Bulletins and News Discussion from December 16th to December 22nd, 2024 - Assad's Apology
Bulletins and News Discussion from December 16th to December 22nd, 2024 - Assad's Apology
Image is of Assad's presidential palace in 2013. There's more images of it in this article, though the words in it aren't worth reading.
Here is Assad's version of events. I like to imagine he's making one of those Youtuber apology videos where they sigh at the start and talk in a chastised yet somewhat defensive tone of voice.
As terrorism spread across Syria and ultimately reached Damascus on the evening of Saturday 7th December 2024, questions arose about the president's fate and whereabouts. This occurred amidst a flood of misinformation and narratives far removed from the truth, aimed at recasting international terrorism as a liberation revolution for Syria.
At such a critical juncture in the nation’s history, where truth must take precedence, it is essential to address these distortions. Unfortunately, the prevailing circumstances at the time, including a total communication blackout for security reasons, delayed the release of this statement. This does not replace a detailed account of the events that unfolded, which will be provided when the opportunity allows.
First, my departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles, as some have claimed. On the contrary, I remained in Damascus, carrying out my duties until the early hours of Sunday 8th December 2024. As terrorist forces infiltrated Damascus, I moved to Latakia in co-ordination with our Russian allies to oversee combat operations. Upon arrival at the Hmeimim airbase that morning, it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen. As the field situation in the area continued to deteriorate, the Russian military base itself came under intensified attack by drone strikes.
With no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday 8th December. This took place a day after the fall of Damascus following the collapse of the final military positions and the resulting paralysis of all remaining state institutions.
At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party. The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.
I reaffirm that the person who, from the very first day of the war, refused to barter the salvation of his nation for personal gain, or to compromise his people in exchange for numerous offers and enticements is the same person who stood alongside the officers and soldiers of the army on the front lines, just metres from terrorists in the most dangerous and intense battlefields. He is the same person who, during the darkest years of the war, did not leave but remained with his family alongside his people, confronting terrorism under bombardment and the recurring threats of terrorist incursions into the capital over 14 years of war. Furthermore, the person who has never abandoned the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, nor betrayed his allies who stood by him, cannot possibly be the same person who would forsake his own people or betray the army and nation to which he belongs.
I have never sought positions for personal gain but have always considered myself as a custodian of a national project, supported by the faith of the Syrian people, who believed in its vision. I have carried an unwavering conviction in their will and ability to protect the state, defend its institutions, and uphold their choices to the very last moment.
When the state falls into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost, any position becomes void of purpose, rendering its occupation meaningless. This does not, in any way, diminish my profound sense of belonging to Syria and her people – a bond that remains unshaken by any position or circumstance. It is a belonging filled with hope that Syria will once again be free and independent.
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The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
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It seems like the newsmega has a lot fewer of the regulars recently. I miss the input from the users who are actually proximate to the conflict in Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon. Their input was extremely valuable.
In one way I'm glad some of them aren't on here to see this and having to deal with our stupid arguments, the last few weeks have just been really bad. They're probably feeling the same emotions we are feeling times a hundred, and way more complicated and nuanced, as they actually live there and have a personal attachment to their country. Imagine commenting on and correctly predicting the downfall of you and/or your loved ones' country, for example. And then seeing people, maybe even someone you know being freed from prisions. And then the country gets bombed by a powerful adversary. In another scenario, imagine returning to your homeland after months of bombings, after a ceasefire agreement gets singed (no matter how bad the terms, a ceasefire is a ceasefire). That's extremely emotional. Being on the internet and arguing with a bunch of people (mostly westerners) who didn't even know what the SAA, 1974 agreement, the blue line, South Litani area, HTS, SNA, SDF, etc, were until a few weeks ago is probably not the best course of action in such a scenario.
I'll keep on reporting until the end, no matter how bad it gets, someone has to do it after all. Or good, never give up hope comrades, even in the worst hours, we have to be resilient, there is no other choice.
Someone has to post the goddamned news
yeah...
With the current timeline:
Being on the internet and arguing with a bunch of people (mostly westerners) who didn't even know what the SAA, 1974 agreement, the blue line, South Litani area, HTS, SNA, SDF, etc, were until a few weeks ago
Westerners who don’t speak the language or know anything about the culture thinking they know it all and trying to lecture the people who live there about what they should or shouldn’t do? Where have I heard of this before.
Westerners who don’t speak the language or know anything about the culture thinking they know it all and trying to lecture the people who live there about what they should or shouldn’t do? Where have I heard of this before.
Crackers literally talk down to everyone, even the subjects-of-empire they live over and off of. I'm p sure every single one of us has a relevant story to point to this statement.
Many times though the “cracker” is a communist and the “subject-of-empire” is a liberal comprador. This type of logic leads to very stupid ends
Many times though
Did I just hear "not all whites"? We get it, now learn about systemic issues instead of getting in your feelings about the one time you had a "more correct" opinion than a poc
ok have fun bowing before compradors and having a muddled unscientific view of the world
i'm not white, and I think it's very stupid I have to say this to get your to admit I'm correct when I clearly am
Fair enough, sorry to assume. But the point still stands that a really fucking common experience that poc people have was pointed out, to which you responded "well it's not like that all the time". Yeah, I think we all know that, I think all of us here are trying to think about systems. What is the systemic purpose of pointing out that some white people are good eggs whenever poc share their everyday experiences?
I’m POC sharing my lives experience right now. Sit down and shut up, by your own logic whitey.
A very common experience I have is that some shitlib comprador is pushing a US-backed narrative and leftists take it seriously because of the ethnicity or race or nationality of the person delivering it. You should know by now about gusanos and why this method is not foolproof.
The empire is rainbow imperialism, while its aims are white supremacist it’s actual composition is very diverse. There are millions of token compradors they will put up between themselves and those seeking decolonization.
The context of the comment is talking about users on here being glad that Al Qaeda took over Syria and that Israel has defeated the axis of resistance. Those people are correctly criticized, whether they are Syrian or not is irrelevant. It’s never ok to support Zionism .
I don’t care about the feelings of white people, I’m not one of them. I care about the analysis being dogshit because someome believes every color revolution and comprador who spouts imperialist bullshit. The entire logic is flawed.
Thanks for sharing that. I personally took fraudogg's comment to be an offhanded quip not really related to the top level comment. So I didn't see the reason to say something like that in response, especially on a site so overwhelmingly filled with white anglos, who tend to take such moments to congratulate themselves of being "the good ones"
and I appreciate the edit lol
We are on an anonymous forum where anyone can claim to be anything, and they can use the credulity afforded by this type of dumb logic to dupe well meaning and naive leftists into accepting imperialist or reactionary narratives.
It’s a heuristic that is destined to fall flat on its face, it’s open to exploitation and is vulnerable to sell outs and bad actors. It’s taking what should be a universal materialist analysis based on concrete principles and turning it into post-modern liberal slop that we can do nothing with.
It turns what should be a joint collaborative effort to understand and analyze the world into a circular firing squad of position-jockeying. When what is said is less important than who is saying it we have entered the territory of ideology.
And many times, the cracker in question is a white supremacist, give a damn what they call themselves when the klan hood is in the closet; I could do this all day with any number of self-satisfied settler armchair posters, but frankly, I couldn't be fucked to beyond this response. Have a good one.
Your logic leads you to glorifying color revolutions and promoting grifters and compradors. It's not good. People are not born correct, they have to use analysis and be educated in the correct way to understand their own interests. Many colonial subjects have their minds colonized as well and partake and benefit from the colonization. You will find no shortage of Liberal tokens to shield imperialism, and if we just accept the "white people can never talk back to colonized subjects" logic then we are at an impasse, they win.
If some Liberal Hong Kong kid comes in here and starts spouting off about the revolution of our times, are we all to defer and bow before them? Take their colonialist gripes seriously? Actually try to follow through with your logic here and see how it goes.
disengage
Ok I see my app (I use Boost for Lemmy and it sent me a bunch of notifications) has had some notifications with regards to this, I don't have time to respond to all messages or individual comments, so all I'm going to say is: I'm doing fine, don't worry about me, I just don't feel comfortable posting under this given the situation, which I don't want to re-ignite. From what I've seen on my brief browse, there are accounts and users attempting to do the same thing I did in the news megathread and elevate it, so the information is still getting out there and that is what is most important. Hold them to a high standard, as you did to me. Lots of new developments. Love you all and stay safe.
Happy to hear you're fine and well, comrade. Stay safe.
we miss you, i hope you come back soon
Death to America
That shit made me so angry. You literally had some deranged freak gave him death threats (I remember the death threats were pretty graphic too like slitting his family's throats graphic), admins sitting on their asses not doing the barest minimum of defedding from the lemmy instance (they only did it after I requested it), admins constantly changing their story about who was behind it going from blaming some other pariah ex-Hexbear account to "well, it was a total stranger I guess there's nothing we can do," no issuing an apology to him or HelltakerHomosexual (yeah, she sucked, but she was also unfairly dogpiled. Part of basic threshold of maturity is being fair towards people you personally don't like lol). And to top it off, people were strangely dogpiling him for some bizarre reason in that thread. So not only did the aggrieved party not get anything close to some form of restoration, but he got even more shit for daring to not wanting to see comments about his family's throats being slit while they're asleep. The admins turned their backs at him, and even some of the users turned their backs at him. At a certain point, it's time to call it quits.
We lost such a good user.
And Awoo got banned for no good reason. The megathread is the last thing I'm willing to regularly use on this site but the mods are doing their best to ban some of the decent posters and let more be chased off by death threats or debatebros
Awoo banned? Whaaaaaaa?
DM harrassment, lionizing a right-wing weirdo, and sustained hostility. Regardless of what was said in a private conversation, only a public apology and retraction of previous statements will make things right when the ban expires.
Said "right wing weirdo" was Luigi lol
The DM stuff aside, which I can only speculate about (and looking at the modlog, I don't trust mods here well enough to not misrepresent the event) awoo's modlog is is public and I encourage folks to read it.
Folks can read the modlog and make their own conclusions.
And Awoo got banned for no good reason.
Bullshit. Not only did she talk down to me Repeatedly, but after she mod-abused her way out of a three-day, she went back DM harass someone who tried to disengage. Any he/him here would've got a perma for that; and she only got seven days. "No good reason", tuh!
Any he/him here would've got a perma for that; and she only got seven days.
lmfao
awoo dm harassed POC people and abused her connections to get out of a temp ban for it. These are not 'no good reasons'
I miss @aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net
Yeah, I am increasingly of the opinion that it's time to either move the the news mega to like lemmygrad or start a new Lemmy instance specifically for it. It seems this site is increasingly run by 15 year olds who don't touch grass and are convinced of their own superiority. I hope we can get @aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net back plus some other people we lost along the way. From what it sounded like, some mod clique was letting their friends send them death threats.
Doesn't help that if you do anything resembling OSINT or technical analysis you get accused of being a government/federal agent lol (think it's called fed jacketing). Bit discouraging as a new account to posting. I'll try to take it as a compliment on the perceived accuracy of the information I post (I say perceived as I know that I've made mistakes in the past)
SeekTheDeletion also stopped posting after complaining about mod death threats a bunch and getting nowhere with it
complaining about mod death threats a bunch and getting nowhere with it
mod death threats
am i interpreting this incorrectly or does this mean the mods sent somebody death threats?
Death to America
Yes the mod sent death threats and is still mod and other mods cover it up and delete whenever it is brought up
what the fuck that's completely unacceptable
Death to America
looks like he finally seeked it
Why was this removed? If you're going to do that clean the entire chain. Nonsense moderation policy, the top comment is explicitly about user activity, maybe there are reasons why some regulars stopped posting? That is not fucking drama.
Funny thing is this mod behavior is exactly why this site is going downhill.
Yeah the mods only remove for "drama" when it's critical of them.
they should remove this comment then, and the entire chain.
I assume the real reason the comment was removed is the suggestion that the newsmega might be better on its own instance (the people the admins/mods seem to dislike the most on the site might take their ball and go play somewhere else)
It’s not all on the mods. The community is way too struggle session-prone, which leads to mods shutting down discussion and criticism out of fear that it will explode. Then we get a runaway feedback loop where shutting down discussion pisses people off, which makes struggle sessions more likely, which leads to the mods shutting down more discussion.
From my point of view, for a while my perception of the situation has not been two groups of users having struggle sessions between them, while the mods remove comments they think are too inflammatory and will escalate things, or otherwise work to de-escalate.
My perception, personally has been that the mods clearly favor one side of any given struggle session, ban wide swathes of the side they disagree with and do almost nothing to rein in even the most vitriolic comments from people on "their" side of the struggle session.
This fosters a lot of resentment and frankly I think it is going to kill the site, slowly maybe, but inevitably. I have been here a long time and it used to feel like a fun place to shit post with people who hated the Amerikan Empire, and now it feels like everyone is constantly tense and walking on eggshells (with the exception of the mods and their favored posters). The vibes here have been rancid for what feels like months (I have a bad sense of time, it's possible it's only been weeks).
Like, come on, nothing that TC69 did was
shutting down discussion out of fear that it will explode.
This fosters a lot of resentment and frankly I think it is going to kill the site
What’s going to kill the site is the struggle sessions themselves. I almost left after the last two, they’re so miserable. People need to learn to deescalate and talk things out like human beings. Struggle sessions are too fast-paced and defensive to even be dialogue, they’re just screaming, and then people build up these personal resentments that last long after the struggle session ends and have little to do with the original topic of disagreement.
The cure for resentment is to talk things out and try to understand the other person’s perspective, which you can’t even do in a struggle session because they’re too fast paced and everyone is too defensive.
And when the struggle session ends people can’t shut up about it, there are these constant little snipes and eye rolls, like bitter spouses who’ve given up on communicating, and everyone else has to read that shit and soak up that vibe. Most of us have moved on, most of us don’t give a shit.
I mean case in point, this thread we’re in right now is miserable. The removed comment called the mods self-important children and suggested that the site be Balkanized, for fuck’s sake that’s so excessive. The mods aren’t some cabal or narcissists. They ended up here the same way any of us did. They’re just people. What’s broken is the toxic dynamic between individuals not some intrinsic evilness in the individuals themselves.
Like, come on, nothing that TC69 did was
shutting down discussion out of fear that it will explode.
If you mean the recent struggle session where she briefly came back, then yes that’s what she was doing, she even said as much. She ended up making everything worse but when I put myself in her shoes, I understand it: she sees herself getting vilified more with each passing second, the site is tearing itself apart, the thread is moving way too fast, you have all the usual issues of communicating by text plus all the issues of a large crowd of people, the situation was completely out of control and she probably panicked.
iirc the whole thing started over some trivial issue in the first place, so trivial I can barely even remember, I think that was the dunk tank renaming struggle session? Who even gives a shit? We’re gonna have a screaming match over the name of the fucking dunk tank?
You can’t blame everything on the mods, the other half of the problem is users who don’t knows how to deescalate and communicate. That’s a big problem for leftists, both online and in person, we need to work on that as a matter of anti-wrecker praxis if anything.
I don't want to go into great detail about it, but your perception of not just the subjective value of the events that occurred in that struggle session, but the objective facts of what occurred, is so far from mine that I don't think we can have a constructive dialogue about it.
EDIT: to be clear, I don't mean this to be a moral condemnation of you or anything like that. I just think that coming to terms that we could both agree on as far as our understanding of what occurred in some of these threads would take way too much discussion.
It’s beside the point. That’s one struggle session. I’m not even the one who brought it up.
I’m saying forum health is a collective effort. Blaming everything on the mods is a great way to not learn anything and guarantee another massive struggle session in the future. People here need to learn to talk through disagreements patiently and constructively, not only for the health of the site but for the health of any organizations they may be a part of now or in the future.
It's not beside the point. It's all of the struggle sessions these days, and as I said I don't want to get into details, because, to continue to be charitable, our perceptions of the bare facts of the way the conflicts on this site have occurred are at odds with one another.
I think we maybe miscommunicated
From my point of view, for a while my perception of the situation has not been two groups of users having struggle sessions between them, while the mods remove comments they think are too inflammatory and will escalate things, or otherwise work to de-escalate.
I realize that in the past two struggle sessions the mods had a side. When I talk about deescalating and talking things through, that includes conflicts between users and mods. I don’t know how to talk about that without it turning into “I’m trying to defend whatever specific thing the person reading this is mad at the mods for.”
I’m mad that the site health is deteriorating. You might put that all on the mods, but I don’t think that’s how conflict works. Conflict is a process that takes on a life of its own. When people are at odds there’s a right way and a wrong way to handle it. I feel like I’m going nuts because no one seems to know what I’m talking about, like my whole perspective is alien to people and to even start to explain it I have to cross a minefield.
to continue to be charitable
I feel so defeated reading this shit. The site really is going to die and I’m not smart enough to figure out what to say or do about it.
Jesus, mods really power-tripping still, hate to see it.
Removed by mod
the cops are here :face_with_rolling_eyes:
you are posting misinformation, the user posting death threats was not a part of the mod clique and there is literally no evidence for this besides the ravings of one user.
edit: lol i misunderstood, sorry
Nakoichi posted death threats and is still mod of many large comms. You can find it in the mod history, threatening Bad Empanada in one comment and then SeekTheDeletion in another. Comments are removed for “chill” but they are still mod
oh damn i thought you were talking about the other one, my mistake
users with long histories on the site usually get more protection for dumb shit, mods and users alike. This isn't a 'mod clique' problem this is a site culture problem.
It’s a death threat acceptance problem
There should be zero tolerance for suicide baiting and death threats, but there is tolerance. Instant permanent ban for any actionable death threats or suicide baiting
I agree with that, Nakoichi really needs to log off and sending death threats/suicide baiting should be permabannable offenses. I agree.
Partly its a slow news time; partly the news is just depressing and people probably don't want to talk about it. Partly its a couple of news mega regulars having gotten sitebans for daring to push back against the Only True Leftist Mods (TM) from outside of news that things aren't always so black and white in a recent struggle session, or just left out of frustration.