Bulletins and News Discussion from April 15th to April 21st, 2024 - Between The Darkness And The Dawn, There Rises A Red Star

I don't know how many of you beloved news mega Hexbears even know my name, but I wanted to tell you that this chad n cuck ranker is going to become a father in a few months. This is the main reason that I've been absent recently, my wife is having quite a difficult pregnancy and it's really hard for us both to prepare to raise a child far away from our homelands with barely any bigger family structure. It's a boy, but my wife isn't liking my name suggestions. How can she not love suggestions like Nasrallah, Qassam and Shahid-136.

To keep it news related, I've been getting into the Ukrainian war again and it's finally exciting to follow the line moving. Learning new names like Krasnogorovka, Netailove, Ocheretyne has been great, and now I'm excited to see what insane Soviet industrial achievement is in Chasiv Yar after the salt mines of Soledar, the coke plant of Avdiivka and the Azot mining complex in Severodonetsk. It has been also fantastic to finally see some of the most annoying battles end, like what was the point of Ivanivske, Marinka and Pervomaiske after all this time. Inshallah one day I can stop hearing about Synkivka, Ugledar and Robotyne, the line freezing there for so long deeply annoys me.

BREAKING: An actionist broke in to Kongsberg Gruppens weapons factory in Norway and destroyed multiple engine parts for Israel's F-35 fighter jets:
https://nitter.poast.org/Pal_action/status/1781719987729604922

Local news: Rise in anti-semetic incidents.

Pictured: Free Palestine graffiti

It still blows my mind that the Nordstream pipeline sabotage was the single largest release of methane ever at 478,000 tonnes. Methane has a Global Warming Potential over 20 years that is 81.2 times worse than CO2. But don't worry, it's not like the rest of global production and transport of methane is riddled with holes.

Biden admin is quietly pressuring countries to vote against Palestinian statehood at the UN, according to diplomatic cables leaked to me

this guy is so evil

AOC continues to stake out a very interesting position on the Dem ideological spectrum

Votes against Israel aid, but joins statement — unlike any other Squad member — affirming Israel’s right to self-defense and signaling support for strengthening Iron Dome

https://x.com/WakeUp2Politics/status/1781757416625103208

/r/chapotraphouse AOC-haters are forever vindicated. she is Nancy Pelosi.

My favourite lecturer was in a severe car accident. His wife might not make it, they're both very old. He's an old Yugo tank commander turned engineer. Very sad

Edit: wrong mega, pour one out

what do you even say to this

On the same day Israeli forces airstrike a husband, his pregnant wife, and their 3-year-old child — and another 17 kids and two women — the White House releases a statement condemning hundreds of interfaith American students protesting the airstrikes in question

I hate this place so much

US makes failed bid for Iran to allow 'symbolic strike' by Israel - The Cradle - 16 April 2024

Washington used diplomatic backchannels to ask Tehran not to retaliate to an Israeli strike, which would allow Tel Aviv to 'save face' following the massive retaliatory attack launched by Iran

“Iran has received messages from mediators to let the regime do a symbolic strike to save face and asked Iran not to retaliate,” the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed to The Cradle.

He added that Tehran “outright rejected” the proposal, delivered by mediators, and reiterated warnings that any Israeli attack on Iranian soil would be met with a decisive and immediate response.

“Iran successfully embarrassed all of the integrated radar network and anti-missile systems of the US and the [Israeli] regime. The US even activated its parked satellites over the region to do maximum protection and failed miserably,” the Iranian military official added.

Does it get any more embarrassing for the US? They are constantly begging Iran and its allies to stop, and keep getting told no.

the day after Biden signed a bill that's been called "the largest expansion of surveillance on U.S. soil since the Patriot Act"

CW: guy gets blown up

armed settler sees a Palestinian flag and tries to kick it down, gets blown up instead

I can’t find an article that explicits says so, but it looks like by my math every House democrat voted in favor of sending tens of billions of $ to Ukraine and Taiwan. So that includes AOC but also Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib.

It could be as simple as these “progressives” don’t want to upset the apple cart with DNC leadership; or have to explain why they broke from the party. Possible - but unlikely - that these social fascists recognize how important US and NATO hegemony is the preserve imperial spoils.

Honestly though, I feel like the answer is as simple as:

USA good

Russia bad

China bad

I was watching the super lib “Handmaids Tale” last night (not really by choice). Gilead - the former USA turned into an evil religious conservative state - shoots down some planes from the old, “good” US government. One of the Gilead leaders says “we’ve already been congratulated by the Russians, Chinese, and North Koreans for sticking it to the Americans”. The episode finished with a schmaltzy scene of Americans reciting the pledge of allegiance. And made me think… libs really just see Russia and China as “bad”, and are utterly incapable of seeing the USA as anything other the good guys who occasionally get it wrong but it’s nobody’s fault, really. Russia and China bad because “authoritarianism” and any reason they have for hating us isn’t based on material reality but because they hate the goodness we represent.

I have met a few House reps in my life, and know people who know some of them even better. I can tell you with a high level of confidence that these people as group don’t have a level of geopolitical understanding that’s any higher than your typical college-educated American. This news megathread alone operates on a level these people will never think at. They cannot (and refuse to) see American imperialism. The US is good and these “authoritarian” countries are bad. NATO keeps the world safe. Taiwan should be free. These cliches are the terms in which libs - including those who make policy decisions - think at and it never goes beyond that.

From the people who brought you "Russia has enough missiles left for 1 or 2 strikes"

Reuters: Iran says it gave warning before attacking Israel. US says that's not true

Turkish, Jordanian and Iraqi officials said on Sunday that Iran gave wide notice days before its drone and missile attack on Israel, but U.S. officials said Tehran did not warn Washington and that it was aiming to cause significant damage.

???

(Barnard) University gestapo issues DIY wanted posters for thought criminal students

Israeli quadcopter drones are emitting sounds of crying children and women to lure people for targeting in Al-Nusairat camp

Antisemitism on Campus: people peacefully protesting against genocide

my god NYT is a vile, vile zionist rag

Going to start to refer to missiles as suicide missiles, bombs as suicide bombs

Iran causing almost zero civilian injuries or deaths in their retaliatory strike is actually incredibly impressive and probably was part of the Iranian strategy. It gives Israel much less of a reason to retaliate, much less to use for propaganda, and at the same time probably indicates to Israel that Iran did not intend to harm civilians in the first place and thus succeeded, meaning the potential precision of an Iranian strike is very high.

Of note: Given the fact that it has been observed that Israel is continuing to jam GPS signal and internet near certain military installations, we can pretty safely assume a fair amount of Iranian weapons hit their mark. Also, Iran did not show off any new technology or techniques. This is a huge Iranian flex because the drone/missile barrage was carried out with technology Israel and the U.S. are fully aware of and prepared for, had an entire week to be on high alert and ready defenses, and Iran still saw success in their retaliatory strike. Iran got Israel to light up the sky with their defense installations, giving away functionality and positions, at the cost of nearly nothing to Iran.

Spain, Ireland, Norway, Malta and Slovenia to recognise Palestine statehood this month.

Norway has been surprisingly decent. I've heard the Norwegian Refugee Council does a lot of work in Gaza, I guess that has a big influence on the government.

What it feels like to stay in the news mega after a decade dies down

Palestinian president rejected U.S. requests to hold off on UN membership vote

Bluesky summary

Secretary Blinken personally asked Abu Mazen on the phone to not pursue full-status membership for the State of Palestine at the United Nations. In exchange, Abbas would have been invited to the White House to meet President Biden as a consolation prize of sorts. Abu Mazen rejected the offer.

https://bsky.app/profile/emissaryofnight.bsky.social/post/3kqecjqt4uz22

The Berlin museum now has a NAFO exhibit

The dude is just some random redditor

pretty cool that some Google workers in both NY and CA are doing an indefinite sit-in to protest Palestinian genocide. They have about 600 viewers and some commenters trying to get Hassan's attention to pump up viewers.

Link to twitch live stream: twitch.tv/notech4apartheid

The Copenhagen Exchange building is on fire. It's iconic spire of coiled dragon tails which was part of the city's skyline for 400 years has collapsed.

Firefighters assisted by soldiers from the royal guards are scrambling to control the fire but the task is difficult as the old building has many hidden cavities and it's copper roof is trapping the heat inside. The task is further complicated by scaffolding put up as part of an ongoing restoration.

The landmark building is situated right next to the seat of parliament and was constructed in Dutch renaissance style in 1623 as a trading hall. It was Denmark's first listed building and has housed business organisations for most of it's history and has become a symbol of "respectable" capitalism. In 1918 unemployed syndicalists stormed the building, beating up the brokers with wooden clubs and hung a sign saying "The unemployed have closed the gambling den".

The building housed many historic artifacts, a large library and important works of art. First responders as well as random bystanders are working to save as much as possible from the flames but it is unlikely that everything can be saved.

Large parts of the neighbouring Christiansborg Palace that houses parliament has been evacuated because of the fire although parliament continues it's session.

It is too early to say anything about the cause of the fire. There are no reports of injuries to persons.

The fire is being compared to the Notre Dame fire in Paris and calls are being made for the mostly-destroyed building to be reconstructed. A reconstruction will be a difficult task as it requires heavily specialised niche skills that are almost extinct today and it is unclear how reconstruction of the privately owned building will be funded.

it's rlly disturbing how we're now in a place where we have a militarist, genocidal government in Germany taking part in a war against the Russians in Ukraine and mass-arresting dissidents, especially Jews as part of a genocide. the AfD coming to power at this point would be little more than a ceremonial coronation for Nazism in modern Germany.

we need to nuke this great atlantic garbage patch, and then nuke the great satan. How are these countries so evil?

JUST IN: Elon Musk confirms X will start charging all new users a 'small fee' before they can post, like, or bookmark.

TSLA stock is down 6% today too

Apperently there is a media bann around the Mount Hermon base and all the other bases so we can assume that irans attack was very succesfull ...

The director of Al Shifa Hospital has been released after 4 months of being kidnapped by the "Israeli" army. They tortured him, broke his limbs, and forced him to lie that the hospital was a Hamas base, where they masacred ~400 people & completely destroyed it, in it's sadistic war on hospitals.

Source

Israeli occupation forces have released Dr Mohammad abu Selmiyeh, director of Al Shifa Hospital, after long days of torture!

Abu Selmiyeh was kidnapped on 23 November from Al Shifa Hospital.

Abu Selmiyeh was harshly interrogated, and pressured to approve Israeli claims that Al Shifa hosts command and control rooms for the Palestinian resistance.

Abu Selmiyeh had his legs and hands broken by Israeli interrogators. Abu Selmiyeh refused the Israeli claims.

Abu Selmiyeh was pushed to crawl on the ground, was insulted and pressured to bark like dogs by Israeli interrogators.

Abu Selmiyeh is currently in an urgent need for treatment after his release from Israeli jails — slaughterhouses!

"The government in Israel and the regime in Iran are both in difficult positions domestically and they both have a really strong need to show to a domestic audience that they are responding to this," she said.

government/regime lmao

In the past hour an Israeli drone fired a missile into a group of children in a playground. 11 children have been killed with more injured.

People need to understand class interest beyond "worker good, Capitalist bad, workers come together and sing kumbaya really hard until Communism happens."

If it were that simple, we would be living in Communism right. It's not that simple. A couple of examples: steel worker union wants the price of steel to be as high as possible so union members are compensated well. Union of... idk, pipe builders want steel to be as cheap as possible for obvious reasons. Despite both groups consisting exclusively of proles, they have contradictory interests.

Another example that's been highlighted by recent DSA actions: class reproduction. Academic "Marxists" generally lose all radicalism because they've secured a position where they can write for a living instead of doing one of the million jobs that no one wants to do. This applies perhaps even more strongly to paid positions within "Socialist" organizations. Why did Maria of the DSA behave with such profound chauvinism on the Cuba trip? Because she sees a path out of working for a living. Everything she did established credibility in the eyes of the people who hire Democratic Party staffers.

And the single most important example in the world today: Americans. A nation ostensibly composed of the working class like any other, yet all but the most vulnerable of its population are so profoundly bribed with the superprofits of the actual global working class that their interests have been thoroughly aligned with the status quo. They constitute a parasitic class on the world stage. Why do the most useless counter-revolutionary tendencies (LeftCommunism, Council Communism, Trotskyism, Neokautskyism) come exclusively from the West? Because the population does not, for the most part, experience revolutionary conditions. They don't need to do a revolution because they will be fine no matter what.

And this isn't some wild, new, 21st century theory. No less than Marx, Engels, and Lenin all described the parasitic nature of British "workers" and their attempt to secure well-being on the backs of the global proletariat: “...The English proletariat is actually becoming more and more bourgeois, so that this most bourgeois of all nations is apparently aiming ultimately at the possession of a bourgeois aristocracy and a bourgeois proletariat alongside the bourgeoisie. For a nation which exploits the whole world this is of course to a certain extent justifiable.”

Scranton Army Munitions Plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania is Burning

Produces the 155mm shells..

This monstrousness happened ~7 hours ago. And the American media seems to have ignored it. I guess they were busying covering something like Trump farting in the courtroom.

At least 11 people, mostly children, have been killed in an Israeli strike on central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp, Wafa reported. The attack hit a children’s playground near a crowded market.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/16/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-vows-response-to-iran?update=2841415

IN OTHER NEWS: i'm a girl now :3

now i post on a fun trans girl account and not @Ho_Chi_Chungus@hexbear.net

An MSNBC anchor just said "Israel's low key military strike".

Israel fired dummy missiles from Iraqi airspace that did not even enter Iran, and they launched a few quadcopters that were shot down above Esfahan. Israel's Minister of National Security has called Israel's response against Iran 'weak' and 'embarassing'

Biden signs bill extension permitting gov. spying on world citizens

The #WhiteHouse applauded the Senate's move, describing the bill as "one of the United States’ most vital intelligence collection tools."

https://x.com/MayadeenEnglish/status/1781801116801396933

really disastrous day

New research published in Nature today finds that we are on track for climate damages worth $38 trillion per year by 2050. This is a staggering figure. The damages are projected to be worth 6x more than the mitigation costs of limiting global warming to 2C.

Me in 2023: America deserved 9/11

Me in 2024: Bin Laden was a lib, America deserves way worse than 9/11.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri:

Israel needs to know that in case of another mistake they will not have 12 days, the response will be given in a matter of seconds not in days or hours

Four Israelis were kicked out of a hotel in Tanzania for complaining about the free Palestine badge on the manager's car. The Canary Nungwi Hotel in Zanzibar kicked out four Israelis who interrogated a receptionist about a vehicle parked outside the premise with stickers that read "Free Palestine." The Israelis were told the vehicle belonged to the manager of the hotel, and they were eventually kicked out after complaining that the vehicle was causing them "concern."

lmao

Biden claims twice in a day that his uncle was eaten by cannibals in New Guinea: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/bidens-uncle-cannibals.html

“He flew single-engine planes, reconnaissance flights over New Guinea. He had volunteered because someone couldn’t make it. He got shot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals in New Guinea at the time,” Biden told reporters.

Lest anyone doubt that Biden was saying his “Uncle Bosie” was consumed by fellow humans, he repeated the story later in the afternoon while addressing United Steelworkers union members in Pittsburg.

“He got shot down in New Guinea and they never found the body because there used to be a lot of cannibals — for real — in that part of New Guinea,” Biden said.

So Israel promised to respond to Iran's attack within 24 hours. Where is it? Another "Rafah invasion in the next week" moment?

Pentagon domino's suggests we are in for a busy week

Workers at the Volkswagen's plant in Chattanooga, TN voted overwhelming yesterday to join the UAW. 73% in favor with 84% turnout.

General Hajizadeh, who led the strikes on Israel, says that we will 100% strike Israel again if it responds.

"100% we will, don't worry"

The tories are pulling the power from GPs to determine whether a mental health patient is "fit for work" and giving it to "special professionals". IE they're outsourcing to a team of people with no medical qualifications with the goal of taking away the money (PIP) these people need to survive.

https://archive.ph/cB6zR

Just a blatant attack on the social safety net of the UK being made via the most vulnerable people in the country.

Biden suggests uncle eaten by ‘cannibals’ in New Guinea — but military says his WWII plane lost at sea

(sorry for New York Post link, I archived it but the video of him saying it doesn't play as an archive)

Indian Prime Minister ( Hindu Fascist) gives a hate inciting speech against Muslims with words akin to what Hitler said about the Jews. This is just the little step before the calls for genocide start.

https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedstatesofindia/comments/1c9ieqx/any_right_thinking_individual_would_be_ashamed_to/

Chile's Chamber of Deputies has elected Karol Cariola, from the Communist Party, as its new president. She was elected with 76 votes, against 75 votes for the opposition candidate, Joana Perez Olea.

This is the first time that the Communists have controlled Chile's Chamber of Deputies. The vice-presidency went to the People's Party, with deputy Gaspar Rivas, who was also elected with 76 votes. Eric Aedo, from Christian Democracy, was elected 2nd Vice-President with 76 votes.

I love the liberal “we just don’t know” fence-sitting that somehow always sides with State Department narratives. Is there a unicorn hiding in my gaping asshole? There’s no evidence for it, but there’s also no evidence against it. You must respect my lived truth!

BREAKING: The Wall Street Journal reports the Biden administration is considering sending an additional $1 billion in new weapons to Israel

ironclad!

Think I’ve stumbled onto a pretty big gotcha for the pro-genocide progressives, not that it actually matters. Even if we are to accept the idea that a second Biden term would result in any gains for marginalized groups: these people simultaneously go through the moral calculus of deciding that a genocide is an acceptable trade-off whilst also condemning others for “sacrificing” their rights. It’s clear that, to them, some peoples’ rights matter, and some peoples’ don’t. Their rights are inviolable but they’re perfectly willing to sacrifice an entire population. Consult this helpful chart:

They hide behind “lesser-evilism” and invented moral superiority when what they really mean is: I am willing to be complicit in anything and everything so long as it doesn’t affect me.

The sheer fucking gall to accuse others of political callousness when they are willing to engage in this kind of depraved Hitlerian moral calculus for the (smokescreen) sake of “practicality”.

NEW: The U.S. is expected to announce sanctions against the IDF 'Netzah Yehuda' battalion for human rights violations in the occupied West Bank, according to three U.S. sources – Axios

Wiki on them is rather light with not much to say: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netzah_Yehuda_Battalion

My assumption here is that the liberals will try to spin IOF atrocities into "a few bad apples" and then scapegoat batallions like this one in order to deflect from it being an iof-wide problem. Essentially create an "Azov" of Israel to deflect through and propagandise around it being "only a thousand people".

Dude set himself on fire outside the Trump trial. His page here:

https://theponzipapers.substack.com/p/i-have-set-myself-on-fire-outside

https://archive.ph/ysP9U

Liberals mock the hypocrisy of conservatives; conservatives mock the hypocrisy of liberals, and our collective circumstances erode. The left shouts “All Cops Are Bastards,” which ensures they’ll be hated by the police and the public (and flies in the face of leftist theory). The public’s distrust of the government is at an all-time high, but so is the belief that we are helpless to do anything about it.

Dude seems brainwormed but he correctly labels "the left" as a separate thing to liberals.

Edit: Looks like libs are latching onto the whackiest part (where the Simpsons comes up) to completely dismiss all of it. This will make an impression on some people though.

EDIT2: Stupidpol and trueanon user. Local crank. Sad stuff.

Witness the resilience: A Palestinian, displaced by Israeli aggression, defiantly returns to Khan Younis in the southern #Gaza Strip in his vehicle, despite it being totally destroyed

Ukrainians faked being the IOF to scam Israelis out of $2M:
https://nitter.poast.org/MOSSADil/status/1780324133651312824

Article in German newspaper titled "More than just harsh words"... about how Annalena Baerbock got into an argument with Netanyahu

THAT'S STILL JUST HARSH WORDS YOU GENOCIDAL IMBECILES

China’s economy grew 5.3% in the first quarter, beating expectations

Real estate continues deleveraging, and yet 5.3% GDP growth YoY.

Retail sales growth continues to be sluggish (3.1% vs. 4.6% predicted) and CPI is coming in cool (0.1% vs. 0.3% predicted). My theory for this is that China is actually seeing costs drop more quickly than CPI metrics can keep up. Traditional big-ticket household spending categories are housing, transportation, and education. Housing prices are obviously on the decline, but transportation costs are also decreasing due to the combination of cheaper EVs and an expanding HSR network. Education costs have been clamped down on after the crackdown on private tutoring, while average education outcomes have been raised by the crackdown on gaming. Meanwhile, traditional recurring costs like food and energy have been pushed downward by increasing trade with Russia as well as the rise of cheap solar.

It may be time to revisit the notion of ever-increasing consumption value as being important for economic growth. In this case, you can get the same quality of life with substantially less money. Why spend more to pad the top line retail sales number?

US troops in Niger have still not been removed by the Pentagon after Niger declared it illegal last month. The troops are unable to leave, in some cases extending deployment, and cannot receive supplies or even mail.

US agreed to Israel’s plan for Rafah in return for not carrying out large Iran strike – report

didn’t one of you call this? so monstrous

between the war bills, gutting of remaining data privacy, and tiktok ban passing yesterday, biden is soooo fucked with gen z voters (more like non-voters)

An Israeli man sustained injuries this morning while attempting to remove a booby-trapped Palestinian flag in the West Bank near the Israeli settlement of Kokhav HaShahar.

U.S., Not Israel, Shot Down Most Iran Drones and Missiles - theintercept.com

BREAKING: Israel's National Security Minister Ben Gvir says imposing sanctions on an IDF battalion operating in the West Bank is a 'red line' and that he expects the defense minister 'not to submit to American dictates'.

apparently the US isn't even imposing sanctions, they're just applying the Leahy Law to this one particular battalion? sounds like bullshit to me, how can you not fund one battalion in particular?

I hope Iran wasn't bsing, because it's beyond time to start leveling Tel Aviv

CW: Last message we received from those displaced in the school in Beit Hanoun is that the school is under heavy bombardment by artillery shelling- all communication from Beit Hanoun has been cut off. Please share what’s happening in North Gaza.

There is still no new government in the Netherlands despite elections taking place in November.

Anti-politics mfers when they have to actually do politics :

The "nothing ever happens" and "everything always happens" beams got crossed and we created a singularity where whatever you think happened, happened.

in Sydney, an Assyrian priest (pretty popular on youtube and tiktok) was stabbed multiple times mid-service by an attacker - there's video of it on twitter that I won't post, horrifying. the police are holding the attacker in custody outside the church and and people are throwing rocks and stuff at the police trying to get to the attacker. the priest is apparently stable and didn't face any life-threatening injuries.

news article

Blinken to head to China April 24-26 to discuss 'serious concerns'

State Secretary Blinken will attempt to persuade #China to cut an alleged support for #Russia's defense industrial base amid the war in Ukraine.

https://x.com/MayadeenEnglish/status/1781778001727828121

Now that I've had time to reflect on it, Iran's self defence was extremely cool

Reuters: Exclusive: Russia restoring oil refining capacity knocked out by drones

Russia has been able to swiftly repair some of key oil refineries hit by Ukrainian drones, reducing capacity idled by the attacks to about 10% from almost 14% at the end of March, Reuters calculations showed.

Fun fact: Soviet-era refineries were specifically built to withstand damage from bombing.

Russia is repairing its refineries fast, despite difficulties in obtaining Western know-how.

Incredible! Despite their Asiatic brainpans!

Gaza Strip: Israel Releases 150 Detained Palestinians

In recent weeks, Palestinian authorities and non-governmental organizations have accused Israel of torturing those arrested in Gaza, many of whom are transferred to unknown locations.

On Tuesday, Israeli security forces released 150 Palestinians captured during their offensive against the Gaza Strip, amid reports of torture and ill-treatment of detainees.

The General Authority for Crossings and Borders reported in a brief statement that they were released at the Kerem Shalom crossing, near the triple demarcation line between Gaza, Egypt and Israel.

Israel has detained more than 8,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the current cycle of violence on 7 October, but the number in the Strip, under attack and under siege since then, is unknown.

In recent weeks, Palestinian authorities and non-governmental organizations have accused Israel of torturing those arrested in Gaza, many of whom are transferred to unknown locations.

Recently, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor denounced sexual violence and inhumane treatment of female prisoners by the army in the coastal enclave.

The group documented testimonies of mistreatment of women both on the ground and in the country's prisons.

The recently released detainees reported beatings, threats of rape if they did not comply with orders, and how they were forced to strip naked and subjected to strip searches, he said.

Several were tied up and blindfolded for long periods, detained in open cages in freezing conditions and without food or medicine.

The Monitor noted that they were constantly threatened with deprivation of seeing their children and had money and items taken from them at the time of their arrest.

Russian S-300 air defense systems and other systems are out in the streets of Tehran

https://streamable.com/d3mlk7

According to Russian sources, Russian troops have entered the center of Ocheretyne.

If the town falls completely, the map will look pretty wild. The salient was already very deep.

Ukrainian source claims the defenders retreated and had to be replaced by an elite unit that was due to be rotated out.

DEATH TO AMERICA

DEATH TO ISRAEL

DEATH TO THE WEST

Average Zionist not understanding why Iran didn't bomb hospitals and schools (CW: Zionist dipshit):
https://nitter.poast.org/OliaOnX/status/1779511479047225780

So uh

A while ago I saw posts that said "The resistance is using the sound of crying babies to lure in IOF soldiers because they know that IOF soldiers love murdering babies" and just earlier I saw a post on twitter that said "The IOF is using the sound of crying babies next to auto-turrets to lure in empathetic Palestinians who want to save helpless children"

Zionazis undeniably love murdering kids and these technically aren't mutually exclusive but it still kinda feels like a Parenti quote moment.

Isra Hirsi (Ilhan Omar’s daughter) was just suspended from Columbia for being part of the pro-Palestine protest.

Hizbullah’s attack today against a covert IDF military reconnaissance HQ in Arab al Aramshe, which reportedly resulted in 18 casualties so far, is a qualitatively superior and escalatory response to Israel’s assassination of Hizbullah fighters yesterday. It’s also a crucial message to Israel and its allies that if they choose to expand the conflict by striking Iran and Hizbullah, it won’t just be confronting Iran’s conventional military force, but a hybrid response. Despite the current fixation on analysing Iran’s conventional military capabilities vis-a-vis Israel, today’s attack serves as an important reminder that Israel and its allies will be facing an unprecedented hybrid coalition of actors which have superior asymmetric capabilities should this war expand.

BREAKING: US House approves $60.8 billion in aid for Ukraine, $26.4 billion for Israel and $8 billion for Taiwan

BREAKING: US House has approved a bill banning TikTok in the country if ByteDance refuses to divest

protestors shut down the golden gate bridge for gaza

bird site link sry

CPUSA, through its party's media apparatus People's World, continues to take the ultra-left position of condemning all opposition to American hegemony as it first did against Russia by condemning Iran's anti-imperialist work against Israel through platforming the Tudeh Party of Iran's article.

Iran’s theocratic government is not anti-imperialist BY NAVID SHOMALI

The world has well and truly entered a dangerous epoch, with humanity currently facing a series of interconnected existential threats. A sharply deteriorating situation around the world of poverty, exploitation, and social injustice; “forever” conflicts that could very easily escalate into nuclear war; a looming climate catastrophe by 2030; as well as the exponential increase in ultra-nationalism and ethno-sectarianism and the entailing rise once more of fascism—all of them together represent a mere snapshot of the multi-dimensional crisis which humanity now faces.

The sheer level of brutality waged against the defenseless, and indeed blameless and innocent, Palestinian civilians by Israel’s war machine, along with the propensity of various governments and institutions in the U.S., Britain, and the E.U., hand in glove with the narrative put out by mainstream media outlets in the West that has shamelessly attempted to justify or normalize Israel’s genocidal campaign, is the foremost example of the terrible threat posed to the future of humanity and the international rules and rights-based consensus that followed the end of the Second World War.

We bear witness, with alarm, to so-called liberal democratic governments and “free” media agencies consciously aligning themselves with ultra-right forces in Israel’s ruling circles that openly profess apartheid, even fascistic, politics.

The aforementioned threats are almost all rooted in the ever-deepening crisis of capitalism, compounded by four decades of imposed neoliberalism and its resounding failure, and the desperate attempts by U.S. imperialism to uphold its weakening hegemony, regardless of what this might portend for humanity.

So far sounds nice, but here's where the break in opinions begin to occur.

Thus, it is now vital for the left and a wide spectrum of progressive forces domestically and internationally to form alliances that effectively mobilize to counter the threat posed by U.S. imperialism and its allies. Such alliances depend on the setting of clear and achievable progressive objectives based on class-conscious politics at local, national, and international levels.

Here's a fundamental question for anyone here, what material power does the "left and a wide spectrum of progressive forces domestically and internationally" have? Let me underline this absurdity with the apocryphal tale on Stalin and Christianity: When he was asked to ease the persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union in order to strengthen diplomatic ties and possibly strategically flip Pope Pius XII indifferent opinion towards nazi Germany, Stalin jovially said "hah! The Pope? How many divisions does he got?"

When examining today's world we must examine all parts of it in concrete terms and not on ethereal fantasies. What anti-imperialist alliance that exist today can make a material impact on the material world that doesn't just devolve into just yapping on zoom meetings about how bad something is.

Such a vital alliance cannot simply be comprised of an arbitrary and ad hoc collective of regimes, political forces, and paramilitary organizations united solely by their opportunistic—and often shallow—adversarialism to Washington. A glaring example of this flawed equation in process is the confusing of the forces of “political Islam” in the Middle East, which rail from a frighteningly reactionary perspective against Western culture and modernity, as principled anti-imperialist allies.

Here we see the common argument of the current ultra-left faction of the contemporary international marxist-leninist movement. An argument that has been fossilized since the end of the Second internationale during the first world war.

It is an argument couched on world-changing strength of the international labor movement of the time that had the power to topple empires.

Our concrete conditions today do not even reflect a shadow of that period.

You do not take as the starting point of your policy a series of theatrical gestures towards ethereal parties and beings who are revolutionary from head to foot instead of concrete human beings and the nations they reside in.

And foremost among these forces of “political Islam” falsely considered as anti-imperialist by some in left and progressive circles is the Islamic Republic regime in Iran. The reaching of this deeply flawed conclusion involves the convenient ignoring or pushing aside of that regime’s despotic material nature and horrific track record, while fundamentally misunderstanding or misrepresenting its destabilizing, malevolent, and sectarian posturing regionally and internationally.

How many missiles have you launched at the IDF in support of the PLFP?

It is important to note that Iran’s foreign policies in the Middle East region, and consequently its extraterritorial military proxy activities, are predicated on Shia sectarianism and Ayatollah Khomeini’s exhortation to “export the Islamic Revolution.” Aside from running wholly contrary to Iran’s national interests as well as wantonly endangering the Iranian people, this policy bent has proved deeply divisive and unpopular throughout the region and has always manifested to the major detriment of secular, particularly left and progressive, forces.

I shan't comment on Islamic religious or Iranian state policies as I have no academic knowledge on the field.

At every critical juncture in the region’s history over the past 40 years, the Islamic Republic has actively collaborated with U.S. imperialism—including in Afghanistan and Iraq. The theocratic regime’s empty posturing and crocodile tears shed for the plight of the Palestinians are exposed as just that when one considers how Iran has consistently worked to undermine the struggle of secular, left, and progressive Palestinian forces against Israel’s occupation.

Is countering u.s engineered virulant Wahhabism after its rampaged out of CIA control in conjunction with u.s, Iraqi, Syrian, kurdish, Russian forces, etc. really the condemnation they think it is?

Put simply, a truly anti-imperialist alliance cannot be crafted on the defunct logic that goes along the lines of “the enemy of my enemy is therefore my friend!”

The person writing this would rather have a pure anti-imperialist alliance that entirely exists on paper.

From a left perspective, rooted in the works of Marx and Lenin on class analysis and imperialism, the Iranian regime does not even come close to classifying as anti-imperialist—unless one is happy to omit its ever dwindling social class base inside Iran, the exploitative neoliberal political economy over which it presides, its total disregard for basic human rights and freedom, along with its continuing track record of horrific human rights abuses and brutal oppression (directed not least against the various forces that make up the Iranian left).

Yet again, to the ultra-left fence straddles, history ended with the death of Lenin and everything else that occured hitherto doesn't exist.

WW2? What's that? A wrestling competition?

The left forces in the Middle East, and especially in Iran, over the 40 years since the defeat of the popular anti-imperialist 1979 Revolution, have first-hand bitter experiences of “political Islam” and its devastating impact.

That does genuinely suck, no doubt about it. A communist guided Iran in infinitely preferred to the current Iran. But they failed and we have to work with what we got.

With heavy hearts, we recall how the popular 1979 Revolution was hijacked and derailed by the nascent theocracy and the people’s demands for true emancipation and social justice were scorned in favor of a parasitic capitalist class backed by the Islamist force.

See last statement.

We recall how women’s basic rights were trampled upon by the theocratic regime and how Iran’s women and girls were essentially consigned to, at best, second-class citizenry and placed at the mercy of crushing misogyny.

Also bad. That's a given.

And we recall that while Ayatollah Khomeini declared the devastating Iran-Iraq War to be a “blessing,” the Tudeh Party of Iran opposed its continuation beyond Iran’s liberating of its sovereign territory as an imperialist ploy to subvert the Iranian Revolution. As punishment for this—and to display its anti-communist credentials for all to see—the regime launched an unprecedented bloody attack upon the party based on the false premise it had spied for the USSR as well as fabricated “evidence” supplied by the CIA, MI6, and Pakistan’s ISI. Khomeini later referred to this help as “a divine act.”

Folks here's where history gets a bit interesting. During the Iran-Iraq War, both the United States and the NATO bloc AND the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact AND Yugoslavia diplomatically and materially backed Saddam's more secular Iraq, whereas the PRC, DPRK, Israel, the People's Republic of Yemen, Syria, Libiya, and Pakistan supported theocratic iran.

Besides stating the obvious in the fact it was a terrible war, what a bizarre network of supporters.

Well well what a coincidence https://thecradle.co/articles/isis-kills-palestinian-fighters-in-syrian-desert

Made the mistake of visiting AskLatinAmerica. Every Guatemalan on there is so bougie that I can smell Paseo Cayala from over here.

That sub is the place to go if you want to know what upper-class Latin Americans think. It’s pretty much the same as your average Redditor. Gave up on them after they compared AMLO to Bolsonaro.

Alright, Naked Capitalism has a piece on the Israeli attack last night. I mean, "attack" almost seems too strong a word, but I can't think of a better one.

Here's my summary of it:

• Still remarkably little clarity about precisely what happened, with various actors either purposefully not talking about it (or perhaps they just don't have much to say). Some US sources claimed that the attack was from Israel, and that Israel told the US that this attack would happen but the US had nothing to do with it.
• The attack was on Isfahan, in central Iran. Iran claims that there were a few (probably less than 10, possibly literally 3) drones and all were shot down, which visually seems to have been what occurred - no dramatic explosions beyond that of interceptions. Some anonymous US officials claimed that there were ballistic missiles involved, but there is no evidence of this at all - which is odd if it did occur, as the missile would have had to fly over a few countries at least.
• Iran briefly shut down its airports, did not close its airspace, and planes were still in the air above Iran, although some airlines redirected flights as news came in. Iran's response in general so far has been pretty muted, in stark contrast to their "Oh boy, if those Israelis even THINK about responding...!" rhetoric days and hours before the attack occurred. The official line is that this was an infiltration, not an external attack from Israel. This is a strange thing for Iran to do, and is naturally generating all sorts of theories about whether Iran has done some behind-the-scenes negotiating to allow a small Israeli attack despite officially denying it. I can't say I personally believe them but I'm also having trouble finding alternative explanations for the massive difference between rhetoric and action.
• The idea is that this was a diminished response from Israel in exchange for the US greenlighting an Israeli campaign into Rafah, which I'm sure will go well for them with the remaining tatters of whatever they're calling an "army" nowadays.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/iran-may-alter-nuclear-doctrine-amid-israeli-threats-to-nucl

To me, this is tacit admittance that Iran either already has nukes or is less than a month away from getting nukes. I don't think someone from the IRGC would say this unless they actually have nukes on the way.

Revealed: Israel has sped up settlement-building in East Jerusalem since Gaza war began | The Guardian

Exclusive: Government ministries and offices behind most contentious of projects, which will create thousands of housing units

Biden has the most hilarious family head canon:

His wife was killed by drunk driver (Here is that driver's full name, IP address, and photos of his house)

He doesn't know when his son died, but he died in Iraq

His uncle was eaten by cannibals

His family was poor during the Depression, his grandfather definitely wasn't a US Oil executive.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/politics/fact-check-biden-amtrak-grandfather-pittsburgh-bridge-debt/index.html

edit: Sorry, I have a lot of tabs, I meant to post this in the appropriate thread: https://hexbear.net/comment/4820267

Russian weapons help Iran harden defenses against Israeli airstrike

I've never read a more 'nothing' article. so many "could have bought" "no evidence" "no proof" "may have" "if delivered" "not publicly known". Putin give Iran S-400s coward.

All this talk about the imminent Israeli retaliation reminds me of the always just-around-the-corner Ukrainian ubermensch counteroffensive

The lead juror on one of the Trump cases was born in Ireland. TRUST THE PLAN 🇮🇪

I guess the most important development is that the Iranian government and media is downplaying this and saying nothing happened. I don't really buy it, given that there were simultaneous strikes within Iraq and Syria. but whatever happened seems to not be so significant that they want to retaliate and escalate into a war.

I don't really see what israel gets out of this. their hogs still want blood, they still want dead Iranians. does this minor strike on an airbase satisfy that? does it really accomplish anything militarily? what was the point?

It's election season in South Africa, which means white racists feel the need to be even more racist than usual. Paternalistic attitudes towards black people and accusations of black majority political parties buying votes are now the norm on social media.

https://twitter.com/TheKiffness/status/1780935320147558869

https://hexbear.net/post/2346509

This is what happens when colonialists realise that they can no longer control elections and government. Deranged racist screeds.

An article published on ISNA in Farsi quotes a official saying:

• First 70 fighters and then with addition of fighters from Cyprus, 103 fighters
• 15 signal jamming aircrafts
• Their own AWACS plus AWACS from UAE and KSA
• 6 ships in Red Sea plus the six-layered anti-missile systems in KSA and UAE
• All missile defense capabilities of Israel

... were used to intercept the Iranian and the Resistance's drones and missiles.

He then said:

• Our intelligence reports had shown that Pentagon had accepted to lead the defense entirely
• CENTCOM had designated 8 regions for their missile defense plan; Caucasus, Zagros, Turkiye, Persian Gulf, Red Sea and Mediterranean.
• The Qatars advanced air defense systems were made fully available to them
• 10 countries were working against us
• The enemy had an advantage; they had became familiar with the Resistance's missile and drone systems during the al-Aqsa Flood operation, they knew all the weaknesses. But we weren't familiar with their advanced missile defense capabilities.
• At first we were planning to strike six political, economical and military targets but at end we decided to only strike military targets because we just wanted to punish them.
• OpSec didn't let the enemy know our main goal.
• Way less drones were used than what media claims; drones which took 7 hours to reach their target. These drones triggered 5 of 8 regions that enemy had designated; 80 percent of which were engaged in east Jordan. The drones were 100% successful because non of them were sent to demolish anything but to force the Iron Dome and David's Sling to engage them.
• After drones we launched missiles, 12 hypersonic missiles all of which hit their targets by the will of God.
• Khaibar Shekan ballistic missile were used.
• Cluster missiles challenged the second layer of the enemies air defense; each piece had to be engaged separately.
• Other missiles had success rate of 75%.
• We made sure the targets were hit by observing the satellites imagery, the cameras installed on the missiles and the local sources.
• Only Israel were supposed to be punished in this operation but other countries that joined it got punished.
• It shows the decency, dignity, humanity and greatness of our nation that we didn't target the Zionists' buildings.

(Read with grain of salt as always)

Edit: Source; full of typo hence not translation engine friendly.

Milei is requesting for Argentina to join NATO

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/argentina-asks-join-nato-president-milei-seeks-prominent-109402973

Apparently, Berlin pigs say you can only speak Deutsch in public events. Well, Deutsch and English lol:
https://nitter.poast.org/therockisdead_/status/1781005611234140634

they've outlawed sharing videos of the flood that "ruin the reputation of the country". some private businesses still require workers to come to work even as people's cars literally drowned

Here's a funny joke: What if, hypothetically, every U.S. politician were publically beheaded, on the same day, at the same time? Wouldn't that be funny? Hypothetically, of course.

Some quick thoughts on the Isfahan attacks:

• We don't know whether the attacks were successful or not. Iran claims to have shot down drones but the explosions were heard course to important military installations.
• The attacks were carried out by drones that went undiscovered until they were in the middle of Iran. This suggests that they were not launched from occupied Palestine but rather by western/zionist proxies within Iran.
• The zionists have not taken responsibility for the attack. They dare not make an open response, opposing instead to muddle responsibility behind layers of proxies.
• The attacks seems to be of much smaller scale than the recent sophisticated Iranian strikes against IOF terrorist training camps in occupied Palestine.
• All in all it doesn't come off as the convincing show of force that zionist chuds had hoped for. If anything it makes the zionists appear weak and afraid of picking a real fight against Iran. It seems like the attacks were the zionist regime's attempt at doing something that was spectacular enough to appease domestic audiences while also being inconsequential enough as not to provoke an Iranian retaliation.

So did the US just dissolve the prestige of the USD for $6 billion?

Seems... Short-sighted?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5zPvEjIKW_/ (streamable mirror)

Alarming reports from Gaza reveal that Israeli Forces are using drones with loudspeakers over the Nuseirat Camp broadcasting cries of women and children to lure and target civilians

BREAKING: Iran-affiliated Iraqi militias Kataib Hezbollah says it will resume attacks against American forces after halting then for 3 months

why had these stopped in the first place?

Since October, Sen. John Fetterman Has Been Building a Roster of Republican Donors

Some interesting developments in the Russo-Ukrainian war for the map-brains:

• Near-encirclement and withdrawal of Ukrainian forces northwest of Donetsk city
• Deep Russian advance northwest of Avdiivka over the course of 4 days
• Krasnohorivka rapidly falling with seemingly minimal defense from the Ukrainians
• Rumors that some Ukrainian units are refusing to defend certain positions (eastern part of Chasiv Yar)

I don't think there have been any signs of major armored attacks by Russian forces. This is all happening with the usual "meat grinder" tactics as far as I can tell.

Blood is in the water, so to speak. If the Imminent Russian Offensive™ actually materializes, it could be very significant.

Ahmed Attaf Minister of Foreign Affairs of Algeria

⭕ Algeria's foreign minister: By decision of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, we announce an exceptional provision of $15 million to UNRWA.

⭕ Algeria praises the withdrawal of a number of countries from freezing aid allocated to UNRWA

⭕ Our conviction remains firm that UNRWA must remain as long as there are Palestinian refugees

⭕ The two-state solution can never remain a hostage to the procrastination, evasions and manipulations of the occupier.

⭕ International legitimacy cannot remain imprisoned in the walls of this hall and trapped in the illusions and miscalculations of the occupier indefinitely.

⭕ The international consensus must find its way into force sooner rather than later through the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Al-Quds as its capital.

Meeting between Baerbock and Netanyahu became difficult, as did Cameron's with Katz. Baerbock reportedly recommended that Israel stop circulating the photos of life supposedly returning to normal in the Palestinian enclave “as they don’t portray the real situation in Gaza. There is hunger in Gaza.” At this point, Netanyahu is said to have raised his voice and insisted, “It’s real. It’s reality. It’s not like what the Nazis staged, we’re not like the Nazis who produced fake images of a manufactured reality.” According to the Channel 13 report, the German foreign minister responded, “Are you saying that our doctors in the field in Gaza aren’t telling the truth? Are you saying that the international media is lying?” Cameron told Katz UK not going to proscribe IRGC.

https://nitter.poast.org/patrickwintour/status/1781232914283237701#m

Us governments oks rafah invasion under the condition it doesn’t strike Iran and isn’treal still strikes Iran lmao wow we are truly a living joke

#BREAKING | The US House of Representatives votes by 366 votes to 58 on a bill to support 'Israel' worth $26.4 billion.

cool

A new thread struggles to be born, yadda yadda.

Rulers of EU nations are meeting today. On top of their agenda is a report detailing how the EU's competitiveness is lacking behind both the US and China. It is dawning on European US vassals that they are fucked economically.

The solution being proposed in the press is an old banger: Reforming the inner market. What if we "reduced regulation and administrative burdens on businesses"? Environmental protections are being mentioned as something that could be deregulated. The only sort of novel proposal is to create a big EU fund to provide subsidies directly to businesses.

So it seems like the solution to Europe's economic woes is the one solution that neoliberals have to any problem: Slashing protections for workers and lining the pockets of well-connected capitalists.

A couple billion dollars of weapons to Ukraine is one of the best things American taxmoney can buy. It's a small investment with a very profitable return. I don't get why Americans complain when it costs them virtually nothing compared to the benefits. We get to replace the EU's stockpiles and energy with American made products which generates jobs domestically (tankies and the QOP will ignore this and complain about expensive food and housing prices). We get to test our own weapons on our biggest enemy and destroy their military capabilities without triggering a nuclear war. And since Ukrainians are doing the fighting, we don't have to worry about paying them benefits and pensions or send our our countrymen to die. It's truly one of the most wholesome packages, all for a fraction of the cost of our annual military budget while raking in immense financial and security profits. The fact that anyone is complaining about this shows how deep Putin's propaganda reaches the US.