Bulletins and News Discussion from December 9th to December 15th, 2024

Trump invites China's Xi Jinping to inauguration

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-invites-china-xi-jinping-inauguration/

cursed lathe

Xi attends. The MAGA communism shit head gets invited and has a meeting with the two.

HTS fighter gives 'brotherly advice', asking me to wear headscarf - BBC

spoiler

On our way to Damascus’ main Umayyad Square, I meet Abul Hammam, a Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) fighter, and his cousin Mohammad.

They hug each other tightly, meeting after 15 years apart.

Abul Hammam, 30, originally from Damascus, says he was fighting in Aleppo for years at the beginning of the Syrian revolution where he joined HTS. He has been in Azerbaijan for some years.

I speak to him in Azeri a little.

"Your name is Arabic but you are not Arab. Where are you from?" he asks me.

I cautiously tell him that I am originally from Iran’s West Azerbaijan.

He smiles, saying: "Many of our ancestors are from Balkan and old Soviet Union countries near Iran. I like Iranian people but not the regime. We fought with them."

He goes on to ask me whether I am a Christian – I smile, trying to avoid talking about religion. He continues: "May I give you a brotherly nice advice? Do you have headscarf?"

I say yes I have it with me.

"I think you will be nicer if you wear it as a Muslim woman," he says.

Out of respect and for security reasons I take my headscarf and cover a part of my hair similar to how I would wear it in Iran.

"If you bring it further and cover all, it will [be] much better," Hammam adds.

A little news and combat footage from the Donbass and Kursk oblast.

This news article discusses Russian forces’ recent advances and includes a big collection of combat footage videos (some are 18+): https://southfront.press/ukraine-faces-the-loss-of-five-cities-russias-offensive-gains-momentum/

Racist, British imperialist disinformation about “North Korean soldiers in Kursk” was exposed as laughable fake news: https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/DMNK:3

Some Syria news for today.

The big news of the day is that former officers and soldiers of the Syrian Arab Army’s 25th Special Mission Forces Division (Tiger Forces) are organizing in the coastal, mountainous areas near Lebanon and have vowed to continue fighting against the Western-backed terrorists. The announcement is very reminiscent of how Green resistance forces continued fighting against Western-backed terrorists in Libya for many years after NATO destroyed the Jamahiriya: https://x.com/Megatron_ron/status/1866927900886467014

Iranian Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei stated, “The more they fight the resistance, the wider its front will be, and it will be stronger and include the entire region … America is trying to establish a foothold in the region, but it will not achieve its goals, and the resistance front will expel the Americans from the region”: https://thecradle.co/articles/fall-of-syria-planned-in-us-israeli-war-rooms-khamenei

Turkish-backed “SNA” and al-Queda “HTS” forces captured the eastern Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor from Washington’s “SDF” proxies: https://sputnikglobe.com/20241211/what-is-the-strategic-importance-of-deir-ez-zor-and-could-it-cause-new-kurdish-syrian-conflict-1121150295.html

Traitorous elements controlling Syria’s Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party announced the suspension of the party’s activities: https://tass.com/world/1886169

The Western-backed terrorist onslaught has now displaced over one million Syrians: https://tass.com/world/1886137

Does the apartheid regime just get their buffer zones on Google maps now?

The working draft of the Republican Party's HHS funding bill for next year includes a stipulation to withhold federal funding from any recipient that provides HRT.

For the last few years, the GOP has coalesced around an idea that would short-circuit essentially all trans health care in America: banning federal funds from going to businesses that provide health care specific to changing one’s sex or gender identity, including hormones and surgeries. It would essentially signal to the private sector that if it wants federal dollars, it needs to stay away from sex- or gender-affirming care, and bow down to right-wing pundits who aim to, in their own words, “eradicate” and “erase” this form of health care.

Language in House Republicans’ most recent funding bill for the Health and Human Services Department would do just that — ban money from any federal program to entities that do “social transitioning” or drugs and surgery for “gender dysphoria.” Gender dysphoria is the specific diagnosis doctors use to justify those medical interventions. This legislation has not gotten a vote yet and would need to be reintroduced next Congress to be considered. But it has been a top priority for Republican lawmakers in the House, and Trump himself has promised he’d ask Congress “to permanently stop federal taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or pay for these [trans] procedures.” (You can hear all his promises on trans health care in this short campaign video.)

Bans like these can lead to the private sector discontinuing behaviors altogether — and once they are in place, they are hard to get rid of: The Hyde Amendment, enacted in the 1970s, led to most abortions no longer being performed in hospitals, and is continually renewed each year.

Medical groups and civil rights advocates in D.C. tell Rolling Stone they believe that if a Hyde-level ban on federal funding were enacted, many hospitals will simply prioritize federal dollars over continuing this highly specialized form of medical care. So much medicine is performed through hospital systems and universities that this could mean ending access for many.

Given the Democratic Party leapt at the chance to scapegoat transgender people for all their own failures in the election, I think it would take a miracle to prevent this from going into law. It will immediately put large health institutions in certain states between a rock and hard place, as local legislation requires them to offer these services, which will likely lead to appeals, but as it stands I doubt they will make even a token effort to get this language out of the bill, and it will make HRT completely legally inaccessible for anyone who can't afford private practice virtually overnight. This article's author, Jael Holzman, is the guest on this week's Chapo, you can hear the story in her own words there.

With regards to the Russian Oreshnik IRBM (and conventional prompt strike weapons in general), and Putin's statements over the past few days and weeks about how these conventional weapons can do similar amount of damage as tactical nuclear weapons, the user @bbnh69420@hexbear.net asked a really good question: what kind of facilities would take a similar amount of damage from an Oreshnik strike as a tactical nuclear weapon?

My attempt to answer that question, with some analysis and satellite imagery. Click here to expand the spoiler tag.

My answer was an airbase, for the following reasons: Airbases are quite spread out hardened targets, with everything you want to strike spread out over kilometres, and usually protected by hardened shelters, in the case of forward airbases that are likely to be hit first. You can either do this with a lot of high precision weapons, or with a wide area of effect weapons, such as using cluster warheads/submunitions, or even a tactical nuclear weapon in a total war scenario.

The problem with a lot of submunition or cluster munition based weapons, is that the smaller conventional explosive munitions lack the power to seriously damage any hardened shelters, for aircraft, resources or personnel. That's fine if the airbase is relatively unprotected, but if it's full of hardened shelters, it poses a serious issue. But Oreshnik is unique in this regard: it is suspected to use kinetic submunitions that travel fast enough and with enough energy to penetrate these hardened shelters and cause damage to them. That's why I thought Oreshnik would be an ideal weapon to seriously damage forward airbases. It's a submunition weapon, without the drawbacks of typical submunition weapons.

To support my argument, we'll be using imagery and data from Iran's retaliatory strike on Nevatim Airbase during Operation True Promise II. We know that there were 33 observed impacts on the base. So what if, instead of each impact being from a single warhead, it was from a grouping of submunitions with a 175m radius for the grouping. 175m is the estimated damage radius of a Chinese DF-15 SRBM with a submunition warhead, so it's why I'm using that figure (also I'm lazy and some OSINT guy on twitter already did the math and imagery with that radius). 33 groupings would be the approximately the equivalent of six Oreshnik IRBMs, as each Oreshnik is estimated to carry 6 MIRVs, with six submunitions each. Six Oreshniks would give you 36 groupings, so three more than the Iranian strike. But close enough for this comparison. Now Iran did not use submunitions for the reason I described in the previous paragraph, but we know that reasoning does not apply to Oreshnik, so here we go:

As you can see, we go from singular impacts mostly missing key targets, to getting good coverage over key buildings on the base as a whole. Let's look at the potential hits in detail:

As for the aircraft shelters in the north west of the base, the strike has gone from hitting none of them, to hitting 9 aircraft shelters within the radius of the cluster strike. And those 9 shelters only required two groupings to take out. Now let's move on to the F-35 hardened shelters at the heart of the base:

Iran achieved one direct hit here with a couple of near misses. But now with a potential cluster munition strike, 19 of these hardened shelters are hit, along with a couple of other buildings. A huge difference. Now moving on to the aircraft hangars to the east:

Here Iran did manage a some good hits on these hangars, so the difference is not large. But there is full coverage over the hangars, and six large aircraft could have been destroyed if they were unable to get in the air before the strike.

So in conclusion, from the Iranian strike, to a potential Oreshnik strike with six Oreshniks on the same target, we've gone from a direct hit on 1 F-35 hardened aircraft shelter and a couple of hits on unprotected hangars to the east, to hitting 19 F-35 shelters, 9 other fighter jet shelters, 5 unprotected hangars (for 33 hangars/shelters total), and 6 large parked aircraft. And that's if Oreshnik has the same accuracy as Iranian MRBMs. If it has greater accuracy, the same damage could be done with less Oreshniks, or more damage with the same amount. If the Oreshnik was incredibly accurate and always hit it's mark (very unrealistic, but just for the sake of argument), only one Oreshnik would have been needed to take out those 33 hangars/hardened shelters, as only six groupings were required here. That's an incredible amount of damage from one conventional missile, to be able to take out 30+ fighter aircraft with one missile, while they are still on the ground. Even if multiple Oreshniks are required for such a strike (which is likely), it's still a massive amount of damage. This is what Putin means when he says it's equivalent to a tactical nuclear weapon. Taking out an entire airbase with half a dozen missiles, or even less if they are highly accurate.

Strike on Kadyrovs Akmat Battalion in Grozny.

Unidentified Iranian drones, reportedly the size of small cars, have been flying over American airspace to monitor U.S. military installations and critical infrastructure, including 'Picatinny Arsenal', an army base which houses the Headquarters of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center (CCDCAC) – the drones are said to be 'technology that the U.S. does not possess' – Newsweek

'The drones are not Iranian, but they are also not part of the U.S. military or any foreign government'

'The drones seem to have some sort of advanced stealth capability' – Congressman Van Drew (R-NJ2)

'One month ago, Iran launched a mothership near the U.S. East Coast, from where Iranian military drones have been entering U.S. airspace, including New Jersey, to monitor residences of the President & American military movements. These drones should be SHOT DOWN. The U.S. military is on full alert regarding this.' – Congressman Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ-2), citing high-ranking intelligence sources

The Pentagon has denied that Iranian drones are operating in U.S. airspace, and states there is 'no official explanation' for the unidentified drones. However, Congressman Van Drew & other high-ranking government officials within the sub-commitee of Aviation of the U.S. House of Representatives insist that their information is truthful.

They say the Pentagon is denying the news in order to prevent mass panic among the U.S. population. 'These are not American drones, we don't even have anything like this. I have it from extremely reliable sources that these are Iranian drones, launched from a mothership near the East Coast', Van Drew said.

posad left-unity-2 khomeini

In core news:

apparently death-to-the-poor lady returned from vacations for this

Yemen upholds allegiance to Gaza: 'Peace or long war, world must choose' | The Cradle

Mexican President Sheinbaum Grants Legal Status to 68 Indigenous Peoples - Telesur English

Article

This Latin American country is home to approximately 23 million people who identify themselves as Indigenous. On Tuesday, President Claudia Sheinbaum signed a decree recognizing the rights of Mexico’s Indigenous peoples and establishing the Presidential Commission for Justice Plans for Indigenous and Afro-Mexican Peoples.

During the morning press conference at the National Palace, Sheinbaum emphasized the significance of the reform to Article 2 of the Constitution, which was approved in September under the presidency of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) and declares Mexico a “multiethnic nation.”

“Today, we will publish the reform in multiple languages, celebrating this International Human Rights Day,” she stated, referencing a law that recognizes 68 Indigenous groups as subjects of public law, granting them legal personality and their own patrimony. Additionally, the reform to Article 2 mandates consultations on projects that may impact the communities of the Indigenous peoples.

The constitutional reform was translated into over 50 indigenous languages thanks to the joint work of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), the University of Indigenous Languages of Mexico (ULIM) and the National Institute of Indigenous Languages (INALI), the outlet Quadratin reported.

Currently, Mexico is home to approximately 23 million people who identify themselves as Indigenous. Around 7.4 million of them speak a native language, with Nahuatl, Maya, Tzeltal, and Zapotec being the most common. The creation of the Presidential Commission aims to oversee justice plans for Indigenous peoples initiated during AMLO’s administration. To date, Mexico has implemented 17 justice plans benefiting 26 Indigenous peoples across 12 states, reaching approximately 420,000 people with a total investment of US$1.4 billion.

Brazilian Conservative Right Presidential candidate loses ally and political rights due to Bolsonaro.

Governor Ronaldo Caiado (União), Sandro Mabel (União) and Cláudia Lira (Avante), mayor-elect of Goiânia, were convicted by the Electoral Court of Goiás for abuse of political power. Their candidacy records were revoked and they were declared ineligible for 8 years.

The three were indicted for holding events at the Esmeraldas Palace (Goiás Governor Palace) with an electoral political character after the first round of the elections. The complaint was filed by the Electoral Prosecutor's Office and pointed to abuse of political power, which motivated the court's decision.

For now, the decision is provisional and does not prevent Mabel and his deputy from taking office, which is scheduled for January 2025. Mabel's defense said he was surprised by the conviction and denies any irregularities. Fines of up to R$60,000 were imposed.

The Liberal Party, Jair Bolsonaro's party, filed the lawsuit after its candidate was defeated in this year's municipal elections. And perhaps to remove a possible right-wing rival from the next elections.

More people are indicted for attempting a coup d'état in Brazil.

The PF (Brazil's FBI) has indicted three more military personnel for attempting a coup: Aparecido Andrade Portela (reserve), Reginaldo Vieira de Abreu (colonel) and Rodrigo Bezerra de Azevedo (major). The total number of people indicted has now risen to 40. The charges include coup d'état and criminal organization

According to the PF, Portela brokered contacts between the Bolsonaro government and funders of actions in Mato Grosso do Sul. Abreu spread fake news about ballot boxes and tried to influence the Ministry of Defense. Bezerra took part in discussions about a plan to kidnap Minister Alexandre de Moraes.

Portela and Abreu remained silent in their testimonies, while Bezerra denied involvement. The case is moving forward in the STF (Supreme COurt) and expands the investigation into anti-democratic acts and the participation of military leaders.

BREAKING REPORT - DRONES OVER NEW JERSEY ARE FROM IRAN: Congressman Jeff Van Drew claims Iran has stationed a "mothership" off the U.S. East Coast, reportedly launching drones now flying over New Jersey.

Can they go back to blaming aliens, cause this is beyond nonsense, beyond desperate

Sudan: Brutal Assault in Omdurman Left at Least 60 Deads - Telesur English

Article

The Government of Sudan reported on Tuesday that more than 60 people were killed by the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (FAR) in Omdurman, a town located in the northern area of metropolitan Khartoum (capital).

According to a statement by the Sudanese Ministry of Health, “the terrorist militia committed the largest human massacre by shelling against citizens in the town of Karari, north of Omdurman”. The entity also stated that hundreds of wounded are counted, and that hospitals near the town are full.

A bus carrying 22 people was also targeted as it moved through a busy market in the Karari area, recently recovered by the Sudanese army, and all those inside were killed.

The health authority of the African country detailed that «the 22 people who were inside were torn apart». The FAR paramilitary group frequently attacks the area of Omdurman, controlled for the most part by the Sudanese army.

The conflict in Sudan started three and a half years ago, causing thousands of deaths and more than eleven million displaced people, making that African country the scene of the biggest displacement crisis on earth, according to the United Nations International Organization for Migration.

In this regard, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the prolongation of the conflict could lead to outbreaks of disease and the collapse of the health system.

A year of Milei’s presidency: What’s new? - Telesur English

Article

On 10 December 2023, Javier Milei assumed the presidency of Argentina. 12 months later, the far-right outsider who campaigned by lifting a chainsaw over his head arrives at his first year in office with relative economic stability at the expense of millions of new poor and medically retired.

The “chainsaw” model involved cuts that led to tens of thousands of students taking up university studies; social organizations constantly denounced the implementation of hunger policies against vulnerable sectors; the staff of clinics and hospitals mobilized in demand for decent wages and the departure of hundreds of thousands of Argentines to the streets that was appeased through repression, Arbitrary arrests and physical and digital persecution of those who express criticism of the official discourse.

To date, according to the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), at least two people lost their sight during repressions when exercising the right to protest and in a single day 31 people were arrested, without any crime against them being bought at this time. However, the financial sectors are looking favourably on their management and certain economic indicators show a slight improvement, such as a sustained fall in the inflation rate and a matching of parallel dollars to the dollar sold by the State through the central bank.

Inflation: After a peak of 25.5% in December 2023, inflation managed to slow down to 2.7% in October 2024, the lowest figure in three years.

Economic activity: The Argentine economy suffered a strong recession and many sectors such as tourism, industry and commerce suffered significant declines in sales and production.

Wages: Workers’ incomes are below the November 2023 levels, with a 6.8% drop in real terms in the public sector.

Unemployment: The unemployment rate grew to 7.7% in the first quarter of 2024, marking an increase of almost 2% compared to the same period of 2023.

Poverty: Poverty increased to 52.9% in the first half of 2024, reaching almost 25 million people, with this number increasing by four million from 2023.

Retirees: Retirees with minimum assets experienced a 6.6% loss of purchasing power, while those with higher incomes received real increases.

Trade balance: The trade balance recorded a surplus of US$ 21 billion in the first 10 months of 2024, after more than ten years of negative accounts. Since 2008, under the presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina has not closed the year with a positive trade balance.

Country risk: The country risk, which is used as a benchmark for borrowing and rating of a nation’s bonds, has declined to less than 1,000 basis points, indicating improved access to international debt markets.

Exchange gap: The gap between the official dollar and the parallel has narrowed to less than 5%, the lowest level since 2019.

Consumption: Private consumption fell by 8.2% year-on-year in the first half of 2024, with indicators such as sales in supermarkets and food consumption showing a sharp decline.

Lula will undergo a new surgery this Thursday morning.

The procedure will be a complement to the previous surgery and will be an “endovascular artery embolization procedure”. The medical bulletin states that Lula is well and without complications. On Wednesday 11th, the president did physiotherapy, walked around the ICU and received family members.

According to a medical bulletin released today, he is lucid, oriented and progressing well in the post-operative period. President Lula will undergo further surgery on Thursday to block the flow of blood to his brain.

Meanwhile, the dollar fell and the stock market rose. The Congress, under the control of the far-right, voted and approved the idea of the printed ballot (used to question elections, since the vote, even if it is in an electronic ballot box, is already printed) and a law that obliges the police to remove people who enter occupied land, even without a court order. Both laws are expected to be overturned by the Supreme Court due to their unconstitutionality. It is believed that the Far-Right know it will be vetoed and will use this to claim that they are being attacked by the Supreme Court.

After U.S. ATACMS Strike On Strategic Target Russia Announces To Retaliate | Moon of Alabama

Former officers and soldiers of the SAA 25th Special Mission Forces Division (Tiger Forces) have gathered themselves in mountainous areas near the Lebanese border, vowing to keep fighting

They say they have fought against terrorists for years, and will continue to do so, despite the 'betrayal' of the SAA high command. They will start fighting as resistance groups to the incoming HTS / SNA government.

The commander in the video says they are ready to sacrifice themselves, he even says they have suicide bombers among them and that his pistol's last bullet will be for his head (he won't let himself be captured).

They have also replaced their chant. Instead of saying: 'Our souls, our blood, we sacrifice for Bashar', they now say 'our souls, our blood, we sacrifice for Syria'.

I guess if the new goverment becomes hostile to Iran and Russia, these guys will become the rebels that Russia and Iran will suport?

PYM statement on Syria:

HTS militants have broken into Hafez Al Assad's mausoleum in Qardaha, Latakia, and destroyed it. The whole place was looted and then set on fire, the graves of both Hafez al Assad and his son Bassel were completely destroyed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJsytMboJXg

Jadaliyya is doing a live stream regarding the collapse of Assad's Syria, they are also giving a history of the socio-economic situation of the country until now

Saw this on twitter and I think it's an interesting point: "Arab states should carefully consider that the area is now defined by three main power brokers: Israel, Turkey, and what remains of the Iranian power, and none of them are Arab.

Feels like "the arab world" has been mostly successfully israelized, Egypt is totally dormant due to state repression and the most the saudi's have done to assert themselves was normalizing with Iran through China.

Also, good short article on NLR about Syria

troubling stuff from lebanon:

truly feel those shitheads will rather start shia/sunni conflict than notice entity across the border sadness-abysmal

Oop another Syrian scientist murdered, 3 now.

“ Syrian scientist Shadia Habbal, an internationally renowned doctor of physics, was killed along with her husband in Damascus. Earlier, nuclear microbiologist Zahra al-Homsi was killed with two bullets to the head.”

Saudis will host world cup

Very nice, good thing i stopped watching football

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/11/us/unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-shooter-wednesday/index.html

Mangione knew UnitedHealthcare was holding an investors’ conference around the time Thompson was shot and killed — and the suspect mentioned in writings he would be going to the conference site, the NYPD’s Kenny told Fox News on Tuesday.

In the notebook passage, Mangione concludes using a bomb against his intended victim “could kill innocents” and shooting would be more targeted, musing what could be better than “to kill the CEO at his own bean counting conference,” a law enforcement official briefed on the matter told CNN.

Danish Court: Secret Police's Sex Briefings On Top Spy To Be Included In Compensation Case

Today a judge ruled that briefings on former Danish spy chief Lars Findsen's sex life given to select political leaders should be part of a lawsuit brought by the former spymaster against the secret police.

The former head of the Nordic hermit kingdom's shadowy spy agency FE is suing secret police agency PET, seeking compensation for general damages for the indignity caused by briefings given by secret police chief Finn Borch Andersen to select political party leaders. The briefings included explicit details on Findsen's sexual preferences.

At the time of these briefings, Findsen was behind bars awaiting trial for allegedly leaking classified information. He has argued that the intimate revelations were entirely irrelevant to the charges against him. Those charges were later dropped after the supreme court rejected PET's demands for a secret trial.

"We love wood, we love forests!" So declares IKEA, the global purveyor of disposable furniture, in a glossy promotional video. Staying true to their Scandinavian rainbow capitalist branding, IKEA extols the virtues of wood as a sustainable material, backed by lofty claims of eco-friendly forestry practices.

In Romania where IKEA is the largest owner of forests, the Carpathian old-growth forests are not feeling the love. Drone footage from a forest near the Ukrainian border shown in a recent documentary by Danish state media DR shows how large square patches of what used to be pristine woodland has been cut completely clear, resembling what a forestry expert calls "a lunar landscape". A total of 12 hectares has been cut down with IKEA planning to fell the entire forest.

Using a staggering 20 million cubic metres of lumber a year, IKEA is one of the world's largest consumers of wood. If all the logs used by IKEA were put next to eachother they would reach around the globe seven times.

The lumber from these forests bears the FSC stamp, assuring the guilty conscience of eco-conscious consumers that the wood has been harvested in an ethical and sustainable way. The Romanian FSC standards requires loggers to leave at least one large old-growth, a so-called habitat tree, tree per hectare standing to help flora and wildlife recover. It is also against the standards to cut down trees with birds' nests. Romanian standards are already lax, with for instance Danish FSC standards requiring at least five habitat trees per hectare. The drone footage shows that not a single tree has been left standing.

The drone footage tells a different story: not a single tree has been left standing in the clearcut areas. In another Romanian forest, IKEA left behind a single, severely damaged tree with a broken canopy—technically fulfilling the bare minimum FSC requirements. Jacob Heilmann Clausen, a forestry expert from the University of Copenhagen, criticized this approach, pointing out that a truly sustainable practice would leave many more habitat trees intact. He calls IKEA's practices "completely off the mark for what you would call sustainable forestry in 2024".

Destroying The Forest To Save The Forest

When confronted with the damning drone footage, Simon Henzell-Thomas, global director of climate and environment for Ingka Group, IKEA's parent company, conceded that no habitat trees remained in the clearcut areas. He explained that habitat trees would eventually be located in the untouched portions of the forest—once logging in those areas is complete. In his words, habitat trees are implemented “on a landscape level, not hectare by hectare.”

Henzell-Thomas further claimed that IKEA has had a positive impact on Romania's forests since it began logging there in 2015, boasting that the company has “saved” the forests and increased their density. “We love wood, we love forests!” he exclaimed, echoing IKEA’s promotional mantra.

Illegal logging remains a serious problem in Romania. Local contractors of IKEA has been fined for overharvesting, for damaging remaining trees and for constructing illegal logging roads.

"Newspeak Invented For The Occasion"

Simon Henzell-Thomas rejects the term clearcutting to describe IKEA's practice of removing every single tree in a logged area. He insists that IKEA "improves" the forest by planting new trees to replace those felled. After completely razing an area, IKEA replants small oak saplings encased in plastic tubes, resulting in a monoculture rather than a diverse ecosystem.

Henzell-Thomas refers to this approach as “substitute cutting” and asserts that it is a well-established forestry method. However, two forestry experts consulted by DR had never encountered the term. “I think it’s a form of newspeak invented for the occasion to distract from having done unsustainable logging,” said Jacob Heilmann Clausen.

Defending the practice of "substitute cutting", Henzell-Thomas claimed that IKEA is replacing invasive species with oaks. "It is better for the soil and better for the long-term health of the forest" he claimed.

Jacob Heilmann Clausen points out that an oak monoculture is certainly not going to improve biodiversity.

Moreover, the trees being cut down by IKEA are not invasive species but native ones, such as hornbeam. Henzell-Thomas claims that oak is "more suitable" for the mountainous area. Although not mentioned by the IKEA representative, oak also happens to be a more commercially valuable species than hornbeam.

The FSC organisation, of which IKEA is a founding member, refused requests for an interview with DR but in a written response that have stated that they "take input from experts seriously" and said they investigate credible concerns.

Source: DR (state media), December 10th 2024

has anyone posted this yet

So I've been busy with a lot and all the news about Luigi is a bit much to process, but was there not a twitter/blog post where he specifically mentions that his claim for back surgery was denied by UHC and that his mother suffered from a similar condition and was also denied? I just got home and my mom was watching the news and they didn't mention anything about this and they even angled towards painting it as him possibly being sexually frustrated or something like that due to his back condition or the operation. So I went and read a couple of other MSM sources and they're also just acting as it there's no clear motive inspite of everything he left online. I'm not completely sold on him being the guy, but they way the media is just doing all shrug-outta-hecks about his social media seems a bit "weird". Or maybe not weird, but like they're intentionally deciding to omit the obvious. IDK. Maybe I'm just overthinking this.

Ex-defense chief [of South Korea] suspected of plotting war with North Korea to justify martial law

There are mounting suspicions that former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun intended to justify the declaration of martial law or a state of united defense by instigating a military conflict with North Korea by ordering strikes on the sites from which the North was launching trash-filled balloons and flying unmanned drones to Pyongyang.

Democratic Party lawmaker Park Beom-kye revealed Monday that he received a tip-off from a military whistleblower that the unmanned drones North Korea claimed Seoul had sent to Pyongyang in October were indeed sent on orders of the South Korean military — more specifically, on the orders of the former defense minister.

Before publicizing the contents of the document, Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Ki-heon claimed to have received information on how, only one week prior to the declaration of martial law, Kim had ordered Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairperson Adm. Kim Myung-soo to “fire warning shots before striking launch sites of North Korea’s trash-filled balloons” if any such balloons were seen floating in South Korean skies.

Kinda sounds like one of the military guys got cold feet or something.

I'm slightly amazed they haven't managed to hold out even for a week to show:

(a) gulf monarchies and (mainly) turkey subservience

(b) working towards kurds (mainly sna, as turkey hand)

(c) absolutely no desire to say anything to entity

(d) terror against former government officials and/or minorities

*(e) eu disgustingly probing at opportunity to ship off refugees

yep, it's proxy vs proxy time, poor syrians meow-hug sadness-abysmal

Ken Klippenstein just broke the Manifesto. I made a thread too.

Forgot my first link comrades.

Video of Luigi being brought into court:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-PK65KvfX0

"Clearly [I'm a patsy?]. This is an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience."

Saw a gravely injured, unarmed SDF fighter be executed by some SNA thugs. Very gruesome shit going on now

The real manifesto??

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/luigis-manifesto

Seeing as this has the pull quotes in it, I am going to assume this is real, as in this is the manifesto the cops were talking about.

The post on Twitter also served me CAD ads under this lmao.

checked what the osint guy I somewhat follow is posting..

Israel bombed Syrian anti-air systems, planes, drones, tanks, radars, helicopters, plane hangars, etc, across the country. Their statement said they used 350 planes and had 320 targets.
Israel sank the Syrian navy's 'Project 205' missile boats, leaving no active combat warships. They used Gabriel missiles fired from a Sa'ar 6-class German-made corvette (btw I see on natopedia it says the German government subsidized 1/3rd of the construction costs for these).
Apparently several Syrian scientists have been assassinated, some working on missile, drone, and other military technology.
All Syrian jails opened.
There's a video taken from a Russian military vehicle showing a long line of unarmed Syrian soldiers walking toward the border with Iraq. Syrian infantry fighting vehicles, tanks, weapons, and uniforms have been left behind in the desert.
Videos showing up of Jihadists killing people in Alawite villages. Also videos of Kurdish people getting killed and Kurdish women being abducted.
The Turks are releasing videos of Bayraktar TB2 targeting Kurdish military vehicles. While the Russians were in Syria they had an agreement with Turkey to patrol and uphold a demarcation line which gave the Kurds security from Turkish attacks.

Is HTS selectively releasing people from prison or are they just literally letting everybody out?

New version of the Azov patches dropped. I haven’t seen this many black flags in a minute

But at least Syria is free!

This is some of the worst shit I’ve ever seen. Going to go touch grass, I recommend you all do the same

Guys I don't think Syria is surviving this.

Syrian "rebels" fighting in Sudan with the RSF:

https://x.com/MohanadElbalal/status/1866529632587034857

https://xcancel.com/MohanadElbalal/status/1866529632587034857

i suppose the most reasonable and possibly practicable goal of the israeli movement up the Lebanese border is to capture the Beirut-Damascus highway? still (perhaps foolishly) think they're not crazy enough to try to occupy Damascus

https://v.redd.it/hmi7zk4nm16e1 has this been posted yet? a tiktok by a friend of the adjuster, desc;

Luigi Mangione is probably the most google keyword today. But before all of this, for a while, it was also the only name whose facetime calls I would pick up. He was one of my absolute best, closest, most trusted friends. He was also the only person who, at 1am on a work day, in this video, agreed to go to the store with drunk me, to look for mochi ice cream.

The real question is what exactly this guys Waluigi has been up to this entire time?

https://thecradle.co/articles/syrias-post-mortem-terror-occupation-and-palestine

What are your opinions on this article?

Looks like I'm at another breaking point. Time to make another despairpost that contributes nothing of value whatsoever. I've done this maybe just once or twice before, and I think people are already sick of it. My thoughts are incomplete because they are completely scattered and I can't remember everything I want to say, because my brain is broken

But yeah it should pretty obvious that I am talking crazy again.

spoiler

I don't know why I feel so strongly about all this. I don't have much skin in the game, most of this stuff won't personally affect me much if at all. I just despise colonialism and white supremacy and all the damage they've caused to the world and I want to see it all crushed and their followers completely humiliated. But instead they just keep getting rewarded, as they have throughout pretty much all of human history save for some flukes. And we'll never get a moment of peace. The U.S., the west, tthe fucking yakubian devils making big moves every day to secure their eternal hegemony, the constant anxiety is murdering me. Would it be better to just assume all is lost and stop being invested in anything?

I read the essay SeventyTwoTrillion posted to try to get some perspective. The post itself wasn't enough, so I read the whole thing to try to calm down. It makes sense, yes, there are cracks in this system, and it's not invincible, and it's unsustainable in the long run... but damn is their opposition trying their damnest to make it look like it is. What changes are really taking place, besides the U.S. forming the world's first forever-empire? Going through the news thread just makes me go "Nope, I'm slipping again. Time to lose what little sanity I didn't realize I still had." Any time I feel like it's not impossible, I read the thread and the news and I just conclude it's completely hopeless.. Maybe it's life's way of beating into my head how absolutely hopeless everything is. It's trying to tell me how powerful the U.S. is and how fucking incompetent and passive their opposition is.

The Nazis are pointing and laughing at their victims' collective helplessness and their inevitable victory, the pessimists are running victory laps over how right they were the whole time. (I already blocked what I presume was a certain user's newest ban-evasion account based off the way they spoke and their account age, sorry I'd rather not get a brain aneurysm by being forced to even so much as glaze past their posts) What should we do? Just start calling the resistance stupid and incompetent? To call all of the U.S.'s opposition cowards, stupid, incompetent. That the world is doomed? To give up completely?

God can you imagine being a neoliberal? It must feel good, I mean think about it:

-Your side has then most ruthless and cunning chessmasters in Earth's entire history who will decisively make moves at a dizzying pace. They are playing 50D chess and are always 5000 steps ahead of everyone else. They know exactly what they need to do to win, and capitalize on every opportunity that presents itself without hesitation. The same can't be said for their enemies. Honestly they've already won, they're just humoring their opposition and making this more drawn out just for fun. Speaking of which...
-Your opposition barely even exists. You have them too scared to make any meaningful moves against you. China, Russia, and Iran are just letting you isolate them with no resistance whatsover. Maybe you'll dangle an opportunity for them here and there to see if they'll bite, and they never do! And BRICS? BRICS is irrelevant. Like, no neolib is fucking scared of BRICS because it's practically nothing. I guess.
-Your ideology has infected the minds of millions worldwide like a nasty brain fungus. You practically have an army of sleeper agents you can activate at any time to topple your enemies' governments.
-As long as you have the U.S. on your side you are unstoppable. The U.S. doesn't even need to use nukes, the president just needs to wave a dollar bill around, and it will emit a shockwave that causes every world leader to collapse to their knees. And hell evne if they use nukes it's starting to look like no one will respond with their own,. YOU'RE FREE! YOU HAVE FULL AND TOTAL IMPUNITY
-Your enemies are expected to follow your rules, but you can break your rules anytime you want. Why? You make them, you have full reign to break them if need be!
-Who cares if any anti-colonialist struggle wins in the end? You just punish them by economically strangling them until they break and call it a day.
-You just have to pinky promise your enemies that you won't break the terms of your agreements and they will fall for it every single time. It's like a fucking cheat code!!!

Can't even see hope in any good news now. It all just seems transient, temporary. They will turn their eyes towards the AES and crush it without much effort, and China won't do anything in response.

Optimism and reassurance doesn't mean much if reality ends up proving them wrong. ESPECIALLY if reality proves them wrong. It's easier to believe now that the fall of Syria is the first domino to fall before the total collapse of the resistance than it is to believe it's only one defeat in a wider war.

If the Axis of Resistance is truly doomed, then just turn away. Avert your eyes. Don't witness the slaughter that will take place. It's over. Just let it be over. Close your eyes until it's over. Write your essays now on all their mistakes and what the final nail in the coffin was. The failure is predetermined now.

People's analysis will say that China or Russia or whatever literally any other country that resists U.S. hegemony needs to do x if they want to win, but they never do. THEY NEVER DO. THEY NEVER RESPOND. THEY NEVER FUCKING DO ANYTHING RIGHT! THEY NEVER MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS, AND THEY NEVER WILL FOR THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE! WHY EVNE PAY ATTENTION ANYMORE!? THIS GENERAETION IS LOST! THIS CENTURY IS LOST! THE REST OF HUMAN HISTORY IS THE HISTORY OF WHITE SUPREMACY AND COLONIALISM REIGNIGN SUPREME FOREVER ANDE FEFR. I CAN'T NAME A TIME THE OPOPPPOSTION EVER MADE ANBY EGIESKF OIJUTOMIUFHFYU84325srgwsehywby5e43w

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I mean, Hexbear analysts ar ethe most reliable source of information int ehwrold right???? of coruse theey are.

Fascists gonna have a field day, now, forever, they'll be happy forever laughing at people who hoped the world could get better.

Neoliberalism and fascism, white supremacy has continuously cemented itself as the one and only truth in the world. Material conditions? Fuckj that. The Europeans discovered the one and only truth of the world is to genocide entire peoples' and be the most ruthless and inhumane demons the world has ever seen is the truth of the world.

Liberal ideology is basically another form of mind control. The most subtle, insidious, and successful.

Hahahahahaaha, the end of history is real, it just suffered some delays it seems.

Do I just turn away from it all? Just stop looking at the news, stop looking at the thread, just focus on doing what I enjoy? That feels privileged and selfish.

Oh if Russia and China can't or won't free the world from U.S. dominance, then it is clearly up to the PEOPLE of the U.S. to rise up and do so!!!!!! The people... who are probably too afraid of losing what little they do have to do anything to challenge U.S. hegemony.

Who or what should be blamed? If anything should be cursed, it's the Bubonic Plague for not doing its job right. Now we have the Europeans and their spawns enslaving and destroying the world.

how many people are considering just giving up entirely? Just give up give up give up and it won't hurt anymore. Give up give up give up give up. Even more, how many are considering switching to neoliberalism, so tired of being burned by the side they support never making the right decisions to win, while the neolibs consistently one-ups them at every opportunity. Maybe fully embracing neoliberalism will make them feel happy won't it? All it will cost is their humanity.

I feel like I'm actually close to completely giving up. Let the fascist hyenas hoot and holler and celebrate, licking the tears of the less fortunate. This world is evil and rewards demons like them. I don't want to read the news anymore. I don't want to read any of these threads anymore. I don't know if I even want to visit the site anymore. (Who am I kidding I totally will). It's nothing but a death spiral repeating what has already become clear over and over: The U.S. is unstoppable, their opposition is stupid and incompetent and is just pretending to oppose them, they never learn their lesson, never make the right decisions, and there's no way things will ever change.

True liberation is a fantasy that only exists in fiction. Any "victories" in real life are just temporary, but defeats are eternal. The US shows that it can just crush any opposition with the flick of a finger.

I try to have resolve, I try not to let things break me, I try to remind myself this is a generation-long process... but in the end I'm still weak-willed.

So apparently some other "customer" at the McDonalds recognized Luigi and told the McDonalds employees to call it in instead of doing it themsevles? I am increasingly buying the parallel construction theory.

Arctic tundra is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs, US agency says

I don't know anything about the Kurds but I just saw a highly upvoted post on some subreddit like r/oldschoolcool that featured Kurdish "fighters," I just assume the US State Dept's propaganda machine is thrumming behind the scenes

I saw a video of members of a group called "Maghawir al-Sham" chanting "Allahu Akbar, Maghawir al-Sham. The Alawite village has been cleansed." The video was taken somewhere around Homs, apparently.

turkish proxies already attacking kobani

many are saying this

could israel be trying to conquer Damascus

Twitter is filling with massacre videos carried out by HTS and associates

Three days is all it took before they reverted

TD Eoin Hayes suspended by Soc Dems with immediate effect

(A TD is an Irish member of parliament. Eoin Hayes was just elected in the Irish general election less than two weeks ago)

He was suspended for lying about selling Palantir stocks. He said he sold his stocks before he entered politics, it turns out he sold them about six months later. That's why the Social Democrats suspended him.

This man worked for fucking Palantir, received 7000 shares as part of his contract, so clearly was doing something consequential. That's not a problem for the SocDems apparently, what matters is that he lied about selling his shares. Utter sacks of shit.

These Social Democrats appear to be the moderate wing of fascism

The only upside is that this has thoroughly owned my radlib housemate who held up his election pamphlet and said "vote for him if you have a conscience"

Trump to Pardon MAGA Rioters Once in Office - Telesur English

Article

At least 1,572 individuals have been charged in connection with the 2021 Capitol attack. On Sunday, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said that he will pardon his supporters involved in the 2021 Capitol attack starting on his first day in office.

In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Trump described those incarcerated as “living in hell,” arguing that they have been put through a “very nasty system.” “I’m going to be acting very quickly. First day,” Trump said, warning that some members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack “should go to jail.” After the 2020 U.S. presidential election, then-President Trump refused to concede to his opponent Joe Biden and claimed that there was widespread election fraud.

On Jan. 6, 2021, thousands of Trump supporters broke into the Capitol and interrupted the certifying process of the 2020 presidential election, prompting hundreds of lawmakers to evacuate in panic. The deadly attack, which led to five deaths and hundreds of police officers injured, is a “landmark stain” on American democracy, according to a CNN report published in June 2021.

At least 1,572 individuals have been charged in connection with the attack, and over 1,251 have either been convicted or pleaded guilty, making it one of the biggest criminal investigations in American history. Among them, at least 645 have been sentenced to prison terms, and about 250 people are in custody.

Video of the Syrian Navy being completely destroyed in Port at Latakia, by the Israeli Air Force and Navy.

Twitter source

Xcancel mirror

Nitter mirror

Shania needs to apologise to Luigi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqFLXayD6e8&list=RDQx2gvHjNhQ0&index=2

Syria no longer has an Air Force or an Air Defense network, virtually all planes, helicopters and AD systems have been destroyed by over 300 Israeli strikes in the past 48 hours

https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/the-roads-to-damascus

seems like tariq also suspects betrayal of the army elites. Then they are truly dumb as rocks, i don't have other words for it.

The Washington Post reports that U.S. officials are considering removing Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the list of foreign terrorist organizations The UK government is also open to the idea, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer states that a change in policy now is 'far too early.'

On 9 December 2024, following the fall of the Assad regime, al-Bashir was tasked with forming a transitional government after meeting with HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani and outgoing Syrian prime minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali to coordinate a transfer of power. The next day he was officially tasked to head the transitional government until 1 March 2025

I've heard that most non-Western countries are still not sure whether to recognize this Syrian government, since HTS is still considered a terrorist group (even by the US). There's also the fact that the whole country is unstable and the leadership could change in the near future.

can almost feel the movement of erdie and economy hand

*Obviously pisrael supports kurds, to misdirect any military action from them. I also feel erdie is moving too fast, trump doesn't care about kurds, biden might

The Chihuahua of Copenhagen, Denmark's Social Democrat leader Mette Frederiksen, is barking again.

When asked today for comment on a stream of recent IT system breakdowns and scathing criticism of efforts to protect critical IT systems she bombastically stated that "We must inflict significantly more defeats on Russia. Because they're threatening all of us, also on cybersecurity".

For most people saying "Putin is at it again" when the WiFi is down is a joke, but to Denmark's political elite it is reality.

It seems like most embassies in Syria were evacuated with help from UN soldiers.

"Many of them do not have permanent residency in Denmark. So of course we expect them to go home now." - This is the Nordic hermit kingdom's leader, the authoritarian Social Democrat Mette Frederiksen's comment on the situation for Syrian refugees.

The remarks fell during question time in the nation's rubber-stamp parliament when she was asked by fascist leader and convicted criminal Inger Støjberg. Frederiksen also remarked that she believes refugees will go home to reconstruct their country. "This is what I would do" she said.

President Maduro: US-backed opposition is intent on replicating circumstances of Syria in Venezuela

"We're observing the development of painful circumstances for the people of Syria. Now, the fascist extremists are coming out to ask for a civil war to be waged in Venezuela.."

"We've gone through psychological warfare, political warfare, economic warfare, conspiracies.. the Empire and the fascist right-wing have run out of conspiracy manuals."

"When the gringo army criminally entered Iraq in 2003, they asked the gringos to do the same in Venezuela."

"When the gringos entered Libya and bombed and killed thousands, they asked him to come and bomb and kill Chavez.. He said that Venezuela is not Libya. Venezuela is the homeland of the liberators.. We regret that barbaric attack that dismembered and tore Libya to pieces.."

"When in 2014 Nazi groups staged the coup in Kiev, Ukraine and killed dozens of innocent people and seized power.. they also said 'the time has come, now it is Venezuela's turn..' In 2014, our people, with the Constitution in hand, defeated the guarimba and the attempt to lead our beloved Venezuela to a civil war.

i wondered when the New Leadership will react to Israels bombing runs , seems like they use them as Bad ass backround to make Pictures .. fun fact . Jolani is named after the Golan Heights , apperently he is from there .. Kinda nice that that the new leadership is named after what he gives to Israel... But they need to Hurry up , i have a Inclination that it will turn out that Damascus was Part of Ancient Israel all along.

Ghana's ex president Mahama is now the future president of Ghana. what's the Hexbear take?

Update: Lula wakes up and is conscious after surgery Lula was taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after surgery and, according to sources close to him, has been alternating moments of sleep and wakefulness.

Lula will be hospitalized for 'a few days' after surgery, says Paulo Pimenta. “The president is hospitalized, he will remain hospitalized for a few more days, but he is absolutely stable, under control,” said the minister.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be hospitalized for “a few more days” at the Sírio-Libanês Hospital, where he underwent surgery in the early hours of Tuesday morning to drain a hematoma on his skull, said Paulo Pimenta, minister of the Presidency's Social Communication Secretariat, in a video published on his Instagram account. “The procedure went absolutely normally, according to plan. The president is hospitalized, will remain hospitalized for a few more days, but is absolutely stable, under control,” said Pimenta in the video.

Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin takes over the presidency temporarily and receives the Prime Minister of Slovakia and fulfills government commitments during Lula's recovery. Alckmin was assigned to fulfill official commitments that had already been scheduled, including a reception for the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico. The meeting was scheduled to take place this Tuesday in Brasilia.

In addition, Alckmin had a series of appointments in São Paulo, where he was already scheduled to attend the Apex Brasil Awards ceremony on Monday night. He was also due to take part in investment announcements at Latam's maintenance shed in São Carlos, scheduled for Tuesday morning.

The doctors said that the risk is zero, and that even though this type of bleeding is rare, it's not uncommon. Lula is due to return to work next week. He has already had lunch and talked to his family.

Some lighter news, today the conservative leader of Queensland (in Australia) banned any discussion of abortion in Parliament or amendment to existing abortion laws

Abortion dominated debate in the October state election, with the Labor party claiming the LNP would restrict a woman's right to choose.

The subject threatened to derail the LNP's campaign, after Katter's Australian Party (KAP) pledged to introduce legislation to repeal Queensland's abortion laws after the election.

At the time, Premier David Crisafulli denied the laws would change, but wouldn't say how he would prevent that from happening.

Katter’s Australian Party MPs slammed the gag as unprecedented and a marker of the “death of democracy”.

The McDonald's story makes no sense, this shit has Parallel Construction written all over it

New Picture of Luigi? and Another one

President Lula da Silva has surgery after tests showed an intracranial hemorrhage resulting from the domestic accident he suffered in October. Doctors say that the surgery was successful and the president is recovering in the ICU of the Sírio Libanês hospital in São Paulo, with no discharge forecast.

President Lula began to report discomfort to his team in the early afternoon of Monday (9). As a result of the discomfort, his schedule was altered, with dispatches ending at 5:30pm, after a meeting with the presidents of the Congress and the Senate.

At around 6pm, Lula was taken to the Sírio-Libanês hospital in Brasília, where he underwent an imaging examination of his head.

The medical team found that there had been an increase in the amount of intracranial fluid - a possibility that had been monitored since the fall he suffered in October

More infomation about this later, probably it went all well and President Lula is fine.

It appeaers the south Korea president had a travel ban due to investigation. Leads me to my question to hexbear users. How do you guys feel in general about the fact that at one point half of south Koreas living presidents were arrested?

stuff in his reading list about dealing with back pain from surgery (including stuff about depression), maybe has been out of contact with his friends and family for months (if twitter screenshots are to be believed), was in NY sometimes around the shooting, had a manifesto and a gun with a suppressor on it when he was arrested (although could always be bs fed by the cops ig?), i think they got him, i think anyone saying otherwise is coping tbh. as for why he was so sloppy like this after seemingly planning this (relatively) cleanly at first? well, i think he saw how ecstatic the internet has been over it and wanted the recognition for it (and also, maybe he thinks he can get off scot free because of it?)

Luigi was a patsy, clearly hes just a distraction to protect the real shooter, Mario

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZlbrKbkmVg&t=1117s kirby-jammin

I just can't get over the difference between "killing ceo in well executed premeditated assasination and fleeing the scene successfully" and "got caught in a mcdonalds with the gun STILL ON YOU and also with a hasily written manifesto ON HIM"

Like what? If it is the same guy, how the fuck did he pull the assassination off so effortlessly if he's this incompetent. If he's not incometent and he wanted to get caught, THIS is the way he wanted to do that? There were so many other ways!

So... wtf?! Genuinely I cannot comprehend it lmao

Israel is currently undertaking one of the largest offensive air operations in it's entire history in Syria, bombing basically any piece of SAA/ex SAA military equipment, research facilities (both civilian and military), military bases and installations, weapons caches and ammunition caches, air defence systems, tanks, fighter jets, naval assets, ports, factories, etc. All that equipment that the HTS captured from the SAA is turning to ashes at this moment, all across the country. Israel is striking as far east as Hasaka, launching over 300 airstrikes in the past few hours. 150 airstrikes were reported yesterday. The United States is, as expected, providing assistance, flying MQ-4C ISR recon drones over the coast of Syria and Lebanon. Israeli ground forces are also in the Damascus countryside and 20km/12.5mi away from Damascus city itself. It's a disastrous situation, one that's was entirely predictable should the government of Syria fall.

I made a comment a few months ago about how the SAAs air defence systems, including S-300 PMU-1's supplied by Russia, S-200s, Tor and Pantsir point air defence systems, were the only things in Syria preventing a large scale air attacks from Israel, and the skies of Syria turning into the skies of Lebanon and Gaza. Yes Israel could conduct air strikes into Syria, but those required extensive effort and planning, and were only done on a small scale, nothing like what is happening now. Some were dismissive of my comment given that Israel could conduct these limited strikes. But it unfortunately seems that I was right, now that those air defence systems no longer exist or have operators, Israel has free reign over the skies of Syria and are conducting some of the largest air operations in their history... The Syrian state infrastructure is being completely dismantled.

Netanyahoo's curse blessing image is such a joke because there is only one curse, on both the Middle East and world, Israel and it's master/bitch America. I mention this because even though the Assad regime/government (I don't care) fell recently, Syria had long ago joined the long list of countries that had been completely destroyed from top to bottom so this one tiny parasitic fake country can exist.

In an interview of Yanis Varoufakis he said that until Palestine is free none of us free. This doesn't even need to be taken as an analogy. I mean consider climate change. The people and organizations that support meaningful actions on climate change (like public transport) are left wing and therefore support a free Palestine. They must therefore be crushed. All policies all make way in the name of the one great policy. The Nazi state of Israel (we really need an emoji of the Israeli flag with a swastika because that country is insane). Best part of the whole story? Israel's existence has more or less become contradictorily impossible. Climate change alone will make that cursed country uninhabitable in the near future, ironically.

One aspect of the Israeli invasion thats under estimated is the geography

Unlike with Hamas or Hezbollah there are no massive underground tunnel system in southern Syria, it's flat volcanic plains peppered with small to medium sized towns, no mountains, no built up urban sprawl from which to launch ambushes

It's a location where the US and Israeli air forces can leverage their full capability, the second a jihadist convoy or captured SAA tank gets within a 100km of an Israeli tank is the second an American bunker buster is dropped on top of them

Saw on CNN that the guy is saying that the cash wasn't his and it may have been planted when speaking at his first court hearing. 👀

Can anyone explain what is the deal with Isis, AQ and HTS relationship to each other? Why do Isis and AQ oppose each other when their ideology seems the same? How does Isis even still exist out in the desert with apparently everyone against them? why do they hold out instead of just going with other groups like Jolani did?

Brief summary of today's Syria news.

Turkish-backed “SNA” fighters captured the northern city of Manbij and the surrounding countryside from Washington’s Kurdish-dominated “SDF” proxies.

The fascist Tel Aviv regime continues attacking Syria all over the country (even brazenly striking army bases in and near Latakia, an arms depot near Izra (in Daraa province), Damascus’ Barza neighborhood, Homs, an airbase in Qamishli, and many other locations). The Zionist invaders now illegally occupy the southern Syrian settlements of Quneitra, Madinat al-Baath, and Hader; and an army base on Mount Hermon. So far, the Salafist armed groups have not offered any serious resistance to the Zionist invasion. Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, and Iran condemned the invasion.

A bunch of towers in my city have festive red, green, and white lights up in high windows. In my head canon it’s all Italian solidarity for Luigi

https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1harojk/first_photo_of_ceo_murder_suspect_inside_holding/ I'm stoned so there was probably just some tinfoil in my last cone but does this pic look AI/photoshop to anyone else? look at the ears

PSA: How white people in your life react to the Daniel Penny verdict is a good barometer for how actually racist they may be but aren’t telling you.

Saying he was a hero and/or innocent almost certainly means they are way more racist than they are letting on.

This is one way in which racism works in 2024 in the US. Racist white folks will generally avoid being openly racist but will latch on to any chance they can get to flex that racism in ways that superficially are socially acceptable.

Daniel Penny murdered a black man who wasn’t harming anyone. The fact that he was acquitted is ridiculous but sadly predictable, as is the reaction from many white people. In a way I can’t describe, the support Penny is getting feels more overtly racist than Rittenhouse.

https://xcancel.com/Kalibrated_Maps/status/1866259550074212660#m

Russia seems to be finally making the push to cut Pokrovsk off from supply.

Pokrovsk is an incredibly important rail and logistics hub, not to mention defensive position, so I don't see Ukraine giving it up without a fight. If it falls quickly, they are so fucking cooked.

Also, Russia has reportedly been shuffling bombers between air bases lately, among other preparations, which suggests another cruise missile volley soon.

IT BEGINS

🟡🟢 Hezbollah statement on the situation in Syria — In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

The ongoing crimes committed by the zionist enemy on Syrian territory—whether through the occupation of additional lands in the Golan Heights or by striking and destroying the defensive capabilities of the Syrian state—constitute blatant aggression and a brazen violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian state and people. These actions exacerbate the destabilization of this brotherly nation.

This aggressive occupation of Syrian lands coincides with the ongoing zionist military aggression against Lebanon, its daily violations, and its assaults on Gaza. These interconnected threats place the region’s peoples in imminent danger, underscoring the unity of their struggle and the necessity of rejecting and confronting this aggression.

We, while condemning these attacks, warn of the consequences of their continuation. We also call on the international community, particularly the Arab and Islamic worlds, to adopt firm stances against these crimes and to exert pressure in all political and legal arenas to halt this series of aggressions. All the justifications presented by the enemy are baseless fabrications.

The enemy’s repeated attempts to seize new Syrian lands cannot establish any legitimate rights. These actions are nothing more than ongoing occupation, entrenched in the Golan Heights since 1967.

We affirm our steadfast support for Syria and its people, emphasizing the importance of preserving the unity of Syria—its land and its people.

Monday, 09-12-2024

7 Jumada al-Akhirah 1446 AH

no-copyright i actually don’t care if people not ideologically aligned with the left are putting CEOs in body bags

So this guy didn’t just pop into a McDonald’s, he was like sitting down in the McDonald’s using his laptop and wearing a mask? With the gun and a manifesto on him? Weird

I literally started a Luigi's Mansion playthrough the day the CEO ate shit. Oh shit oh fuck I'm psychic.

In one fell swoop, the US expelled Russian presence from the Mediterranean, drove a wedge between Russia and Iran, further isolated Hezbollah and Palestine, scared away African and Middle Eastern states that sought Russia for protection, disciplined Saudi Arabia, and most importantly, fractured the Axis of Resistance.

They identified a weak point among their enemies and unlike the BRICS and the Resistance, acted decisively. Years of effort came undone in a matter of days. This is what happens when you keep dragging your feet. The more you think about it, the scarier it gets. And the immense suffering that will now take place in the wake of the Syrian collapse.

HE QUOTED DUNKEY IN HIS YEARBOOK LMFAO

life is so full of wonders :,D

Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigrade speak out against the PA.

Via telegram Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade - Youth of Revenge and Liberation:

— In the Name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful

To those who believe they can triumph over their own people by clinging to the disgraceful policies of security coordination and seeking refuge in their zionist allies:

O brave masses of our steadfast Palestinian people, You who defend the dignity and freedom of your homeland, standing with your bare chests against the policies of the Nazi-zionist government that conspires against you, uproots you from your land, and desecrates your holy sites and sanctities in broad daylight...

Today, as our people and resistance stand in the midst of a sacred battle to defend the rights of our nation, the Security Forces of the Palestinian Authority persists in compensating for its failures by becoming an active accomplice in the assault against our people. This is manifested through relentless pursuit, arbitrary arrests, defamation campaigns, bribery, and the spreading sedition aimed at dismantling the resistance.

The latest shocking example of this is the cold-blooded killing of an innocent citizen, Rebhi Al-Shalabi, from Jenin, as witnessed in the circulated video showing how PA Security Forces executed him in cold blood, mimicking the actions of the criminal enemy soldiers against our people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Today, we do not ask you to be partners in defending our people; we simply demand that you stop interfering with our resistance.

We call on the wise and honorable among our people to rein in these Security Forces that have left no room for reconciliation or understanding. Despite enduring many transgressions and provocations, and swallowing our anger to preserve our higher national interests, their actions have now crossed all revolutionary and national red lines.

We demand that our people take to the streets in marches condemning these oppressive and immoral policies.

And Allah is the ultimate Judge of intentions. Revolution until victory.

Your brothers, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades

Is it fair to say that, if Luigi truly is the guy, and he truly is still a libertarian weirdo (and didn't change his mind in the two years since he stopped tweeting), that the future of organizing in the United States should be based on the health insurance industry, since that is THE great unifier of the American people, it seems?

The future of USA’s political assassinations are going to be done between bronze age perverts tech broes and slava zucchini liberal small business owners.

Hexbear a couple of days ago: "Yeah, I don't think that guy's him. The hoodie is the wrong color, it just looks like any white guy with a hoodie."

Hexbear today: "Noo! They caught the guy! And he's a fascist!"

Israeli tanks have exited Quneitra Governorate, and have now reached Western Damascus Governorate. It could just be to secure a 'buffer zone' in Syria as Israel says. But Israel has long considered entering Lebanon through Syria, bypassing Hezbollah's main defense lines.

Israel's initial stated goal was to 'temporarily take control over the UN-supervised zone' in the Syrian Golan Heights, including Quneitra. However, they have since then moved past the 1974 'Line Bravo', and entered the Western Damascus Countryside. Their exact motives are currently unknown.

HTS-affiliated media: 'Jolani wants relations with all regional countries, Iran cannot be ignored as a regional player, and we can't afford to have them as an open enemy, despite the evil they have done.'

Wait so the guy they caught had a similar gun and a fake ID and a printed copy of a manifesto and he was just chilling in Pennsylvania after coming all the way from Atlanta? He's totally a stooge, right?

Although...

Syrian rebel compares Assad's compound to the game Half-Life
This has been a hell of a week huh

Has AOC commented on what she thinks about her Twitter follower killing a healthcare insurance CEO?

The Adjusters twitter has been found

He's an anti woke AI will save humanity guy agony-turbo

Ain't no way a Mcdonalds employee snitched on the Adjuster 💀

Assad Must Go to the Polls hillgasm

What if the Adjuster just really doesn't like this Luigi guy and decided to kill two birds with one stone?

Not exactly news, but hearing discourse now that countries are planning to send back refugees that have fled with Assads rule as the reason for seeking asylum. Not even a week has passed and the immigration ghouls are already finding ways to use this as a way to turn people away.

Bummer plot twist, could do with a bit more originality, same ole' "The Swerve" storyline from the writers once again ngl but phew. Every time a new headline dropped, his basedness went up like 10 notches, and I felt like I was starting to question my sexuality again. But now that he might be a reactionary goober, balance has been restored to the world. The hero flew a little too close to the chud sun, but the idea’s still there for me to hyperfixate on—and honestly, ideas can be so gay.

So this Luigi Mangione guy, what is up with him? Is he some random edgy millennial libertarian (did a good thing for the wrong reasons), or some mentally ill person (like Bolsonaro's killer), or maybe he just posted weird stuff online but was a normal person in real life and decided to kill the CEO to get famous? Was this some personal revenge against the CEO (like Shinzo Abe's Killer) or the Healthcare system in the US?

Ill be honest, if i was attempting to be an assassin i would make my social media account as politically incoherent as possible.

Sora (video slop machine) is open, we are gonna get video slop in droves now kitty-birthday-sad

Mcdoanlds truly was his weakness

me a cia lackey

I knock on a door at the cia warehouse and a guard lets me in.

a large room full of shelves

I see the shooter’s backpack, trump piss tapes, missing footage from Epstein’s jail cell.

I make my way past the Bolsonaro campaign buttons, the Brexit stickers, the color revolution banners: blue and yellow, orange, red and white.

I get to the last shelf and toss the ‘Assad must go’ poster on top of the other ‘must go’ posters. Gaddafi must go, Saddam must go, Noriega must go, Sukarno must go.

I make my way back to the exit.

“Take it easy Jimmy” the guard says. “I wouldn’t take it any other way Pops” I reply. Another day another dollar.

All the predictable news coverage of Assad coming out now. USA libs and cons going for a victory lap. They're even going after Assad's kids like they did for Saddam Hussein's and Gaddafi's kids. Oh my fckn god look at the mansion they lived in!!! (tiny compared to Mitch McConnell's and Nancy Pelosi's house). They had prisons!! People were held in prisons!!!!

Can't wait till the USA is liberated. They gonna find lots of unmarked graves on prison grounds. Prisoners with burnt legs and arms. Marks from torture and solitary confinement. Rat poop and bugs in the food. No heat in the winter.

i knew he was a techbro as soon as i saw that peakdesign backpack

Israel not even waiting a single day to invade Syria to grab more land is really something.

International Rules Based Order!!

amerikkka-clap

This is what bipartisanship is all about wholesome

Luigi Mangione, 26, from Baltimore County, Maryland, was apparently apprehended at a Pennsylvania McDonalds on Monday. Mangione went to Gilman, a private all-boys Catholic high school in Baltimore, and then studied at University of Pennsylvania, where he acquired a master of science in engineering degree and a bachelor of science in engineering degree in computer science.

Luigi Mangione’s cover photo featuring a Pokemon, an X-ray photo of his back with four spikes in the pelvis area, and a photo of him shirtless in the mountains His X account is rife with mostly right-leaning, slightly nihilistic, tech bro-y takes concerning AI, mental health, altruism, ancient history, and society in general. Mangione follows Ezra Klein, Sam Altman, AOC, Edward Snowden, and Robert F. Kennedy, among others.

lol

In April, he posted that “modern Japanese urban environment is an evolutionary mismatch for the human animal. The solution to falling birthdates isn’t immigration. It’s cultural.” He reshared another video from June of Republican megadonor Peter Thiel talking about people with Asperger’s running start-ups. He reposted a pseudo-motivational quote, “Netflix, door dash, and true crime podcasts have stolen more dreams than failure ever will.” And he reposted several messages railing against “wokeism.”

Luigi Mangione reposted: Gurwinder: Wokeism needs racism to exist, so it's always looking to pathologize new things as racist, including, now, attempts to start conversation by asking where you're from. If wokeism teaches minorities to be traumatized even by friendly gestures, it cannot claim to bridge divides. Screenshot of Uju Anya: No matter how sweetly you ask it, "Where are you from?" is not a polite question.

His Goodreads is also of interest. He reviewed the Unabomber’s book, writing that “when all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive. You may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it’s not terrorism, it’s war and revolution. Fossil fuel companies actively suppress anything that stands in their way and within a generation or two, it will begin costing human lives by greater and greater magnitudes until the earth is just a flaming ball orbiting third from the sun.”

Mangione was also allegedly found with a written manifesto criticizing health care companies and weapons similar to the CEO shooter’s. He has yet to be charged.

Palestinian Solidarity Activist Dropped from Danish Anti-Racism Campaign Over Social Media Post

A Palestinian solidarity activist, Nana Othman Nielsen, was scheduled to take part in campaign to make Denmark's Social Democrat-led right-wing regime make good on their 2021 promise to make a national plan of action against racism. But now she gives herself excluded from the campaign organized by ActionAid Denmark. The decision followed media scrutiny over her social media post featuring an "Israeli" flag altered with an hourglass, which she says symbolized the need for Israel to be held accountable under international law. ActionAid cited concerns about fueling hostile media coverage as the reason for her exclusion, which Nana criticized as self-censorship. An outspoken advocate against racism, Nana argued that solidarity with Palestine aligns with broader anti-racism efforts. Despite the setback, she remains committed to fighting both racism and dehumanization of Middle Eastern communities.

Source: Arbejderen, December 9th 2024

Now I'm convinced that NATO also did this Syria thing to expel Syrian immigrants. I'm seeing way too much of this "Syria is good now so go back" propaganda.

"Uncomfortable, Awkward and Intimidating.": Prospective Citizens Grilled in Demeaning Danish "Mindset Interviews"

Today, three applicants for Danish citizenship faced the naturalization committee of the Nordic hermit kingdom's rubber-stamp parliament for unprecedented "mindset interviews". The process, designed to evaluate adherence to "Danish values" and gauge the "democratic mindset" of applicants marks a controversial new chapter in Denmark's citizenship procedures.

Anonymous Snitching Snubs Hopes Of Citizenship

The two men and one woman, who had already fulfilled Denmark's exhaustive naturalization requirements, were subjected to this grilling following anonymous complaints about their Facebook activity. The complaints triggered a freeze on their applications, despite the applicants meeting a laundry list of requirements that includes everything from employment, a clean criminal record and having no outstanding public debts to passing a language exam and a trivia quiz, signing a declaration of loyalty and physically shaking the hand of the local mayor or similar official (skin contact explicitly required).

Their hopes of citizenship now rest on a vote by the naturalization committee, which has the power to reject or approve their applications. One applicant is reported to have used a picture of Saddam Hussein as his profile picture. Another posted a homophobic comment urging parliament to "do something about your homosexuality instead" in response to parliament passing an islamophobic "Burqa ban". While such expressions are ostensibly protected under Denmark’s constitution, they have now become grounds for informal inquisitions into applicants' "democratic mindset".

The interviews happened behind closed doors but some questions from anonymous committee members have been reported. Questions included:

Should homosexuals be allowed to hold hands and kiss in public?
What would you say if your child dated someone who wasn’t Muslim?
Which value do you think is the most important in a democracy?

Peder Hvelplund, member of the committee for the pro-democracy "Red-Green" opposition party did not ask any questions. Instead he spent his talking time apologizing to applicants that they had to be "dragged through such an undignified process".

The committee's vice-chair, Helene Brydensholt from the green "Alternative" party had resigned in protest and was not present.

Being targeted as props for right-wing culture war theatrics is likely to have devastating consequences for the applicants' prospects of gaining citizenship and having their legal and political rights safeguarded. All three were visibly nervous and emotional before appearing before the committee. The woman applicant left the hearing in visible distress, rushing past reporters in tears.

Pro-democracy Opposition: "Uncomfortable, Awkward and Intimidating"

The racist majority of the committee had a positive assessment of the interrogations with chairman of the committee, Islamophobic firebrand Mikkel Bjørn from the fascist Danish People's Party called the interviews "a really good conversation and a really good dialogue". The pro-democratic opposition had a different view of the interviews with Hvelplund describing them as "the most uncomfortable, awkward and intimidating experience" in his time in politics.

The interrogations are a long-time wet dream of the racist right and are the pet project of Mikkel Bjørn whose racist views are well-documented. Bjørn has stated an explicit and borderline genocidal desire to reduce the Muslim population of Denmark, remove the legal status of all Muslim faith communities and "make islamic life in Denmark close to impossible".

The efforts of Bjørn and the "Danish People's Party" has been seconded by the ruling "Social Democrats" whose already reactionary politics has taken a significant authoritarian turn over recent years. Social Democrat committee member Anders Kronborg has described the intimidating interviews as "a grand gesture" towards applicants who are "invited to the stronghold of democracy" to tell "why they have these views and find them reconcilable with having a Danish passport".

Expect The Danish Inquisition: Libertarians Demands "Systematic Screenings" Of All Applicants

The interviews are not the only measure taken by Denmark's Islamophobic political elite to police the speech of the kingdom's Muslim minority. The far-right libertarian "Liberal Alliance" party has demanded that the regime forms an expert group to develop even more intrusive mechanisms to "systematically screen" the "democratic mindset" of all who apply for citizenship.

The interviews happens as the latest development in over three decades of rightward shift in Danish politics that has made islamophobic and racist opinions the new "political correctness" among the media and ruling elite. Especially the "Social Democrats", who once had roots in the labour movement, have moved so far right as to be virtually indistinguishable from the fascist Danish People's Party.

A Process Mired In Chaos

The interviews are happening in a legal grey zone under chaotic and arbitrary procedures. Leading up to today's interrogations legal scholars and civil servants had voiced concerns about the legality of the interrogations under national and international human rights law. This did not move the committee's majority who decided to push forward with the interviews.

In Denmark's peculiar naturalization process that dates back to the 1800's citizenship is granted through a legislative process rather than an administrative one. In practice this leaves applicants at the mercy of political whim, stripped of many of the legal protections against arbitrary, biased and lazy decisions that normally apply in administrative law. The sheer amount of applicants and paperwork means that the MP's on the committee often vote on applications they have never read and their decisions are reported to depend on the individual moods of MP's on the day of the vote rather than on serious casework.

Today was no different and up to the last moments the procedural rules of the interrogations were unclear. In the letter summoning them to appear before the committee applicants had been told to come alone. However, one applicant had asked in advance whether they could bring a council. After some debate and confusion the request was granted. When appearing the council asked whether they were allowed to record the proceedings. This caused some debate in the committee before proceedings could go ahead. It is unknown whether the council was allowed to record the interrogation or not.

The three applicants will know whether they've passed through the needle's eye on December 19th when the naturalization bill is introduced to parliament. The Danish People's Party has already announced that they will vote against the naturalization of two of the applicants.

Denying citizenship on arbitrary grounds contravenes international human rights law. However, courts lack the authority to grant citizenship to those unfairly denied, leaving compensation as the only recourse for victims of this deeply flawed process.

Source: DR (state media), December 9th 2024

Normally I don't post pictures but this is Mikkel Bjørn looking like he has just discovered Anne Frank's hiding place:

CW: Nazi with shit-eating grin

really feeling the vibe of this 72t post recently https://hexbear.net/comment/5044804

whenever I get a bit too anxious about ongoing events, I like to imagine a hypothetical person during, say, the Mongol conquests. in the middle of massive battles that shaped civilizations, but just trying to get by on the day-to-day, trying not to get murdered, harvesting grain or weaving or something, and totally forgotten by history. did they ever think that centuries on, people would still be talking about and analyzing events back in their time? did they hope that we'd have overcome war by that distant decade? I sure hope that the people of the 2100s and 2200s are living in lovely communist cities and free from many of our blights.

Just checking on /r/SyrianCirclejerkWar since forever, and damn, the memes there are savage. (CW: weirdo circlejerk shit on Reddit)

https://old.reddit.com/r/SyrianCirclejerkWar/comments/1h9or3f/syria_before_the_islamic_revolution/

https://old.reddit.com/r/SyrianCirclejerkWar/comments/1h9v177/why_doesnt_assad_simply_move_his_regime_to_this/

Assad was so afraid of Israel defeating Syria militarily that he eventually let Israel blow up all of the country's military hardware without resistance. If America doesn't stay in Syria forever, IS is going to sweep through half of the country.

NEW YORK (AP) — Police arrested a “strong person of interest” Monday in the brazen Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO after a quick-thinking McDonald’s employee in Pennsylvania alerted authorities to a customer who was found with a weapon and writings linking him to the ambush.

The suspect, identified by police as 26-year-old Luigi Nicholas Mangione, had a gun believed to be the one used in last Wednesday’s shooting of Brian Thompson, as well as writings suggesting anger with corporate America, police said. Mangione was taken into custody about 9:15 a.m. after police got a tip that he was eating at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, police said.

“He is believed to be our person of interest in the brazen, targeted murder of Brian Thompson,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

Mangione had clothing and a mask similar to those worn by the shooter and a fraudulent New Jersey ID matching one the suspect used to check into a New York City hostel before the shooting, Tisch said. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco and a last known address in Honolulu, Hawaii. A message left Monday with a Philadelphia-area phone number connected to Mangione was not immediately returned.

It was Green Mario!

Narodnikism with American characteristics hitting the scene??

The person of interest has been ID'd as a Luigi Mangione (sorry for non-archive link, follow at your own discretion). luigi-dance https://abcnews.go.com/US/unitedhealthcare-ceo-shooting-latest-net-closing-suspect-new/story

Interesting thread on Salafism with respect to Islamic jurisprudence:
https://xcancel.com/revdefeated/status/1866019539672297609

Razed Protected Marshland To Expand Private Lawn: Homeowners Charged With Environmental Vandalism

Two homeowners living near the Danish town of Kolding face criminal charges for destroying 1,800 square meters of municipally owned, protected marshland. The marsh, rich with wildflowers and EU-protected habitats, was excavated without permission, replaced by a pond and 475 square meters of manicured lawn extending their private garden.

Authorities have labeled this as an extraordinary brazen case of environmental vandalism. It is expected that the marshland will need a full century to recover. Prosecutors are seeking imprisonment in the case. In. 2021 a property developer in the town of Skagen received a custodial sentence for bulldozing a protected dune. The trial is set for February.

Source: DR (state media), December 9th 2024

lol

Oh shit, has The Adjuster got got?

https://wjactv.com/news/local/reports-altoona-man-held-questioning-killing-unitedhealthcare-ceo-nypd-pennsylvania-new-york-brian-thompson

Daniel Penny has been acquitted of all charges in the ~~murder~~ ~~manslaughter~~ ~~criminally negligent homicide~~ apparently totally fine death of Jordan Neely.

https://archive.is/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/nyregion/daniel-penny-not-guilty-jordan-neely.html

With the fall of Syria, Nasrallah's assassination, and the death of Raisi, I've figured out how the Resistance media operates.

If imperialist media is reporting something and there is no reporting on it at all by Resistance media, it is probably false.
If imperialist media is reporting something and Resistance media is explicitly denying it, it is very possibly true.
If imperialist media is reporting something and Resistance media is explicitly denying it and there's rumors from channels in the know that it's true, then it's almost certainly true and they are figuring out the best moment to report it.

To sum it up: If it's all clear, there's nothing to fear; if they deny, get ready to cry.

hows that new 'government' working out syria

oh my god the nazis are invading to ethnically cleanse you

Turkey cement/construction stocks surge after fall of Syria's Assad government: Cimbeton, Nuh Cimento, Oyak Cimento, Afyon Cimento, Cimsa, Konya Cimento, Akcansa

Did anyone here invest in turkish cement and get the bag? Really we should've seen this coming.

One obvious part of the Syrian government's collapse, to anyone with half a brain, is that it was not domestic rebels doing it on their own. An organization chased out of 95% of the country does not just suddenly overthrow the state without weapons and troops and intel from at least one larger country and regional or great power.

A slightly less obvious takeaway is that, contrary to the perennial allegations that "they slaughtered their own people and wrecked their country", all the constituents of the dominant alliance decided that it was not worth it to make the civil war drag on*. Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, and finally the SAA itself all decided that rather than destroying more land and lives, it was more worthwhile to cut losses and retreat. It really doesn't fit the picture if "brutal dictator and his foreign allies" to have chosen to turn over the country rather than to sacrifice more of it.

*Or at least, not this iteration of the civil war. No one can say what the next 5-10 years will look like.

What is up with Syrian Rebels and Terrorists having Saddam Hussein pictures and flags? Assad had some beef with Hussein because of Syria's action during the Gulf War, is this related to that?

just-a-theory Going off of the most fucked up thing is usually conservative to reality....

What if Erdoğan, in his Islamic Caliphate fever dreams, did not assist Palestine because of assurances that were made by isntrael and amerikkka to topple must-go ?

Assad knowing this and the disjointed broken unity when unity mattered knew he was checkmated when half The Resistance was working for The Assistance?

Syrian territorial integirty said "Assad must go" and now syrian territorial integrity is getting bum fucked by israel and turkey.

The curse still holds, people, be careful with what you say

Me generally

Not news per se but don't make adjudicator jokes while speaking to pharmacists. They think you mean taking them out. Not saying they're class enemies but they are very used to bullshit delays and negging customers.

After Syria, world must realise that Russia can be defeated – Polish PM

https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1ha712h/after_syria_world_must_realise_that_russia_can_be/

END OF HISTORY 2 LETS GOOOOOOOOOO

Is there a good effortposts or something someone could point me towards about Syria? as of a week ago I thought it was a stable frozen conflict with the Syrian State in control of most of the country?

Something that we are about to see is the effective "demobilization" of the SAA and a "de-Ba'athification" of various armed formations. Despite the mix of frustration, incompetence and orders to stand down, the SAA still kinda exists while it's being transformed into something else, but I still wonder what is going to happen with it's remaining pro-Assad elements, because I'm sure as fuck there are still people right now in the defunct SAA that are very pissed off about this whole thing.

Of course we know Assad's government had various regular and irregular formations that were, on average, more loyal to them than the standard SAA units. Formations like "Tiger Forces" (which ended up being the only capable unit in the entire SAA it seems judging by the fact they were one of the fews that stood up for the past two weeks), Liwa al Quds (which I think still existed up until now? That is a somewhat irregular formation of syrian palestinians that once saw heavy action in Aleppo years ago) and the whole array of militias under the umbrella of the National Defense Forces, that during the earlier days of the war saw them fill in the roles of the regular SAA (back when they had a shitton of defections). Of course there is the Republican Guard as well, whose loyalty can come and go.

We know what happened in Iraq. A lot of former Republican Guard and Ba'ath soldiers and officials simply went underground when the US occupied the country and ransacked the country, some joined Ba'ath insurgents while others formed new Islamist formations. Others, of course, joined up with the US and formed the new Iraqi Army. The difference is that the Iraqi Army, and especially the Republican Guard, were relentlessly destroyed in battle while the SAA kinda wasn't, not to the same degree.

Of course these formations could create a broad Ba'ath insurgency of some kind or they could just dissolve into numerous factions with varying loyalties and ideologies if you will, effectively ending Ba'athism in Syria (whatever it's left of it anyways). It'll depend on Jolani's ability to summon them in a new government too, if he's willing to "pardon" them or he'll crack down on them, who knows. We'll see I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZlbrKbkmVg&t=1117s![kirby-jammin](https%3A%2F%2Fhexbear.net%2Fpictrs%2Fimage%2Ffce388ed-b585-4573-81db-7a188ce4b745.gif "emoji kirby-jammin")

There was a massacre in Islamabad by the US backed military forces against peacful PTI protestors and hundreds have potentially died with thousands being arrested. There is nearly complete silence about this in western media who're currently busy glazing the dead CEO.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/pakistan-govts-midnight-crackdown-ends-protest-by-imran-khans-party-in-islamabad/article68917294.ece

The amount of gloating and rebranding ISIS and Al Quedea as "rebels" from even Arab media is making me sick watching the coverage of this. Do people not understsnd who these bastard are? Have they forgotten already every single Arab country the west stuck their corrupted fingers in? What the fuck is going on?

I'm not a westener nor do I live in a western country. It feels in many ways like a repeat of Bangladesh. People thinking based epic chungus Yunus will fix all the problems.

Is Bangladesh free from unemployment? Of course not. Their new Government has decided to cut the budget due to high interest payments combined with controls on deficits.

(Hasina wasn't even remotely as repressive as Assad btw, I'm not saying that. But she did have her skeletons, see "Aynaghor")

Interesting commentary by a Vietnamese communist:
https://xcancel.com/darrion_nguyen/status/1865962973455634668

What happened in Syria vindicated Ho Chi Minh famous teaching “A nation who does not want to fight for its independence does not deserve it”. That’s why even though we got support from our allies (materials, technical), it was the Vietnamese to decide our struggle.

We got “negotiated” by big nation (incl. so called allies like the USSR / China) during Geneva and we learned our lesson. Le Duan famously said if we want unification, we must not fear the US, and also not fear the USSR and China, which means if our allies don't agree to our course of action (let’s say fully liberate the south), be prepared to get supply cut off and fought on our own term if we want unification.

Reality shows that was correct decision, culminating in Paris 1972 where we negotiate directly with the US. In the last days of south Vietnam, the West called the USSR and China to talk to Hanoi to halt our operation, but it was all in vain.

Reminds me how Iran didn't want Ansarallah to seize Sanaa, but Ansarallah did it anyways.

what if assad levels up and becomes a trump cabinet pick

the Villa of Maher Al Assad (Brother and basiclly the actual regime , he ordered the Security forces ) finally have the Supervillan vibes i was looking for.

who-must-go seized from here

The guy who sang God Syria Bashar switched sides it’s so fucking over

Mr jolani DO SOMETHING about israel or you gonna end up falling to cuck status!!!!!!!!

And the blame game commences:
https://xcancel.com/iQMidEastCentre/status/1865927168745697644

Assad shift in alliances during last year was kept a secret

I always know we got a new cuck n chad ranking because my thread on mobile is fucked lmao

How much of the terror infrastructure are they going to pass off as Assad?

Anti-~~Soviet~~ Assad warrior puts his army on the road to peace:
https://xcancel.com/USEmbassySyria/status/864144602584035328

We remain committed to bringing leading AQS figures in HTS to justice. #Syria

Funniest thing that could happen:

Trump becomes President, decides to stick it to Mexico. Breaks off all diplomatic relations.
Mexico stops doing trade or anything else with the United States.
The next day, the Adjuster livestreams himself from a beach in Mexico, proves that he's the Adjuster, and says his real name. Mexico won't extradite him.

ukkk : Oi you, tell us the number of nukes you have, yeah.

some-controversy : No

https://archive.is/20241208110113/https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/china-secret-nuclear-stockpile-what-uk-must-do-new-3418651

cuck n chad ranking: 14 years of Syrian meltdown

Note: temporary removal of the first RUS vs UKR row, this edition is fully dedicated to Syria and related conflicts

Gigachad	Chad	Neutral	Beta (Fe)Male	Virgin Cuck
Abu Mohammed Al Jolani (bro started last week with a little zone in Idlib and ended this week as conqueror of Damascus)	SDF (what started as a little militia to control some Kurdish neighborhoods runs more than a third of Syria today)	Bashar Al Assad (the lion himself, strong independent dictator who dazzled us for years, but one day the lion couldn't do it anymore, so it was over)	Iraqi Shia militia guys (spent years dying for Assad, went home to chill as the war calmed down, suddenly their life's work is gone)	Syrian statue quality (Saddam's statues in Baghdad needed tanks and advanced rope to be pulled down, one guy that has gone to gym once can break a Hafez statue in two, very low quality work)
Hezbollah (this collapse proved that were truly the backbone of all resistance in the region, everything is gone without them)	Suheil Al Hassan (his Tiger forces leave the war as undefeated in actual combat, he deserves his gay harem)	Iran and Russia (they deserve credit for somehow keeping a deeply unpopular regime alive for years, in the end they can't force the SAA to fight if they don't want to)	Saudi Arabia (supported the rebels until they lost, then supported Assad until he lost, you're fucked if the Saudis are on your side)	ISIS and Baghdadi (if Jolani gets gigachad for his powerful end to the race, then ISIS get virgin cuck for going on a generational run for like two years before getting destroyed)
The people of Syria (endured absolute hell for years, with millions leaving and hundreds of thousands dead)	Erdogan (I hate that this watermelon seller gets so many Ws in life, but I can't deny that he masterfully executed his role in this war)	Iraq (suffered the worst ISIS spillover, the country almost collapsed because of it, but it came out as a mature leadership in the region)	the World collectively (it never needed to be a massive war, everyone from the US to Russia to the Arab World are responsible for ruining a beautiful country)	The people of Syria (14 years of pain, half of the population is gone, for what in the end, getting duped into accepting israeli control of the south and americans stealing oil in the east and jihadists in the capital)

Btw turns out that decades and weeks Lenin quote is actually George Galloway's version of this paragraph of Lenin:

In the space of a few days we destroyed one of the oldest, most powerful, barbarous and brutal of monarchies. In the space of a few months we passed through a number of stages of collaboration with the bourgeoisie and of shaking off petty-bourgeois illusions, for which other countries have required decades.

The entire left has been quoting Galloway for years.

Under the cover of heavy artillery and airstrikes, the Israeli Army is continues to make advances into Syria, allegedly their goal is Daraa.

Rybar: "'Woke Terrorists' Take Over Syria: How It Happened and What’s Next"

Yeah, that's what's wrong with them. You got it.

As some people are looking for a bigger picture I want to once again bring the real left wing struggle in Brazil right now. In general I suggest only mild/low expectations for BRICS in SA.

1- First as a reminder the analysis that Trump's election is a serious bad result for South America/Brazil still holds. Not only the USDBRL reached historic high $6,00 mark as a result of Haddad's plan. The market as expected wanted more and did not enjoy the smoke screen.

Yet on rather on another historical front the Mercosur-EU trade deal finaly happened after 25 years of negotiations. Yes almost before og BRICS was even a thing! Hilarious irony. Brazil seems to be hedging its bets, or at least accepting this geopolitical play from the EU side, I'd argue the BRICS Venezuela issue was the first sign of this hedge.

As Nakedcapitalism recently put it EU Nears Finish Line on Trade Deal With South American Bloc in an Effort to Deal Blow to China

On the South American side, there are strong reasons to believe that the deal will lead to the following:

More fires and deforestation in the Amazon. Escalation of invasion of indigenous territories, land-grabbing and violent attacks. A disruption of local food production. Increased use of dangerous pesticides.

Why Does the EU Ruling Class Want the Deal?

While agriculture products are the largest slice of the Mercosur exports to the EU (32.4 percent), mineral products are second at 29.6 percent. The South American countries have plenty of what the EU is looking for, including lithium, graphite, nickel, manganese, and rare earth elements. The EU is currently almost completely reliant on China for minerals needed for EV batteries, solar panels, wind energy, and green hydrogen — all part of the bloc’s flailing green transition.

Even if the EU is able to secure more critical minerals from Mercosur with this trade deal, who will do the processing? There’s still no clear answer. Von der Leyen likes to tout her tools like the bloc’s Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), which aims for the EU to process 40 percent of the strategic raw materials it uses by 2030. The NZIA allows projects to bypass many environmental and social impact reviews, but there’s no budget, and the policies do nothing to change Europe’s disadvantages, which include a lack of subsidies compared to the US and China and much higher energy costs thanks to their “de-risking” away from Russian energy.

Yet the “de-risking” — code for the EU’s eager role as a US proxy in the fight against Russia and China — continues.

Thus far, it’s mostly been a disaster on every level — strategically, economically, and environmentally.

My wholesome BRICS leader can't possibly be signing a relic of the 2000's Free Trade Agreement that only causes environmental damage and favors the landowner class that violently opposes him and the left no way!

Though the other BRICS leader can just happily smile away as these dangerous initiatives fail anyway. Is this what a win-win/mutually beneficial deal looks like?

2- I need to remind people Lula's government went from a mostly mixed to good first half to a terrible neoliberal boot on the working class second half.

The Maduro spout was not a coincidence. Lula wants to pander to many sectors including the religious fundamentalist evengelicals that demonize the Cuban/Venezuelan revolutions.

The current Haddad(Finance Minister) despite the smoke screen(some tax exemption for poor) the focus remains, cut one of the biggest Brazilian welfare programs the BPC i.e retirement and social welfare money for people who can't retire due to illness etc.

Right now we have Federal Council of Social Services (CFESS)(1) making a public announcement against it I quote below.

Among the main points, the PL imposes technological barriers to access and permanence of the benefit - such as biometric registration and registration updating, without investment to make it viable. Furthermore, it limits the real increase in the minimum wage and, consequently, the value of the BPC, putting at risk the income of the beneficiary to meet their basic needs. Another point of setback is the reduction of elderly people and people with disabilities to the category of “infra-citizens”, by changing the concept of “family” without legal, social and scientific support.

The bill also backslides in the defense of human rights and reveals its ableist nature by resuming the concept of “person with disabilities” as someone who is “incapable of independent living and working,” violating international treaties and disregarding the Brazilian Inclusion Law (LBI) itself.

The bill also jeopardizes the survival chances of families with multiple members living in poverty, as it revokes the rule that income from a BPC already granted and other social security benefits is not taken into account for the eligibility of another member for the BPC. The bill is racist, ableist, misogynistic, patriarchal, and ageist, and it undermines the Brazilian welfare state and could lead to hunger, putting the lives of the population at risk.

Therefore, we demand the withdrawal of Bill 4614/2024 from the Chamber of Deputies, we say no to fiscal adjustment, and we invite social workers to send emails and messages on the social networks of the deputies, showing that the Social Service repudiates this bill!

Among the left political opposition only mainly PSOL have managed to oppose this monstrous neoliberal attack. In his vote he says

Congressman Chico Alencar (PSOL-RJ) told Brasil de Fato that the PSOL bench will analyze the proposals sent by the government, but added that the party's parliamentarians will reject any type of favoritism towards the financial market, while workers foot the bill.
“Our overall position is against this package. We are not interested in calming the market; what we are interested in is starting to reduce social inequalities in Brazil and calming the tensions arising from these contradictions in society,” he said.

Yet this whole initiative has been the Lula's government own decision, the bill came from the government and not the opposition!

*Earlier this year Brazil already made a historical decision to increase tax on cheap(<USD$50) foreign imports, almost entirely from China e.g clothing, phone casings, every sort of cheap electronic etc. Basically Brazilians buy a lot of much cheaper clothing and stuff from China. Global south deindustrialization goes brrrrr!!!!

The local retail chain capitalists don't like this as they also only import from China and sell for a profit while Brazilians could just buy from Aliexpress for far cheaper. Yes another instance of inter-BRICS fighting where imperialist capitalists won.

3- The best for last, as a final warning don't listen to just Worker Party/PT Lula fans online.

Jones Manoel's Video because fuck twitter Here is Andre Esteves, Chairman of BTG Pactual, the biggest investment bank in Latin America, bragging about how the market managed to privatize several Brazilian utility companies and the left didn't do anything.

In the last three years, we privatized three of the six largest companies under state control. This year, Sabesp is the largest sanitation company in Brazil. Last year, Copel, which is the largest company, was the largest state-controlled energy company. The year before, it was privatized.

Privatizing Eletrobras, something that 10 years ago most of us here would have thought impossible to happen.* And to remember, Eletrobras was privatized 3 months before the election. We had the privilege of coordinating the three privatizations of Copel and Eletrobras. Because it is a huge privilege and a huge responsibility. For us at BTG, now three months before the election, we are privatizing the third largest state-owned company in Brazil.

And there was no text. No one showed up at the BTG headquarters with a cardboard sign saying I am against, right? Most of us here are from a generation that saw the privatizations there in the late 90s, right? That happened in Rio de Janeiro in Praça 15, which turned into a war zone, tear gas, investors, raising of blows, union confusion, you didn't know why it was happening, right? This time we privatized Eletrobras three months before the election and no one showed up with a cardboard sign to say I'm against it, so Brazilian society has changed.

Imagine having a banker tell it to you with a straight face lol.

I said before and I maintain the warning: Lula will not be re-elected unless there is a massive course correction. Be extremely careful with thinking state level business deals between countries, which IMO is realy the maximum extent of Chinese/dengist anti-imperialism so far, actualy reflects in our day to day struggles and the political situation at the ground level.

1:

What is CFESS?

The Federal Council of Social Services (CFESS) is a federal public agency that is responsible for guiding, disciplining, standardizing, monitoring and defending the professional practice of social workers in Brazil, together with the Regional Councils of Social Services (CRESS). In addition to its attributions, contained in Law 8.662/1993, the entity has been promoting, over the last 30 years, actions and policies for the construction of a radically democratic, anti-capitalist society project that defends the interests of the working class.

Man, imagine telling someone that this year, there'd be two attempted or successful assassinations in the United States, one against a president, but the OTHER one caused more of a ripple

Some Syria news and analysis:

Brian Berletic’s analysis (this is very good): https://odysee.com/@Qwinten:b/Syria--A-Battle-Lost-Amid-a-Wider-War---The-New-Atlas:2

Iranian professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi’s analysis: https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/Marandi-syria-iran:6

President Bashar Assad resigned and left the country. He arrived safely in Moscow and received asylum (note that Western imperialist psychological warfare propagandists falsely claimed that he had died in a plane crash): https://www.rt.com/russia/609008-russia-assad-plane-crash/

The al-Queda and Turkish-backed groups agreed to provide security for Russian military bases and diplomatic missions: https://tass.com/world/1884231

Photos of thousands of Syrian refugees returning from Turkey.

The guy on the latest radio war nerd said that in Turkey, much like everywhere else these days, there's been a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, which syrians have been a primary victim of and having them return on their own without even having to deport them is a huge politican win for erdogan (though elections aren't until 2028 so I don't know if he'll remain popular by then)

I think one thing we can learn from this is that it is impossible to prop up a legitimately unpopular government forever, no matter which country is doing it.

Gotta give myself and @MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net a big pat on the back for correctly dooming from the start, we were the only megaheads that got the Afghanistan-scenario prediction correctly.

Man this is not good. Assad sucks bad but he really did seem to me the least terrible option. Now any pretense of secularism is gone, openly Islamic fundamentalist groups are taking power; any facade of rights for women, religious minorities, other oppressed groups will fade into the background. I don't see HTS being anything of a bulwark to US or Israeli interests like Assad had been. Despite his lukewarm response to these things it seemed he at least was stopping Syria from becoming a base for that shit. Maybe I'm just stressed about nothing but it feels to me that an anti imperialist player has crumbled in this key region and I just can't imagine how this could be a positive development

There is something that needs to be said about Syria - what is the message being sent to the Global South?

A lot has been said and asked about why Global South countries don’t dare to stand up and reluctant to fight the creeping Western imperialism being waged against them. Well, compradors aside, for one, most governments don’t want to end up like Libya. Many governments really don’t want to have a huge target being painted on their back, so it’s better to keep your head down and pray that the imperial hegemon doesn’t take an interest in you.

If one could still argue that Libya fell because Medvedev butt headed with Putin and refused to veto the UN resolution (though it is doubtful that would have made any substantial change to the situation, there are people who believe that if Putin had been in charge in 2011, Russia could have served as a counteracting force against NATO in Libya), then Syria shattered that illusion completely by demonstrating that even Putin’s Russia will abandon you.

This does not fare well for the anti-imperialist banner that Russia and Iran (and maybe even China) are attempting to portray themselves as the spearheads of the movement. If you piss off the empire, nobody is coming to save you. You’re going to be all alone. So, it’s better to keep your heads low and learn to know your place, then maybe, just maybe, the empire will let you live for another day.

I just discovered that Jurrasic Park and In The Mouth of Madness Actor, Sam Neill, has cancer and while currently is in remission, it could return. I know he is a lib/socdem, I also think he is pro-Aboriginal and Maori.

In March 2023, Neill revealed that he had been undergoing chemotherapy since March 2022 after being diagnosed with stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, following swollen glands that were first noticed during publicity for Jurassic World Dominion. He stated that the cancer is in remission, but he will require monthly chemotherapy for the rest of his life.

I'm still in a state of shock, it feels weird that the Assads are gone when they've been such a constant in every Syrian's life for decades. I teared up today imagining that God might bless us one day with sights of Arab fighters storming Israeli prisons and freeing prisoners like we saw in Syria today.

A lot has happened in Syria in a very short time. It seems like everything is in flux and it has been hard to keep up.

Israel has now extended its buffer out of Golan Heights, moving troops, and bombing as far as Damascus. This can be seen on the map trackers.

I've heard a lot of concerns that HTS would align with Israel, especially after that piece published in an Israeli paper where a rebel asked Israel to bomb SAA positions the other day. As far as I know that did not happen. Now Israel is bombing the rebels instead.

I can't say what will happen, but as I recently posted, Iran will likely want to court an HTS government (despite their history) to align them away from Israel. If Israel is going to immediately bomb HTS then that presumably makes the job easier for Iran. I even suspect this is part of the reason why we saw limited Iranian action in Syria over the past week - to prepare for the situation that comes next.

I will not be surprised if Israel wants to back the SDF now in order to use them to sustain the conflict. On the other hand I would be surprised if the SDF would welcome their support. They have their best shot at autonomy in a long time and if HTS is willing to work with them, then it seems to me that it would be much safer to do so rather than to let Israel provoke more fighting and risk losing it all.

I'm also not sure how legitimate an offer of Israeli support would be because I struggle to imagine them sinking a lot of resources into fighting the SNA and by extension their co-conspirator Turkey. Perhaps ultimately Israel will end up supporting the SNA instead? That might be the play for maximum chaos.

With that said, we've seen the increasing importance of modern air defenses and if those are not made available, then it may not actually be feasible to resist Israel - for both HTS and SDF. And I'm not sure there are enough air defense systems to go around. So some party might feel forced to cut a new deal. This is one of my major concerns at the moment. It is frustrating that the need for AD has become so apparent in recent years and yet there is still a massive deficiency of hardware.

To summarize: A lot has happened, a lot is happening, and we could see both positive and negative developments as the situation evolves. I don't think this is one of those affairs where the outcome is pre-determined and we're just waiting for the pieces to fall into place. I expect that this state of flux and rapid developments will continue in the near term. I will hope for the best.

Ali Larijani reportedly offered him pre-set conditions 2 weeks ago in Damascus. Bashar didn’t agree with them and even refused to meet with Larijani—Iran’s special envoy—when he returned to Damascus Friday Dec 6. Bashar Assad refused to open the Golan front, despite being asked to by the resistance groups. The Assad government, after becoming too close with the Gulf Arabs, had put a lot of restrictions on IRGCQF, this sparkled dissatisfaction.

Ex-IRGCQF officer claimed Iran intel knew since 2 months ago that rebel groups in Idlib were up to something. He claims Iranians shared their worries with Turkey, but “Turks deceived them and assured Iranians there’s nothing to be afraid of—Should not have trusted the Turks. The situation in Syria has not ended and it’s going spark unrest. Especially between Kurdish SDF vs Turkish-backed rebel groups (e.g. HTS) AND inner fights among rebel groups.

It's now widely known that Iran, Hezbollah and other Shia factions asked Assad for permission to open a front in the Golan Heights after October 7th to support the resistance in Gaza & Lebanon. However, Assad refused, reportedly saying he did not want to drag Syria into a possible open confrontation with Israel & he did not want to risk jeopardizing his normalization progress with the Gulf States. Yemen's Ansarullah reveals more about Assad: 'He closed our embassy in Damascus, in exchange for Saudi Arabia letting him open a Saudi embassy there'

From Telegram

So if Luigi is the guy. He got hurt in Hawaii.

It sounds like he read teds book while in a surf commune type of situation last November. And he got his back injury from surfing in Hawaii. With in the past year maybe 6 months.

If that's the case.

True anon rule number one. Quit being weird and looking at a teenage boys/young man previous rantings and coming to defeatist conclusions.

At least three Israeli soldiers were killed in the minefield explosion in 'Ras al-Naqoura' in Lebanon earlier today.

Lol

Erdogan: 'Besides Putin, I am the only real leader left in the entire world'

????

UK Royal Air Force refueling aircraft of type KC3 Voyager/Airbus A330 MRTT in the air over the Southern border of Syria, in Jordanian and Iraqi airspace, flew out from Cyprus. It looks like the British might use the current situation to bomb some ISIS or ex SAA targets in Syria. No confirmation on that yet, all that Is known is that the tanker aircraft is in the air.

Update: the tanker aircraft is accompanied by at least two Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft. These are the aircraft that would actually carry out any potential airstrikes. They are currently returning to Cyprus.

Israeli aircraft and artillery are also shelling Daraa according the the latest videos and images from the region. A weapons cache in Izra appears to be the target, with lots of secondary explosions visible, and rocket artillery rounds cooking off and firing into the night sky.

Twitter source video

Xcancel mirror

Nitter mirror

Looks as if it's going to be a very rough night and early morning in terms of air raids. Anyone living near any SAA military installations, I'd advise to stay away from windows and inside, these are going to be bombed.

So now that the Assad government is gone do we all become Rojava guys? Is it time to send anarkiddies some flowers to let the tankies into the Abdullah Ocalan stan community?

On a serious note I've been peering though some portuguese language Rojava twitter accounts and they seem very scared of HTS, they're not buying into the reformed jihadist idea at all and seem to be expecting the rebel government to strike the kurds at the behest of turkey, also they've been reporting abuses of minorities in rebel territory.

Biden has begun a substantially large air campaign against "ISIS camps in Syria" dozens of airstrikes already

These fuckers are moving at light speed

From AryJeay on Telegram:

🇮🇷| Iranian FM Aragchi: Iran will continue support the resistance & Hezbollah

We’ve received guarantees in Syria that the embassy & consulate of Iran will be protected, and more importantly the shrines of Lady Sayyede Zainab & Hazrat Ruqyah will be protected & respected.

The attack on the embassy this morning was not done by the actual groups but by bystanders for looting purposes.

Iran’s position is to support the wishes of the Syrian people, but it is not easy to reach an agreement between all the different groups.

The resistance may have setbacks or undergo changes, like losing dear figures in Lebanon for example, but resistance continues.

@FotrosResistance

Looks like whatever happened in the embassy in Damascus, Iran isn't interested in making enemies with the new Syria and will seek to engage positively with whoever emerges as victor of the current clusterfuck.

Resistance against the entity will continue but it will be harder now for sure. I think there will need to be some humiliating peace deals signed right around Trump's time in office. If not there's a time limit now for how long Lebanon and Gaza can hold out.

"Or there will be hell to pay" - and it will be a hell Biden paved for him. Working hand-in-hand, never forget that.

Israel’s Kann is reporting that the IDF is considering carrying out a significant attack on Yemen focusing on the Houthis

This is making the rounds on twitter but I can't find it at KANN. Ansar Allah will be USA's Hanukkah gift to Isn'trael.

The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Imam Ali Khamenei, will make an address regarding 'developments in the region' on Wednesday, December 11.

The Iranian Foreign Minister regarding the next step in Syria: 'We support a political solution in Syria based on United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254, including: The immediate cessation of hostilities between all parties and a mechanism to monitor the ceasefire. The start of negotiations and a political process between all legitimate opposition parties in Syria, with the exception of recognized terrorist groups like HTS and ISIS. Free and fair national elections within 18 months and the right of the Syrian people to decide their own future.'

The last Iranian and Iranian-backed Shia fighters (mostly Fatemiyoun) will shortly leave Syria through the airport of Latakia, after making a last stand at Sayyeda Zainab Shrine, resisting for 4 hours against rebel forces despite being surrounded and outnumbered 11 to 1

Iranian FM Aragchi: Iran will continue support the resistance & Hezbollah. We’ve received guarantees in Syria that the embassy & consulate of Iran will be protected, and more importantly the shrines of Lady Sayyede Zainab & Hazrat Ruqyah will be protected & respected. The attack on the embassy this morning was not done by the actual groups but by bystanders for looting purposes. Iran’s position is to support the wishes of the Syrian people, but it is not easy to reach an agreement between all the different groups. The resistance may have setbacks or undergo changes, like losing dear figures in Lebanon for example, but resistance continues.

Russian Channel One, quoting sources in the Kremlin: 'Former President Bashar al-Assad and his family have arrived safely in Moscow'. Leaders of the armed Syrian opposition have guaranteed the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions on Syrian territory, Russian media reported, citing the Kremlin.

'Iran warned Assad two months ago that HTS was preparing to make a move, but he dismissed the threat. So the Turkish Foreign Minister gave us assurances that nothing will take place, which turned out to be a lie. After HTS entered Western Aleppo, Iran expected Assad to ask for military assistance, and we were fully prepared to oblige with troops and whatever else was needed – but no such request came. After Aleppo fell, it became clear that Assad had no real intentions of staying in power, so we started to engage in diplomatic talks with the opposition, and arranged the safe exit of our troops from Syria. If the SAA does not fight, neither will we risk our soldiers' lives. Russia and the UAE had managed to convince him to step down, so there was nothing we could do.' – Iranian Officials

Idk if this is true, could be Iranian cope or Assad really was this dumb

Time is a flat circle

"The US Central Command said its forces conducted dozens of airstrikes on Islamic State targets in central Syria on Sunday

In a statement, the Centcom said its strikes were aimed to ensure that the Islamic State does not take advantage of the current situation in Syria.

“Battle damage assessments are underway, and there are no indications of civilian casualties,” reads a statement by Centcom posted on X.

“There should be no doubt – we will not allow Isis to reconstitute and take advantage of the current situation in Syria,” said Gen Michael Erik Kurilla.

“All organizations in Syria should know that we will hold them accountable if they partner with or support Isis in any way,” Kurilla added."

Syrian opposition releases 67 members of Al Qassam Brigades in addition to 630 other Palestinians —some of them had been declared killed years ago— from the notorious prison of Sednaya!

Materialist posting time. Poke holes in my likely flawed analysis please:

Kurds - just want to grill, but it’s thanksgiving so that means grilling turkey

Turkey - protector and defender of the Turkmen, hates the Kurds

Iran - can’t do shit about it now, will focus on Iraq & seek some kind of detente with the caliphate.

Iraq - will drive closer to Iran in fear of the caliphate

The Caliphate - won big but learned from last time and will probably seek to consolidate. Will want to focus on northern Iraq but will be reactive for a time until they consolidate their big gains. They have a grudge against Russia here but the cia has a bounty against their leader while also supplying arms so let’s face it, these players are businessmen and will cut a deal with Russia.

Shias / Alawites / seculars / remnant Ba’athists - lost big and will just try to survive, goal one will be an autonomous Latakia. An autonomous Latakia is directly in the interests of everyone except the caliphate since the caliphate immediately becomes a threat to everyone else, and not directly against the interests of the caliphate so I expect an autonomous Latakia that is essentially a Russian protectorate.

Lebanon (excluding Hezbollah): can’t do shit even for itself right now, will ally with Latakia & Russia and balance-of-power Israel against Hezbollah.

Hezbollah: will have to bend the knee and accept the caliphate as a neighbor, will loosely ally with Lebanon and Latakia.

Russia: will cut any deal possible that preserves their naval base, likely taking the form of a Syrian confederation that preserves an autonomous Latakia and they’ll wash their hands of the rest of the place. Interestingly well placed to balance Turkey against Israel, and play a broker between the caliphate and Iran. Most interesting takeaway here is that Lebanon is pushed towards Russia, and Turkey and Russia need to align their interests (= Kurds get fucked, as is tradition.)

Russia well positioned to be the closest thing to a power broker in this game of thrones imo. Despite having clearly taken a side, their side clearly lost, and their interests are clear and directly understood so bygones will be bygones.

Israel: can’t conceivably occupy a major Syrian population center if they can’t pacify Gaza. The more land they seize, the more likely the caliphate targets them instead of Iraq. I expect a restrained land grab to create a buffer zone, nothing more.

USA: fucking wild card. It’s certainly possible the caliphate don’t deal with Russia, which is a key assumption that negates everything so that is probably want the USA wants.

EU: irrelevant

So what happened with that airplane supposedly shot down over Homs? We got info from FlightRadar but no videos or photos of the wreck? That usually comes out real quick.

The Revisionists have lusted for the Euphrates for 75 years, and the one opportunity they have Israel doesn’t have the troops or materiel to move on it.

Is Israel marching into Syria?

Photo circulating online claiming to be of Bashar Assad & family in Moscow is old from their visit in 2023.

I guess we won't be able see Assad for some time now? Unless the situation in Syria changes to his favor.

Can anyone see a comment here? https://old.reddit.com/r/somethingiswrong2024/comments/1h9qpxj/i_cant_deal/m145eds/ i'm trying to see if they blocked me lol

I thought my curry tasted different

Assads family picturebook was looted

Lmao, some reports that assad is in russia, they truly are dumbest motherfuckers

While reporting live for BBC Persian from Lebanon’s Beqaa region near the Syrian border, Nafiseh Kohnavard was approached by pro-FSA supporters having a picture of Saddam Hossein on their car.

Is this because Saddam fought against Iran during the 1980's? I thought Saddam had normalized relations with Iran by the late 1990s and early 2000's.

What do the developments in Syria mean for the Russian military presence there? I know they have (their only?) warm water port in a naval base on the Syrian Mediterranean coast. All I was able to find was a statement from the Russian MFA saying pretty much "uh we're keeping an eye on shit"

🎵 It's all over but the crying

And nobody's crying but me

Friends all over know I'm trying

To forget about how much I care for you

It's all over but the dreaming

Poor little dreams that keep trying to come true

It's all over but the crying

And I can't get over crying over you 🎵

assad-must-stay

https://www.civilbeat.org/2024/12/luigi-mangiones-hawaiʻi-friends-shocked-by-arrest-in-unitedhealthcare-ceo-shooting/

This article was released a mere 3-4 hours after the announcement. And the reporter was able to contact several former friends with in that time frame.

Iono. That's just really odd.

I think another thing to note is that unlike Libya there was no direct intervention by NATO. Syrian Government fell much more easily.

Dedicated to Syria and Bashar

Bulletins and News Discussion from December 9th to December 15th, 2024 - Assad Must Go

Destroying The Forest To Save The Forest

"Newspeak Invented For The Occasion"