentified aerial objects were detected flying over the area.
Explosions were heard in the city, however, the Israeli military command has yet to comment on the matter.
These attacks come after the Israeli regime launched a wide-scale aggression on Lebanon killing hundreds of civilians in the past week.
The Israeli regime's aggression also saw the carpet bombing of a neighborhood in the suburb of Lebanon's capital, Beirut, where Hezbollah and Resistance leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, was martyred alongside several of his comrades.
Hezbollah launched eight operations in defense of Lebanon and in support of the Palestinian people on Saturday, including a rocket attack on the Qatsrin settlement in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq says the latest operation was in support of the Palestinian and Lebanese people.
Article
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq announced that it attacked on Saturday morning a vital target in Tel Aviv (occupied Yafa) using drones.
In a statement, the Iraqi Resistance indicated that the latest operation was "in continuation of our path in resisting the occupation, in support of our people in Palestine and Lebanon, and in response to the massacres committed by the usurping entity against civilians, including children, women, and the elderly."
A video released by the group's military media showed that the operation was dedicated to Hezbollah's commander Ibrahim Aqil (Hajj Abdul-Qader), who was martyred last week in an Israeli aggression that targeted the Southern Suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
In the early hours of Saturday, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq carried out a drone attack against a vital Israeli target in the occupied Syrian Golan.
Additionally, two other operations were conducted by the Iraqi Resistance against Israeli targets, one military in northern occupied Palestine and another vital target in the southern part of the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Resistance also announced that it had attacked a vital target in the northern occupied territories for the third time during the early morning hours.
Israeli media reports indicate that the Israeli occupation is facing a 'coordinated and wide-ranging' attack from multiple fronts, causing damage across different areas of occupied Palestine.
Article
Israeli media reported that the occupation entity is facing what it described as an "attack from Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq." This was accompanied by reports of explosions heard in Eilat, located in the south of occupied Palestine, without the activation of alarm sirens.
In parallel, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq announced its operation on a "vital target in the occupied Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat), using drone strikes."
Additionally, Israeli media noted the outbreak of "four large fires in four settlements east of al-Quds due to rocket fire from Lebanon," along with the activation of sirens in Nahariya and its surroundings amid fears of drone infiltration.
In turn, Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported that drones were launched from Lebanon toward occupied Palestine, resulting in multiple explosions in various areas following the deployment of swarms of drones.
The correspondent also mentioned explosions in the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, followed by fires after drones fell in the area.
The Israeli occupation forces also confirmed detecting missiles launched from Lebanon toward occupied East al-Quds, where sirens sounded in nearby settlements on Saturday.
Israeli media, moreover, reported damage to a building in the suburbs of al-Quds, power outages affecting part of the area, and the outbreak of a fire.
Iraqi Resistance attacks vital Israeli target in Tel Aviv with drones
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq announced that it attacked on Saturday morning a vital target in Tel Aviv (occupied Yafa) using drones.
In a statement, the Iraqi Resistance indicated that the latest operation was "in continuation of our path in resisting the occupation, in support of our people in Palestine and Lebanon, and in response to the massacres committed by the usurping entity against civilians, including children, women, and the elderly."
A video released by the group's military media showed that the operation was dedicated to Hezbollah's commander Ibrahim Aqil (Hajj Abdul-Qader), who was martyred last week in an Israeli aggression that targeted the Southern Suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
The Norwegian regime is planning to construct a fence along its border with Russia. So writes NRK (Norwegian state media). The fence is intended to "deter" refugees from crossing the border illegally.
There has been three illegal crossings of the Russian-Norwegian border since the beginning of the Ukraine war.
I wonder what it's like to be a Zionist. Are they happy? Is morale at an all-time high? Are they confident that the genocide will be complete and Israel's ultimate perfect victory is assured? Is Israel doing everything they want them to do and just racking up W after W, while the Resistance is too scared to respond? Have any of them died from being overloaded by constant ecstasy? Or is all of this just a matter of perspective?
He called for the suspension of Israel’s membership in the United Nations. He demanded a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the attacks of the occupiers in the West Bank.
Palestinian National Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday called for sanctions against the Zionist entity in the ongoing genocide it is committing against the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Abbas spoke at the 79th session of the UN General Assembly. He rose to the podium in the midst of sustained applause and thus began his speech: We will not leave. Palestine is our homeland, the home of our parents and grandparents, and it will remain ours. If anyone has to leave, it must be the usurpers».
He called for the suspension of Israel’s membership in the United Nations. He demanded a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the attacks of the occupiers in the West Bank. He further stated that the State of Palestine will exercise full sovereignty over Gaza and begin its reconstruction once the occupiers have withdrawn from there.
He stated that his people for almost a year have been the object of one of the most heinous crimes in history, by the genocidal war perpetrated by Israel, which to date has killed more than 40,000 martyrs in Gaza alone, with thousands still under the rubble and more than 100,000 injured. He detailed that the occupation killed more than 15,000 children.
He urged the international community to stop the genocide and held it responsible for what is happening in the occupied territories of Palestine. «Stop sending weapons to Israel», he urged.
It also denounced the illegal construction of settlements in the West Bank, the destruction of hundreds of homes of the Arab population and the systematic and violent attacks against Palestinian civilians by occupation soldiers or settlers.
He said that hundreds of Palestinian families have been annihilated and their names have disappeared from the civil registry. Thousands of people have died as a result of the spread of disease, epidemics and lack of medicines and water. Thousands have had to move repeatedly in search of safety, fleeing Israeli aggression.
He demanded the arrest of members of the Zionist cabinet who want to destroy the al-Aqsa mosque and build a Hebrew temple there, and reiterated that al-Aqsa belongs to the Muslims. «Instead of opening itself to reason, Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza and recently opened another criminal chapter by attacking Lebanon. We demand that it be terminated immediately».
«If the Zionist entity believes that it will be free from accountability for its massacres and genocide since 1948 to today, he is wrong», he admitted.
Also held the U.S. accountable. by using the veto to obstruct resolutions in the agency’s Security Council, which demanded an immediate ceasefire from Israel.
He questioned the White House for providing funds and deadly weapons to the Zionist entity, with which it massacred thousands of women and children. Recalled that the U.S. also voted against giving Palestine full membership in the UN: Why the U.S. Why not. Does it take away from our people the legitimate right to be free?» he questioned.
Similarly, he called for the creation of an international peacekeeping force between Palestine and Israel after the end of the current siege on the occupied territories to ensure the security of both states.
The Zionist entity continues to escalate attacks in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank with the complicit support of the US.
The Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas assured Israel and its allies on Wednesday that they will never surrender to their aggressions, no matter how long the current siege of the Zionist entity against the Gaza Strip.
In that regard, a senior Hamas figure, Osama Hamdan, said: “We do not want the period of aggression against Gaza and the people of Lebanon to be prolonged. The occupiers and their supporters must know that no matter how long it takes, the Resistance will not surrender”.
Hamdan said that the ceasefire by the occupation will allow the cessation of resistance responses from Lebanon and Palestine. The Palestinian leader also warned that one of the enemy’s objectives is to isolate the two movements, but he said that this will not happen.
“Our brothers on the Resistance fronts in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq understand very well the objectives and intentions of the enemy,” he said.
Hamdan accused the US and the West of supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza and obstructing international support. He stressed that the allies of Tel Aviv know what are the demands of Palestine and Lebanon: to stop the current genocidal attacks and end the occupation.
He said that the failure in Gaza of the war strategy of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, pushed him to attack Lebanon. The Israeli army has been carrying out a series of large-scale attacks on Lebanon since Monday, which have claimed the lives of more than 600 people and injured about 2,000.
Reupload because the first upload was only 48 seconds for some reason. Anyway it's a pretty hype video, more interesting than the 15th rocket trail in the sky video anyway.
Worth watching: Hezbollah publishes a 4 minute video of its underground missile base 'Emad 4'
Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro accuse Israel's prime minister of genocide. They also say that the UN urgently needs to be reformed.
Both said how can the UN have the strength to create a country like Israel, but not have the same strength to create a Palestinian state. Lula da Silva added that Benjamin Netanyahu does not respect the UN, or any law. That he is a criminal and a genocider.
Gustavo Petro and Lula da Silva believe that the UN Security Council should be tougher on Israel and force an immediate ceasefire. They also accused European countries and the United States of spending money on wars in Ukraine and Israel, but not sending any aid to Latin American, African and Asian countries suffering from climate change. This was agreed decades ago but has never been fulfilled.
Die Zeit found the perfect framing device in a young man the reporter just happened upon in front of the bomb crater south of Beirut, and apparently follows him around all night. He's perfect for the story. Too perfect.
He's looking for his family from one of the nearby damaged buildings (no worries happy ending). His father is Hezbollah, he's Hezbollah technically, but doesn't want to become a fighter against his father's wishes. They had a fight and he's the black sheep of the family now. He works at a hair salon and rather likes beautiful hair, no, beauty itself! He blames Hezbollah for this. He says there were of course weapons at the Hezbollah HQ next to his home. He thinks Israel is just too powerful; can't be beaten. He just wants to live in a real country with a proper army and a president.
This conversation with a young man who lives and grew up in the heart of the Hezbollah movement, who, as he says, is of course a member, like everyone in this neighborhood, but is not convinced, who criticizes Hezbollah so bluntly amidst a crowd of irritated Hezbollah guards, is completely improbable - and perhaps only possible for this reason. Nobody pays attention to us anymore.
The Waffle House Index is a metric named after the ubiquitous Southern US restaurant chain Waffle House known for its 24-hour, 365-day service. Since this restaurant always remains open, it has given rise to an informal but useful metric to determine the severity of a storm and the likely scale of assistance required for disaster recovery. It was coined by former administrator Craig Fugate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The metric is unofficially used by FEMA to inform disaster response.
....
In 2022, because of the expected severity of Hurricane Ian, 35 Waffle Houses closed in Florida prior to the storm's arrival, an extremely rare event. Hurricane Ian eventually made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 miles per hour (240 km/h), peaking out over the Atlantic Ocean as a Category 5 hurricane.
The bottom 40% of incomes account for 22% of total consumer spending and 13% of total income, and the top 20% of incomes account for 39% of total consumer spending and 47% of total income
“If Zelenski were smart, he would advocate diplomacy, not a military solution,” Says President Lula da Silva.
The statement came after the Ukrainian accused Brazil and China of helping Putin achieve his goals in the conflict.
He was referring to a plan to end the war announced by Brasilia and Beijing in May, after a meeting between Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, and Celso Amorim, Lula's adviser on international affairs. “What he [Zelenski] is failing to do is make peace. We're not proposing to make peace for them, we're pointing out to them that only peace will ensure that Ukraine survives as a sovereign country, and that Russia survives,” said Lula during a press conference at the UN in New York.
“They don't have to accept China and Brazil's proposal because there is no proposal. There's a thesis that it's important to start talking.” “If he were smart, he [Zelenski] would say that the solution is diplomatic, not military. This depends on the ability to sit down and talk, to listen to the other side. And trying to reach an agreement so that the Ukrainian people can have peace in their lives. That's it.”
Over 30 years of Indigenous resistance with Mohawk land defender Ellen GabrielHexbear post
Colonial-rooted poverty will not be solved by more colonial solutions'
Thirty-four years ago, Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel was thrust into the spotlight when she was chosen as the spokesperson for the Kanienʼkehá:ka (Mohawk) communities of Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawà:ke, as they resisted the planned expansion of a golf course on into their sacred lands and burial grounds in southern Quebec and police and military attempted to subdue them by force.
In a new book, When the Pine Needles Fall, Gabriel and settler historian Sean Carleton chart a course from the events of 1990 to the present, while extending into a generous and expansive vision of the future. The book, which they began writing in 2019, evolved during the pandemic, taking shape as a series of conversations that articulate the urgency and necessity of Indigenous resistance. Centring Gabriel’s own words through dialogue, Carleton writes, was a way to “divest my power and authority as an academic to create space for Ellen’s brilliance … to hold space and amplify Ellen’s voice, while also co-creating through conversation.”
How significant is this from the list? Emphasis mine.
Iran, Hezbollah's powerful ally has condemned the strike, calling it a "blatant war crime," that crosses its red lines. Iran announced today that it will begin sending troops to Lebanon.
Can't take it anymore god I'm losing my mind... again. Making another deranged post where I'm rambling on about stuff I can't even thinkabout no more.
Been losing my mind all fucking day ever since the news and all the fucking zionist freaks hooting and celebrating.
I just want to see every zionist punished and physically torn apart. Every smug piece of shit experiencing all the worst pains you can imagine.
I'd toss away whatever fucking morals I have left, drag my own name through the mud, condemn myself to hell if it means I get a chance to punish all of these genocidal monsters wearing human skin. I'd commit every war crime you can think of under the sun, and hell, I'd even invent new war crimes just for them. I'd bring back every fucking medieval torture method just to punish them.
I haven't been able to enjoy anything today. And there are people who are happy anyone who supports the resistance feels like this.
I can't keep it together. Try as I might I just end up relapsing into complete rage-filled despair again, over and over and over. Because the worst people in the world have all the power, and always seem to get everything they want. Always getting vindicated. Always always always.
Why can't there be a literally invincible and untouchable force or state or whatever that has the power to just threaten and crush all imperialist and genocidal freaks overnight with no repercussions? Instead we have a seemingly invincible and untouchable state in the form of the US that just does whatever it wants with no repercussions, such as aiding and supporting genocide.
If Israel wins and succeeds in their genocide, I don't see how I don't just devolve into full misanthropy.
In his first speech at the UN’s general assembly, the president said Argentina would abandon its long-standing neutrality regarding world conflicts
In his first speech at the United Nations headquarters, Argentine President Javier Milei accused the international organization of promoting a “socialist” and “collectivist” agenda, and said the country would abandon its long tradition of neutrality regarding world conflicts.
“The woke agenda’s collectivism and moral posturing have collided with reality and no longer have credible solutions to offer to the world’s real problems,” the president said during the UN’s 79th General Assembly.
In a speech replete with religious references, Milei said that the UN had “became a multi-tentacled leviathan, which seeks to decide not only what each nation-state should do, but also how all the world’s citizens should live.”
Milei also said the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a 17-point goal declaration adopted by all member countries that includes goals such as tackling climate change and achieving zero hunger, is “a socialist supranational government program.”
The president also criticized the UN’s Pact for the Future, which Argentina distanced itself from on Monday, and aims for member countries to commit to action on issues including peace, poverty, climate change, and gender equality.
“We invite all nations of the free world to join us, not only in dissenting from this pact but in creating a new agenda for this noble institution: the agenda of freedom,” he said.
Milei listed alleged “mistakes and contradictions” the UN had committed, such as voting against Israel, which he called “the only country in the Middle East that upholds liberal democracy.” He also said the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns worldwide were a “crime against humanity” and said that the UN “allowed the Human Rights Council to support bloody dictatorships such as Cuba and Venezuela without the slightest reproach.”
Since taking office, Milei has aligned himself with Israel and the United States, as well as international far-right political organizations such as the Spanish Foro Madrid and the U.S.’s Conservative Political Action Conference.
("Israel" and the "United States" are also far right political organizations)
Milei also accused the UN of promoting a “toxic relationship between global governance policies and international lending agencies” and of “requiring the most impoverished countries to commit resources they do not have to programs they do not need.”
Argentina took a US$44 billion loan from the IMF in 2018, during Mauricio Macri’s government, and currently has an economic program agreed with the international lender to pay back the debt. Argentine media had previously reported that Milei was planning to meet with IMF authorities during his trip to the U.S., but the meeting did not come to fruition.
“From this day on, you should know that the Argentine Republic will abandon the historical position of neutrality that characterized us and will be at the forefront of the struggle in defense of freedom,” he said. Argentina has maintained a long tradition of neutrality regarding world conflicts, dating back to before World War II.
Okay then, I support Russian and Chinese surgical strikes to decapitate and demilitarize the anarcho capitalist entity that is "Argentina". 100% this motherfucker will announce he'll be sending troops to Lebanon to fight for "Israel". What is he even going to do, send all of our three tanks and one serviceable destroyer from the 80s?
“May God bless the Argentines and all the citizens of the world, and may the forces of heaven be with us,” he said, before ending his speech with his usual guttural roar of “long live freedom, dammit!”
cringe
Milei arrived in the U.S. on Saturday night. During his trip, he rang the Wall Street opening bell and spoke with investors. He also met with X owner Elon Musk for the third time. After the meeting, Musk posted on X that his “companies are actively looking for ways to invest in and support Argentina.”
Later on Tuesday, Milei will meet with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. The president is expected to return to Argentina on Wednesday morning.
In a rerun of their fearmongering over the railroad strike two years ago, the NYT is emphasizing that this could ruin Christmas:
Chris Butler, the chief executive of the National Tree Company, which sells artificial Christmas trees and other decorations, said his company had brought in goods early and made greater use of West Coast ports. But he estimated that 15 percent of his goods would still be stranded by a port strike.
I still don’t really buy the whole “Israel is trying to pull the US into a war” line. I think the US knows perfectly well where this goes, and has for a very long time, and are making their own calculations about what the best moments are to apply what sort of pressure or action. Like I just refuse to believe the entire US military and state apparatus is like “fuck are we getting pulled into something here? What do we do?” The end goal is rooting out any uncontrolled opposition to global capitalist order, methodically and systematically. Overcoming contradictions, or redirecting them into new usable/controllable forms. Of course by the very nature of fire you can only control it for so long. I think for the US that process is much different and longer than any of us understand though. But the US clearly has aims for Iran and China as it does for Russia. And I don’t buy the ruling class would allow itself to “get dragged” into something it didn’t want or wasn’t actively trying to use. Lying to Iran is a great example of this
Sirens going off east of Tel Aviv, a full 120 kilometers from the Lebanon border. The furthest Hezbollah has struck so far in this war. There are also videos of settlers in the West Bank fleeing from Hezbollah strikes nearby.
Haifa is being bombarded by repeated waves of missiles, targetting Ramat David air base and military/industrial infrastructure. Warehouses for the Northern division were also struck.
FOCAC 2024: The People's Republic of China wants to grant financial aid without compensation of 17 billion CFA francs to Burkina Faso
spoiler
The day after the holding of the 9th Forum on Sino-African Cooperation (FOCAC) , the Youth Club for the Promotion of Sino-Burkinabè Cooperation (CJPC-BF) organized, this Saturday, September 28, 2024, a reflection workshop dedicated to the restitution of the work of said Forum. The objective of this workshop is to better understand the results of this forum and to take advantage of the opportunities it presents for Burkina Faso.
The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is, according to Lu Shan, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Burkina Faso, of importance between their country and Burkina Faso. "I think this summit allows China and Africa and more specifically Burkina Faso to raise the level of their relationship. (...) This summit allows us to draw up the roadmap for Sino-Burkinabe cooperation," he stressed.
He also indicated that through this 9th FOCAC, concrete initiatives in favor of Burkina Faso have been taken. "China will grant a customs tariff of 0 to 100% of Burkinabe products and also an aid without counterpart of 17 billion CFA francs and also a food aid of one billion CFA francs , " said the Chinese diplomat.
While stressing that both parties (Burkina Faso and the People's Republic of China, editor's note) must increase the volume and quality of cooperation, Lu Shan welcomed the holding of the reflection workshop devoted to the restitution of the 9th FOCAC.
"I think that this (the 9th FOCAC reflection workshop, Editor's note) demonstrates the keen interest that Burkina Faso has in Sino-Burkinabe cooperation ," he said. This workshop, according to Abdoul Razahagou Dene, national general coordinator of the Youth Club for the Promotion of Sino-Burkinabe Cooperation (CJPC-BF), aims to better understand the results of this forum and to take advantage of the opportunities it presents to Burkina Faso, particularly through the involvement of young people.
According to him, it will be a question of proposing initiatives and taking ownership of the commitments made during this 9th FOCAC. "This workshop must thus result in strategic recommendations so that our country can, in a proactive manner, benefit from infrastructure, financing and partnerships, while consolidating our cultural and diplomatic ties with China ," Abdoul Razahagou Dene suggested.
In other words, according to the vice president of the organizing committee of the said workshop, Stéphane Zongo, it is a question of bringing the decisions taken during the 9th FOCAC to the entire Burkinabe population and also to local actors. "And depending on the decisions that will be taken, make a report so that the decisions that will be taken are based on what the population is asking for ," said Stéphane Zongo.
The marches led by the former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, are advancing in the country. The march has already lasted six days and clashes with followers of President Luis Arce have increased. Arce denounces a coup attempt by Evo.
8 people have already died. The march, according to Evo Morales, is for justice and freedom. The former president of Bolivia accuses his former Dauphin of being a traitor, after breaking with the movement linked to him, and taking over the leadership of the party.
Morales accuses Arce of being behind the decision that banned him from running in the 2025 elections. Bolivian President Luis Arce, together with his vice-president David Choquehuanca, announced on national television that they have accepted the invitation of the Defender of the People, an independent office in Bolivia, for an unconditional dialogue with former president Evo Morales.
The dialog would be an attempt to end a political crisis that arose internally within the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) after a rupture between Arce and the former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales.
We will see what kind of agreement Arce and Evo will make. I really hope they end this crisis and choose a strong leftist candidate for the next election.
Very conflicting reports on Nasrallah, reuters are saying their Hezbollah source says he's alive. One Israeli report is also claiming that the commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria and Lebanon was present at the meeting with Nasrallah.
I don't know where to post this, but I thought I'd share on my friend's behalf as the situation gets desperate by the minute.
If you can, please help by donating to her aunt's family who are stranded in the northern part of Lebanon, who couldn't take a whole lot with them, who barely escaped in time: https://zrzutka.pl/shpjea#.
And if you can't, please share this with someone who can. If this is the wrong place to post this, please point me to the right direction. Thank you.
2006 clip of Nasrallah. People believed he was dead for 3 days after israel attacked his main office & building, but then 3 days later Nasrallah appeared on live TV, saying:
Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia’al Sudani, said on Thursday that the Security Council has failed to achieve its main objective: maintaining peace.
“Ending the violations against Palestine is everyone’s responsibility,” said the High Representative of Iraq, while stressing that above all, the Security Council has not achieved its main objective: to maintain peace.
In insisting that Israel is violating the principles of the UN Security Council and the UN Charter, the Iraqi premier said we are witnessing people being attacked by an occupying military force, killing thousands. Talk of famine to eliminate people, he insisted.
In this regard, the Iraqi politician stressed that important principles such as sovereignty and territorial integrity, international humanitarian law and self-determination are under threat in the current context.
The people of Palestine have been denied their right to live in dignity, said the politician, claiming that it guarantees Israel’s impunity. International law is left on paper, he reflected, with the annexation of territories.
He made a critical analysis of the brutal campaign with remote bombing technologies without taking into account that there are unarmed civilians. Similarly, he denounced the new brutal aggression against Lebanon.
Mohammed Shia’al Sudani also declared that his country would provide whatever assistance it could to Lebanon to overcome the effects of this attack, while firmly rejecting occupation and standing up for people’s rights.
“We note that relief agencies in the occupied territories are being attacked,” said the Prime Minister, while underlining that this session is taking place at a difficult time in the Middle East and the world which is being pushed into a large-scale conflict, while the Council is powerless.
Mohammed Shia’al Sudani stressed that this is a difficult test of the world order that threatens its existence.
I wonder whether the war/escalation in Lebanon is being timed. Netanyahu knows he needs to keep the war going, which basically means the Israeli state's broadened rampage across Southwest Asia, taking advantage of the unwavering support of the US.
The US presidential election is less than 40 days away, making this one of very few times that could make war a sensitive issue. An escalation now might be an October Surprise to tip the scales towards Trump, and anger the Biden/Harris administration which might end up somewhat constraining its support in retaliation.
But once the election is decided, the war will only have a minute effect on the fortunes of American politicians. Biden's approval rating started to tank as soon as the retreat from Afghanistan happened, and never fully recovered, but in the long run it was better for the Democrats to get the geopolitical embarrassment out of the way at the beginning of the term, so that the electorate would have enough time to start caring about it.
In a parallel vein, I wouldn't be surprised if the IDF are going to strategically time an invasion of Lebanon to a few days after the election. No matter which party wins, it will be less politically risky, as they know they'll be able to count on the support of Trump of Harris as soon as the chips fall.
Can somebody point me to any good resources about the relationship between Russia and Syria? It looks like another proxy front is going to open up there, and if NATO is starting to pressure Zelensky to reach a settlement I assume Russia can just flood it with weapons. Basically a reverse Operation Cyclone. The wartime economy has also been pretty good to Russia
Slate interviewed a reporter in Lebanon. Of course such interviews are fairly rare in the American media. They make Israel look bad. The article is from two days ago - I think interviews over days where condensed.