Bulletins and News Discussion from December 18th to December 24th, 2023 - Chad el-Mandeb - COTW: Yemen
Image is of Yemen seizing the first ship in its blockade of Israel (the Galaxy Leader) with a helicopter raid.
Alternate title: What If It Was The Bab El-Womandeb And It Was Just For The Ladies?
Ansarallah is a key component of the broader Resistance movement, backed by Iran, and has been a stalwart member in engineering the ongoing collapse of Zionism. It has steadily escalated both its rhetoric and, rarely nowadays, its actions, proving that the mythical "red line" might actually exist in the world after all, after going MIA in both Russia and China. It has been striking first Israel-owned ships heading through the Bab el-Mandeb - the strait that leads into the Red Sea and then to the Suez Canal - and, recently, has demonstrated its promise that any ships that intend to dock in Israel will be attacked. While this is really only half a blockade, the cost of going around Africa is significant, and Western insurance companies really don't like it when their ships get blasted by missiles and drones. Several shipping companies have already stated their intention to alter/stop shipping routes through the Red Sea, trying to prompt the West to find a "solution".
Despite US naval presence in the area, Yemen possesses the ability to strike the oil refining facilities of the Gulf monarchies, leaving the US in a very difficult position. If they attack Yemen, then not only do Western ships risk being attacked directly, but those oil refineries may go up in smoke depending on if they help the West - and global oil prices will skyrocket, in an already declining world economy - and it might cost several Western leaders their leadership positions, including Biden himself. A regional war could ultimately tumble into worldwide chaos.
Equally, however, the US cannot afford to lose Israel. It is the single most important American imperial outpost, perhaps alongside Taiwan. If Zionism is destroyed as a local destabilizing influence, then the Russia-China-Iran axis will find itself in a leadership position over the region. Israeli military losses in Gaza increase every single day as they advance further into the labyrinth death trap under the obligation to show some kind of military victory, with Hamas' strategy of attrition taking its toll. And Hezbollah sits there, having destroyed most of the border infrastructure, silently threatening the obliteration of Israel's infrastructure under the rain of a hundred thousand missiles.
As world attention gradually shifts away from the Gaza genocide, we continue to approach the brink.
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section. Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war. Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language. https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one. https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts. https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel. https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator. https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps. https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language. https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language. https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses. https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Logged in here again after a few days of being forced to deal with stuff in a place called the "real world" for nerds or something.
Was happy to see hexbear.net/u/ThomasMuentzner remembering my existence. We're all mostly unemployed daydreamers here, but it still warms my dead heart that I've made a miniscule impact on someone's life.
I'm preparing a little effortpost to celebrate the COTW being Yemen this week. It has barely anything to do with politics, but I'll give you guys three hint words: Jews, Music, Poetry. I also have a really interesting political story about northern Yemen's transition from the Imamate to modern chaos that I have written somewhere in Arabic, gotta translate it and post it here during this week.
Norway has banned the landing of a Russian plane with a dying man on board. On a Nordwind Airlines flight from Moscow to Cuba, a person began bleeding internally due to an ulcer.
Passengers on the flight told Shot that the pilots requested permission to land at one of the nearest airports in Norway, but were refused. Afterwards, the pilots announced the plane was turning around back to Moscow. The Norwegian authorities stated that they allowed the airliner to use the country’s airspace in order to “fly back faster.”
At the time the plane landed in Moscow, the injured passenger was still conscious. He was taken away by ambulance.
Putin admitted that in the “zero” he was a naive person, believing that the West did not want confrontation with the Russian Federation. In an interview with journalist Zarubin, the president explained his wish to “myself from 2000” not to be naive and overly gullible.
“Still, I had a naive idea that the whole world, I am absolutely convinced, the so-called civilized one, understands what happened to Russia. That it has completely become a different country, that there is no longer ideological confrontation, which means there is no basis for confrontation <...> I believed that this was simply the inertia of thinking and action,” Putin said.
Putin is sad that Russia was not allowed to join the League of Fascism even after a successful rebranding. Maybe it’s time to wake up that it’s the AES that are standing up for you, not the Western imperialist countries you admire so much.
But it’s still funny to see him admit to himself that he’s a naive person (very true).
Nobody is really impressed with the United States Operation , Including a US Flagged ship called Liberty..
UAE and Saudis allready said "oh Fuck no." And we have the First Shipper that complies with Yemens Demands
USA now has Apperently Ordered THE NEXT Carrier Strike group "Carl Vinson " from the freaking Singapour ... and Still the Shipping companies dont "Bet" on it beeing cleared anytime soon...
Critical support to the Senate staffer who posted videos of himself having anal sex in the Senate Judiciary hearing room. Apparently, the top used to work for the German government.
Said staffer worked for Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland).
A large amount of the "Twitter analyst" content in English is basically ripped directly from reputable Arabic journalism outlets and then repackaged into a twitter thread in English without giving credit to the Journalists and analysts who made the points in the first place. I know that it's the year 1445AH (2023CE) and twitter is Shaytan’s playground but it's honestly disrespectful and reaks of opportunism.
I personally would like to see a more concerted effort on translating news and articles from Arabic into English for the world to read because our brothers and sisters in Yemen Lebanon and Palestine are really putting out excellent content every day.
trust me bro, we can totally defeat Ansar Allah dude, it will be more like a three day training exercise because the US is so strong bro, they will regret this bro
The White House National Security Council spokesman again reiterated Washington’s opposition to a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza.
However, he denied the US was out of step with other Western powers on the issue. The foreign ministers of the UK and Germany said over the weekend said the need for a ceasefire was “urgent” but that it was not yet time to call for one.
Kirby said a ceasefire “would simply validate what Hamas did on the 7th of October.
“It would leave them in power in Gaza, which is unacceptable to us and to our Israeli friends,” he added. “And of course, it would give them a much longer timeline to prepare and plan additional attacks. We do support smaller, more localised, more targeted humanitarian pauses to get hostages out and to get more aid in.”
Kirby added that eight US captives are thought to still be held in Gaza.
I’m fascinated by how long it took for America to have any kind of non-passive stance on Ansarallah. Like, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world suddenly is seen as treacherous and not worth the risk to use, due to military actions being taken by a Iran-backed militia movement that most of the world doesn’t recognize as a state actor. And it took weeks for the globe-spanning empire that built an entire global order off of the promise of safety provided by its giant navy to get involved? Its like the cops showing up to a domestic disturbance call 3 weeks late and saying “damn that sucks” to the half-decomposed corpse of the victim before leaving.
What are folks’ thoughts on why it took so long for something to be done? Was fear of escalation with Iran region-wide strong enough to deter yanks from doing basic “globe spanning maritime empire” anti-piracy stuff? Do you think it was anxiety about whether their current surface fleet is capable of engaging a force that relies so heavily on missiles and drones? What led to this historically unprecedented reluctance from the USA?
"Lawsuits accusing top US universities of harboring antisemitism all originate from one source: a corporate law firm that fielded the pro-settler ex-US ambassador to Israel, and which was registered as a foreign agent of an Israeli principal as recently as 2021.
The firm now represents professional Israel lobby activists posing as victimized “Jewish students” and seeking to crush the free speech rights of Palestine solidarity activists.
...
The law firm leading the assault on the universities has included David Friedman, the former ambassador to Israel under Donald Trump, among its partners. Until 2021, this firm, Kasowitz Benson Torres, was registered with the US Department of Justice as a foreign agent on behalf of an Israeli principal.
The firm’s clients include associates of a jailed Ukrainian billionaire who bankrolled neo-Nazi militias, along with a who’s who of corporations accused of defrauding and even killing consumers.
Meanwhile, the “Jewish student” witnesses who set the stage for the attacks on Magill and her fellow university presidents at the House Antisemitism Committee were employed on at least a semi-professional basis by Israeli lobbying cutouts."
“— 🇮🇷/ 🇮🇷 IRGC Navy Commander, Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri: 'We have sucessfully established a rapid naval mobilization force (Basij) in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz'
'Thousands of small to medium sized local merchant vessels, fishing boats and speedboats have been converted and outfitted with 107mm rockets and various other weapons.
This newly formed rapid naval volunteer force is an assymetric paramilitary force, consisting of 33.000 vessels in the Persian Gulf and 55.000 local volunteers among the fishermen and merchants. It also contains large ships that can sail as far as Tanzania.'
Last night around 12:30 a.m. a St. Louis police cruiser smashed into the front window of an LGBTQ bar in Carondelet. But it was Bar:PM’s co-owner who wound up getting arrested and is currently being held in central booking.
"There were several police officers that jumped him,” says James Pence, who co-owns Bar:PM with Chad Wick, who is currently in police custody.
Pence says the police officer who ran into the bar told him that he had swerved to miss a dog in the middle of South Broadway. Pence says he does have security camera footage of the crash, though he is not making it public at this time.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment this morning. We'll update this post if we hear back.
Pence, who lives above the bar, says that he was getting ready to head to bed as two other people closed up for the night. Suddenly, he felt the whole building shake and ran downstairs.
He came down to find the police SUV in his building and an officer demanding to see his identification.
Pence says he replied: "No you don't. That's a police cruiser in my building. You don't need to see my ID. This is not how this works."
Pence says he was spun around and placed in handcuffs.
Pence’s co-owner, Wick, was taking videos and photos of the police vehicle when, according to Pence, "Three of them (officers) went for him. He raised his arm and they said he hit them."
Pence was eventually taken out of cuffs, but Wick was taken away by police.
In addition to cleaning up the damage, Pence spent much of this morning trying to locate Wick. He later found out that Wick had been taken to the South Patrol police station, then SLU Hospital for medical attention. He was then taken to the North Patrol and finally, around 9 a.m., was at Central Booking.
Wick, whose legal name is Chad Morris, was later charged with felony assault. (See details here.)
Pence spoke to the RFT as a group of friends and regulars gathered at Bar:PM, which is located at 7109 South Broadway, to help clean up and show support for the owners.
Others who were there at the time of the incident say that no medical services or ambulances were ever called to the scene.
This is the second high-profile crash involving a St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department car in a week. Last Tuesday, a police SUV and another vehicle both ran a stop sign at North Sarah and St. Louis Avenue. The police cruiser ended up being flipped over outside a business located at the intersection.
In response to the growing threat to commercial shipping in the Red Sea, Hong Kong-based shipping company OOCL has announced Sunday the ban of shipments to and from "Israel". According to Israeli media, the port of "Eilat" has also been completely disabled. OOCL's headquarters are in Hong Kong, and it has announced it will immediately end its shipment of Israeli goods whether imported or exported to all destinations. In a statement published on its website, the company wrote “Due to operational issues, OOCL will stop cargo acceptance to and from Israel with immediate effect until further notice."
OOCL, welcome to the Resistance. Glad to see at least some shipping companies are avoiding the capital strike by stopping all cargo going through the Red Sea and instead are just stopping the handling of all goods to and from "Israel." Probably not a coincidence that the large shipping conglomerate who decides not to join the capital strike is based in Hong Kong.
I’ve seen so many more “nuance” defenders both irl and online when it comes to Israel, basically claiming that those supporting Palestinians and criticizing Israel are treating things like a sports match and how the radical left has gone too far this time
Yemen and Saudi Arabia will sign a peace treaty and then Saudi Arabia will give military access to Yemen and also basing rights and then Yemen will strike "Israel" from the back like in a EUIV game.
USS Carl Vinson has abandoned its mission in the South China Seas and is en route to the Middle East
— 🇺🇸/🇮🇷 NEW: Carrier Strike Group 1 led by the 'USS Carl Vinson' is moving West towards the Middle East, abandoning its mission in the Phillipine & South China Seas
Mr. putin, give onyx anti-ship missile to freedom fighters in yemen 🙏
Such a shame that powers that be, don't have joker-mode politicians. usa can funnel money to kill their people for 50 years, and they are like "ooh so uncivilized, lets talk more".
Patricia Bullrich, Argentina's Security Minister, said that during the demonstrations tomorrow, December 20, there will be drones taking pictures of the protesters to identify those who "impede traffic".
This is important because yesterday, the Minister for Human Capital said that the government would cut off social benefits from identified demonstrators.
The Governor of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, has said that he will not apply the security protocol proposed by Bullrich
China :troll:
The government of China, led by Xi Jinping, will not renew the Swap with Argentina, governed by Javier Milei.
According to El Diario, the funds will remain frozen until the new Argentine government establishes formal relations with China.
China was supposed to pass on the sum of U$6.5 billion to Argentina, leading it to believe that the Argentine government used national resources in October and November to pay the IMF installments.
Milei recently asked Sérgio Massa to help him with the Chinese.
lol
The Swap was supposed to be used to pay off Argentina's loans with the IMF, but that wasn't the case in October or November, which leads us to believe that national reserves were used.
The Minister of Human Capital (which includes Education, Labor and others), Sandra Pettovello, announced that protesters who take part in the marches called for December 20 will be cut off from social benefits.
The measure follows Javier Milei's list of measures to reduce demonstrations against the austerity measures put in place by his government.
Activists, wearing clothes resembling blue press vests worn by Palestinian journalists, have staged a “die-in” protest outside the Melbourne offices of one of Australia’s largest news organisations. The protest was held outside the offices of the The Age newspaper, which is owned by the Nine Network.
why hasn't Citations Needed done an investigation into "Supply Chain Issues"? i'm not wrong in that it emerged as a talking point during covid, right? that they somehow parlayed into a regular headline appearance to launder labor suppression and manufacture 'victories' for the political class.
don't get me wrong logistics are a real thing, i mean the media class talking about it
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – An advanced stealth fighter that returned to its base on Okinawa missing a panel this week may have lost the part over the ocean, according to an Air Force spokesman.
The F-35A Lightning II, assigned to the 356th Fighter Squadron, landed at Kadena Air Base at 10:24 a.m. Monday, Okinawa Times reported the following day.
The aircraft was missing a hexagonal side panel measuring 18 by 12 inches and weighing approximately two pounds, according to an email Tuesday from 18th Wing spokesman 1st Lt. Robert Dabbs. The panel is located below the cockpit, on the right side of the aircraft.
“Expectations are the panel departed the aircraft over water,” Dabbs said. “We have not received reports of damage or injuries.”
"The way the [Yemenis] operate raises challenges for Western naval forces, as they’re fending off cheap drones with ultra-expensive equipment.
Aster 15 surface-to-air missiles — the ones fired by the French Languedoc frigate — are estimated to cost more than €1 million each while Iran-made Shahed-type drones, likely used by the [Yemenis], cost barely $20,000.
“When you kill a Shahed with an Aster, it’s really the Shahed that has killed the Aster,” France’s chief of defense staff, General Thierry Burkhard, said at a conference in Paris earlier this month.
However, if the Shahed hits a commercial vessel or a warship, the cost would be a lot higher."
Hey anyone remember that democrat politician who quit or didnt go for reelection because he was locked out of negotiations on obamacare that Obama had with insurance and pharma companies? Like he was pushing for caps on drug prices and obama essentially prevented him for even being there. I need that for a paper
It may be Waxman but he didnt leave politics over it and the article I remember iirc from politico doesnt exist. I know it ended with Bernie being told he quit and being flabbergasted
Ukraine is developing a “drowning not waving” problem. It is struggling to say clearly how badly the war is going. Giving a candid public assessment of how poorly a conflict is going can be an unwise move as it can result in morale and support draining. After Obama boosted troops in Afghanistan, public support declined over the years, in part because of a lack of realism about how the war was going.
not even sure what he's trying to say here. that public support would not have declined if people understood how the war in afghanistan was going? is he saying it was going well a decade into the occupation? because it sounds a lot more like he's saying the public was kept in the dark about how things were going intentionally, and support would have declined more quickly if their perception had been more realistic.
Ukraine’s acutely bad presentation of its troubles is mostly due to the myopia of its allies. The lack of understanding in parts of US Congress is breathtaking. A congressman this week suggested Ukraine should name a finite price tag and a specific, simple goal. It’s staggering after two American wars of choice in two decades, costing trillions of dollars, that congressional memories are so short, and comprehension so limited.
comprehension of what, exactly, is left unsaid. imagine looking at two decades of wars costing trillions of dollars (no mention of the millions of people killed and displaced by the conflicts) and thinking "this is the precedent we've established so we should just continue doing that forever."
Instead, Kyiv consistently points to past successes and future goals. They have reclaimed about half the territory Russia took last year; they have damaged its Black Sea presence strategically. They have a plan for 2024, Zelensky said, but it is secret.
ah the old canard about reclaiming vast swaths of territory that russia had taken. and come on, "it's a secret" as if he's not talking to a bunch of people with security clearance on a regular basis. you can outline the gist of it to a few key congresspeople, surely?
Yet in truth, the most useful headline for Kyiv should be how unutterably bleak the frontlines are for them now. In nearly every direction, the news is grim. Russian forces are hiving off parts of the eastern city of Avdiivka, yet another town Moscow seems content to throw thousands of lives at despite its minimal importance. Along the Zaporizhzhia frontline, where the counteroffensive was focused but ultimately slow and unrewarding, Russian units have come back with renewed vigor and the defense is costly for Ukraine. Ukraine has made a plucky (or foolhardy) dash across the Dnipro River, with some small progress into Russian lines. The casualties have been immense, their supply lines are problematic, and their prospects dim.
beautiful! russia throws away thousands of lives to capture a town of minimal importance, while ukraine faces immense casualties and dim prospects in their plucky dash across the river.
Kyiv is now facing almost nightly cruise missile attacks, mostly held back by air defenses, Ukrainian officials say. So long as these protections continue, Ukraine might have a chance of entering spring with its infrastructure intact. But air defenses might be the first to be impacted, according to the Biden administration, when US money runs out.
prospects are dim for ukrainian infrastructure, too.
Zelensky has had a truly abysmal week. His team trumpeted the symbolic victory of EU accession negotiations, and he called it a sign “history is made by those who don’t get tired of fighting for freedom.” But for actual EU membership the war has to end, and it has to end with Ukraine remaining a viable nation. Neither of these things are currently guaranteed.
Instead, Zelensky must put a brave face on two urgent funding disasters in four days. Hungary’s decision to veto $55bn in EU funding for Ukraine’s war efforts was met with assurances from EU officials that early January would likely see a unanimous, positive vote. But Viktor Orban – a right-wing populist with an inexplicable fondness for indicted war criminal Vladimir Putin – has opened the door to European disunity. The West’s cohesion up to this point was an outlier. The elections across Europe and vacillation ahead will likely hear greater demands for diplomacy and answers as to how the war ends.
Zelensky’s trip to Washington, and the heartfelt pleas it delivered, failed. Even if Washington manages to resume funding early next year, it has already damaged Ukraine. Stalling and political theater have made vital assistance – to defend the US’s European NATO allies from being dragged deeper into the worst land war in Europe since the 1940s – fair game for partisan horse-trading.
The Congressional debate was not about war policy in Ukraine, or Kyiv’s efficiency, or why the counteroffensive had failed. It was far shallower: a tit-for-tat trade on US border policy, coupled with unreasonable demands for Ukraine to predict the future course of the war. It is a jaw-dropping failure of American foreign policy the consequences of which will echo over the next decades. Not since Neville Chamberlain had a piece of paper in his hand, suggesting the Nazis could be negotiated with, has so much been at stake.
what's at stake, exactly, nick?
The bleak military picture for Ukraine was the case before Congress stalled US aid. Now the challenge ahead – the possibility Ukraine may face Russia without NATO backing – weighs on the minds of those who should be focused on the winter battles ahead.
“Without aid, we are finished”, one morose Ukrainian medic told me Thursday, after months of patching troops back together, and losing a colleague in the summer. Others troops manage to be more stoic, and insist they will fight on as they have no choice. But be in no doubt: No US or EU money – or just one of those failing – quite likely means most of Ukraine will fall under Russian occupation in the next two years.
That would put a belligerent, super-charged, revenge-hungry Russian military right on NATO’s borders, something which would immediately become Washington’s problem. Why? Because outside of the NATO treaty of mutual defense, on a purely practical level, secure and free democracies in Europe are key American trading partners and the bedrock of the US’s global heft.
revenge-hungry russian military? revenge for what, exactly, nick? and "super-charged"? like once ukraine surrenders, russia will get a +20% boost to attack values for all units for the next 18 months!
Yet Zelensky faces an ally in the US so split and ignorant in part of its body politic, he must pretend things are not that bad. To admit Ukraine is struggling bolsters the argument there is no point funding a loser. If he says Ukraine is winning, then why does he need more help? If it is a stalemate, then surely that is not too bad after two years?
crap, i shouldn't have spent two years saying my slava ukraini supersoldiers are sweeping away the russian hordes with ease!
Some fringe Republicans insist Russia was always going to win, so why delay the inevitable by providing aid that gets Ukrainians killed?
Those who want to say no to Ukraine need little excuse. But it delays the next, darker question, of when do you finally say ‘no’ to Moscow? How much of Ukraine, or maybe later its European neighbors, is it acceptable for Putin to subjugate or flatten? Does this question feel at all familiar?
okay so without continued nato support, ukraine will lose and then russia will attack nato, a fight nato clearly can't win, i guess?
Player tip: 99% of neocolonial powers stop shelling insurgencies right before they're finally demoralized, surrender unconditionally and accept the puppet government. 8 more years of bombing Yemen and we'll get a second democracy in the middle east.
Some good news in Guatemala. Indigenous rights have been upheld by the Inter-American Court of Human rights. A mine that's been in operating for two decades has been ruled as violating the rights of a local indigenous groups. The article ignores that Guatemala's black population is mostly found in that department as well and have their drinking water poisoned by the mine. It's about time it was shut down. It seems like the events in Panama have sparked something and I hope this momentum can keep up.
Anybody have a link to that classic video montage of Xi waving during a parade with news clips over top of him about China eliminating poverty and the bloomer at the end? Need it for a friend.
Japan is expected this week to formalize a change in policy that will enable it to export several dozen Patriot missiles to the United States, a move that would backfill Washington’s stockpiles. That would give Washington flexibility to send more of the sophisticated air defenses to Ukraine, which is in desperate need as Kyiv gears up for punishing Russian airstrikes this winter.
The change — a modification in defense export rules — will not explicitly mention the Patriot system but will meet a key request by the Biden administration, said U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing talks.
Japan manufactures missiles for the Patriot, the U.S. military’s premier air defense system, under license from Raytheon.
Orban continues to block the $50b over 4 year ukraine aid package from the EU. Hungary is up for $10-20b of eubux, so he wants that and the EU wants him to stay in line. A lot of euro seething in this one but not that interesting, continuation of big question marks for who is going to pony up the bux for project ukraine.
Haaretz - Graphic Videos and Incitement: How the IDF Is Misleading Israelis on Telegram
The IDF unit responsible for psychological warfare operations operates a Telegram channel called '72 Virgins – Uncensored,' which targets local audiences with 'exclusive content from the Gaza Strip'
IOF psywar dept is sharing this content to desensitize Israelis to graphic imagery so they’ll be better equipped to perpetrate similar abuses themselves. This kind of conditioning was used by the US Navy in the 1970s and probably earlier
these methods develop through history. 1970s goal was training elite assassin teams recruited from submariners, murderers, and other pre-screened soldiers. The goal now is to trauma-condition the public at scale
I have found the video with quotes by Israeli leaders showing that the intent isn't just a "hunt for Hamas". So you can show it to Libs. It's one of the first two links.
Note : It's from 1 month ago, so some stuff is missing. For missing videos, I would just look at Middle East Eye on Youtube which has a few (Some are in the Shorts section). Ngl, the best strategy is legit send them some middle east eye videos, it's based in the UK and translates Israeli TV. If you think Israelis sound bloodthirsty in English, you haven't seen Hebrew TV.
It has a few gems such as Ex-Shin Bet chief accuses Israel of adopting tactics similar to al-Qaeda and IS in Gaza. Shin Bet is an Israeli Security Service. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckHXiBMyUEM.
Israeli journalist Shimon Riklin openly wishes for destruction in Gaza. I quote he says "I am for war crimes. I don't care if I'm criticized, I honestly don't care. I'm not able to sleep if I don't see the destruction of houses in Gaza" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiUy66YGRKM
Additionally, I think Adam Johnson's (Citation Needed) piece for the Nation is a good read as well :
There's also been two times where people in power also say they don't want a 2 state solution, but I don't have time to look for those vids. One was an ambassador in the UK I believe.
Developing countries spent $443 billion in 2022 to service their public debt, which could have otherwise been spent on social welfare, infrastructure, or climate change mitigation. This is 5% higher from a year earlier and could increase by 10% in 2023-2024. For the world's 75 poorest countries, their debt service payments are predicted to rise 40% over 2023-2024.
Germany and Norway's Equinor have signed a €50 billion deal, its biggest long-term gas contract in nearly 40 years, supplying Germany with 129 billion cubic meters of gas up to 2039, or a third of the country's industrial demand. Norway supplies half of the EU's piped gas. Meanwhile, German business sentiment continues to fall, particularly in the construction industry, which is at its lowest since September 2005.
In Kazakhstan, the Chinese company Shipbuilding Industry Corp., is exp-- wait, what? Shipbuilding Industry Corp.? Shipbuilding Industry Corp?! Oh yeah, let me call my fucking agricultural company "Food Growing Inc." We should have named Hexbear "Online Communist Forum" instead. ...anyway, they wanna build container facilities in the port cities of Aktau and Kuryk, and other Chinese companies also want to modernize and improve railway lines and their throughput in Kazakhstan and in Kyrgyzstan. There's also increasing air connectivity to China in the region.
Chileans have rejected the new constitution drafted by the far-right. A year ago, they also rejected a left-wing constitution. So now we're just back where we started, with the Pinochet-era constitution. What a tremendous waste of time.
Colombia's drug war is flaring up again after the FARC, the largest armed revolutionary group in the country, entered peace negotiations in 2016. With this, the drug vacuum was filled by organized crime, due to a lack of alternative ways of generating money for many Colombians. The ELN, a Marxist revolutionary group, is training to take on narcotraffickers, as it was designed by the CIA and the Pentagon.
Several global maritime agencies, as well as fossil fuel giant BP, have paused all transit through the Red Sea until further notice due to missile and drone threats. This is a capital strike against the West to force them to address Yemen by targeting Ansarallah - and they are, through "Operation Prosperity Guardian".
As mentioned in the preamble, feel free to post or recommend any material related to Yemen, whether from a thousand years ago or yesterday. You can post it anywhere in the thread, but you can also reply to this comment if you wish.
If you're feeling particularly ambitious and want homework, you could take on any or all of these questions (no reward, but I'll be very proud of you):
Who are the main political actors? Are they compradors, nationalists, international socialists, something else?
What are the most salient domestic political issues; those issues that repeatedly shape elections over the last 10, 20 years. Every country has its quirks that complicate analysis - for example, Brexit in the UK.
What is the country's history? You don't have to go back a thousand years if that's not relevant, and I'm counting "history" as basically anything that has happened over a year ago.
What factions exist, historically and currently? If there is an electoral system, what are the major parties and their demographic bases? Are there any minor parties with large amounts of influence? Independence movements? Religious groups?
How socially progressive or conservative are they? Is there equality for different ethnic groups, or are some persecuted? Do they have LGBTQIA+ rights? Have they improved over time, or gotten worse?
What role do foreign powers play in the country’s politics and economy? Is there a particular country nearby or far away that is nearly inseparable from them, for good or bad reasons? Is their trade dominated by exports/imports to one place? Are they exploited, exploiters, or something in between?
If applicable, what is the influence of former colonial relationships on the modern economy and politics?
Is the country generally stable? Do you think there will be a coup at some point in the future, and if so, what faction might replace them?
The previous country was Canada.
This is our Geopolitics Reading List so far! Please chime in with suggestions!
Israeli officials are exploring the potential construction of a “humanitarian compound” in northern Gaza to house displaced Palestinian civilians, two Israeli officials and an international humanitarian official familiar with the plans told CNN.
[Continues]
A tweet about this.
"A camp one might say, where we might concentrate our efforts."
So after seeing the comment regarding the Saudi-Ansarallah peace draft, I looked up this article which states:
"The ball is in Riyadh’s court, which is under US pressure to delay the signing and enter into a war alliance against Yemen in the Red Sea,” Al-Akhbar highlights, adding that UAE-backed forces are also looking to derail the peace process.
“Sanaa is expecting Abu Dhabi to push the militia parties loyal to it to obstruct any peace agreement, because peace would strip it of any role in southern Yemen, and would not guarantee its survival in the Yemeni ports, airports, and islands, especially Socotra Island,” they added.
According to the sources, the UAE-backed secessionist government in southern Yemen is trying to reach out to Sanaa for dialogue, despite previously denouncing the talks.
Major General Aidarous al-Zubaidi, President of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and head of the southern independence movement, as well as other STC officials, have expressed a desire for dialogue with Sanaa, Al-Akhbar claims, particularly following Saudi pressure.
The STC supports communists, and looks like it's used to drive factionalism. It has previously fought against Saudi-backed Hadi forces. What do you guys think?
Pope Francis formally permitted Roman Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples on Monday, in a significant shift in Vatican doctrine.
The blessings may be carried out providing they are not part of regular Church rituals or liturgies, nor at the same time as a civil union, according to a Vatican document approved by the pope.
The latest ruling fleshes out the opening the pope made to blessing same-sex couples last October and marks a shift away from a 2021 ruling from the Vatican doctrine office which barred any blessings saying God “cannot bless sin.”
But since July 2023, the doctrine department has been led by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, an Argentinian prelate and ally of Francis, who has stuck a different tone to his predecessors.
“When people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it,” the declaration, authored by Cardinal Fernandez and another official, states. “The grace of God works in the lives of those who do not claim to be righteous but who acknowledge themselves humbly as sinners, like everyone else.”
The new ruling says it is opening “the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex” although says it is leaving decisions to “the prudent and fatherly discernment of ordained ministers.”
After a bizarrely intense december rainstorm, many rivers in NJ are overflowing. This morning, the Passaic River reached 19.7 feet. The Rockaway river is expected to hit 6.9 feet. The Hackensack River was at 7.9 feet this morning (when the article I'm reading was published) but I can tell you for a fact that it is much higher now. The majority of crossings are underwater and many suburban stroads have turned into a parking lots. This has been your New Jersey weather and traffic update.
The downturn in eurozone business activity surprisingly deepened in December, according to closely watched surveys which indicated the bloc’s economy is almost certainly in recession.
It was a broad-based decline with activity deteriorating in both Germany and France and across services and manufacturing, the surveys showed.
Last quarter, the eurozone economy contracted 0.1%, official data has shown, and December’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) – seen as a good gauge of economic health – suggested activity has now declined in every month of this quarter. That would mark two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, meeting the technical definition of recession.
The European Central Bank trimmed its growth forecasts for 2023 and 2024 on Thursday (14 December).
HCOB’s preliminary Composite PMI, compiled by S&P Global, fell to 47.0 this month from November’s 47.6, confounding expectations in a Reuters poll for an uptick to 48.0 and marking its seventh month below the 50 level separating growth from contraction.
“The drop-back in the euro zone Composite PMI in December provides more evidence that the economy is in recession,” said Andrew Kenningham at Capital Economics.
In Germany the downturn worsened, pointing to a recession in Europe’s biggest economy at the end of the year. Meanwhile activity declined faster than expected in France as demand for goods and services in the euro zone’s second-biggest economy deteriorated further.
Germany’s economy is set to shrink slightly this year and barely grow next as demand from abroad is weak, government subsidies for the green transition are curbed and high interest rates dampen activity, the Bundesbank said earlier on Friday.
Companies in Britain’s huge services sector however saw another pick-up in growth this month, suggesting the economy has just enough momentum to avoid a recession for now at least.
Indicating firms in the euro zone do not see a big improvement anytime soon they reduced staffing for a second month. The composite employment index was at a three-year low of 49.6, just shy of November’s 49.7.
A PMI for the bloc’s dominant services industry fell to 48.1 from 48.7, far short of the Reuters poll prediction of a rise to 49.0.
“This confirms our expectation that the euro area economy will continue to contract in Q4, contrary to the ECB’s expectations,” said Christoph Weil at Commerzbank.
Demand for services fell again as indebted consumers feeling the pinch from record-high borrowing costs in the 20-country currency union spent less. The new business index dipped to 46.6 from 46.7.
On Thursday, the ECB left interest rates on hold and pushed back against bets on imminent cuts by reaffirming borrowing costs would remain at record highs. A recent Reuters poll showed it would wait until the second quarter before it starts cutting.
The ECB’s next move should be lowering interest rates, French central bank chief Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Friday but implied a rate cut was not imminent.
Factories in the currency union also had another disappointing month. The manufacturing PMI held steady at November’s 44.2 – missing the Reuters poll forecast for 44.6 and chalking up its 18th month sub-50.
An index measuring output fell to 44.1 from 44.6.
Factory managers were more optimistic, though, about the year ahead and the future output index jumped to 55.6 from 53.3, its highest since May.
I’m attempting to parse what the news about “Pope allows priests to bless same sex unions” actually means, since the media always seems to read more into his proclamations than what is there.
I don’t see that the Catholic Church is changing their stance that engaging in homosexual acts is a sin. I think that’s the point that’s the most salient, because I think that’s how a lot of people are interpreting a “blessing” to mean. A blessing is more like “just give me some good vibes, bro”. Gays and lesbians still cannot have their marriages recognized as valid by the church and the Pope stated in this most recent proclamation that these blessings can’t even have a semblance of a wedding.
This just feels like the Catholic equivalent of what a lot of “seeker sensitive” conservative Protestant churches will say: “we welcome everyone”, and they will talk about welcoming LGBTQ people into the doors. But it literally just means “we want you to come to our church so you can hear the gospel but we’re still going to eventually tell you what you’re doing is a sin”.
If you like military discussion then simplicius' latest is worth. Note there is transphobic content quoting from some Congressperson about 3/4th down, and simplicius is as the name suggests, a milblogger reactionary chud.
ukraine being fucked, struggling to raise troops, pointless attacks on the left bank of the dnieper near kherson
the US currently having less active military personnel than Russia
red sea naval maneuvers, commentary on ansarallah including landmark use by them of an antiship ballistic missile
He is a chud and has no understanding of political economic issues but is worth reading for military analysis. this article stayed in his wheelhouse so it was worthwhile.
The fact that Russia and Ukraine stopped recognizing each other as sovereign states means Russia has no obligation to act as a “successor” to any Ukraine private or government commitments.
Now if the Collective West were to predictably and reflexively sanction a new Ukraine government, its currency would no longer be accepted in the West for payment. More importantly, Western banks would presumably be barred from remitting payments to Ukraine banks.
Now things get fun!
So pray tell how does Ukraine satisfy its foreign debt obligations when it has been frozen out of the Western payment system? We’re looking at you, IMF.
How do Ukraine asset owners, like rich Ukrainians who fled to Europe, pay taxes on their real estate in Ukraine? On the agricultural land in foreign hands?
What happens if Russia decides, arguably to rescue Ukraine, but of course also to limit its sovereignity, to put Rump Ukraine on the rouble?
In other words, one could anticipate that at least some, perhaps many, assets owned by foreigners in Ukraine would be seized due to unpaid taxes. Russia /Rump Ukraine could auction them to the highest bidder…or for residential property, distribute it by lottery with people disabled in the war (from both sides) and other groups getting preference. Similarly agricultural land could be distributed according to a formula (particularly preference given to family farmers).
So there could be a path to using assets in Rump Ukraine, where the West would have created conditions for their owners to be unable to meet their legal obligations and therefore lose title to them, to then be redistributed in ways that would create good will toward the new Russian overlords.
I don't know how real any of the above is but fun to read about a scenario where western sanctions and maximalism means that even more western funbux are flushed down the toilet in project ukraine.
I think this article is worth a look by our more financial vs industrial capital minded members
“It makes getting the supply response for the metals the world needs to go green even harder,” said Colin Hamilton, managing director of commodities research at BMO. “Emerging markets in election years are hard. The trend among governments is to look towards the short-term rather than the long-term with pressure coming from the voter base."
What a weasel answer from a banking vulture
President Laurentino Cortizo’s government is now scrambling to close the mine in an environmentally responsible way while limiting damage to its business-friendly reputation.
I don't care about their reputation, but closing mines in an environmentally responsible way is very hard and not cheap. Exposure and disturbance of sulphide minerals makes for long term poor water quality that tends to bloom out from the area over time.
October, stipulating a minimum annual revenue of $375mn for the country.
Now that the court has overturned that deal, Panama faces arbitration claims of up to $50bn related to the mine.
“We’re looking at something that by some standards could be the largest arbitration claim ever,” said Damien Nyer, international disputes partner at law firm White & Case. “Those numbers would be crippling for a country like Panama.”
Pushing back against resource exploitation means extortion comes next.
“The Canadians take most of the riches and leave Panama in misery,” one post said.
Canada was the hewers of wood and drawers of water but then we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps to become the world's Delaware for resource colonialism.
IDF spokesman "It is necessary for the IDF to re-re-re-re-re-re-bomb the hospital because we are defeating Hamas there for the seventh and final time." The very next day he says "It is necessary for the IDF to re-..."
A member of Boca Juniors, the current president of Argentina, Javier Milei, was the target of insults from fans when he arrived to vote in the club's presidential elections, taking place this Sunday (17) in Buenos Aires. "Thief!" was one of the slurs directed at Milei by people present at the Bombonera, accompanied by criticism of his appointments to the ministries. One Boca fan shouted: "You've put in the whole caste!".
Mauricio Macri, Boca Juniors presidential candidate and former president of Argentina and Milei's supporter in the elections, lamented the episode on social media.
"What a shame to see images of gentlemen who claim to be Boca fans, when in reality they are tremendously rude and not spontaneous, insulting the President of the Republic instead of celebrating that he is going to vote for the future of our beloved club. What we saw, unfortunately, is what has been happening to Boca for four years. I hope for the future of our club that this ends today and changes once and for all," Macri posted on his X account.
Macri was president of Boca in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and is seeking to return to the helm of the club. In the election, he faces an old adversary, team legend Juan Román Riquelme.
Milei, a Boca Juniors fan since childhood, has admitted that he left his club for their biggest rivals, River Plate, in a statement that has sparked anger among the team's fans. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País, the Argentine president recounted his gradual departure from Boca, for whom he had always been a fan. According to him, he didn't agree to Riquelme's return to the club in 2013, for example. Five years later, during the Libertadores final in which Boca lost to River Plate, Milei cheered against his own team.
"I was watching the game and when Gago came on, clearly an act of populism, I cheered for River. I don't want to cheer for a team that makes populist decisions. It's enough to live in a populist country. For me, he was a terrible player, one of the biggest lies in Argentinian soccer. So I became anti-Boca," he told the newspaper.
Malaysia bans Israeli shipping company ZIM from docking at its ports. Malaysia controls the Malacca Strait, a major shipping lane. While I'm not seeing anything about closing the strait to Israel, this is still a signal of open hostility from a country that can actually cause problems.
last three Palestine videos that AryJeay has posted won't load for me, seems like some others are having the same problem. if they work for you please repost to streamable for us unlucky ones
"Milei announced a declaration of war against the people's labor, social, and civil rights," stated the activists calling for the protests.
On Wednesday, human rights defenders, social activists, workers, students, teachers, and retirees will march in Buenos Aires to reject President Javier Milei's economic adjustments and security protocol.
This marks the first major mobilization against the far-right administration and coincides with the anniversary of the 2001 social upheaval that led to the resignation of then-President Fernando de la Rua.
The mobilization aims to defend the right to protest, which is under threat with the protocol announced by the Security Ministry. Among the groups participating in the march are the Worker Pole, the Left Front, Great Homeland, the Communist Party, the Railway Union, "Memory, Truth and Justice," the Peace and Justice Service, and the Teachers' Trade Union.
The march will have two columns starting at 4:30 PM local time from the Congress and the Obelisco. They will converge at Mayo Square where social activists will read a document agreed upon by various groups.
"Milei announced a declaration of war against the people's labor, social, and civil rights. It includes a mega-devaluation, the freezing of funding for popular dining facilities, and significant increases in service fees," stated the activists calling for the protests.
They also denounced a protocol that seeks to preserve the so-called "public order" because it undermines constitutional rights, including the right to protest.
Last week, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced an anti-protest protocol that includes prison sentences, charging protesters for the expenses incurred in deploying security forces, and deporting foreign demonstrators.
"The protocol establishes that any demonstration that is carried out with blockades of streets or routes constitutes the commission of a flagrant crime and enables the security forces to evict or disperse the protest," Piensa Prensa reported.
"At the same time, it contains provisions to collect information, criminalize, persecute and stigmatize participants in public demonstrations and the political, social and union organizations involved," it added.
On the eve of the first major protest against Milei, Human Capital Minister Sandra Pettovello announced that citizens participating in or promoting street blockades will cease to receive public support through social programs.
Javier Milei, President of Argentina, addresses the nation tonight at 9pm.
The message will focus on the deregulation that Milei wants to introduce into the country's economy, and he will also talk about today's protests.
Also, it seems that Patricia Bullrich has been posting videos on her Instagram that show the police force. Very strange Nazi-esque propaganda. Very cool libertarian.
Venezuela: The president of PDVSA Pedro Tellechea signed a new agreement with the Spanish company Repsol for the administration of the mixed company Petroquiriquire, which operates in the states of Monagas, Zulia, and Trujillo.
The Republican politician denied any wrongdoing and attacked the case in Colorado against him as baseless.
On Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump is ineligible to run for president in 2024 because of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The State authority should disqualify the former U.S. president from appearing on the ballot in 2024 presidential election.
The Supreme Court, in a 4-3 opinion, found that Trump is barred under a provision of Section Three of the 14th Amendment that prohibits people who engaged in insurrection from running for office and ordered the Secretary of State of Colorado not to list Trump's name on the 2024 presidential primary ballot or to count any write-in votes cast for him.
Colorado's case is the first of many legal challenges across the country to result in a ruling disqualifying Trump from the ballot as the former president seeks the 2024 Republican nomination, also marking the first time in history that Section Three of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and attacked the case in Colorado and similar lawsuits in other states against him as baseless and anti-democratic.
The Colorado Supreme Court stays Tuesday's ruling until Jan. 4, 2024, the day before the deadline for the Secretary of State to certify its presidential primary ballots, pending a likely appeal requiring to include Trump's name on the March 5 primary ballot unless the federal justices order otherwise.
It's a near-certainty the case will head to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Denver Post predicted, adding that Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, promised to file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court quickly. He called the Court's decision "completely flawed."
All seven members of the Colorado Supreme Court were appointed by the state's Democratic governors. The suit was filed in September against Trump and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, but the legal battle has always been between the plaintiffs and Trump's legal team.
Section Three of the 14th Amendment says officials who take an oath to support the Constitution are banned from future office if they "engaged in insurrection." The Civil War-era constitutional clause is designed to disqualify anyone who took the oath of office in the Confederacy from running for public office. It does not explicitly mention the presidency and has only been applied twice since 1919.
The Colorado Supreme Court's majority on Tuesday reversed a lower court's decision that the president was not an "officer" under the Constitution; therefore, the clause did not apply. Trump has frequently claimed "presidential immunity" in legal cases against him, trying to also have the felony charges against him dismissed.
"We have full confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these un-American lawsuits," Cheung said in a statement.
Nevertheless, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected his "immunity" claim on felony charges, ruling Trump's time in the White House did not give him the "divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens."
Trump's team was counting on the winding appellate process to delay the trial past the November 2024 election. Lawsuits citing the 14th Amendment against Trump were dismissed early by courts in many states, including Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, Arizona, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Florida.
I know that technology advances exponentially, but it never was really spelled out to me just how much until now.
The longest technological age, by far, is the Paleolithic age. Homo sapiens, the species, is about 300,000 years old. The Paleolithic age ended 12,000 years ago. So human history is 288,000 years of banging rocks together, and literally every single more advanced piece of technology, from agriculture to particle accelerators, is in the 12,000 year period after that.
IDF drops leaflets in a neighborhood saying everyone must evacuate because they’ll bomb it
The family flees to a refugee camp in Egypt, only to realize they forgot their son
It turns out the IDF fabricated the bombing campaign
The truth is that the IDF evacuated everyone so they can let settlers take over the Palestinians’ homes
Palestinian Kevin ends up at a mosque, gets advice from a Maoist guerrilla
He leaves the mosque - “This is my house. I have to defend it!”
The settlers get owned over and over again trying to steal the house
Right when the settlers corner Palestinian Kevin, the Maoist guerrilla from the mosque saves Palestinian Kevin by comically blasting the settlers 20 feet with an RPG
The President of Argentina, Javier Milei, and the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, monitor the protests in the city of Buenos Aires, at the headquarters of the Argentine Federal Police.
Police block streets during protest against roadblock ban in Argentina.
What's up with the idea that Israel funded Hamas? Is that true, was it hubris that Israel thought they could divide and conquer by supporting one side over the others? Did Israel think they accomplished their goal with this only to be taken off guard as the group they funded came back to bite them? I don't know a lot about it.
The move from Abbott is an escalation from the strategy in place since April 2022 when he began bussing migrants first to Washington, D.C., and later expanded it to include other cities with "sanctuary" policies that forbid or limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Abbott’s office said this week that the state has bussed over 82,900 migrants to cities, including Washington, D.C.; New York City; Chicago; Philadelphia; Denver; and Los Angeles. Abbott has said the operation provides "vital relief" to border towns and has promised to keep doing it "until Biden secures the border."
Critics have accused Abbott of performing an "illegal" political stunt, with the mayors of Chicago and New York in particular excoriating Abbott for the buses. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson this week accused Abbott of creating chaos across the country.
Looks like a Starlink competitor from Huawei (i.e., mostly for rural communities in peacetime and for military applications in wartime), but the article posits that, unlike Starlink, it might be accessible by phone without requiring a bulky satellite dish?
As western communists in the 2020s, we find ourselves uniquely situated in time and space. For many, it is a time of high emotions and increasing revolutionary consciousness, but a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness has infected the hearts of many others. Have you felt that you have nothing material to contribute to the struggle? Instead of continuing to doom-scroll or fill your time with bourgeois distractions, here are ten concrete ways you can become a stronger comrade right now.
In order:
Learn a new language, especially that of the largest minority group in your country (e.g. Spanish in the US).
Learn first aid and CPR, as well as how to administer narcan.
Meet your neighbours, whether knocking on their doors or leaving them a note to meet up at a third space, or leaving them a gift to construct goodwill.
Join or start a reading group.
Know where your closest community resources are.
Brush up on protest safety, both physically and legally.
Pay attention to local boycotts, lists of union-made goods, and BDS lists - don't cross picket lines.
Volunteer in your community and join organizations.
Learn history and theory.
Actual self-care, like getting good sleep and touching grass, not whatever the hell neoliberals are calling self-care these days
This website is full of fedora tipping marxists wouldn't last two fucking seconds fighting against the IDF that's if HAMAS didn't kill you first for being CHRISTIAN, I hate this website.
It seems that Milei has ordered public transport to stop today. He really doesn't want people to protest, but that will only delay the protest, not stop it.
The situation will get worse very soon, and I doubt that the police and military forces will be on Milei's side when he stops paying them.