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Bulletins and News Discussion from August 5th to August 11th, 2024 - LGBT - COTW: Iraq

Well, Iran and their allies' response may happen sometime this week and apparently they aren't talking to the US in order to negotiate how and where they will hit Israel (and Shoigu arrived in Tehran rather auspiciously), the Bangladeshi government just fell, F16s have been given to Ukraine, there are fascist riots in the UK, and Japan just had its worst stock fall since 1987 and seems to be taking several other countries/corporations with it. I don't really know where to look right now.


The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Iraq! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

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2.2K comments
  • So there is lot of talk from the McDonalds "Left" about the Venezuelan elections being fraudulent or whatever. I don't have first hand experience but a journalist that I respect has and she went as an election observer in Venezuela. (Breakthrough news has also done some great coverage from what I have seen)

    She reported that:

    • The election system that they have is probably one of the best (if not the best) in the world and is very hard to cheat. They have a triple verification system where you vote in an electronic machine using your fingerprint (instead of just an ID), you then get a receipt of what you voted (without any identification on the paper), and also the machine leaves a physical vote in a separate box so afterwards they can verify the differences between the receipts and what's in the ballot box.
    • Things were very calm in every election center she went. There was violence in certain places elsewhere. The world on the street was that certain people(...) where giving 150 dollars to anyone willing to participate to anti government riots. She said there is tremendous misinformation. At some point they were saying that an airport was taken over by anti-government forces. The problem was she was at that airport at that time and nothing was happening!
    • Internet is completely censor free. (Maybe you should rethink of it Nicolas...)
    • Maduro made a request to the Venezuelan supreme court so that the opposition parties submit any evidence that they have in regard to the elections so they can be cross examined. (BTW, the supreme court is elected by the parliament that included the opposition parties of course...)
    • Maduro had 5 assassination attempts against him in March alone. He wears bulletproof vest in his public appearances.
    • In the last 15 years the government has built 5 million houses and has made the country food independent.
    • Maduro when he gathered people around to express his thanks after the election he had 3 ambassadors beside him, those of China, Turkey and Iran
    • Many of the cars in Venezuela streets are Chinese (a phenomenon that I see not only about cars but in everything across Latin America)
    • Burgerland companies like Edison Research (that takes contracts from CIA, Voice of America etc.) where trying to create a climate, months before the elections, that basically the opposition was far ahead (they were polling the opposition as high as 70%!) so that when the real election results came they could say "Aha you see, our polling (that was 100% real of course) didn't match the election results so that means the government cheated!". So the western muppets ("left" and right) take what burgerland polling companies claim as better evidence than the election results themselves!
    • NYT about a month ago reported that the base of the opposition was inside the embassy of Argentina! They did that because the government can't check what's getting in and what is getting out of an embassy. That's why we show supporters of the government trying to get inside the embassy after the elections.

    Loser "Left" is very concerned about elections in Venezuela, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet in China, arming Naz...excuse me freedom fighters in Ukraine, women rights in Iran at convenient times, LGBT rights in Palestine at convenient times and voting for the lesser of two evils in the imperial core in order to protect their proper...democracy. All of this just happens to be a stance that is very convenient for the US state department...nothing to see here.

    • Contrary to popular (social media) belief you do not have to have an opinion on everything. You can just shut up. If you got to have a opinion, have one that contributes , first and foremost, towards building socialism in your own country and if possible towards international solidarity. What you absolutely shouldn't do is cosplaying as the morally superior philosopher king up in the mountain that judges everything and everyone and especially people that have done things to better this world and the lives of ordinary people, despite all the limitations and all the contradictions.

    • the McDonalds "left"

      I'm lovin' it

2166 comments