Wow crazy coincidence that they decided to ban tiktok after it became overwhelmingly pro Palestine unlike other social media platforms.

New draft of the UN resolution has dropped language calling for a "six week ceasefire" in favour of "an immediate and sustained ceasefire"

Hamas is winning

Boeing whistleblower dies after "self-inflicted" wound 👁️
He was travelling to give legal interviews in his lawsuit against Boeing and was discovered in his car outside his hotel.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/03/12/boeing-whistleblower-charleston-factory-john-barnett-dead/

Boeing whistleblower found dead

A former Boeing employee who exposed alleged safety problems at the company has been found dead.

John Barnett died from “self inflicted” injuries in a hotel car park on Saturday in South Carolina, where he had been due to testify in a lawsuit against his former employer.

The 62-year-old drew public attention to what he said were bad practices at Boeing’s factory in Charleston, where he worked for seven years as a quality control manager. He exposed alleged errors in the company’s manufacturing process, claiming that employees had deliberately fitted substandard parts to aeroplanes because of pressure to produce them quickly.

... He had been attending interviews for the case in Charleston last week, but failed to turn up for a cross-examination by his own lawyers on Saturday.

they killed the whistleblower

oh I didn't realise this was already posted

I'm keeping it up because WTF they killed the fucking whistleblower

Leader of Yemen's Houthis vows to attack more shipping lanes

"Our main battle is to prevent ships linked to the Israeli enemy from passing through not only the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, but also the Indian Ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope. This is a major step and we have begun to implement our operations related to it," al-Houthi said in a televised speech.

A US Delegation just Visited Niger (selfinvited) , then annoyed , insulted and threatend the Hosts so much , that Niger now made this Non Diplomatic
Press Statement c.a. 3 minutes in

and as ended cooperation with the US

I think we should be pushing the "soviet union did not collapse, it was overthrown" button a lot more.

Of all the people I have radicalised, about half of them have later come back and said that this specific thing was a major aspect of what flipped them from being a holdout on communism. They had the brainworm that communism failed and does not work. They felt it was good on paper but had already proven to fail.

This button seems to be one of the strongest things to push on with a lot of people. We don't do it enough. We don't have enough media on it.

I know some here disagree with talking about the Soviet Union, I've seen people say that there's no point because it doesn't matter anymore and that it turns people away. But I sincerely think we really should be talking about it more. It sits in people's minds as having failed and is the thing that holds them back from exploring the left further.

I'm speaking anecdotally of course but I feel like I've personally radicalised a lot of people and I really do believe it's about half of them that this particular thing has turned. I will also say that I think this group of people have all been younger people (16-30) from american right wing families.

A week late but Carmakers Must Bring Back Buttons in Europe

Euro NCAP, the automotive safety industry body for Europe, is introducing new guidance for 2026 which means that indicators, hazard warning lights, windscreen wipers, horn, and SOS features will have to be controlled by proper switches in order for cars to be granted Euro NCAP’s coveted five star safety rating.

“The overuse of touchscreens is an industry-wide problem, with almost every vehicle-maker moving key controls onto central touchscreens, obliging drivers to take their eyes off the road and raising the risk of distraction crashes,” explained Matthew Avery, director of strategic development at Euro NCAP. “New Euro NCAP tests due in 2026 will encourage manufacturers to use separate, physical controls for basic functions in an intuitive manner, limiting eyes-off-road time and therefore promoting safer driving.”

I heard from someone that The NY Times claims that TikTok algorithm favors anti-us content and that’s why it’s a national security threat. It really is easy to sell propaganda to people.

Permanently Deleted

seriously, why is "Destiny" even on this debate with Finkelstein. I obv don't agree with the other 'genocide defender' in the debate but he at least is a writer and knows some of the history (and Finkelstein's work)

Compare that to a fucking TWITCH STREAMER YOUTUBER.

We are absolutely witnessing the decline of Western academia. Truly incredible times

So the tik tok bill also gives the US government the authority to shut down any website it deems to be propaganda for a national security adversary. Like, it sounds like they could absolutely shut down hexbear.

Niger revokes military accord with US, junta spokesperson says

Niger's ruling military junta has revoked with immediate effect a military accord that allows military personnel and civilian staff from the U.S. Department of Defense on its soil, junta spokesperson Colonel Amadou Abdramane said on Saturday.

There were about 1,100 U.S. troops in Niger as of last year, where the U.S. military operates out of two bases including a drone base known as Air Base 201, built near Agadez in central Niger at a cost of more than $100 million.

Sounds like China won't be bailing out real estate firms:

“For real estate companies that are seriously insolvent and have lost the ability to operate, those that must go bankrupt should go bankrupt, or be restructured, in accordance with the law and market principles,” Ni Hong, Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said at a press conference Saturday.

In an interview on French national television, Macron said a Russian victory in Ukraine "would reduce Europe's credibility to zero," and would mean that "we have no security."

Euros being delusional as per usual.

Malaysia’s PM Anwar Ibrahim makes ‘no apology’ for Hamas links on Germany visit

The Malaysian PM visits Germany and gets accused of supporting Hamas by an audience member - but are these westerners completely illiterate?

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has defended Malaysia's relations with Hamas, saying he made "no apologies" for his nation's historical links with the Palestinian militant group and reiterating his stance that the Middle East conflict predates the October 7 attack on Israel.

"What I reject strongly is this narrative, this obsession, as if the entire problem begins and ends with the 7th of October," the prime minister said. There had been decades of "atrocities, plunder and dispossession of Palestinians," he added at a press conference alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin.

Despite the hysteria that the “geopolitics understanders” made about Anwar Ibrahim’s NED credentials months ago, Westerners seemingly forget that his initial rise came from the radical student organizations in the 1970s which were in-part connected with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Iranian Revolution and other influential Islamic movements at the time.

Of course he will be anti-Israel. That has been the hallmark of Malaysian foreign policy since the beginning - even with our 1st PM in 1957 - and he was the most Western friendly of them all.

As the article mentions:

Anwar's staunch support for the Palestinians can be traced back to his years as a student leader in the 1970s including as the leader of the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement.

Muslim-majority Malaysia does not recognise Israel's statehood. It has long been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, hosting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 1984 and 2001 and welcoming Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal, leaders of the political wing of Hamas, in 2020.

This reminded me of when multiple “Israeli” news outlets accused Malaysia of being the most anti-semitic country on Earth, despite historically having no native Jewish population, and a residential population that at it’s peak only reached the teens. Completely unhinged and insane.

And then there’s the palm oil issue.

Banning our palm oil will not change the fact that we were able to succesfully industrialize its production and outcompete your local biofuel industry. Europeans needs to stop barking like a rabid dog. It isn’t the 1800s or even the neocolonial late 1900s anymore.

These deindustrialization policies will not work, especially when you yourself have lost any capabilities of enacting economic warfare. Hiding behind a facade of environmentalism doesn’t change reality.

As Bloomberg noted, there will be other markets that the palm oil could be sold to. You are kneecapping yourself just to appear “environmentally friendly”.

Perhaps it’s just the final cries of a region declining into subordination. The garden after all, will inevitably be reclaimed by the jungle. It just takes time.

Also I read the worst thing ever when I was researching for the post, titled “A Close Encounter With Asia’s Anti-Semitic Capital”.

Warning: Terminal crackerism.

reddit users getting ready to post about le rigged elections after spending the past two years talking about how killing Russian civilians is wholesome 100 because they're all evil and support putler

Really good post about how the CIA is essentially running American foreign policy in this late stage of imperial decline. Has tons of links to related news articles as well.

Those angry about the US genocide in Gaza need to understand that his willingness to slaughter millions of innocents in US wars is why he was appointed to be President.

TL;DR: The CIA is wildly powerful thanks both to it's huge breath of resources and money (not just their government budget either - so much drug money!) and their ability to act freely, especially post 9/11. At this point it can act independently of the president, as it did during the entirety of the Trump presidency, and can work for the benefit of its own brass instead.
Not that Biden is opposed to them. He is definitely the most genocidal president since Bush, or at least was while his brain was capable of having such opinions.

Houthis announcing that they will begin striking Israeli ships outside the Red Sea as well

Irish bands pull out and boycott SXSW music festival over US Army and Defense contractor sponsorships and the genocide in Gaza.

Watching Norm debate Destiny for five minutes was like watching someone knowledgeable in any field debate a Reddit lib. Complete dumbasses that are so smug and overconfident about their own abilities. Couldn’t watch more than five minutes because I could feel bits of my life slowly dying away.

If they ban tiktok gen z will abandon the democratic party

probably unrelated , ... Houthies have just announecd the Closure of the route.

EDIT:

A palestian teenager stabed two IDF security personal in Bethlehem. He was killed. Rest in peace.

Lol at destiny searching Wikipedia during a debate. What a pathetic shitshow of a debate.

Gazans Embrace Ansarallah

It is not an exaggeration to say that the Ansarallah Movement and the Yemeni army have captivated the hearts of the locals in the Gaza Strip. This is especially true for those who support the choice of armed resistance, and who make up the majority here.

Here in Gaza, the elderly eagerly listen to the military bulletins delivered by the spokesperson of the Yemeni Armed Forces, Yahya Saree, through the radio, after each targeting operation of a British, American, or Israeli ship. They pray sincerely for the “the Houthis” and for their victory and success.

Al-Akhbar interviewed Hajj Abu Rami after he finished listening to a speech by Saree on Wednesday [March 6] night. “They are poor and oppressed like us… honorable and generous,” he said. “By God, I love them. They used to say that the Houthis attacked the Kaaba like Abrahah al-Ashram did*, that’s what I heard on Al Arabiya years ago. Our perception of them was wrong and distorted, but actions speak louder than words, and people’s true nature is revealed by their deeds.”

...

Ismail Ahmed noticed my press jacket and initiated the conversation with me by asking about the progress of ceasefire negotiations. When I asked him about “the Houthis,” he replied, “By God, sir, all my life I thought they were Shia who hated us, I never thought to look into them, but since the war started, I realized they are our people, and that the Gulf distorted their reputation, and they are oppressed, they suffered famine before us, and their name is Ansarallah, they are the supporters of God, and the defenders of the poor.”

Israel says it plans to direct Palestinians out of Rafah ahead of anticipated offensive

So "humanitarian islands" are just the next level of concentration camps right?

Audio of ADL head Johnathan Greenblatt in November urrging a move against TikTok, just in case anyone needs to be reminded that, yes, pro-palestinian news and opinion IS the primary force behind this legislative push: https://fxtwitter.com/snarwani/status/1725138601996853424/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1725138601996853424&currentTweetUser=snarwani

Not that the other reasons, like anti-chinese sentiment and anti-youth sentiment, don't dovetail nicely

"Undisclosed country” may buy Swedish weapons for one billion euros

An undisclosed “state recipient” has been authorized to buy Swedish weapons systems for almost 12 billion SEK (€1.04 billion). The Swedish people are not told who the recipient is, what weapons are being exported or what they will be used for.

Kinda insane that people actually believe that Ukraine is about to capture Belgorod what the fuck

Pentagon correspondent for AFP reports that the US Navy ship leaving to build the dock in Palestine played the Empire's theme from Star Wars as they were leaving.

https://twitter.com/wgdunlop/status/1767603551633650037

The fact that Hamas has a podcast now is so fucking funny to me. Now all they need is a Twitch channel and a lemmy instance

Haiti's leader resigned, I guess he'll just live in the US/Puerto Rico now

history is happening maybe

Rofl this headline https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/help-ukraine-win-or-risk-kicking-off-a-us-losing-streak/

Help Ukraine win—or risk kicking off a US losing streak

I'm not reading the article but that header is great

lmao I just got invited to a talk with this as the blurb:

The dollar is the jewel in the crown of the US financial system. The widespread use of the dollar benefits the US in important ways, in particular it allows the US borrow money more easily. It also means the US can use the dollar, and access to it, as a weapon to sanction enemies of the country, unsettling foes and friends alike. In many respects the dollar is as dominant as it has ever been, but that doesn’t mean the position of the buck is at the top of the heap is guaranteed….

1. saying the quiet part out loud
2. the financiers are quaking - admitting that the dollar's reign might be coming to an end
3. I just love the admission that dollar hegemony and sanctions are a weapon deployed against friend and foe alike.

should I attend and take notes for y'all?

PSA Hamas has executed a few members of the Daghmash family last night, it's a known collaborator crime family that steals aid in Gaza, they've been known to clash with Hamas since 2007, western press might use this as an opportunity to show Hamas as evil for killing Gazans or might trying to spin the crime family as "good gazans fighting against Hamas authorities" so yeah

https://twitter.com/revolutionaryem/status/1767972419552293098 :

The aid boxes fell on solar panels on the roof of Al Ahli Baptist Hospital, destroying many of them. This is the only hospital operating with limited capacity in northern Gaza.

The destruction of solar panels means a power outage, and the hospital will become out of service

Ukraine should introduce Work from Home policy for their soldiers so they can fight the war from the comfort of their homes. They can use Hoi4 and Microsoft Teams for this and stream it on twitch to get donations to fund the war.

GUESS WHO'S BACK

As a response to the American-British aggression against our country and in support of the just cause of the Palestinian people, the Naval Forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces, with the help of Allah Almighty, carried out a targeting operation against the "Israeli" ship "Pacific 01" in the Red Sea using suitable naval missiles.

Furthermore, the Air Force conducted a targeting operation against an American destroyer in the Red Sea using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), and the operation achieved its objectives successfully, thanks to Allah.

Report claims Yemen’s Houthis have a hypersonic missile, possibly raising stakes in Red Sea crisis

The Houthis’ main benefactor, Iran, claims to have a hypersonic missile and has widely armed the rebels with the missiles they now use. Adding a hypersonic missile to their arsenal could pose a more-formidable challenge to the air defense systems employed by America and its allies, including Israel.

“The group’s missile forces have successfully tested a missile that is capable of reaching speeds of up to Mach 8 and runs on solid fuel,” a military official close to the Houthis said, according to the RIA report. The Houthis “intend to begin manufacturing it for use during attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as well as against targets in Israel.”

it's ziover

Spain very quietly arrested the head of the Russia desk at the CNI (Spanish CIA) for spying.

Spying on Spain for the US.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/spanish-intelligence-agent-spying-for-us-headed-russia-division-report/3154760

https://archive.is/kQMPx

One of two Spanish intelligence agents arrested for sending classified information to the US was head of the Russia division of Spain's National Intelligence Center (CNI)

Spain had tried to keep the scandal largely under wraps. When the leaks were caught, Spain's defense minister quietly summoned the US ambassador.

At least two US intelligence agents working in the US Embassy were also expelled from the country for their roles in infiltrating Spain's intelligence service

While US Ambassador Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon has not publicly commented on the intelligence issue, El Pais reports that she blames the spying on a secret program from the era of former President Donald Trump.

Don’t worry, it was some Trump related hiccup that the deep state opposed, completely unrelated to the spying that took place under President Obama, presumably.

So don’t worry about the fact it happened under Obama, don’t worry about the fact it continued under Biden, just blame Trump.

And shit I guess don’t worry that Trump is about to be reelected either.

Related to this from 2023 I assume? https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/7/spain-expels-two-us-embassy-staff-for-allegedly-bribing-intelligence-agents

And

https://archive.is/oLHnt

Even though it was the USA, don’t blame the USA because actually it wasn’t the USA, it was US president Trump

[The USA] Dijo que se trataba de un programa que se puso en marcha antes que llegara a la Casa Blanca el actual presidente Joe Biden y, por razones que desconocía, se había mantenido hasta ahora.

“The USA said the program wasn’t Biden’s fault it was already in progress when he was elected… not his fault… but for reasons unknown it continued…”

Nothing at all to see here.

I'm sorry if it was posted last week but even in the western MSM they manage to prove literaly every pro-Russian armchair bullshiter on YT correct. But this is some amazing footage honestly. I think its easy to overlook given the actual BS article and the source as usual but watch the video instead.

UP FOR THE CHALLENGE I joined Ukrainian soldiers in Brit-made Challenger 2 tanks that blast Russian invaders from up to 4.5km away Skip to the section starting at 5:00.

I remember all these YTers were saying the western tanks are too heavy they wont work on the east due to the terrain and the bridges and dipshit UK tabloid proving everyone correct, in a training exercise.

They could have edited the footage, they could have made some excuse, but no actualy they end up with some barely useful reporting ngl, they talk about how the Ukrainians themselves admit its too heavy, underpowered and just keeps getting stuck.

The end result is just pathetic, almost a cartoon drawing, the tank ends up 1/4 or so buried and the crew decides the "best" use of their time is to waste the MG turret ammo practicing and then end up being rescued by another Challenger. I could say more about that "practice" too seems more like just something for troop morale, "here guys lets do something to pretend this isn't the most useless and embarrassing use of our time ever".

Key takeaway? The best use of a Challenger is to tow another Challenger when it eventually gets stuck in the mud.

Australia getting absolutely humiliated over their AUKUS submarine deal.

https://archive.is/SSigI

spoiler

Basically Aus wanted new submarines and had a deal with France, which they then scuttled in favour of buying subs from the US. They were supposed to get subs starting in the 2030s. Recently, the US announced that their sub building capacity is not sufficient and so they scaled back sub building expectations. That fucks Australia because they can't buy subs that don't exist.

Except they can and will buy subs that don't exist because the America military industrial complex is designed to be parasitic, not protective.

This failure of industrial capacity in favour of financial parasitism has harmed project ukraine already. The same phenomenon will be even more of a disaster if any future US regime decides to go to war against China.

Some choice quotes:

The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said Australia has been “mugged by reality” over the Aukus submarine deal after the US announced it will halve the number of submarines it will build next year, throwing the Australia end of the agreement into doubt.

With the US president, Joe Biden, continuing to face a hostile Congress, the Pentagon budget draft request includes construction of just one Virginia-class nuclear submarine for 2025.

Greens senator David Shoebridge, who has been critical of the Aukus deal from the start, said the US budget announcement was the beginning of the end of Aukus.

“When the US passed the law to set up Aukus, they put in kill switches, one of which allowed the US to not transfer the submarines if doing so would ‘degrade the US undersea capabilities’. Budgeting for one submarine all but guarantees this,” he said on X.

The ALP grassroots activist group, Labor Against War, want the Albanese government to freeze Aukus payments to the US so as not to “underwrite the US navy industrial shipyards”.

The national convenor of Labor Against War, Marcus Strom, said Australian taxpayers should not be footing the bill for America’s dockyards.

“We are on the hook to the tune of $3bn as soon as next year as a downpayment for subs that might never arrive and be useless on delivery,” he said.

imagine being a Ukrainian soldier and your commander tells you that you have to go die on the Belgorod border because reddit upvotes have been too low last month

The Top Minds at are arguing that it's just common sense that the primitive Slav is too corrupt and stupid to operate and maintain seventy year old technologies like an ICBM. Pay no mind to the stalemate in Ukraine, or the simple fact that Russia provided much of the world's space heavy lift capacity for decades. These are just communist propaganda or some shit. The Slavic brain volume is insufficient to plumb the mysteries of hydrazine and slamming chunks of plutonium together really fast.

🚨 warning 🚨

Comrades. I will send myself to the gulag for this, but please excuse me. With the ongoing Katespiracy distraction that sadly has entered my brain, here’s my conspiracy theory as to what’s going on and how it could mean the end of the Royals

1. King Charles is dying of cancer, possibly within months
2. Prince William is supposed to become king
3. Kate wants to divorce William after an affair (or even worse, e.g. DV)
4. The circumstances of the divorce would make William a deeply unpopular king and harm their reputation, possibly to the point of a majority rejecting the monarchy. Therefore, they’re trying to cover it up.
5. The line of succession (lol) goes to their children, so if they skip William the UK would have to have a child monarch - again, harming the reputation of the monarchy to the point of the public questioning it.
6. The line of succession then goes to Harry, who has been outcast from the Royal Family.
7. The line of succession avoiding a child monarch then goes to….Prince Andrew

The end of the royal family would be so fucking funny, especially if it plays out this way

This is honestly some next-level :

An Israeli woman taken captive by Palestinian fighters on 7 October 2023 is grateful to the helicopter pilot who shot at the vehicle she was riding in, killing another Israeli as well as all of their abductors....

When the gunfire ceased, Goren realized that the helicopter’s high-caliber bullets had killed all of her abductors, as well as one Israeli woman....

At least one survivor of the same Israeli helicopter attack that killed Nir Oz resident Efrat Katz has blasted Israel’s repeated readiness to sacrifice the lives of its citizens....

Cunio’s anger over Israel’s repeated implementation of the Hannibal directive is not shared by Goren, however, who was taken to Gaza on the same tuk tuk – a small motorized utility vehicle.

Asked what words she has for the helicopter pilot that sprayed them with gunfire, Goren replied with appreciation – and regret that he did not resume his fire at the second group of Palestinians that carried them off to Gaza.

“Thank you – and why didn’t you stay?” Goren told Channel 12. “Also, why weren’t you there, here, to take down everyone here? If one helicopter had fired, everything would be okay. We would never have gotten to Gaza.”

Goren’s appreciation is all the more striking since she appears to understand that she could have been killed just like Efrat Katz if the helicopter had returned.

“I was also trying to hide, to get inside as much as possible,” Goren explains to Ilana Dayan as they watch footage of the second vehicle laden with people that would eventually make it to Gaza. “At that moment my fear was if the helicopter shot at us again. And this time my back is exposed. If he shoots again, it’s me who dies.”

• Released captive tells how Israeli fire killed kibbutz resident

If you watch the video the article links to, she even describes how the Hamas "terrorists" who captured her went out of their way to get her a cigarette in the middle of the operation. And made sure she put on better clothes than she had on while sleeping.

What the absolute FUCK?! Thank you for nearly murdering me, but I wish you'd finished the job! (They also would have finished the job if the helicopter hadn't run out of ammo; her reaction: "If only their ammunition hadn't run out.")

Everything is going extremely well

Milei government opens up food imports in bid to curb price hikes

Argentina’s government orders full opening of food imports in an attempt to curb an inflationary spike and introduce more “competitive” prices.

President Javier Milei’s government has ordered the opening of food imports in an attempt to curb soaring inflation "and make prices more competitive.” The news was announced Tuesday by Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni, who said the decision had been taken after meetings between Economy Minister Luis Caputo and business leaders. "In the meeting, the businessmen acknowledged that prices were rising above the inflation expectations and of course the scenario that the businessmen had evaluated was catastrophic," said Adorni.

The spokesperson said that Argentina’s economy is “gradually normalising” after years of protectionism. “The decision has been taken to definitively open imports for certain products of the family basket in order to make prices more competitive for the benefit of Argentine families and consumers,” he added.

Adorni added that there would be "some tax relief" on certain imported products. The move was announced just hours before the INDEC national statistics bureau confirmed inflation data for February, with analysts forecasting a rate of around 15 percent. Various local news outlets reported that Caputo received on Monday representatives from the largest supermarket chains in Argentina. According to reports, he said that prices of mass consumption products were not reflecting Argentina’s new economic reality.

By default, Argentina is a producer of food. It's literally our natural condition, we produce stuff that we eat, we produce so much food we can export it to the US, Europe and China and have so much to spare we can easily supply our internal consumption.

Shit has gotten so bad the government decided the solution is to import food. A country that produces food now must import food. Ancap land is doing extremely well.

Communism is when no food, I guess.

The artist of Stonetoss has been identified as a Hans Kristian Graebener from Texas. CW for uh, all the vile shit in his comics.

He was identified by his email being exposed in the Gab hack in 2021. Some fun nuggets:
He lost 23 Bitcoin in a hack in 2014 (current value in USD: 1.6 Million)
He posted frequently on Reddit about being circumcised and donated to foreskin regeneration startups
He appeared in a 2014 NYT article where he was described as "an enormous bald man named Hans". He had apparently flown to New York for a pro-Gamergate meeting. It includes this banger of a quote:

“Naturally, accusations of misogyny are thrown around, but as evidenced by the presence of women, of which there are a few, it is a diverse group.” Hans paused, then winked. “By the way, table dances are $10 and lap dances are $75, if you’re interested. May I recommend Ms. Rain?”

Also, he works at the Houston office of Open iT... 👀

Republican Megadonor Threatens to Cut Off Funds to GOP Lawmakers Unless They Support the TikTok Ban Bill

VC / tech oligarch just openly stating he buys off politicians and if they don’t do his bidding he will stop paying for democracy.

It turns out Klon Kitchen's full name is Klon Kennith Kitchen Jr or KKK Jr for short lmao

This is some college student's webpage of the dad: http://pacweb.alamo.edu/interactivehistory/projects/people/categories/WorldWarII/Veterans/Kitchen-Martinez/Oral History Template.html

His son, Klon Kennith Kitchen, Jr. was born on June 16, 1953.

His daughter, Klondina Kitchen, was born on July 1956.

CW: self harm

spoiler

IOF troops are doing the resistance's work for them: https://twitter.com/Kahlissee/status/1768275636831818052

This admittedly a bit out there of a theory, but I wonder if the reason all these European politicians are so adamant about propping up Ukraine is because so many of them and their parties are implicated in preventing Ukraine from making peace with Russia back in March 2022. And if Ukraine falls, Zelensky et al will air all their dirty laundry about who made what promises and who told them to keep fighting, which they don’t want to do now because they still think they have a chance if NATO goes all-in.

A note on something I can see becoming a problem after the Ukrainian War is over: the "Ukrainian Vatnik" cope. It will become an article of faith in the West that the AFU's failures can all be laid on incompetence, and Real NATO Troops would do better. Is this true though?⬇️

Let's examine the case of the Ukrainian 47th Mechanized Brigade, an organization that was intended to be the showpiece unit of the new NATO-standard Ukrainian Army. This was an organization that was stood up in late 2022, filled with young, highly-motivated volunteers, many of them already with high-intensity combat experience. These troops were then sent through months of additional training, both in the West and in maneuver areas in Western Ukraine. This unit was lavishly equipped with the pick of donated Western equipment fully equal to anything fielded by any NATO army - Leopard 2A6s and M2A2 Bradleys, supported by 155mm howitzers and HIMARS. It had distributed high-speed tactical internet thanks to Starlink. And it had something that no NATO formation has - a fully integrated drone group, created from the ground up to incorporate the hard lessons of the war by people who learned them personally.

In short, the Ukrainian 47th Mechanized Brigade was in all likelihood equal or superior in combat power to any heavy brigade in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization when it attacked in Zaporozhe in the summer of 2023. The Russians proceeded to beat this unit so hard it became a meme. "Bradley Square," anyone? I quipped at the time it looked like the Battle of 73 Easting in reverse, with attacking NATO armor burning in failed breach after failed breach. But when this war is over - after the Russians break Ukraine and humiliate NATO - an awful lot of very senior Westerners are going to cope about how the Ukrainians were dumb brutes who just didn't get maneuver warfare. Couldn't be trained. Soviet dinosaurs. Wasted effort.

Anything to avoid admitting that could have been us.

I love all the "um, actually, real NATO troops wouldn't have attacked without air superiority!" responses... so, Western militaries are just never going to get around to actually attacking, because gaining complete air superiority in the modern day just ain't happening?

The Iraq War has thoroughly mind-broken westerners into thinking that they can solve all their problems with bombing, and they've completely ignored all the advances in air-defense, as well as the advances in long-range strike capabilities thanks to ballistic missiles and drones - where exactly are your planes going to fly from once the Russians hit your major airbases? Where are they going to get their fuel from once the Russians hit your logistics? Something that people forget about Iraq was that in both 1991 and 2003, Western forces had months to prepare, build up, and stockpile, during which the Iraqis couldn't really do much but sit and watch. An air campaign of that scale simply isn't sustainable normally - you'd just run out of fuel and munitions (and later in Libya, there were indeed ammunition issues, and bombing had to be paused for a bit). Westerners don't even understand why they actually won the victories that they did, and how in a different situation things might go differently, just complete

Seems like Ukraine has given up on any kind of military victory and will now focus on terrorism inside Russia. The only problem is that it makes Russia retaliate with more force than usual which is directed at western cities.

Gove says three Muslim-led groups and two far-right to be assessed for extremism

Three Muslim-led organisations and two far-right groups will be assessed under the government’s controversial new extremism definition, Michael Gove has told MPs.

The communities secretary named the Muslim Association of Britain, Mend and Cage as groups with “Islamist orientation and beliefs” that would be held to account following the launch of a new definition of extremism.

Gove named the British National Socialist Movement and Patriotic Alternative as groups that promoted neo-Nazi ideology which would also be examined.

And from their live thread:

In response, Mend CEO Azhar Qayum said:

We challenge Michael Gove to repeat his claims outside of parliament and without the protection of parliamentary privilege if he believes he can provide the evidence to back up his view that Mend has called for the establishment of an ‘Islamic state governed by sharia law’.

Extremely base rhetorical maneuver to equivocate these groups with literal nazis

If I was Zelensky I would simply not waste manpower and equipment on silly suicide missions but I guess I'm just not enough of a military genius.

I have a growing suspicion that the true purpose of the "humanitarian pier" is to goad Hamas into attacking the pier and giving Biden the cover to get the US military officially involved. The US and Israel will slowly keep acting more and more egregiously until the Resistance is forced to respond, and then a highly editorialized version events will be splattered across western media as casus belli.

I take so much copium when it comes to Russia please be socialist again it would be so based please

isnreal having some preparatory protests for color revolution🤣🤣🤣

i wonder if some mfer will try to say thats cause its usa condoned, bibi is actually anti imperialist 😅😑💀

but for real, will they do election in the middle of a war or what

Meet Israel's ZAKA, the group that fabricated the 'beheaded babies' story. (cw graphic pics, r*pe, atrocity propaganda)

The Saudis are still bombing Yemen in case anyone forgot. During Ramadan no less...

https://english.almasirah.net.ye/post/38687/

$500K sand dune for protecting beach houses in US gone with the wind: https://english.almayadeen.net/news/environment/-500k-sand-dune-for-protecting-beach-houses-in-us-gone-with

the past two or three days I've seen more pro-Palestinian coverage at the top of the BBC, eg.(content warning child death):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68557147

and yesterday's: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68513408

what is going on? this is the first time in the genocide they've reported anything like this. it's jarring enough that I had to post about it.

and then this near the top of Reuters? https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-tank-strike-killed-clearly-identifiable-reuters-reporter-un-report-2024-03-13/

With Ansarallah in Yemen if you could get communists in Gibraltar, Morocco or Spain you could literally cut Israel off from all ocean supply by closing the Strait.

Azov Battalion member lost both legs and an arm but can still do this

Guess what it is before clicking.

1500 casulties troops after failed invasion of Russia between March 12-14. 500 dead 18 tanks, 23 armourer combat vehicles.

From red. on Telegram:

Argentine police clashed with workers. The protest was against the closure of the National Cinema Institute (INCAA). Workers in the cultural sector held a press conference in front of the iconic Gaumont Cinema. Suddenly, police charged at them, wielding batons and pepper spray.

Most INCAA workers have already been fired. This action is part of the government's preparation to close the Institute. It aligns with President Javier Milei's neoliberal agenda, which aims to reduce the state's presence in all areas except repression.

Inflation has risen to 254%, significantly higher than the 160% rate he inherited. The past week saw numerous strikes, with teachers, airline workers, transport workers, and public sector unions participating. A possible general strike is looming.

Additionally, President Milei is struggling in Congress. His flagship austerity law faced another setback. It was blocked again yesterday in the Senate.

Turnbull says Australia ‘mugged by reality’ on Aukus deal as US set to halve submarine build

The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said Australia has been “mugged by reality” over the Aukus submarine deal after the US announced it will halve the number of submarines it will build next year, throwing the Australia end of the agreement into doubt.

With the US president, Joe Biden, continuing to face a hostile Congress, the Pentagon budget draft request includes construction of just one Virginia-class nuclear submarine for 2025.

Under the Aukus agreement, production is meant to be ramped up to ensure Australia will have access to at least three Virginia-class submarines from the US in the 2030s. That is to fill a “capability gap” before nuclear-powered submarines to be built in Adelaide enter into service from the 2040s.

Australia:
Step 1: Piss off France
Step 2: Gets screwed by the US anyway

The West has given drones to Ukraine that have sunk warships in the Black Sea. Might not the Russians give hypersonic missiles to the Houthis to sink British and American warships in the Red Sea? What would the Anglos actually do about it?

Impressive video of the destruction of two Ukrainian helicopters

There are rumors going around that Russia has significantly reduced the time required to identify and strike targets, which could explain the sudden uptick in destroyed Ukrainian equipment.

Chasing 'tactical' wins, Israel now faces 'strategic' defeat

"In a fight like this, the center of gravity is the civilian population. And if you make them fall into the hands of the enemy, you turn tactical victory into strategic defeat." US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued this warning to Israel back in December during his address at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California. Drawing on hard-earned lessons from US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Austin stressed that winning battles on the ground does not guarantee a strategic victory and may even lead to a strategic defeat – if Israel refuses to look at the bigger picture. This is one of the main sources of Washington's pressure on Tel Aviv, especially in light of the allies' differing political visions for Gaza in the post-war period and the man-made humanitarian crisis Israel has imposed on the Strip. It's a philosophy rooted in foresight, echoing Robert Greene's wisdom from his 33 War Strategies: "Grand strategy is the art of looking beyond the present battle and calculating ahead."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet has outlined two primary objectives for the Gaza war: dismantling Hamas' military infrastructure and securing the release of prisoners detained since 7 October. Netanyahu later expanded on these objectives, adding a crucial third goal: ensuring Gaza's inability to threaten the occupation state's security in the future. Consequently, the success of Israel's brutal military assault on Gaza hinges on achieving these pivotal objectives. Despite their shared goals, disparities have emerged between the American and Israeli approaches. While both advocate for neutralizing Hamas, the Biden administration advocates for a more politically driven strategy, while Netanyahu seeks an almost entirely military-centric approach.

Hamas, on the other hand, announced three main objectives of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood immediately following the events of 7 October. First, success in conducting a prisoner exchange with the enemy entity. Second, retaliation against Israeli aggression in the occupied West Bank and safeguarding Al-Aqsa Mosque from settler extremists. Third, placing the Palestinian issue back on the global stage.

Chinese General Sun Tzu's timeless wisdom in his Art of War distinguishes between tactical maneuvers and strategic foresight: "Everyone can see the tactics that are used to defeat the enemy in war, but what no one can see is the strategy from which great victory arises." In warfare, tactical objectives focus on short-term gains – specific engagements or territorial advances. In contrast, strategic goals require long-term vision, aligning military actions with political priorities. In essence, tactics look to answer the "how," while strategy answers the "why" in military engagement, ultimately with a political endgame. Any state or party to a conflict can achieve tactical objectives by excelling in battlefield maneuvers, using superior technology, or having better trained and equipped forces. But winning battles – that is, achieving tactical goals – does not necessarily mean winning the war. This discrepancy occurs because the cumulative effect of tactical victories may not align with or contribute adequately to broader strategic objectives. While tactics are essential to winning battles, they must be used as part of a strategy aimed at achieving the ultimate goals of war.

History offers several sobering reminders of the perils of prioritizing tactics over strategy. For example, in the Vietnam War, the US achieved numerous tactical victories yet failed strategically. Despite inflicting heavy losses, the broader goal of fostering a non-communist South Vietnam remained elusive. The US's longest war, in Afghanistan against the Taliban, ended in another humiliating withdrawal, only for the Taliban to return to unprecedented political power across the country.

Esteemed Israeli historian and critic of Zionism, Ilan Pappe, believes that the failures of the genocidal war on Gaza will ultimately lead to the downfall of the Zionist entity, with the war being the most perilous chapter in the "history of a project fighting for its existence."

Today, after a record five months of Israeli military operations in Gaza, killing well over 30,000 civilians, injuring many times that, and demolishing most of Gaza's critical infrastructure, it becomes evident that Netanyahu's focus on tactical wins has led to a disconnect with the broader strategic goals of the war. The 'progress' made within the Gaza Strip, while significant on a tactical level, has not effectively advanced the strategic aim of eliminating Hamas, Tel Aviv's number one stated war objective. On the contrary, US reports claim that 80 percent of the Palestinian resistance's key military infrastructure remains intact. This has left Netanyahu facing a critical dilemma: the pursuit of tactical gains has come at a steep cost, jeopardizing the achievement of his strategic objectives. His Gaza assault has resulted in the wholesale massacre of Palestinian civilians – predominantly women and children – widespread global censure, and thousands of dead and injured Israeli soldiers and officers.

This tragic toll has permanently tarnished Israel's international image, undermining its fairytale narratives of 'democracy' and 'victimhood' and casting Tel Aviv instead as a leading perpetrator of state-sponsored terrorism in the world. Moreover, Israel's actions have led to accusations of genocide and human rights violations on the international stage, most notably the recent high-profile case at the International Court of Justice. Netanyahu and his war cabinet have fallen into a classic trap: allowing pyrrhic wins to distract them from an overarching victory.

Russia Goes to Vote With War Economy Lifting Living Standards (Bloomberg)

Two years after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, many in Russia have reason to feel the wartime economy is working well for them in a setback for Western sanctions designed to pit the populace against the country’s leader, Vladimir Putin.

Wages have soared by double digits, the ruble has stabilized, and poverty and unemployment are at record lows. For the country’s lowest earners — a key constituency for the Kremlin — salaries over the last three quarters have risen faster than for any other segment of society, clocking an annual growth rate of about 20%, Federal Statistics Service data show.

Ahead of Russia’s March 15-17 presidential election, with Putin all but assured of winning a fifth term, public discontent over the economy largely isn’t there. Though the war has left hundreds of thousands killed or wounded, and long-term challenges continue to build with officials still wrestling inflation that is running ahead of their target, for now, the Russian leader is pointing to the economy and claiming success.

Russia is approaching the election “in good form,” said Sofya Donets, an economist at Renaissance Capital, pointing to “very optimistic” consumer sentiment and assessments of the current and future financial situation in surveys. “They already show a level that does not at all resemble a crisis.”

The government is spending massively on social support for families, pension increases, mortgage subsidies and compensation for the relatives of those serving in the military. The price tag for Putin’s pre-election promises may total tens of billions of dollars over the next six years.

The war on Ukraine has intensified an acute labor shortage as military recruitment draws workers out of the market, with Putin last month saying that employers had a deficit of 2.5 million people.

That has benefited ordinary Russians who as a consequence are enjoying security in their near-term employment with managers reluctant to let anyone go. While the unemployment rate remains at a historic low, hiring expectations have soared to a record level, according to the central bank.

A big and persistent source of economic worry for the Kremlin remains rapid price growth that eats into Russians’ incomes. While that’s not fading, salaries are increasing faster, driven by massive government spending and the labor shortage. Average monthly wages in 2023 reached more than 74,000 rubles ($814), about 30% higher than two years ago. Before last year, Russia had not seen an increase in real disposable income of more than 5% for many years.

“For a significant number of Russians, the war became an opportunity for social and economic mobility that was previously impossible. Some managed to launch a new business,” said Anna Kuleshova, a sociologist at the Social Foresight Group. “Some received payments for their husbands and sons at the front, which made it possible to finally buy an apartment, a car, move from a village to a city.”

Putin boasts that unprecedented international sanctions have failed to derail the Russian economy, which has instead expanded, largely due to massive injections of money from the budget, military production and record trade with China. Putin has cited data showing Russia breaking into the top five economies in the world in terms of purchasing power parity, after overtaking Germany, to back that up.

The economy has started this year with similar momentum. January’s data on retail sales, real wages and industrial production came in better than the market forecast.

The flip side of the coin is that the elevated social and war spending has resulted in a yawning budget gap and the threat that an already overheating economy might continue to drive up prices.

Inflation remains above the Bank of Russia’s target, even after it has significantly tightened monetary policy, stifling credit activity in the country. Annual price growth accelerated in February to 7.7% from 7.4% in the previous month, despite policymakers’ hawkish efforts.

Meanwhile, this year’s federal budget gap was 1.5 trillion rubles by the end of February, while the Finance Ministry has planned for a deficit of 1.6 trillion rubles for the whole of 2024, and Russia’s available wealth fund reserves have been already halved. The government, seeing the start of a new presidential term as a window of opportunity for unpopular reforms, is considering raising taxes on higher-income earners.

“The success story of 2023 is a story of recovery growth that will be difficult to repeat,” Donets said, adding that this year, fiscal stimulus should begin to taper as “the reserves that were the main source for it have already been largely used up.”

“Tax increases are inevitable, and quite large ones at that,” she said. Uncertainty remains the biggest challenge facing Russia’s economy and it “may cause us many more headaches,” she said.

Some neoliberal brainworms near the end complaining about budget deficits, which is exactly what is needed to boost the economy. But the interest rate is still far too high and is curbing the growth momentum.

The FAA found staff at Boeing's supplier using liquid Dawn soap as lubricant for a 737 Max door seal: NYT

Article on Biden polling poorly with people of colour compared to previous dems

https://archive.is/HYTBB

Sounds like some people ain't black, jack

Election time in Russia and "news" reports saying Russia is going door to door forcing people at gunpoint to vote again. That the other options beyond Putin are just Putin lackies giving an illusion of choice. ( Have you seen American elections?)

Lots of contradictions. They don't bother those who don't answer the door. Yet if they are a forceful gestapo, then why don't they barge the doors in?

Had stories like this come out last election and IDK maybe you want escorts for election officials in the middle of a damned warzone?

Al Jazeera has been shit on Ukraine, folowing the US and Western line.

Edit - Video Putin accuses Ukriane of trying to disrupt elections (CW Bombed truck, person killed) might be an election materials truck. AP doesn't say but it's definitely a truck minding it's own buisness being bombed by in the contested region.

Edit 2 - Video Rueters Ukraine strikes Russia on day two of President votes.

Also deliberately targeting a similar looking small box truck 🚚 . Going to grab screen caps as our leadership and allies care oh soooo deeply about "democracy".

Imagine bombing polling sites. Geee I wonder why they are going door to door instead of having a massive line of squishy people?

Screen caps of similar trucks targeted (cw no dead showed but people died in these)

Truck 1 before and after

Truck 2 before and after

---

“The invasion of Rafah is imminent.” Is it actually? I’ve been hearing this for weeks now. I originally thought they said it was going to be earlier, and that didn’t happen, then there was some drop dead date of the 10th, but that’s passed. What’s their hold up from the Israeli perspective? Gathering forces? I feel like the longer they drag out the decision, the more political pressure builds on them not to do it, as people are given more chances to articulate how horrifying that would be. Which seems counterproductive to what they want to do

The Israeli army is preparing "contingency plans" to launch a wide-scale attack on Lebanon, including preparing shelters and food for Israeli residents of northern settlements, Yedioth Ahronoth reported on 10 March.

In a meeting Saturday with settler leaders from the Mata Asher and Ma'ale Yosef regional councils, Israeli Army Northern Command head Major General Ori Gordin stated, "We are preparing contingency plans to launch an attack in Lebanon. Our commitment, mine, is to change the security situation so that the residents can be returned home." In preparing for a potential war with Hezbollah in northern Israel, the army is launching "Operation Steady Anchor" to establish dozens of mass shelters, mainly in underground parking lots, to which the residents can flee to escape Hezbollah missile fire. Hezbollah is estimated to have some 150,000 rockets and ballistic missiles capable of causing massive damage to Israeli cities, including Haifa and Tel Aviv.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, the plan was formulated and budgeted in the last two months. Plans to host displaced settlers in hotels and tents outside the possible conflict zone were dismissed as unworkable. Most Israeli hotels are full as they are housing settlers displaced from Israel's south near the Gaza border. The preparations come days after Israel informed its western sponsors of a 15 March deadline to reach "a political settlement with Lebanon," after which Tel Aviv says it plans to "escalate military operations to a broad war," according to western diplomats who spoke with Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar. But Hezbollah has vowed not to back down from Israeli threats. "The position is clear. As long as the war continues in Gaza, this means that the Lebanon front is affected by it, and when it stops in Gaza, it stops in Lebanon," Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem told Lebanese news channel LBCI. "When there is a truce in Gaza, we will have a truce."

"We are not closer to a total war in Lebanon, but we are prepared for it if it happens tomorrow,” Qassem said on 6 March.

Cool Zone potentially imminent.

I'm interested in the implication of needing dozens of mass shelters for Israelis. I would have personally imagined that Hezbollah would be spending missiles taking out infrastructure and military bases, not trying to kill civilians under the assumption that if they hit a certain number, the You Win screen pops up and they earn 1000 points and therefore don't have to actually fight militarily (which seems to be Israel's miserably incompetent strategy in Gaza).

Though I guess if/when Israel starts carpetbombing Beirut in a couple weeks, that might start a tit-for-tat where Hezbollah also kills Israel civilians? I don't know.

“The Imperial March” plays over the loudspeaker of a US Army vessel departing on a mission to construct a temporary port for aid deliveries to Gaza: https://twitter.com/wgdunlop/status/1767603551633650037

In today's edition of the DA being American puppets...

South African Opposition Asks for US Election Observers

Last week, the DA wrote to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, asking for international help "to ensure the integrity" of the vote and "safeguard against any attempts to disrupt the democratic process."

Oh yes, an American backed coup is exactly what South Africa needs

The DA are pulling this stunt because they see an opportunity, with the US executing a coup and arming neo Nazis in Ukraine, and arming apartheid genocidal Israelis, why would they not support apartheid sympathising South Africans? Also polls are predicting that the DA will lose official opposition status to the EFF, and will get below 20% of the vote. So they have no path to obtain power democratically. A Western soft coup or a coalition with the ANC are the only paths forward if they actually want national power.

Here are the latest independent polls, from the 6th of February according to IPSOS:

I predict the situation is looking worse for the DA than this, especially with the introduction of Jacob Zuma's "MK party" into the mix, as well as Rise Mzansi and BOSA, and the latter two will attract a ton of radlib voters previously aligned with the DA. BOSA is even led by ex DA leader Mmusi Maimane. The DA even recently had a press release with a polling organisation that supports them showing the DA in a strong position to quell the fears amongst some of their donors, some of which have already fled to Action SA, Rise Mzansi and BOSA.

So it turns out that the hypersonic missile the Russian news outlet RIA Novosti was referring to, was likely publicly unveiled by the Houthis during a military parade in September of last year. You can watch the military parade on Memri TV here. The Tankeel missile makes an appearance at around 7 minutes 30 seconds, including an anti sea variant. There are relevant screenshots in the article if you do not want to watch the video. The Tankeel missile is the Houthi version of the Iranian Raad-500/Zoheir short range ballistic missile, which can reach speeds of Mach 8, has a range of 500km, and has a solid fuel engine with carbon composite components. This perfectly matches all the specifications listed in the media report by RIA Novosti. This missile was first unveiled by Iran during February 2020. The similarities and fins unique to both missiles are pictured below.

So it's not a new weapon in the Ansar Allah arsenal. And it's not any of Iran's "true" hypersonic missiles, or an amalgamation of their technology. What could be potentially newsworthy, is if the missile was successfully tested against a moving target. The report claims a successful test, but no details are reported. There have also been reports of attempted ballistic missile attacks against US Navy vessels, however those attacks made use of supersonic anti ship ballistic missiles and not hypersonics, and were unsuccessful. Getting a ballistic missile to hit a "small" moving target is incredibly difficult with the resources available to the Houthis. China's anti ship ballistic missiles are said to make use of AWACS aircraft for course correction, this is technology that the Houthis obviously lack.

Downloaded TikTok. Might as well check it out while it is still out of American control

so apparently usa is now pro-couping netanyahu? the ghoul can start some shit

Thats WPK General Secretary and President of the State Affairs, Kim Jong Un driving a new tank and yes its my new wallpaper. https://orinocotribune.com/take-look-at-north-korean-leader-participating-in-new-battle-tank-training/

https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.asp?newsIdx=370454

The chips are down

Haiti's prime minister Ariel Henry resigns as law and order collapses

Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry has agreed to resign following weeks of mounting pressure and increasing violence in the impoverished country.

It comes after regional leaders met in Jamaica on Monday to discuss a political transition in Haiti. Mr Henry is currently stranded in Puerto Rico after being prevented by armed gangs from returning home.

In a video address announcing his resignation, Mr Henry urged Haitians to remain calm. "The government that I am leading will resign immediately after the installation of [a transition] council," Mr Henry said.

"I want to thank the Haitian people for the opportunity I had been granted. I'm asking all Haitians to remain calm and do everything they can for peace and stability to come back as fast as possible."

Mr Henry, who had led the country supposedly on an interim basis since July 2021 following former President Jovenel Moïse's assassination, had repeatedly postponed elections, saying security must be restored first.

Many Haitians had questioned him governing the country for this long without an elected president. Heavily armed gangs have tightened their grip on the streets of the capital Port-au-Prince, and attacked the main prison to help thousands of inmates escape.

They also demanded the resignation of the unelected prime minister. The capital Port-au-Prince and the surrounding region is under a month-long state of emergency, while a curfew has been extended.

Matthias Pierre, a former elections minister in Haiti, broke the news of Mr Henry's resignation to the BBC's Newsday programme before it was confirmed publicly. He described the current situation in the country as "very precarious".

"The police force is weak, and more than 40 police stations [are] destroyed. The army is very limited and not equipped; gang members occupy most of the [Port-au-Prince] downtown and some government headquarters.

"Very soon people will be out of food, medication and... medical support." Mr Pierre said the gangs were now pushing to be part of any new power-sharing deal, adding that such a political settlement was impossible without the "support" of an international armed force.

Mr Henry had been in Kenya to sign a deal on the deployment of an international security force to help tackle violence when a coalition of gangs attacked police stations and stormed two of Haiti's largest prisons.

A plane carrying Mr Henry was stopped from landing following sustained attacks at Haiti's international airport. Mr Henry's resignation had been expected for several days. The Caricom group of Caribbean nations had made its position clear that he was seen as an impediment to Haiti's stability and that he would have to stand down so the move to a transitional council could begin.

The White House had initially wanted to see Mr Henry return to Haiti to oversee the transitional process, but the ferocity of fighting in the country changed minds in Washington in recent days.

Without the support of either the US state department or his neighbours, it was clear that Mr Henry had no alternative but to stand down. Mr Henry has expressed a wish to return to Haiti but the security situation has to improve before he is able to do so, according to the US which was at the talks in Kingston on Monday.

A senior US official said Mr Henry had first made the decision to step down on Friday but he had waited for an official announcement so talks could take place.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken committed a further $100m (£78m) to the 1,000-strong UN-backed security force Kenya is expected to lead in Haiti.

The proposed US contribution to the security force now stands at $300m following Mr Blinken's announcement, with a further $33m allocated for humanitarian aid.

However, the top civil servant in Kenya's foreign affairs ministry has told the BBC that its deployment of police to Haiti has been put on hold following Mr Henry's resignation.

Korir Sing'oei added that Kenya would wait for the installation of a new constitutional authority before further decisions were made. Earlier, the chairman of the Caricom group and Guyana's President Irfaan Ali said: "We acknowledge his resignation upon the establishment of a transitional presidential council and naming of an interim prime minister."

President Ali said the transitional presidential council would have two observers and seven voting members, including representatives from several coalitions, the private sector and civil society, and one religious leader.

The council has been mandated to "swiftly" appoint an interim prime minister, he said, adding that anyone intending to run in Haiti's next elections will not be able to participate. It is hoped the council will pave the way for the first elections in Haiti since 2016.

apperently kate Middelton is missing since Chrismas and there was a kind of "Blackwall" against all the news of her Missing ... now shes missing so long . wierd "Signs of Life" appear .. to then be revealed as Photoshops and then having all thhe Kingdoms serfsbe ordered to imidiatly delete the picture that the "happy and Alive" princess just posted.

what's going on with tiktok in the US? Is it actually getting banned?

Seeing reports on Twitter that Hamas has launched a barrage of rockets from North Gaza(!), anyone in the resistance telegram groups able to verify?

Israel is seeking to establish a port in the Mediterranean island country of Cyprus in case the port of Haifa is closed in a war with Hezbollah, Israel Hayom reported on 11 March. The Ministry of Transport has set a goal to establish another port for Israel in Larnaca within 60 days. The establishment of the port is meant to coincide with US plans to establish a floating port off the coast of Gaza, allegedly to deliver aid to millions of besieged and famine-stricken Palestinians.

A delegation from the Israeli Ministry of Transportation and Road Safety, led by the chairman of the Israel Ports Company, Uzi Itzhaki, left for Cyprus on Monday. The port is expected to cost hundreds of millions of shekels, and efforts to establish it will be carried out immediately. The delegation seeks to establish the port in response to security scenarios provided by the ministry’s head, Miri Regev. Establishing a port in Larnaca is an urgent need for Israel to avoid a wartime situation where it is cut off from commercial and military supplies. Specifically, Israel fears a situation where the Haifa port in northern Israel is closed due to a full-scale war with Hezbollah.

The Ashdod port was closed following the Hamas-led 7 October attack, forcing Israel to redirect shipping to Eilat. The port in Eilat was then targeted by Ansarallah-led Yemeni forces. Contrary to news reports, the main goal in establishing the Cyprus port is not to transfer aid to Gaza. A source familiar with the matter told Israel Hayom that Israel also intends the Larnaca port to be part of an alternative transportation axis to connect Europe and India through Israel. Israel hopes to establish such a route within the framework of a future normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia.

I'm confused by this. Cyprus is an island that is disconnected from Israel by a body of water. How does a port on Cyprus give Israel the ability to receive maritime goods? Is it to do with being able to unload big container ships and then send those supplies in smaller boats to Israel?

I also like this line:

alternative transportation axis to connect Europe and India through Israel. Israel hopes to establish such a route within the framework of a future normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia.

Yeah, good luck with that. While non-Western ships go through the Suez Canal at low costs, you'll be stuck in traffic jams between the UAE and Israel trying to make your shitty land route work.

Haiti looks like it might be on the brink of revolution. I keep coming across the idea that Haitians correctly blame Washington, but every time I read about it in the western press, it is given a racist frame as simple "gang violence" ... Still it seems like the factions behind the uprising include elements that are not particularly revolutionary, and may even have been in league with reactionaries like the former US-backed Moise, or at least that is what I remember reading years ago... what is really going on?

Portugal Elections 2024: Poor performance for the Communist Party, while the far-right rises

Bad news come from Portugal, following March 10 parliamentary elections. The Unitary Democratic Coalition, comprised of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Greens, received 3,30% (approximately 203,000 votes), which marks a regression in relation to the 2022 results (4,39% and 236,600 votes).

Unfortunately, it seems that, among others, the Portuguese Communist Party pays the price for its political support – also known as Geringonça - towards the social democratic governments of Antonio Costa in 2015-2019 which cultivated empty promises to the working class but ultimately led to disappointment.

Two years ago, on the occasion of Communist Parties participation in so-called “left-wing” or “progressive” governments, we had pointed out the illusions of this erroneous strategy. Read: Communist Parties' participation in bourgeois governments is a deeply erroneous strategy.

On the other hand, the far-right populist Chega party, has secured 18% of the vote and 48 seats in the 230-seat parliament, gaining more than 1 million votes.

The centre right Democratic Alliance claims a narrow election victory over its major opponent, the Socialist Party (PS), but has little to no chance of forming a majority government.

Following the announcement of the results, Communist Party General Secretary Paulo Raimundo acknowledged the outcome of the elections as “negative” and warned over the consequences of the rise of the far-right in the workers' rights and people's living conditions.

basically dont do reformism i guess portugal was pretty doomed with the rise of its far right movement

Germany and france's 2024 growth forecasts were both cut from to something like 0.2% and 0.9% respectively

https://archive.is/s8fxM

https://archive.is/gWYKK

We love our anemic Eurozone, don't we folks?

Dumb guy: Huawei is functionally owned and controlled by the Chinese government

Smart guy: Chinese McDonald's is functionally owned and controlled by the Chinese government

Apperantly ukraine did a "Gostomel" Helicopter landing on a Russian airfield with an armourd column trying to break through from the Sumy border .. with intial success apperently...

https://archive.is/Lzrhh

Bunch of clapping circus seal yesmen wildly lauding Ukrainian mechanics doing basic modifications to shitty British tanks as the world's modern Hephaestuses.

Ukrainian Soldiers Enhance Protection of British-Donated Challenger 2 Tanks Against Russian Threats

Ukrainian soldiers have been reported to make crucial upgrades to the Challenger 2 Main Battle Tanks, a contribution from the United Kingdom aimed at bolstering Ukraine's defense capabilities following the invasion of the country by Russian troops. A recent video by the British magazine "The Sun" showcases these enhancements, designed to increase the protection of the tanks against the evolving threats in the Ukrainian conflict zone and new Russian threats.

Upgrades so crucially missed by the British tank designers. To be fair, they're British. And also the equipment sent to Ukraine is stripped down export models that are like even more shit than the actual vehicles in use.

The British Challenger 2 has long been recognized as one of the best-protected main battle tanks globally, a distinction it owes to several key design features and technological advancements. Its armor, composed of the classified Chobham/Dorchester composite, provides outstanding protection against both kinetic energy penetrators and chemical energy munitions, setting a benchmark in tank armor technology.

Theoretically. Practically it's being recognized as one of the best human designed artificial mud crab larp vehicle.

The Challenger 2's turret is renowned for its exceptional durability, capable of withstanding hits from most anti-tank weaponry. Furthermore, its comprehensive protection is augmented by an advanced fire control system and a high degree of survivability features, such as NBC (nuclear, biological, and chemical) protection systems and automatic fire suppression capabilities. This blend of superior armor, cutting-edge defensive systems, and operational effectiveness underpins the Challenger 2's reputation as a preeminent force on the battlefield, designed to ensure crew survivability against a broad spectrum of threats.

Theoretically. Practically, it's becoming famous for competing with the Germans in a race to the bottom of shit that's overengineered and breaks easier than than an Italian's mind when he sees someone snapping dried spaghetti pasta in half.

The original British Challenger 2 has received comprehensive modifications at the hands of Ukrainian forces. These upgrades are not just superficial adjustments but are aimed at significantly increasing the protection for the crew inside, addressing the unique challenges posed by the Ukrainian battlefield. Among the notable improvements, the tanks' hull sides have been outfitted with grill armors and rubber side skirts, providing additional layers of defense against anti-tank weapons.

Yeah a whole fluff article to fucking talk about adding shitty slat armor to a shitty tank. You know what they said when the Russians do the same thing? They call them "cope cages". Wonder how the British are coping with their world famous tank being so shit it needs rebar wielded to it to stop it from getting owned

Further enhancing the tank's combat readiness, the gunner's machine gun now boasts an armored shield at the front, offering critical protection for the operator during engagements. Additionally, the front of the hull has been equipped with wire cage armor, an innovative solution aimed at thwarting the effectiveness of anti-tank guided missiles and rocket-propelled grenades by detonating them before they can impact the tank's main armor.

That's fuckin right, you're getting a two for one deal for bullshit fluff! Wielding rebar to a tank and a thick piece of steel around a machine gun makes you resourceful and resilient strategic geniuses that are winning the war so goodly you can do it with both hands tied behind your back!

Fucking goons

<---- LINK

(it volcanoed again)

Thoughts?

US building Gaza port to facilitate mass 'voluntary' migration

Article text

Hisham Khreisat, a Jordanian military and strategic affairs expert, suggested the motivation for building the port was instead to facilitate the deportation of Gaza's population by ship.

Khreisat told Anadolu Agency that "the floating port off the shores of Gaza is a humanitarian facade hiding voluntary migration to Europe."

"This military tactical port will receive Israeli approval because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been seeking this idea since the beginning of the war, aiming for the voluntary displacement of Gazans and their [flight] to Europe," he added.

The White House claims it wishes to build the port to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are at risk of starvation due to Israel's blockade.

But the BBC noted that the port would take at least 60 days to build and that "charities have said those suffering in Gaza cannot wait that long."

If the US wished to stave off famine in Gaza, it could simply use its leverage as Israel's leading supplier of weapons to force Tel Aviv to allow more aid to enter by truck convoys through existing land crossings.

On 13 October, just days after the beginning of the war on Gaza, the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence issued a document calling for the forcible expulsion of the strip's 2.3 million inhabitants under a humanitarian guise.

The leaked document recommends making conditions in Gaza so uninhabitable that its population would be forced to flee to other countries, including Egypt's Sinai, Greece, Spain, and Canada.

Israel could justify the deportation to the international community, the plan stated, if it appears to lead to "fewer casualties among the civilian population compared to the expected number of casualties if they remain," the document says.

Israel's horrific bombardment of Gaza since 7 October has created just such conditions, killing at least 30,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children.

The risk of famine, caused by Israel's blockade, has also created conditions to make the deportation of 2.3 million Gazans appear as a humanitarian gesture.

These conditions could further be created should Israel conduct a ground operation in Rafah, where over a million Gazans displaced from other areas of the strip are sheltering.

Egypt has so far refused to allow Gazans into the Sinai, making deportation by sea to Europe more attractive for Israeli planners.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) also issued a warning about the US plan to build a temporary port off the shore of Gaza.

The resistance movement emphasized that the US plan is "suspicious and dubious," as it would open the door to the forced displacement of Gaza's population under humanitarian and other pretexts.

The movement also accused President Joe Biden of establishing the port to appease public opinion in the US. As the presidential election nears, large segments of his Democratic voter base have criticized Biden for his support for Israel's ongoing Genocide in Gaza, including the lack of aid reaching starving Palestinians.

The PFLP statement added that the Palestinian Resistance will remain vigilant and will confront any "suspicious US plans or any other actions that might compel Palestinians to be expelled to liquidate the Palestinian cause."

The statement further confirmed that the US presence would be a legitimate target for the Resistance.

Least genocidal Zionists: https://twitter.com/_Goldwasser_/status/1768060722917818667

Notice when the audience starts clapping.

Tinubu Directs Opening Of Nigeria’s Land, Air Borders With Niger Republic, Lifting Of Other Sanctions: https://saharareporters.com/2024/03/13/breaking-tinubu-directs-opening-nigerias-land-air-borders-niger-republic-lifting-other

This is different from ECOWAS lifting sanctions back in February.

On reflection, a tank commander is just a backseat driver AND has control over the music.

Do people enjoy my random thoughts about stuff here? In part this is the war thread. But like... What community should they go to if not? Tank and missile stuff can be in guns (and also presumably guns), if its more general military maybe technology? I just like mechanical systems and gushing about them. :(

"A Faster Rearmament": Danish Regime Puts Warfare Over Welfare

Increased use of forced military service as well as lavish arms purchases at the expense of social services are claimed to be necessary to deter imagined Russian threat.

Full text

THE WEST'S DESCENT INTO FASCISM — In a carefully choreographed press conference in Copenhagen today Mette Frederiksen, Denmark's undisputed social democratic supreme leader, announced her hard right regime's plans for what she herself terms "a faster rearmament".

Flanked by minister of defense Troels Lund Poulsen and foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, in what was intended as a display of internal regime unity, the supreme leader went on stage before a select audience of loyalist reporters in the government compound's oppressively grey-tinted hall of mirrors with a stark message for the Danish public: Evil forces are looming, a rapid militarisation of society is necessary and sacrifices will have to be made by the common people.

Spending Soaring

Frederiksen's regime is sparing no expenses in their aggressive military buildup. Already this year military spending will exceed the minimum of two percent of GDP imposed on Denmark by it's American overlords and reach 2.4 percent of GDP. Over the next ten years the regime intends to spend DKK 190 bln. (almost USD 28 bln.) on the military.

The money is going to be spent on purchasing among other things armoured vehicles, surface to air missiles and anti-submarine weapons.

Frederiksen stated that Denmark "shouldn't be a country sheltered by others", tapping in to repeated regime messaging about the windswept Nordic kingdom not contributing their fair share to the American NATO pact.

Forced Service To Solve Recruitment Woes

A large part of the plan consists in expanding the use of forced military service despite human rights concerns. Today only young Danish men risks being conscripted into military service for the regime. In the future young women will also be affected. Regime messaging tried to cast this as a stride forwards for gender equality.

Not only will all genders be at risk of forced military service, more of them than today will be press ganged into the military and they will be there for longer.

In a break with previous policies, where only volunteers were deployed to active duty, conscripts will now face the risk of being deployed to NATO pact rapid response brigades.

The increased use of forced military service happens to solve a perceived recruitment crisis in the Danish military. When asked why increased salary to troops has not been attempted before using forced conscription, minister of defense Poulsen deflected, claiming that salaries were "a union contract issue".

"Europe is at a fateful moment"

"We are not rearming because we want war," said Mette Frederiksen "We are rearming to avoid it". She was seconded by her minister of defense who claimed that the military is "facing a monumental task" and said that "Europe is at a fateful moment " before he went on to talk about how the perceived threat of alleged Russian aggression had increased over the last year.

Foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen went on to state that Russia was not a direct threat to Denmark at the moment but claimed that rearmament is necessary to prevent them from becoming one in the future.

Economic Hardship Amid Military Spending Spree

The dominant reactionary factions in Denmark's rubberstamp parliament has already made positive statements about most of the regime's grandiose military plans, making it a near certainty that significantly increased parts of the Danish national budget will go to the military.

Mette Frederiksen states that the aggressive military buildup going to mean that "in the future we can't afford everything we want", echoing her statements in a Financial Times interview earlier this year where the supreme leader claimed there were no money available for further investments in social welfare due to the alleged necessity of splurging on the military.

While funding for the military seemingly has no end, the picture is grimmer in most parts of the Danish public sector where lack of investment has left essential services such as schools and hospitals chronically understaffed and underfunded. This dire situation is exacerbated by a recent inflation crisis caused by economic mismanagement in the capitalist bloc causing hardship for poor and marginalised Danes.

Japan's Space One inurgural rocket go boom

Isolating Israel will hurt the world more than it will hurt Israel (Warning: Do not handle copium of this purity without proper personal protection): https://archive.is/GNNAW

Look no further than that august international body known as the United Nations, the majority of whose members are not in agreement with either the United States or with Western world ideals. They cannot possibly, by extension, understand or sympathize with Israel.

In the 1960’s, the G77 was created. Their common denominator was that each member country was either a former colony or a very poor developing country or both. Today they number 134 nations and are the largest block in the UN. They were the force behind UN resolution 3379 on November 10, 1975, proclaiming that Zionism is Racism.

Israel may be isolated, but Israel will soldier on. It is the world that will suffer the greater loss – of that, I have no doubt.

Russia apperently hit a Jackpot in Odessa

there are roumors of it beeing a "Double tap" strike tho , meaning you strike the same place again , to kill the Helpers , which to be clear, is a warcrime .

the Jordan Peterson yelling at Elmo (newest one) isn't real :(

Twitter seems very invested and excited by a drone destroying a parked military helicopter in Transnistria right now. I'm fuzzy on exactly what this achievement is supposed to represent, but some of the usual flag emoji twitter are acting like it's some great historical moment and proof of Ukraine's pivot to victory.

I see your Lawrence Eagleburger and raise you Klon Kitchen: https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1768024485775442091

"Imagine you woke up tomorrow morning and you saw a news report that China had distributed 100 million sensors around the United States... That's precisely what TikTok is," Klon Kitchen, who worked in the U.S. intelligence community, said in 2020.

A military lobbyist organisation called "People and Security" is planning to distribute a pamphlet named "What If?" to all Danish households. The pamphlet details how households can prepare to weather crisis situations for a week.

Inhabitants of the island of Bornholm in the Baltic sea will be the first to receive the pamphlet as the island is seen as more vulnerable and experienced blackouts due to the failure of underseas power cables last year.

British wunderwaffe not doing so well after encountering mud (archived)

from the fucking Sun of all places (although most of the article is fawning about it, not sure how these bits slipped through, like it's literally an article titled "UP FOR THE CHALLENGE" and then halfway through it's like "yeah, it sinks in mud and breaks down all the time and we can't even get the spare parts")

But Kayfarick said the downside was the Challenger’s size and weight. At 64 tons it is roughly the same as a German Leopard 2 and a US Abrams M1A2 — but 20 tons heavier than a Russian T-80 and with a 30 per cent lower power-to-weight ratio. Despite its 26litre V12 diesel engine producing a whopping 1,200 horsepower, the crews in Ukraine said the Challenger 2 struggled with mobility. The squadron’s chief engineer, who uses the call sign Chol, said: “There are pluses and minuses with everything, and the minus is its mobility — its ability to manoeuvre across ground. “They keep getting stuck in the mud because it is so heavy.”

note that the ones in British service with all of the armor upgrades installed are 75 tons, so uh, that doesn't bode well

The crew invited The Sun to clamber aboard and we sat on the turret as the Challenger 2 roared over the countryside and its gun circled round the clock. But we soon saw what the soldiers meant about mobility when it sank into a bog. Kayfarick blasted the rookie crew for going too slowly though a gully, though they said they only went slowly for fear of bucking us off.

...

But the Challenger squadron revealed to The Sun that only seven of the 14 tanks donated in March 2023 are still fighting fit. Besides the one which was destroyed by a Lancet suicide drone in September — luckily the crew survived and the tank’s burnt-out hull was recovered — another was assigned to a training unit elsewhere in Ukraine. Two others were damaged in battle but have since been repaired, including one that had its barrel replaced.

But a bigger problem is reliability. Five have broken down and Kayfarick said spare parts from Britain sometimes take months to arrive and he had a shortage of skilled mechanics to keep the hardware fighting fit. He said: “It takes a long time to get spares. The logistics are very complex, at this end and your end.” And he revealed that a chronic shortage of fresh soldiers on the front lines meant trained tank crew had been removed from their vehicles in order to dig trenches for the infantry. Kayfarick said rubber pads on the tanks’ tracks and the wheels kept on wearing out. He said: “The parts in the turret and the parts of precision aiming are also not so long-lasting. They have been breaking from the start.”

the start of the article (which I've skipped in the quotes here) is all about how amazingly precise the cannon is, except it turns out the parts needed for that break really fast, nice

...

Kayfarick said the Challenger 2 did not have the right type of ammunition for attacking infantry. ... He added that he feared commanders had failed to grasp that Nato tanks were built for different roles from Soviet ones. He said: “Soviet tanks are battle machines built for multiple tasks. British and Nato tanks are mostly about sniping — tank versus tank.” Kayfarick and his crews were in the UK last winter training with British tank crews. But he said Ukraine’s top brass were torn between “the completely different approach of the Soviet school and the Nato school of fighting.” He said: “The main problem for Challenger 2s on the battle ground is a commander who doesn’t understand what it was designed for, what are its pros and cons.”

love to make a tank that costs over 4 million bucks and yet is also a highly specialized delicate little thing that can only ever do one job

From random twitter interaction:

In terms of pricing, yes, trading around a plot of land without developing it does create “value”.

lmao literally acknowledging that it's not actually value while claiming it is.

Edit:

Look you can in theory extrapolate everything to human work, however...

lmao

I've always felt that Portuguese people are more likely than even the average European to be some kind of fascist but it's based largely on vibes. Is there any fairness to that?

I used to watch Sasuke vs Danzo as a teen imagining myself as Sasuke and Danzo as Allen Dulles. Making him pay for his crimes against Guatemala.

So my Girlfriend is giving me new insides into the Kate Situation ,

So all the Royal Gossip dependencies are starting to worry about their Infailable godess and the stories she produces and that feed them

Disclaimer: Hardcore

LIZ JONES: The Palace can no longer be trusted. They think we are all stupid. Now we are thinking: did Kate even write the message? Is she too ill?

spoiler

Liz Jones saw the problems with the Mother’s Day photo immediately: “I rushed home to study the photo of Kate and her children, released to show the world that she is doing well and on the mend. But then…Hmm. I went outside to stare at trees. Blossom, yes, but no leaves. Another look at the snap. Her expression was a bit off. A bit too bland and a bit too happy. I would have expected, after a couple of months off and reams of speculation, a half-smile, something slightly wry. And why was Louis in a Christmas jumper? Didn’t the floor seem rather shabby?”

WTF was William thinking? “Ordinary people, worried and wondering why, if the photo has indeed been doctored, William couldn’t just take a bloody normal family snap on his phone and post it! We all do it, many times a day. We didn’t want or expect a perfectly posed shot, just a little something to stop us worrying. And we had been worrying ever since that woman was papped in a car, driven by Kate’s mother, last week? I for one got no sleep at all.”

It’s like watching Bambi learn to walk: “Given what is possible with AI and digital trickery today, isn’t it even more important for the Royal Family and its minions to be authentic and transparent in all their dealings with the public and Press, given we all pay for their palaces and their privacy? It is such a blunder, so catastrophic for our faith in the monarchy and I believe that, yet again, Kate has been badly let down by the Palace media operation and advisers.”

The lack of statements from KP about Kate’s health: “No updates beyond the bland and meaningless, allowing the distasteful speculation about her health and the state of her marriage to proliferate on social media and in the foreign press – New York Times and American Vogue – to ponder. Why could they not have simply released a photo for Mother’s Day of Kate from the Coronation, say, with a small note from her? That would have been fine. We don’t expect her to put on make-up during her hiatus.

Was it all a lie?? “Now we are thinking: did she even write the message that accompanied the controversial snap? And more. Why were there as many as 16 anomalies on the photo? Was the photo an old Christmas one, simply repurposed? The children certainly look as hysterical and excited as they would have done on Christmas Day. Why wasn’t an accredited photographer with decades of professional standing sent in to do the shot? Was she too ill for that? The Palace clearly can no longer be trusted, given what transpired on Monday morning when, finally, an official tweet from Kensington Palace arrived.

Kate’s statement: ‘Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I want to express my apologies for any confusion…’ It is signed with a ‘C’. What??!! But Kate is not an ‘amateur’, she is an experienced photographer (She is, after all, patron of the Royal Photographic Society). And it was William who took it! She is a perfectionist and would never do a bad job with anything! Now, I don’t want to accuse KP of lying. But I think the Palace, not the Princess, treats the general public with disdain. The Palace thinks we are all stupid, and will never question anything the Waleses say.

Kate would never bungle this so badly: “I am certain that Kate, as a young, media savvy, empathetic person, who never puts a foot wrong, is never caught with the wrong expression, or wearing something that doesn’t quite fit or is creased, would not make a mistake like this. I believe she had no hand in this photo, or any mistakes made after. What we do know is that this debacle is fuelling even more speculation – even that she is refusing to co-operate with the Palace. Whatever is going on, I can only imagine Kate’s distress, her shock, her anger. And whoever is responsible needs to be sacked. Today.

I was at a Palestine event and the Rev Coms came to hand out newspapers and Bob Avakian quotes

Oh shit did I give the mega its name lol

Just a heads up that the latest (mar 14) entry on moon of Alabama is transphobic

Can someone tl;dr me on this Sweet Baby Inc / Gamergate 2 thing that's kicking off? I've tried to ignore it but if Musk is boosting it now it's not going away and will need to be fought.

ca va manu?

with this simple word combination you can reset your macron, if it got stuck in jupiter mode

Shit

Fatah responds to Hamas criticism of new formation of PA government ‘without consulting Hamas’:

Palestinian National Liberation Movement "Fatah" affirmed that whoever caused Israel's reoccupation of the Gaza Strip, and caused the Nakba that the Palestinian people are experiencing, especially in the Gaza Strip, does not have the right to dictate national priorities, stressing that the real disconnect from reality and the Palestinian people is the leadership of the movement. Hamas, which until this moment has not felt the magnitude of the catastrophe that our oppressed people are experiencing in the Gaza Strip and in the rest of the Palestinian territories.

Fatah expressed its astonishment and disapproval at Hamas’ talk of exclusion and division, and wondered whether Hamas consulted the Palestinian leadership or any Palestinian national party when it made its decision to undertake the adventure of last October 7, which led to a catastrophe more horrific and cruel than the catastrophe of 1948? Did Hamas consult the Palestinian leadership, while it is now negotiating with Israel and offering it concessions after concessions, and that it has no goal other than for its leadership to receive guarantees for its personal security, and to try to reach an agreement with Netanyahu again to maintain its divisive role in Gaza and the Palestinian arena? The question is whether Hamas consulted anyone when it carried out its 2007 coup. On Palestinian national legitimacy in 2007, it rejected all initiatives to end the division.

Fatah affirmed that President Mahmoud Abbas has the right, in accordance with the Basic Law, to do everything that is in the interest of the Palestinian people, stressing that the President’s assignment to Dr. Muhammad Mustafa falls at the heart of the President’s political and legal responsibilities, and that the priorities set in the assignment are the priorities of the Palestinian people, and every rational person who is not separated from his people and from the reality of the terrible tragedy experienced by our people who are exposed to great injustice in the Gaza Strip, they realize this, stressing that the priority of all Palestinians today is to stop the war immediately, prevent displacement, provide relief to our afflicted people, rebuild the Gaza Strip, end the division, and reunify the Palestinian homeland, and it is as it demonstrates. Hamas said in its statement today that the above is not its priority.

Fatah confirmed that the Prime Minister-designate, Dr. Muhammad Mustafa, is armed with the national agenda and not with false agendas that have brought nothing but woes to the Palestinian people and have not achieved a single achievement for them. Fatah asked: Does Hamas want us to appoint a prime minister from Iran or for Tehran to appoint him for us?

Fatah criticized the actions and practices of the Hamas leadership and its behavior towards the genocidal war, noting that it seems that the comfortable life that this leadership lives in seven-star hotels has blinded it from what is right, wondering why most of Hamas’ leaders live abroad, and why they and their families fled and left the Palestinian people to face... A brutal war of extermination without any protection.

Fatah called on the leadership of the Hamas movement to stop its policy of being dependent on foreign agendas, and to return to the national side in order to stop the war and save our people and our cause from liquidation, and in order to provide relief to our people and rebuild Gaza, leading to complete withdrawal from the land of the State of Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital.

Here's an "old" for the news thread: Joe Biden in USSR (1979)

The Pashinyan regime continues to betray the Armenian people: https://www.plenglish.com/news/2024/03/13/russia-describes-armenias-statements-on-csto-as-insulting/

On Tuesday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stated that his country will leave the CSTO if the organization does not answer the questions raised by Yerevan on the nation’s sovereign territory.

I turned down a ballot sig collector for dynastic genocidal warmongers Peter Meijer and RFK Jr.

Anyone have any good resources on Capitalism and Ageism?

Almost everything I've found is polcomp individualism apologia or shit like

Cuba's private sector provides elderly care (REUTERS March 14 2024)

I'm looking for any article that links Ageism to Capitalism, I am trying to advocate for collectivism

Economic Hardship For Danish Youth As Military Spending Soars

A new report from Danish banking organization Finans Danmark is painting a bleak picture of life in the western world, revealing that more than one in five Danes between the ages of 18 and 35 experience financial hardship.

The report states that the incomes of young Danes have failed to keep pace with rising prices, pushing seven out of ten affected individuals to express dissatisfaction with their lives. One in four affected people claims their lives are "close to the worst imaginable."

Poverty is taking a toll on those affected, impacting their sleep, social lives, and access to essential services like dental care and medicine. Lukas Grundahl, a 21-year-old from the backwater town of Sønderborg, tells, "I don't feel I can do anything when I look at my bank account. It's impossible for me to visit my family, buy food, buy basic household items like cleaning supplies." Grundahl survives on a meager benefit of DKK 6.350, leaving him with only DKK 1.200 after fixed expenses to survive a month in one of the world's most expensive countries.

The crisis traces back to the recent inflation crisis in the capitalist bloc caused by mismanagement of trade and energy policies. From 2021 to 2023 the number of young Danes reporting troubled personal finances skyrocketed from 9 percent to 22 percent.

The crisis is exacerbated by a decades-long trend in Danish social policy of drastically reducing benefits for groups deemed undesirable by the regime, such as the young unemployed or refugees.

Despite the alarming statistics, the regime remains silent on the issue, offering no solutions. State-controlled media suggests poverty-stricken youth turn to relatives or seek personal finance advice from charities.

Meanwhile, as ordinary citizens grapple with financial instability, the regime of the American satellite state continues it's grandiose project of aggressive military buildup, citing the supposed threat of Russian aggression. In a recent interview with Financial Times supreme leader Mette Frederiksen claimed that the alleged need for lavish military funding precluded any new investments in social welfare.

Source

Apperetly Assads Wife must Go

spoiler

to moskau , because Hafez finished the University

The Danish troops' "union" is mad about the prices troops pay for lunch. In mess halls the troops have to pay by weight with the average lunch costing USD 6.18 per meal. Meanwhile people eating lunch in the cafeteria of the Liberal Party-controlled ministry of defense get an all you can eat buffet for USD 4.10.

Edit: Lol. The article from state media I've got this from has a little attached "analysis" where a so-called "defense analyst" (not a real job) editorialises over how unfair this is to the troops and how they deserve cheap lunches just like the "the minister, admirals and generals" in Copenhagen.

so whatcha thinking newsmega, will russia

a) bend the knee after elections (pros: porkies, libness of ruling class, stopping bloodshed. cons: ukraine will rearm for round 2 immediately, look like a bunch of libs)

b) or continue (pros: chance to get ukraine to truly comply via couple of maidans, more territory (?doubtful +, as its poor as shit), cons (more bloodshed, west becoming more unhinged in general, joker mode possibility of trump going wild)

"Inside Portugal is the same story playing out across much of Europe. A failing center or center-left political party, unable to cope with the economic troubles of the last few years due to absolute obedience to neoliberal policies. A fascist party rising, but with no alternative economic plan, hoping that perhaps oppressing minorities and going after "wokeism" will make their God, The Economy, rain blessings down on them again."

It's like that Digital Underground song

All around the world same song

The welcome passing of Søren Pape, the leader of the Danish conservatives, who was shuffled off this mortal coil and sent to join the choir infernal by comrade cerebral hemorrhage by the ripe young age of 52, has caused much cringe to happen. Anyone with access to the media has been crawling on top of eachother to say how good and kind a person this little fascist turd of a man was. They put up big screen displays at his funeral like it was a football match. The football team in his home town held a minute's silence in remembrance of this diet Mussolini. And of course, the coffin of the man who never left the house without wearing a comically oversized flag lapel pin was draped with a flag like he was some kind of troop killed in the line of duty and not some sociopathic ghoul who just did enough coke to pop a blood vessel.

However the dumbest thing was a remark from foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen suggesting that maybe we were all to blame for Pape's death? What if he was killed by being criticised too much? Would his poor veins have given in if he had not received so much fire for being an incompetent jackass?

Vancouver’s new mega-development is big, ambitious and undeniably Indigenous

I want to learn more about the history of the Irish struggle for independence, Northern Ireland, The Troubles, and the IRA. What should I read?

NSFW/L CW EXTREME GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF DEATH TOURTURE

Not just the UNRWA report: Countless accounts of Israeli torture in Gaza