Over the last week, Sri Lanka has been hit by their worst national natural disaster since the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Over 2 million people (about 10% of the population) were affected; the death toll is currently climbing past 600; nearly a hundred thousand homes have been damaged or destroyed, transport infrastructure is heavily damaged; industry has been damaged; and farmland has been flooded. The cost of damage so far looks to be about $7 billion, which is more than the combined budget spent on healthcare and education in Sri Lanka.
While there is plenty to say meteorologically about how this yet another concerning escalation as a result of climate change (Sri Lanka does experience cyclones, but they are usually significantly weaker than this), it's important to note that such disasters are, to at least a certain extent, able to warned about and their impacts somewhat mitigated. However, this requires both access to early detection and warning equipment, and an economy in which development is widespread - in this case, particularly in the construction of drainage systems and regulated construction, which has not generally occurred.
The IMF, on its 17th program with Sri Lanka, is doing its utmost to prevent such an economy from developing, as they instead promote reductions in public investment. On top of this, the rebuilding effort for Sri Lanka is already being planned and funded, and such donors include, of course, many Sri Lankan oligarchs, who will rebuild the damaged portions of the country yet further according to their visions, while sidelining the working class.
Perhaps neoliberalism's decay into its eventual death occurring concurrently into the gradual intensification of climate change and renewed wars signifies the rise of the era of disaster capitalism.
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful. Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section. Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war. Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis. Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language. https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one. https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts. https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel. https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator. https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps. https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language. https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language. https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses. https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Hey buddy, I heard you like posts... DM me to feature effort posts and good threads in the newsmega/newscomm here (including your own posts). Some great discussion this week. I'm grateful to be part of this community.
@xiaohongshu@hexbear.net with a real banger on upward social mobility or lack thereof for China's Gen Z, the modern appeal of the Cultural Revolution, and CPC censorship Part 1 | Part 2. The subthread with @jack about modern youth Maoism is worthwhile as well.
Only been a day and there’s already a lot of great posts!
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FunkyStuff [he/him] - 2day
there are threads where Nothing Happens and days where GOOD posts are posted
31
Infamousblt [any] - 14hr
Best part about this community is that there's always good posts
10
xiaohongshu [none/use name] - 3day
China vibe report: something absolutely wild took place on the Chinese internet this past week and I’ll be the first to report it. The kids are NOT ok!
TL;DR: Chinese Gen Z kids went full ultra Gang of Four yearning for a revival of the Cultural Revolution on bilibili (Chinese Youtube), what the hell is going on?
This came absolutely out of nowhere and took everyone by surprise. It’s truly one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen in the many years I’ve spent on the Chinese side of the internet.
It started with one of those Movie Explained channels offering analysis and interpretation of films. Run of the mill stuff. About a month ago, one of those channels began to upload a deconstruction of the 2017 film 芳华 (Youth), a coming of age/loss of innocence movie set in the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution about the lives and drama of the military art troupe kids, based on Yan Geling’s novel of the same name, which has been suspected to be her own semi-autobiography.
The film itself wasn’t overtly political or anything. It wasn’t without controversy before the theatrical release due to the Cultural Revolution backdrop, but after extensive cutting and reediting, the film was eventually released and went on the become one of the highest grossing films of the year.
However, the Movie Explained guy (no doubt on the more extreme/ultra left) offered a re-interpretation of the film, painting the Cultural Revolution as being hijacked by the elites from the very beginning, and after the reform and opening up era, the Gang of Four was vilified by the liberal reformers who rewrote history. Wild conspiracy take but what’s even wilder was the response to the videos (which have been released in three parts, with the final part that came out on November 29th being the most controversial, which essentially reinterpreted the film’s male protagonist as Wang Hongwen).
To give you an idea of what an absolute phenomenon this is, the three videos have a combined 37+ million views before the censorship hammer fell. Averaging about 12 million views per video, this is an insane number for bilibili, and was trending #1 at the time the videos were “disappeared” by the censors. As a comparison, the most sensational anti-Japan videos garnered about 2-3 million views at most - this is easily 4-5 times the volume of that.
Imagine Youtube’s #1 trending video. That’s how huge it was. This was never seen before for a politically themed video, let alone one on the Cultural Revolution.
And because bilibili has what is called the “bullet comments”, where user comments stream across the screen while a video is being played, and with hundreds of thousands of comments here’s what the screen looked like:
人民万岁 = Long Live the People. Slogan of the Cultural Revolution.
Clearly the kids are more into Cultural Revolution than anti-Japanese propaganda. What the hell is going on?
Let’s start with the film’s story to give some contexts:
The story is the typical rich kids bullying poor kids story. The male protagonist was a model socialist youth, who embodied the ideal of a revolutionary, always offering help to anyone without expecting anything in return, but because of his lower class, was always taken advantage of and held in disdained by the other elite/rich kids who were in the art troupe for “performative” reasons.
The female protagonist was a girl whose father was in the reeducation camp, and naively believed that by joining the communist youth cadre, she would be treated as equals. Instead, because of her lower class, she ended up getting bullied throughout by the elite/rich kids.
This scene from the film has been memed all over the chat groups right now and embodied the class divide that had infected the Cultural Revolution even from its very onset:
The elite kids (官二代, or 2nd generation elites) and rich kids (富二代) were able to enjoy special privileges in the “revolution” while looking down at the other kids from the lower classes. Such distinct class divide amongst the communist youth cadres, in a way, showed that the Cultural Revolution was doomed from the start.
The ending was particularly bleak:
::: spoiler spoiler: do not click if you want to watch the film for yourself, which I highly recommend.
The male protagonist was ostracized and in the reform era, was tasked to enlist in the invasion of Vietnam, lost his arm and lived miserably in the post-reform society. The female protagonist was driven mad.
The elite and rich kids were able to take advantage of the reform era through their status and became the first to reap the benefits of the post-Mao era, and they all married rich.
:::
The ending in the novel was even more bleak. The film version actually made some adjustments to make it seem more bittersweet.
Strangely enough, when the film was aired in 2017, nobody really thought too much about it. It was mostly seen as a nostalgic film for the 50s/60s elderly who reminisced about their youth during the Cultural Revolution. The Gen Z kids were still too young/at school to appreciate its subtexts.
Remember that 2017-2019 was the peak of China’s economy. It was a time when everyone was very much positive about the future. Nobody even thought about such concerns as unemployment. As long as you’re willing to work hard, there will be jobs for you.
8 years later, the situation has completely changed. Upon re-watch, many young people, especially kids who saw it for the first time, felt the incomprehensible horror in the film itself.
Of course, visual language is everything, take a look:
At the start of the film, the red mural had a Mao painting with a hammer and sickle, which was very much emblematic of the revolutionary era.
By the time the protagonist returned in the reform era, the mural had been replaced with a red Coca-Cola advertisement, signifying the end of an era.
So how did we get here?
First of all, I do think that the re-interpretation videos had indeed over-interpreted the film itself, even though the visual languages are well representative of the latent contradictions of the time.
Second, I don’t think the Gen Z kids are really yearning for a real Cultural Revolution, widely held as the most destructive era of the PRC history.
Whether this was irony pilled Gen Z black humor, or whether they truly yearn for a rerun of the CR, it doesn’t matter. The explosive outbursts of their emotion had to be real. This was something that you could only feel when interacting with the youth, their hidden anger buried underneath, but nothing really actually manifested in real life.
Their collective outbursts in the form of bilibili comments revealed their true reaction to the film - the loss of their Youth, a funeral of their Future.
And it makes sense. As I have said before, post-Covid China is a very different world than the 2010s. Chinese kids are seeing their futures evaporating in front of them. These are the kids who studied hard for years, just to be told that there are no jobs for them, the houses are way beyond what they could possibly afford, and that a bright future that had been promised not even 10 years ago is disappearing before them.
It’s like being told that the train is already full, and you are being left behind at the train station. The train that just departed was class mobility - a door that has now shut for most Chinese youth.
They are experiencing a strong dissonance that while the country is becoming stronger, as China is becoming a world superpower, yet the fruits of the hard work do not belong to them. The future of a nation where they are not a part of.
Their anger is to be expected, and a yearning for a Cultural Revolution that at least promises shake up the entrenchment of the social classes. The chaos and destruction would hurt the rich elites the most, dragging them down to the level of the average working people who are struggling for the next paycheck.
For context, understand that the accumulation of capital that took several hundred years in Western capitalist countries, occurred in China in just 50 years. Everything has been evolving so fast, and so does the wealth inequality.
In 2007, nobody would have anticipated what China would look like today. That’s what it feels like to grow up in China. In Western countries, the wealth distribution is divided in generations, where the boomers/Gen X reaped the industrialization benefits while the Gen Y and especially Gen Zs are already accustomed to a relatively bleak future since they were born.
However, in China, this was not the experience. If you’re a Gen Z kid born in the late 1990s (in China they’re called post-90s and post-00s), you would have grown up just after the recession, with your parents having a relatively well paid job in the 2000s (compared to the 90s). Things were starting to look better. By the 2010s, in your middle and high schools, your parents likely bought a new house. An upgrade. The economy was looking better by the day. You’re promised that as long as you study hard, you’ll be able to find a good job and raise your own family one day.
Then Covid hit just when you’re about to graduate college, and the economy never returned. Years of hard work down the drain. All this rollercoaster happened in less than 30 years of your life.
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xiaohongshu [none/use name] - 3day
Bonus material: Class mobility in China
It is crucial to understand why education is held with such utmost importance in East Asian culture.
In 103 BC, the Han Emperor Wu (aka the Martial Emperor of Han) made a decision that would change world history forever. The nomadic Xiongnu tribes in the north have always been a nuisance for the Central Plains governments. The periodic raids into the border towns have mostly been opportunistic raids, with the nomadic tribes taking advantage of their cavalry mobility. It wasn’t that the Central Plains armies were not capable of defeating the Xiongnu tribes, but it had always been a question of costs. Usually, you settle with some bribes, they go away for some years before coming back for more. It was the cost effective solution that held the balance for a long period.
Imagine Trump wanting to mobilize the entire US military to expel the Canadians into Russia Far East. It is not that the US is not capable of doing so, but the costs would be exceedingly high, all three of the political, economic and social costs.
But that’s the Han Emperor Wu wanted to achieve. He would launch the greatest Northern Expedition ever seen at the time, and with capable generals like Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, absolutely steamrolled the Xiongnu nomadic cavalry.
The third and final Northern Expedition would double the territory of the Han Dynasty, reaching as far as modern day Xinjiang! The Xiongnu nomads were forced migrate west and eventually their descendants became the Huns, who would wreak havoc in Europe centuries later.
But… at what cost? lol, you ask.
The cost is that to sustain the huge logistics necessary for the Han military for their long expeditions, the peasants were coerced to increase their output under excessively demanding conditions. The people would be squeezed to their death, fighting a war that most of them had never even heard of.
This was when the feudal lords (豪族, haozu) began to take center stage. Amidst hardship, coercion, forced conscription and levy from the government, the peasants took refuge under the protection of the feudal lords, who often held their own private army, land, farms, and production bases. The peasants voluntarily turned to slavery, because at least you are not left to fend for yourself against banditry, and the evil government officials who want to squeeze every grain out of you to embellish their results, or worse, dragging you to join the army.
The rise of the feudal lords would eventually evolve into the infamous Guanlong group by the 5th-7th century AD, an oligarchy holding very important positions in the imperial court and in regional provinces.
To fight back against the overarching influence of the oligarchs, the Imperial Court Examination began to take shape starting in the 5th century AD during the Northern Wei dynasty to seek talented and qualified officials from the lower classes (寒门), as a means of counter-balancing force against the oligarchs (门阀). The examination would become a fully mature institution by the 8th century under Wu Zetian during the Tang dynasty, the first and only female emperor in Chinese history.
The significance of the Imperial Court Examination would influence Chinese culture for the next 1500 years. This became the only chance that a person from the lower class can ascend to the higher class. A mechanism for upward class mobility.
As the saying goes, 一人得道，鸡犬升天 (one person gets promoted, even his chickens and dogs get to ascend to the heaven), meaning that if you won the examination prize and become a government official, it would be a ticket for your entire extended family, including those of your teachers, to ascend to a higher class. A much much higher class, with a lot more material benefits to reap.
As such, for many poor families, usually one kid (the eldest son) was tasked to study, while his brothers and sisters worked in the farm. This coincided with the invention of woodblock printing, and later paper, that drastically reduced the cost of accessing books for the lower classes. If the son became a local official, then their fate would be completely changed.
Even in the modern days, examination offers a one-way ticket for class mobility. It is no different for Japan and South Korea, having been influenced by Chinese culture. Getting a job at Samsung will literally change your life in South Korea, you simply have to compete with the rest of the nation to get there.
In China, that’s what gaokao is about, for getting into higher education. That’s why the kids study so hard. To be a civil servant, you also have to take the civil servant exam (考公), which is equally as competitive. Once you are part of the 60 million civil servants in China, you are “in the system” (在体制内), you have guaranteed employment, good salary, social benefits and welfare that are inaccessible to the rest of the working class.
Funnily enough, back in the 2000s and 2010s, becoming a civil servant was actually not very encouraged. It was seen as a boring career choice with not much upward trajectory. If you’re a civil servant, you could be tasked to some random town and that’s easily the next 20 years of your life. And because your supervisor isn’t that much older, you’re probably not going to get promoted any time soon. You won’t have much choice, but you will at least have guaranteed employment and benefits.
Back then, it wasn’t an attractive choice. However, since Covid, with the economic downturn, the number of people taking the civil servant examination has exploded. The total number of people taking the examination was 2.8 million people this year (!!), with an intake ratio of 74:1 (1.65%). That’s totally wild. People would rather have a stable employment and boring career than to risk it in the private sector. This tells you just how much the times have changed. Totally unthinkable even back in 2018-2019.
And because the civil service force is not going to expand much (mostly replacing the retiring employees), with the local governments experiencing increasing financial strains as their debt bubble becomes unsustainable, and with AI starting to replace all the desk jobs, the situation is only going to get worse. The people’s concerns are not unreasonable.
That’s the picture the youth is seeing in China today. What is the point of studying if the door for class mobility is being shut?
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Vritrahan - 3day
Very interesting history. Especially for me since India went through very similar societal transformations. Especially the importance of civil service for socio-economic mobility, and it's resurgence in recent years. It's just that, this didn't happen over millenia but during the few centuries of British colonial rule.
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xiaohongshu [none/use name] - 3day
Final thoughts
If the first two parts of the videos were critiques of the wealthy elites that have infested the highest level of the CPC, which, believe it or not, are still tolerated by the party itself (there has to be an outlet for the people to channel their anger into), then the third part was what made it all the more controversial.
The author of the video series ended part 3 with: “Big brother (referring to Mao), your ideas were too forward for your time, which made you almost a god-like figure to us, this is what we [mere mortals] could never compare with… and only after years of experiencing the brutality of life, fighting for our last breaths, that we are only beginning to understand your insistence back in the days [for a Cultural Revolution].”
The ban hammer finally came. But it already reached a record of 37+ million collective views within a few days.
Whatever it is, it can never be taken back. The Gen Z kids have made their voices known. Perhaps the energy behind the so-called Gen Z protests happening around the world was real after all.
The government will have to respond. On the one hand, the government relies on the bourgeoisie to deliver the GDP numbers (very important numbers!), on the other, they have to take care of an increasingly dissenting youth who see a bleak future for themselves, which is made more dissonant by the fact that China is actually growing into a superpower.
I believe there will be more strict crackdown on revolutionary ideals to prevent a re-run of the Cultural Revolution. All of the leadership today, the liberal reformers, were victims of the Cultural Revolution. They are deathly afraid of it.
Finally, if you want to watch the film for yourself (which I recommend!), try to find the extended version. The absolutely breathtaking rendition of the Steppe Women Militia dance sequence was missing in the standard version, which you can watch here , starting at 1:40 mark!
You can also watch the original version here taken in 1976 (remastered).
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aanes_appreciator [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
Big brother (referring to Mao)
Do NOT let Redditors find this out lmao
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LeninWeave [none/use name, any] - 2day
6
jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
I support the Maoist youth. The CPC needs that internal pressure to strive for socialism. With all the wealth China has accumulated, why shouldn't it be time to take those big strides away from the capitalist mode? It won't happen top-down.
They're not going to recreate the cultural revolution because the conditions are so wildly different. But maybe youth rage can coalesce into organization, and if it's distinctly Maoist in character it certainly won't be easily swayed by capitalist influence.
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Awoo [she/her] - 3day
why shouldn't it be time to take those big strides away from the capitalist mode?
Mostly because of dependency on imported resources. They need to get the country off oil and uranium imports for energy security in the event that they are cut off from international markets if they take the socialist mode. They import 70% of their oil needs.
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jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
Russia and Iran and Venezuela are not gonna withhold oil from China if they start improving worker rights, expropriating property, and establishing collecting economic structures. China would remain the center of the world's economy.
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Awoo [she/her] - 3day
Sure, which is why the west is setting up the chessboard against China by assaulting them.
The west doesn't actually have to take them over either. If they block the Malacca Strait they cut China off from most of their imports. 80% of China's oil comes through the Malacca Strait
19
jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
Sure, which is why the west is setting up the chessboard against China by assaulting them.
But Chinese trade and diplomacy marches on. The west continues to fail in their objective, but so far they can't afford to flip the chessboard, either.
If they block the Malacca Strait they cut China off from most of their imports.
Ships can go around. The Yemenis blocked tons of trade through the equally important Suez and ships went around. Costs and delivery times went up, but trade carried on. The diversion around Sumatra is way, way less than the diversion around Africa. And the west would need the support of Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia in killing their most important economic tool in order to piss off their biggest trading partner. Otherwise the west would need to block it militarily, and that would necessitate an occupation of Singapore - all in waters where China's navy could easily operate. And they'd probably have Vietnam's support, given how important the strait is to them as well. All of this for China-bound or -originated ships to just take a few days longer to go around Sumatra and harbor in Jakarta instead of Singapore.
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Awoo [she/her] - 3day
Sure, ships can try to go around. But most of the other gaps are not viable for large scale shipping as they are too shallow and the Indonesian sea is not calm nor does it have developed ports for shipping at large scale. Most of the shipping will have to go all the way around Australia.
Additionally piracy has not been eradicated in the Strait of Malacca, which is only 2.5km wide at its narrowest point. The routes through the other straits feature considerably more piracy and you can bet on the US quietly boosting the pirates.
I think you underestimate the harm that raising the cost of energy in the country will do to Chinese manufacturing, European manufacturing essentially collapsed as energy costs became economically unsustainable.
I think you're underestimating how significant this would be for China due to its manufacturing.
I haven't really done the math but how many millions of barrels can Iran and Venezuela even supply? I am suspicious that they would not be able to fulfill China's existing needs:
All of this is somewhat moot, China recognises this problem itself and is aiming to completely electrify the country to get off oil entirely. My point however is that moving to the socialist mode before removing the vulnerability would be a bad move. They should get self-sufficiency first. Luck of geography meant the USSR was able to fully provide everything it needed within its own borders, China doesn't have the same circumstances.
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ColombianLenin [he/him] - 3day
I believe there will be more strict crackdown on revolutionary ideals to prevent a re-run of the Cultural Revolution. All of the leadership today, the liberal reformers, were victims of the Cultural Revolution.
Europe in the 19th century was haunted by the spectre of the French Revolution.
The world bourgeoisie in the 20th and 21th century are haunted by the spectre of the Russian Revolution.
China in 2025 is haunted by the spectre of the Cultural Revolution lmao.
45
LeninWeave [none/use name, any] - 3day
I believe there will be more strict crackdown on revolutionary ideals to prevent a re-run of the Cultural Revolution.
This seems like trying to put the genie back in the bottle.
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xiaohongshu [none/use name] - 3day
The genie is already out when they started to teach Marxism-Leninism in schools and the nation portrayed itself as a socialist country.
When the economy was trending upward in the last two decades, people don’t mind too much about which political ideology and economic system.
Now that the kids are increasingly realizing that they do not, in fact, live in the socialism as portrayed everywhere in the media, and that this is in fact, not the Marxism they were taught in school, suddenly they begin to question everything.
Even though the so-called Marxism-Leninism class is somewhat of a joke these days, and it’s more of a patriotism class, the ideas have been implanted into their minds. With the youth taking up the tangping (lying down) movement, they now have more time to read and study Mao and Marx and Lenin! Funny the things you do while being unemployed.
Having said that, I doubt there will be a re-run of the CR. It would take a lot more coalescence of the dissatisfaction to get there, and the government still has a lot of authority to crack down on the dissent. Furthermore, I don’t think the rest of the people would want something like that.
But the youth have already made their demands: they want to have a slice of the cake, and a seat at the table too. And that’s up to the government to decide on how to meet their demands.
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LeninWeave [none/use name, any] - 3day
It doesn't seem like the liberal faction are going to be able to do anything to stop this in the long term that wouldn't also destroy the country. Capitalism is never sustainable forever as a mode of production, so it was a foregone conclusion that it would have to either be replaced (as is the stated plan) or the country would be destroyed (what has historically happened from most capitalist collapses). I don't see how a crackdown would accomplish anything but intensifying the unrest, as you say there are a huge number of class-conscious proletarians with Marxist educations. The only thing that I think would realistically slow these developments would be a resumption of improvements in living conditions, which isn't just a switch that can be flipped without changing anything else.
40
xiaohongshu [none/use name] - 3day
Hmm… if we look at the Lost Decade Japan, the trajectory was similar. The Japanese government saved the older employees at the expense of youth employment, and the end result was that Japan had to endure zero growth for 30 years until very recently, when enough of the elderly have died to allow the wealth to trickle downward again. So it’s always possible to keep the stagnation going for decades. I don’t believe that a sufficiently developed society can easily “collapse” just like that.
I think it will be interesting to see how seriously the youth take up the revolutionary ideas? Is it just cosplay? A ritual to vent their anger into the internet? Or is there more substance behind it. I do agree that the Chinese kids are more class conscious than most other countries.
However, I honestly doubt it can grow into a tangible movement because unlike Western capitalist countries, there is no history of trade unions in China. The people don’t even know how to organize protest movements, don’t know how to strategize to make demands from their own government. Everything would have to start from scratch.
This is actually a big advantage for the Western left wing movements who have faced off capitalists for more than a century and have an actual history of trade union movements that succeeded in making real gains and progress in the late 19th and early 20th century.
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Awoo [she/her] - 3day
I doubt there will be a re-run of the CR. It would take a lot more coalescence of the dissatisfaction to get there,
More importantly, it would require organisation. The actual CR had the country's strongest revolutionary organiser agitating it on a backdrop of far stronger student organisation that had been inherited from the actual revolution.
They are not as organised anymore and they would be doing it all themselves without experience and without that agitating voice.
sounds like graduating into the subprime mortgage thing.
the children yearn for
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ColombianLenin [he/him] - 3day
Whether this was irony pilled Gen Z black humor, or whether they truly yearn for a rerun of the CR, it doesn’t matter.
Well, if western Internet culture history says something is that what the kids might meme about can become serious in the future.
8 years ago, Hitler memes, Anne Frank jokes, racist jokes, and stuff like that was meme material and not taken seriously. Now look at the rise of fascism worldwide.
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MLRL_Commie [comrade/them, he/him] - 3day
Cause and effect must be clear though: meming likely follows the same material conditions which result in fascism also becoming more open in recent years
33
Jabril [none/use name] - 3day
At the beginning of the year when XHS blew up over here I got on to see what the hype was about.
Pretty quickly I got into the communist algorithm and ended up in a group chat with around 100 self identified communists from around the world.
The user who started that one was a youth league member from Hubei who was in college and was saying he and his peers identify as new Maoists and were saying they want a cultural revolution but without all the violence and failures of the original one.
He made it seem like it was becoming a large movement in that age range, which was good to hear at the time.
Hearing your report almost a year later keeps that hope alive
47
3rdWorldCommieCat [none/use name] - 2day
That sounds based, hopefully that makes come faster
17
mkultrawide [any] - 3day
Hasan Piker streams on bilibili for 2 weeks and the Chinese zoomers yearn for the Cultural Revolution again. Coincidence?
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xiaohongshu [none/use name] - 3day
I know you are joking but honestly come on, do Chinese people need a foreigner who knows nothing about China to teach them about their own history?
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mkultrawide [any] - 3day
Yes, I am joking, but the joke is just the standard joke about Hasan radicalizing children, not teaching Chinese people about their own history.
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Moidialectica [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
37 million in a day
Oh my
38
thelastaxolotl [he/him] - 3day
However, the Movie Explained guy (no doubt on the more extreme/ultra left) offered a re-interpretation of the film, painting the Cultural Revolution as being hijacked by the elites from the very beginning, and after the reform and opening up era, the Gang of Four was vilified by the liberal reformers who rewrote history. Wild conspiracy take but what’s even wilder was the response to the videos (which have been released in three parts, with the final part that came out on November 29th being the most controversial, which essentially reinterpreted the film’s male protagonist as Wang Hongwen).
this is the general MLM take over the events of the cultural revolution, still this seems to have gotten popular because the youth in china have a negative view of the current system so the turn to basic MLM takes, better than what happen in the west at least
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xiaohongshu [none/use name] - 3day
West is turning fascist, China is turning Maoist lol.
45
thelastaxolotl [he/him] - 3day
makes sense, when looking at the past China has Mao while the USA has the KKK
38
LeninWeave [none/use name, any] - 3day
Without the KKK, There Would Be No New Amerikkka.
42
unaware [they/them] - 3day
Uphold GroKKK Thought
17
ColombianLenin [he/him] - 3day
New Nazi Germany vs USSR vibes
29
Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
I just hope something like this is properly addressed and ends up doing good in society.
I'd be worried that this is astroturfed by the west, a massive cultural revolution style movement that destabilises and weakens the Chinese government (possibly even leading to a civil war) is exactly what the west would want to see right now. Not the actual cultural revolution part, the destabilisation part, but it wouldn't be the first time they've hijacked the youth's frustration with the system and attempted to use it to destroy China.
32
xiaohongshu [none/use name] - 3day
This cannot possibly be astroturfed lol. The numbers we’re talking about are absolutely wild, and so far beyond that the Western intelligence could feasibly pull off. And don’t forget all of these platforms are under the watch of the Chinese government and censors. You don’t get to be the #1 trending video on the largest video streaming platform without the government knowing about it. So far, Hu Xijin (the guy who always toe the establishment line) from Global Times has said that the guy over-interpreted things, don’t take it too seriously etc.
In fact, I don’t even think the government expected such overwhelming response in favor of the Cultural Revolution. Otherwise they would have “disappeared” the videos much faster than they would have allowed them to stay up. There were tens of thousands of views even at 2am after midnight (on bilibili, you can see how many audience there are in the video). There were thousands and thousands of comments from the youth writing in the comment section of the videos about how difficult and bleak their lives are (sadly the videos have since been taken down). It is as organic as you can get. Then the next morning the plug was pulled.
47
Boise_Idaho [null/void, any] - 3day
In fact, I don’t even think the government expected such overwhelming response in favor of the Cultural Revolution.
It seems like there's always this hidden undercurrent within Chinese society which expresses itself as yearning for the CR. The CPC addresses it to some degree, but the undercurrent never goes away. Bo Xilai relied on CR iconography after all, and I can't help but see Xi's tenure in that light.
38
Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
That's certainly good to hear. I would just hope that this youth frustration is channeled into something productive. In the west, the same despair for the future is used to turn our youth into fascists, so left without direction, I would worry that Chinese youth could be pushed in a similar direction. Blind worship of the man without proper understanding of his actions and writing is easily co-opted by groups with ulterior motives (as Mao himself warned about). Though the US federal agents have been especially poor at manipulating things of late, though they don't need to be successful every time, they only need to succeed once.
To paraphrase things others in this thread have said, China has developed into the wealthiest nation on the planet, yet it seems like the youth aren't feeling like the prosperity has trickled down to them, so it seems like they're hitting a tipping point right now. The CPC seems to want to keep the status quo going as long as possible, but it isn't sustainable, and hopefully this is a wake up call to them and they actively try to reform things, otherwise I could see a youth movement moving in a direction that ultimately benefits no one in China, and only their enemies overseas.
It is as organic as you can get. Then the next morning the plug was pulled.
If it's grassroots, the only thing I hope is the movement secures its power well enough from because I'm afraid something else reactionary might bubble about too in crises and fill in the vacuum, when the more revolutionary progressive forces don't get secured enough to get into power. Not something from the west, but from something close-to-home. At least from what I read from 'If We Burn'.
That's my two cents there, disagree with me when you will.
Anyways, good luck to the organic revolutionary wave, when the time comes!
32
xiaohongshu [none/use name] - 3day
It is still very far from being a real movement. This was an internet sensation after all. The collective outburst of long repressed dissatisfaction that one could always feel its latent presence, but could not actually see it being manifested in the real world.
As I have pointed out in another comment, it is the youth making their demands: they want to have a slice of the cake, and a seat at the table. With the implicit threat that if this continues, maybe something like a Cultural Revolution is not impossible. But at the end of the day, it’s dissatisfaction of the current economic climate and losing out their upward social mobility, so this is their form of “protest”.
The government will have to respond, one way or another.
33
ColombianLenin [he/him] - 3day
I'd be worried that this is astroturfed by the west
They can't astroturf a "Gen Z" protest in Mexico, what hope do they have of trying to sway radicalized youth in China?
They actually tried that BTW, that was Tienanmen Square in 1989.
29
jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
Ok so what I'm really curious about after thinking all this over some more: what paths forward are there for expressing this yearning for socialism for the youth? From my external perspective, I see a few potential directions this all goes. Lemme know if any of these are actually possible or what I'm missing. I'll refer to this whole phenomena as "Youth Maoism" for lack of a better term.
::: spoiler sidebar on Chinese socialism
This is coming from the take I'm coalescing lately about China that it is socialism in stasis, where deeply rooted democratic and socialist structures exist in contradiction with powerful oligarchic and capitalist structures throughout society, and the CPC's careful balancing act has made moving forward very difficult without some kind of internal or external shock, especially when so much astounding technological and economic progress is at stake.
:::
First, Youth Maoism could simply remain in the space of ideas, memes, literary criticism. In the west, political trends often sweep through the youth in almost entirely online spaces without ever coalescing in any coherent real world or organizational sense. Since they're reflections of real material conditions, they do inevitably end up feeding into something, but that real world expression need not reflect any particular online trend, especially if there's a significant time gap. In this case, we would eventually see some other form of anti-systemic expression emerge unless China effectively handles the economic issues through institutional methods - a strong possibility, given the PRC's frequently demonstrated flexibility and problem solving capacity.
Second, Youth Maoism could become an actual anti-institutional political movement. As you've pointed out elsewhere in the thread, that's not something Chinese people have much experience with since Reform and Opening Up. There are no lasting protest movements because of both state repression and the state's ability to effectively address popular concerns before they bubble over into irrepressible unrest. As dialectical marxists, that second component is important - it is impossible to construct a society where suppression alone eliminates resistance. Therefore, forming that movement would be incredibly difficult, a lengthy process of trial and error to discover what methods can succeed and grow in the PRC's particular conditions. If this remains external to the CPC, it will obviously face huge pressure and the power of the state. This is the most dangerous path forward, because it's where imperialist forces can find a foothold to influence these movements. I don't think the CIA has the juice to pull off anything like that in China, but it would also be naive to totally rule it out. And the long term course of something like this impossible to predict. Could there truly be a socialist revolution within China? In a way, that adheres to an orthodox ML analysis, where the socialist state eventually gives way to popular pressure and begins the process of withering away. I dunno.
Third, Youth Maoism could become a current - and potentially a powerful, influential one - within the CPC. The CPC has undergone dramatic political changes before, developing new orientations and strategies in response to new pressures, including from the masses. This would be a sort of institutional, peaceful Cultural Revolution. Vigorous mass youth engagement with the Party and its external organs could reform the organization and drive China towards a more socialist road. The party is made of its membership, and Xi has worked on building a more rigorous Marxist current in the party. This could be taking that effort and running with it. This, too, is an interpretation of that same orthodox ML analysis about popular will leading to the demise of the state and the progression to communism.
Finally, there could be a grassroots, non-oppositional expression that I predict would be expressed primarily in rural China. State and party media like to prop up rural revitalization efforts that, in their English-language presentation, focus on a few main themes I've identified: Grassroots democracy, entrepreneurial youth returning from the city, ecologically sound development, and cooperative rural enterprises. I have very little understanding of the depths of these on the ground, but I'll operate on the assumption that they represent growing trends, whatever their current scale is. If that's the case, Youth Maoism could express itself as a grassroots organizational process that adheres closely to the Party's objectives and methods but carries out creative socialist innovation on the ground. Here I'm back on my Venezuela communes bullshit (everybody read Commune or Nothing!). In Venezuela, these same four elements (although the youth movement looks quite different) lead to the communard movement that is rapidly advancing socialist construction in the Bolivarian Republic. If the Youth Maoists look outward to other socialist projects and study their comrades in other countries (is there any Proletarian Internationalism to this trend?), they could go into the countryside, utilize state support, and build more complex and democratic collective economic structures. Interestingly, the communards in Venezuela consciously wield the collectivist trends of indigenous and Afro-Caribbean history as a potent cultural weapon in the construction of their new model. What country on earth has a stronger living memory of collective ownership, communes, and rural socialism than China? This is not, on its own, an overturning of Chinese society. It would certainly represent a new evolution of the rural-urban contradiction. Perhaps it could find expression in Chinese cities, especially longer-standing communities with well-established collective structures. This, I think, is the ideal path forward and the best possible expression of the withering away of the state.
Of course, if this Youth Maoism actually becomes a movement in any material sense, it would find expressions in all of the above and other possibilities I've not imagined. Any real political movement rooted in a Marxist analysis of actually existing conditions is a varied, complex process of historical change on all available fronts.
32
qcop [none/use name] - 3day
Are the 3 parts videos mirrored somewhere? Maybe on Youtube? I’d like to watch them if there are some english subtitles for them.
29
aanes_appreciator [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
I'm a little lost with how to interpret the cultural revolution and its legacy in China. Is it something that is considered a positive influence? Is it considered less important to other moments in the country's history, such as the great leap forward?
27
FunkyStuff [he/him] - 3day
I think it's seen as a pretty huge moment and a turning point. I'm by no means an expert but I generally see the reform and opening up period as a backswing from the CR, with the CR being the point where they fully leaned into the attempt at a radically progressive and new society, free from the legacy of feudalism and colonialism, followed by a period of reckoning with the impossibility of those goals. That's why the reaction to reform and opening up from the more ultra-left/MTW crowd is that of wishing the CR had kept going and that Deng had never won.
33
WokePalpatine [he/him] - 3day
The most recent review of this movie on Letterboxd is a Chinese liberal review referencing the Billibilli videos, I think. Their taste in movies also sucks ass.
"our dominance is fading" a sentence said by extremely good guys, very very nice guys
59
DogThatWentGorp [he/him, they/them] - 2day
"defence" and "dominance" being used interchangeably feels like nonsense even on its face. How do those writers dress themselves let alone make salary?
56
OffSeasonPrincess [she/her] - 2day
Pre-emptive defensive domination
46
miz [any, any] - 2day
now racialize it and you've got zionism/settler-colonialism
35
DogThatWentGorp [he/him, they/them] - 2day
NYT: "China's social housing programs invoke the dystopian themes of 1984"
Also the NYT: "PEACE THROUGH WAR. DEFENCE THROUGH AGRESSION. SUBSERVIENCE IS LIBERTY"
32
OffSeasonPrincess [she/her] - 2day
1984 is when Asia. The more Asia, the more 1984
23
Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them] - 2day
They get a kick out of saying the quiet part out loud every now and then. Like when they talk about "liberating" another country and just throw in mentions of their mineral wealth and natural resources.
29
Lovely_sombrero [he/him] - 2day
In the article, they are calling for... a bigger US military budget. You know, the one thing that America doesn't like to do, increase military spending.
54
someone [comrade/them, they/them] - 2day
I've long thought that the US military budget is the true measure of USD inflation. The MIC will never tolerate a drop in real-dollar revenue. I think calls from the media to increase it are just part of the larger plan to try to hide the true scope of inflation.
8
miz [any, any] - 2day
Traditional weapons — such as artillery shells, ships and aircraft — will still be crucial to future wars, but the U.S. defense industry has lost the ability to produce them at scale and speed.
then they just move on with no attempt to explain or analyze why
51
Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them] - 2day
It's probably the fault of CHYNA and RUSSIA!
35
supafuzz [comrade/them] - 2day
"has defended the free world" is a funny way to say "has been on the wrong side of every single struggle for liberation"
51
miz [any, any] - 2day
::: spoiler (cw: sexual assault, bestiality)
nobody seems to be able to explain why US proxies need to train dogs to r*pe prisoners in order to defend the free world
:::
20
miz [any, any] - 2day
look at this complete reversal of history. revisionist garbage:
There is also a conceptual failure: the idea that more sophisticated is always better. For decades the American military has relied on systems that are bespoke, complex and wildly expensive.
That made some sense back when our primary adversary, the Soviet Union, pursued a similar approach, allowing the West to spend it into the ground.
"we love wunderwaffe, but so did the Soviets" is so fucking ridiculous.
45
Awoo [she/her] - 2day
There is also a conceptual failure: the idea that more sophisticated is always better. For decades the American military has relied on systems that are bespoke, complex and wildly expensive.
Sophisticated is fine if you can produce it at a massive scale for a sustained war effort.
If you can't, all that sophisticated shit will be gone in the first 3 weeks of a peer war.
Ideally you merge sophistication with scale.
27
miz [any, any] - 2day
22
aanes_appreciator [he/him, comrade/them] - 2day
The USSR was playing catch up for most of the cold war lmao, apart from when it found ways to mass produce "good enough" systems that turned the latest generation of shiny bollocks into scrap.
17
miz [any, any] - 2day
ARE BUILDING TO
DEFEAT US
must be short for United States because it's never "us" when it's time to hand out corporate profits
41
miz [any, any] - 2day
37
Boise_Idaho [null/void, any] - 2day
itsafraid.gif
36
Cowbee [he/him, they/them] - 2day
27
MaxOS [he/him] - 2day
finally some good news
26
ghosts [he/him] - 1day
"The tanker seized near Venezuela by the US is named Skipper and was carrying a false flag of nationality...It was seized because of its past links to smuggling illicit Iranian oil...although it was carrying Venezuelan oil" -NYT
"Asked what would happen to the oil on the seized oil tanker, President Trump said: 'Well, we keep it, I guess.'" -NYT
77
sexywheat [none/use name] - 2day
Brussels has unlocked a legal mechanism allowing indefinite freezing of Russian central bank assets without unanimous EU consent—bypassing any Hungarian veto—by citing “economic disturbances caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine.”
I can't think of a better way to ensure that the rest of the world never, EVER trusts your banking system ever again. Are they completely out of their minds?
For real, Europe seems to be so about Russia that they're not thinking straight. They cannot see that the war in Ukraine is lost, they are hell bent on continuing a lost conflict no matter the cost, their global reputation and economic well-being be damned.
It's like they're committed to global economic irrelevancy.
74
demerit @lemmygrad.ml - 2day
They are going to take themselves out of the empire game - this is great news for us socialists.
39
spectre [he/him] - 2day
US needs to do the same asap
19
jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 2day
Unfortunately the US is far more dangerous on its way out
14
LeninWeave [none/use name, any] - 2day
To be fair, Europe already killed 85+ million people on its way out.
20
jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 2day
Good point, and the US could never wage a war as self-destructive as WWII was for the European empires. Even a very bad US Civil War II would pale in comparison to what European states were able and willing to do to each other.
12
woodenghost [comrade/them] - 1day
Aren't they just becoming ever more dependent vassals of the US empire?
9
woodenghost [comrade/them] - 1day
Maybe they are? Maybe these leaders act perfectly rational as compradors of the US, subjugating Europe under the US empire, while they personally benefit.
7
Lovely_sombrero [he/him] - 3day
Tesla's autonomous AI-powered Optimus robot (that Elon assured everyone is no longer being operated remotely) does the same motion that a tele-operator would do to take off his virtual reality headset, then collapses. The gif is great, really represents the current state of AI.
Exactly 100 years ago, ibn Saud and his army of Wahhabi death cultists were killing and conquering Arabs across the Arabian Peninsula, armed with British weapons. December 1925 was 10 months into a brutal siege of Jeddah.
The fanatical Saudi-Wahhabi army then laid a yearlong crippling siege on the seaport city of Jeddah causing starvation. As a result, drinking water was practically impossible to find and Jeddah’s poor spent their days searching the streets for food in the garbage. Many of them even picked and ate the undigested corn found in the camels’ dung. After severely bombarding the city for some time, the ignorant Saudi-Wahhabi fighters finally entered Jeddah and immediately began destroying the telephone lines, the radio station, and other signs of modern life, considered by them (at that time) to be sacrilegious and work of the Devil.
Today, Jeddah is hosting porn stars while Riyadh is assisting US-israel in the starvation sieges of south Lebanon, Yemen, and Gaza.
Since before it was the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Saudis have aligned themselves with Western colonizers and shrouded their collaboration in an ideological-religious smokescreen. While paying lip-service to Islamic brotherhood, the Saudi monarchy has instead always been invested in its own brutal self-preservation and profiteering above any moral or humanitarian interest. Thus, when examining a regime such as the Saudis it is essential to examine their true history, class interests and imperialist sponsors rather than high-flown rhetoric. And this is especially the case when it comes to the Zionist occupation of Palestine and the Palestinian liberation struggle.
Death to al Saud.
69
deathtoreddit @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
Death to al Saud indeed. Anyways thanks for the article.
31
Lisitsyn [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
wdym porn stars? those are just regular actors, no?
20
AlHouthi4President @lemmy.ml - 3day
To be honest, I actually don't know if 50 Shades of Gray is pornography but I believe that is the claim being made in the tweet. Is that incorrect? I'll update the post if so.
15
P1d40n3 [he/him] - 3day
50 Shades kinda rides to line between porn and romance. I would be uncomfortable calling it straight up porn, but I could understand that interpretation.
20
AlHouthi4President @lemmy.ml - 3day
For me, the point of emphasis is that the establishment of the Saudi state, and its Wahhabi doctrine today are extremely rigid. They said radio was bidah...
And even beyond this, as the so-called custodians of the Hijaz, literally paying people whose job is to make this kind of content to come glorify the "openness" of the regime, while Muslims routinely die during Hajj and Umrah, and actual children are sentenced to death on the basis of "disrespecting the Islamic ruler", something very perverse is happening.
8
P1d40n3 [he/him] - 2day
The house of Saud is a tumor on the region, I agree. Just wanted to provide a bit of context as asked for.
With that said, people dying on the Hajj is horrifying. Doubly so for the literal child murder.
Can't wait for the US to screw the Saudis over, just like every other collaborator the US has ever had.
11
OffSeasonPrincess [she/her] - 3day
The siege account sounds like cambodian civil war shit jfc
12
Redcuban1959 [any] - 1day
The United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, two American sources told Reuters news agency. No further information is available about the circumstances of the seizure or the ship. The move comes amid a massive US military buildup in the region, including an aircraft carrier, fighter jets, and tens of thousands of troops.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the operation was led by the US Coast Guard. However, details such as the name of the tanker and the location of the interception were not disclosed. Venezuela exported more than 900,000 barrels of oil per day last month, the third-highest monthly average of the year so far. Even with growing pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Washington has not interfered with the country's oil flow.
Telegram
68
miz [any, any] - 4day
From the singular non-astroturfed response from X dot com
Zohran Mamdani’s “know your rights” video is dangerously outdated and misleading in 2025:
ICE no longer treats schools as “sensitive locations.”
This was a policy revoked on Day 1 (Jan 2025).
Agents can now enter public school grounds without any warrant or school permission.
In truly public areas of a school (lobbies, playgrounds, hallways open to the public), ICE needs zero warrant to be present, observe, or make an arrest if they have probable cause — just like local police.
The video’s blanket “no warrant, no entry” line only applies to private homes and non-public school spaces (classrooms, offices). It does not apply to the public parts of a school.
Telling parents and kids they’re safe in school because ICE “can’t come in without a judicial warrant” is flat-out wrong under current federal policy.
Rights to remain silent and demand a judicial warrant for forced entry still exist, but the video omits the massive 2025 policy shift that removed school protections.
This isn’t empowerment — it’s creating false security in places where ICE is now explicitly allowed to operate.
[redacted section]
reposted @hello_hello@hexbear.net's comment because it was within the hour of the last thread being locked. I know this is Madani struggling, but I think this is exceptionally egregious and ICE is definitely a valid news mega topic. this is also information that could help save someone's life so...
67
hello_hello [comrade/them] - 4day
My bad on getting heated and going off-topic. But I don't think posting about the mamdani admin's actions should count as electoralism anymore, the election is over and the power transfer is already on full display.
His "PSAs" can and will put people in danger and are going to be spread because of his political clout.
39
carpoftruth [any, any] - 4day
no one is getting banned for posting wrong unless it goes against the code of conduct. if you really want to talk about this video or response to it then please revise this post to remove the personal attack against XHS and the struggle session bait. without those changes I will remove this post in a few hours. I encourage you and other zohran posters to keep in mind that this is comm is not for electoralism, so don't turn this into another 'what are the limits of socdems in america' thread
37
miz [any, any] - 4day
oh hey, I didn't even notice that, just reposting hello_hello's late post. I'll delete everything except the quoted section
23
ElChapoDeChapo [he/him, comrade/them] - 4day
I really want to wait until he's in office to judge but he isn't waiting to make these unforced errors so
31
SickSemper [she/her, they/them] - 3day
Why in the world should we wait till he has power to judge things he’s doing now? Nothing about being in or out of office changes that this is bad, that keeping the Nazi on is bad, that tacking to the right is bad.
16
demerit @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
As I once predicted, people that support mamdani will cope and compromise until they are as left wing as Keir Stürmer and Labor Party.
11
SickSemper [she/her, they/them] - 3day
They either break and realize socialism will not be achieved through democrats or they will remain democrats, Sturmer style
6
CyborgMarx [any, any] - 3day
Why in the world should we wait till he has power to judge things he’s doing now?
Maybe because rhetoric isn't a direct one-to-one with policies and the power to enact them
Otherwise when dems activate their rhetorical faux-progressive mode once every decade, we should just believe them right?
5
SickSemper [she/her, they/them] - 3day
After winning election, why would his rhetoric be misrepresenting his actions in office? It’s not like he needs votes or that what he says today affects what reaction he’ll receive in a month. Dems go progressive to win elections. Is he just lying for fun? Also the misinfo re ICE isn’t policy, it’s just wrong.
The Tisch announcement is an announcement of policy, I don’t care what he’s signaling or the 4d chess behind the scene
1
CyborgMarx [any, any] - 3day
After winning election, why would his rhetoric be misrepresenting his actions in office?
Have you seen the opposition he's up against? Do you believe the hysteria the capitalists displayed over him was just noise?
1
SickSemper [she/her, they/them] - 3day
So he’s lying to the capitalists about ICE and pretending to appoint Jessica Tisch to make nice with Trump? Fantastic strategy, let’s see if they’ll be nicer once he’s in power in a few weeks
1
CyborgMarx [any, any] - 3day
I mean it literally worked, the hysteria died down and he started getting positive coverage, now we wait to see what he'll do in January, that's when I start making final judgments
1
ColombianLenin [he/him] - 4day
Inb4
Anyways socdems will always socdem
27
vegeta1 [he/him] - 2day
Trumps memory is shot to shit
67
Lovely_sombrero [he/him] - 3day
Trump said that Xi asked him "Is that a Trump statement, or is that real?" after he'd told him that US soybeans were more nutritious than competitors.
An Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps spokesman today stated that an Iranian missile strike during the June war killed 36 people in the Mossad headquarters:
All your biometrics: face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris
All your phone numbers from the last 5 years
All your email addresses from the last 10 years
IP addresses and metadata from your submitted photos
Names of your family members (parents, spouse, siblings, children)
All your family members' phone numbers from the last 5 years
Your family members' dates of birth
Your family members' places of birth
Your family members' residencies
All your business phone numbers from the last 5 years
All your business email addresses from the last 10 years
62
Lovely_sombrero [he/him] - 4day
US manufacturing again down almost ~20k jobs in November;
Unrelated: "The US Labor Department announces it has cancelled the October PPI inflation report."
62
MemesAreTheory [he/him, any] - 3day
Probably not important anyway
39
ziggurter [he/him, comrade/them] - 2day
But have you considered Trump's masterful, "Nuh uh. It's up by about a bajillion, actually," response?
2
larrikin99 [none/use name] - 17hr
the spineless bilingual North Americans, after spending the start of the year farming reddit karma when Trump was talking about annexing them, now won't even lift a finger when Venezuela's sovereignty is being threatened by the same entity. Even the UK and Colombia have ended intelligence sharing "in the region", but Tim Hortonia continues to operate with the USCG, which works directly with the USN.
On the 1 year anniversary of the great Syrian tragedy, Alawites are on strike) protesting brutality and killings by the al Qaeda regime. Reports that state security thugs executed an Alawite man in Latakia on "liberation day" for not celebrating.
Damascus held a large parade, although I am suspicious as to the real size of the turnout. (I would not be surprised if it was large or small, but they have a habit of presenting deceptive footage to make the regime more popular.)
Outbursts of violent "clashes" continue between takfiri groups and Druze in Suweida.
The economic situation in Syria is increasingly dire as the coup government reports a surplus by simply firing tens of thousands of public servants and cutting subsidies on gas and electricity. Success!
Saudi outlet al Arabiya has thrown in their media warfare apparatus continuing to rewrite history by screening years old footage from the previous (actually elected) president. I wonder what they are covering up.
Al Qaeda regime FM Shaibani (Baghdadi??) has affirmed his commitment to normalization with the zionist cancer.
Of course the zionist cancer continues to carry out field executions, bombings, and kidnapping operations in Southern Syria.
CENTCOM recently publicly congratulated the coup regime for intercepting weapons shipments destined for the Lebanese resistance.
The horrible consequences of this imperialist coup will be felt over decades if not generations, for the region and the planet.
59
demerit @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
The looting of syria continues, as a dark mirror to the collapse of the soviet union. All the while usa-israhell-turkey build massive border walls and spy nodes, essentially isolating each middle eastern country into an island. The total victory of barbarism.
43
AlHouthi4President @lemmy.ml - 3day
Yinon Plan playing out in front of our eyes.
28
demerit @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
From Sudan to Iraq to Yemen, they worked very hard to destroy Pan-Arabism and every regional power.
No doubt they will move against Turkey and Saudi Arabia in the near future. Israhell is already bombing Turks in Syria and closing in on northern cyprus. Lets see how NATO breaks apart then.
28
AlHouthi4President @lemmy.ml - 3day
No doubt they will move against Turkey and Saudi Arabia in the near future.
This is wishful thinking in my opinion.
Al Saud is the second most effective counterinsurgency tool for the empire in the region after the zionist cancer itself. It makes no sense for them to fight. And Turkiye is NATO (subservient to USA).
The rats may squabble amongst each other but they all bow to Uncle Sam and they all are collaborating on their shared goal to destroy Hezbollah, Yemen, and the main prize Islamic Iran.
28
AlHouthi4President @lemmy.ml - 1day
ANNOUNCED TODAY: The International Campaign to Free Lebanese Prisoners in Occupation Jails
There are currently at least 20 Lebanese prisoners held in the occupation prisons, as well as at least 1 Palestinian refugee to Lebanon. This number is neither complete nor certain, as the zionist occupation denies even the existence of the Lebanese prisoners – over half of them abducted after the ceasefire on 27 November 2024.
The International Campaign to Free Lebanese Prisoners from Occupation Prisons is an international response to the call of the Lebanese prisoners and their family members for worldwide support. Our campaign aims to build grassroots, popular and official solidarity to compel the freedom of all of the Lebanese prisoners in occupation prisons and to bring the ongoing zionist aggression on Lebanon to an end.
I'm baffled as to why the Europeans want to continue the war since they are the ones getting hurt from it.
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sexywheat [none/use name] - 3day
I think the Euros are having a real hard time accepting the new geopolitical reality. With US backing they've been pretty much invincible in the entire post-war period. NATO pushed hard against Ukraine for 10+ years and then lost. I think they view themselves as being left holding the bag. They're in denial IMO.
47
MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any] - 3day
Because they view Ukraine as not isolated to Ukraine, but as a war against Europe by Russia. Much better for the frontline to be in Ukraine than Estonia or Poland.
40
miz [any, any] - 3day
k but that's divorced from reality to anyone who has spent ten minutes learning about 2014-2022
33
3rdWorldCommieCat [none/use name] - 2day
90% of euros don't know anything about that part or think it's russia propaganda tho lmao
31
TheSovietOnion [none/use name] - 3day
There's possibly a lot of personal gain on the horizon for the ones in charge of decisions in Europe
36
DootDoot [he/him] - 2day
Euros are heavily propoganized about the war in Ukraine to a point they see Russia as the one facing inevitable defeat. Bringing them back to reality through a peace settlement containing Ukranian concessions would result in serious political upheaval, which would favor the eurosceptic politicians questioning the point of the billions sent to Ukraine.
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sisatici [he/him] - 3day
I think they genuinely feel threatened by Russia but I don't know
28
FuckyWucky [none/use name] - 3day
"Borrowing" costs won't rise since exchange rate is the thing that moves, not interest rate. In case of heavy selloff, Fed will stabilize yields.
When you sell US Treasuries you get Dollars. Only when you sell those Dollars in the forex markets does the Dollar depreciate. Will the EU be just replacing US Treasuries with USD. If so it's not very meaningful.
Are the EU countries willing to tolerate capital losses on their holdings if they go with USD for EUR? Ie they will get less and less of Euros as they dump USD.
The US can simply prevent or limit conversions to foreign currency. It's their computers. Will markets react badly? Sure, but whether or not this is catastrophic is uncertain.
Given the massive exchange rate appreciation of the EUR if they do sell, trade competitiveness will be undermined significantly. Other countries will have to get hold of more units of Dollars which they get from abroad to purchase European goods and services.
U.S. Dollars powers come from rest of the world being willing to accumulate it. Not from the existing stock of debt (which is functionally not different from interest earning cash). Will that change if EU dumps Treasuries?
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Lovely_sombrero [he/him] - 3day
And also most US treasuries are held by commercial banks, not by the ECB. Hard to just order them to sell. But it is funny that as soon as peace is on the table, the EU is looking for a nuclear option against the US.
Here is a nuclear option - give nukes to Iran!
32
Biddles [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
The EU and UK hold over $2 trillion in treasuries. QE of that size would be massive at a time when the Fed is trying to lower inflation. It would be very painful for the US, and yields would certainly rise
17
Kieselguhr [none/use name] - 3day
This is just wrong
EU wouldn't do it anyway, even they aren't that stupid
15
Biddles [he/him, comrade/them] - 2day
What is wrong, exactly? If you're referring to fuckywucky's point 1, I agree lol, it is wrong
QE is a deliberate monetary policy, it being scheduled is part of the definition
anyway even genuine QE is just an asset swap, it wouldn't cause inflation of your average basket of goods, it could only inflate a stock market bubble
QE is a terribly neoliberal policy btw, it's trickle-down economics
2
FuckyWucky [none/use name] - 2day
Worst case scenario, Fed can open a window where they will buy all the treasuries at a fixed price targeting a certain yield. Markets will arbitrage it keeping yields near the target.
Australia did it during COVID, not because of any sell-offs but to lower long term yields to near short term ones.
In the gold standard era, doing so would result in everyone holding Dollars which they could convert to Gold (at least foreigners could). This would drain gold reserves and they would actually have to try borrow gold from the market and take away convertible currency at higher and higher yields until markets won't give you anything regardless of yield (see Greece).
That is not a binding constraint under float. Hence why bond issuance for fiscal policy is no longer needed. It has stopped being the price Govt pays to market to get them to hold your bonds over convertible cash. It is now simply a free money asset.
The idea of QE causing inflation comes from a very trickle down idea supply creating demand. The idea that if you just give reserves to bank by doing QE (an asset swap), lending will somehow rise. That's not the case, banks lend to whoever they see as profitable within their risk appetite, they won't lend because Gov swapped their bonds for reserves. Businesses and individuals won't take loans if their own balance sheets are squeezed. Banks just end up holding excess reserves and lending just as they did before. The only effect it does have is by lowering long term rates. I am not suggesting lowering rates, I am saying they will do YCC like bond buying. The Fed then sets the curve just as they set Fed funds rate.
9
jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
lmaoooooooooooo there's no fucking way they would follow through on that, where would that leave them? are they gonna do a great political shift to China or are they just gonna lay down in front of Russian drones and die?
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SexUnderSocialism [she/her] - 3day
are they just gonna lay down in front of Russian drones and die?
Yes.
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LeninWeave [none/use name, any] - 2day
are they gonna do a great political shift to China or are they just gonna lay down in front of Russian drones and die?
Thinking about my comment earlier today on how easily China could refinance SL's remaining IMF debt. I got curious: could the PRC just eliminate the IMF in a single blow by paying off all of its debt?
162 billion dollars in outstanding debt to the IMF. How's it split up?
First, wow! Argentina is fucked beyond belief. Holy shit. What a goddamn disaster. There are some interesting observations, here, though. Other than Argentina and Ecuador (conveniently the US's most pathetic running dogs in LatAm atm), Latin America has largely gotten out of the IMF trap. Asia looks pretty similar outside the three big ones shown. Instead, the real locus of imperial and colonialist suffering under the IMF (like under every other capitalist tool) is in Africa. There, IMF debt is spread far more evenly across far poorer countries, entrapping the entire continent in their fiscal schemes. China has already done a great deal to relieve the burdern of the IMF on Africa, but there's so much more - from Africa's perspective. From China's perspective, though, this is nothing. Leave aside Argentina and Ukraine for the moment given their geopolitical alignment. We've seen the headlines bouncing around about China's new $1tn trade surplus.
Now, I'm speaking directly to Xi Jinping and the Communist Party of China. Xi and other esteemed comrades: for the low price of 10% of just this year's trade surplus, you could unshackle Africa and the rest of the colonized world from endless debt peonage. The US is withdrawing from the world stage to focus its evil eye on Latin America, a position your intelligent planning, economic development, and trade dominance has forced them into without the imperialist devils able to fire a single shot against you. Xi, you speak often about party members always remembering the lofty goal of leading your people to true communism. And you understand, as a student of Lenin and Mao, the centrality of imperial finance capital and modern colonization in perpetuating capitalism and imposing underdevelopment. And, of course, you know full well the urgency of defeating global capitalism for the preservation of the planet and the thriving of all peoples in a shared future for all humanity. Material reality has long constrained the breadth of options available to you in directly resisting the imperialist system, and so you have carried out the long game of reform and opening up. Well done to all of you on your dedication, which is an inspiration to progressive people all over the world.
But now, new opportunities present themselves. You have recently achieved the incredible feet of $1,000,000,000,000 in trade surplus. What to do with all that cash, you're asking yourselves? Well, were I in your position, I'd invest somewhere between 800,000,000,000 and 900,000,000,000 in improving the lives of your people as infrastructure, social welfare, and enforced reductions in working hours. That remainder? Kill the IMF. One fatal blow, toppling the system. No military interventions. No violating sovereignty. No interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. Just cut out the International MotherFuckers so the rest of the world can stand up next to you.
Comrades, thank you for you consideration of my proposal. Long live the Communist Party of China!
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xiaohongshu [none/use name] - 3day
I have been saying since 2022 that China should use its $800 billion US treasuries to pay off Africa’s $800 billion external debt and flood them with yuan to kill the dollar.
I have since learned that it’s not going to happen because of what I posted here last time:
Wang Jian (王建) from China Society of Macroeconomic Research, who proposed the Great External Circulation strategy back in 1987 that was officially adopted by the central government, talked about this in an interview in the early 2000s:
China is the greatest beneficiary of the dollar hegemony… the huge trade deficit of the US also represented a huge demand for Chinese products, and spurred our economic growth… What we have to worry about now, is the global financial instability caused by the depreciation of the US dollar. If the dollar loses its global currency hegemonic status, it will no longer have the capacity to sustain its deficit to drive Asia’s growth, and this will especially affect China’s economic growth. This would be the most terrible thing to happen.
In September 2020, months after China proposed the Dual Circulation Strategy (export balanced by domestic consumption), Wang Jian reasserted the importance of dollar hegemony in an interview:
China is the country that relies the most on the dollar system, because the RMB is not internationalized, whereas the Euro, the Japanese yen, the Korean won, are all internationalized currencies. In the past, China has continuously enjoyed the benefit of the dollar hegemony - the RMB is not an internationalized currency, yet Chinese businesses can expand to become the world’s largest, because transactions in China are settled in US dollars. If the dollar system collapses, then the proportion of the US dollar as a reserve currency and settlement currency will fall steeply. For instance, if it drops from 60% to 30%, the country that is hurt the most must be China. Hence, if the dollar system encounters trouble during the 14th FYP period (2021-2025), it will cause great impact to China’s production.
Source is from Jia Genliang’s Modern Monetary Theory in China (2023)
Once you understand this, you will understand that China cannot and will not give up the dollar system, especially its hegemonic status. The status quo greatly benefited the Chinese economy and there is no reason to give up even when the US itself is threatening to end the arrangement, because China still has plenty of cards to play (e.g. rare earth export). The US will find itself unable to decouple from China.
This is also why when the US confiscation of Russia’s $300 billion foreign reserve at the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, and the Fed rate hike that caused dollar liquidity crisis in many Global South countries and spurred strong interest in many to leave the dollar regime, China has been the one that was and still is the most reluctant to abandon the US dollar. If China doesn’t want to, then nobody else can do anything about it. The Biden administration correctly gambled that China would not threaten the dollar hegemony during the rate hike in 2022.
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jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
First, can you send my comment up the ladder of the CPC? I think it'll make a big difference.
That’s not a lot. Russia, a far smaller economy, forgave $23 billion of Africa’s debt in August 2022 alone, which is more than the entirety of African debt relieved by China since 2000.
9
immuredanchorite [he/him, any] - 3day
I have also read that a few countries have turned around and borrow more from the IMF once their more favorable debt burden has been forgiven. The root of the problem is partly that these countries are full of self-serving politicians who will see the short term benefit of taking on toxic debt as a no-brainer, and accepting IMF loans and conditions is probably going to grant your compradors some (spurious) level of protection in exchange for fealty … and China won’t interfere or demand a change in behavior, because they don’t interfere in other countries internal affairs in general, at least openly
11
aanes_appreciator [he/him, comrade/them] - 4day
You have recently achieved the incredible feet
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jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 4day
Xi's foot-focused onlyfans is propping up the chinese economic bubble
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FunkyStuff [he/him] - 4day
ill let him know
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Torenico [he/him] - 3day
And to make things worse our 56 billion in debt translates into no material benefits for us, meaning no bridges, hospitals, schools and power plants were built using these loans.
This country has always lived off on debts, since pretty much the 1860s. At least back then these loans were used to improve productive capacities and had some returns, but these days we just take loans from the IMF for the sake of it, or we take loans to finance other loans that are reaching their deadlines.
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demerit @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
IMF debt is mostly just america's puppet regimes - it seems we will once again see two worlds - the ailling dept empire of the us and the free world led by china.
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volcel_olive_oil [he/him] - 3day
I am not an economist but I don't think the IMF would let them
13
jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
What do you think they would do?
10
Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
8
volcel_olive_oil [he/him] - 3day
"very bad China no good money nation safe in IMF gnarled claw" type of reason
LA PAZ, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Bolivian ex-President Luis Arce, who left office last month, has been detained by police, a former member of his cabinet said on Wednesday.
Arce may have been called in to testify in relation to an investigation into alleged embezzlement that happened while he was serving as economy minister under former President Evo Morales, Maria Nela Prada, who served as minister to the presidency under Arce, told journalists.
"Of course he's innocent," Prada told journalists. "This has been a total abuse of power. We hope this case is not being taken as an opportunity to carry out political persecution."
She added that he had not been notified or ordered to appear. "They simply took him," she said.
Reuters was not able to independently verify Arce's whereabouts.
Local media reported that a Bolivian specialized police force known as FELCC had detained Arce. FELCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The embezzlement investigation centers around alleged state disbursements from a fund to finance projects for Indigenous communities.
Investigators cited by local media on Wednesday said evidence presented in the case implicated Arce in the misappropriation of public resources.
The arrest comes less than two months after centrist candidate Rodrigo Paz won the October runoff election, ending nearly two decades of dominance by the leftist MAS party that Arce represented. Paz has pledged to tackle corruption within state institutions.
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Redcuban1959 [any] - 2day
Bolivia's new U.S. puppet administration will meet with the Zionist entity to advance the process of establishing diplomatic relations between Bolivia and ‘Israel’.
Imagine: The US military is in a hot engagement with China, meanwhile the Gemini AI is just stuck in a loop saying: "You must construct additional Pylons".
Generative AI is now in use across the Department of War. This morning, December 9, 2025, all DOW employees received a memo announcing “Gemini Enterprise” a Google-made generative AI tool. I obtained this memo and screenshots of the Gemini interface.
Pete Hegseth, to all employees: “Victory belongs to those who embrace real innovation. Rather than being reliant on the dusty, antiquated systems of a bygone era, we are thinking ahead here in the Department of War. http://genai.mil/ is part of this monumental transformation. It removes wasted time and focuses more of our energy into deceive results for the warfighter.”
What do you mean by that? Almost gave me a heart attack reading that in the News Mega.
EDIT: Didnt see the "Imagine:" before it.
41
MizuTama [he/him, any] - 2day
News mega ensuring none of us truly feel at peace
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LeninWeave [none/use name, any] - 2day
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LeninWeave [none/use name, any] - 2day
EDIT: Didnt see the "Imagine:" before it.
It was edited in lol.
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Lovely_sombrero [he/him] - 2day
Sorry!
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LeninWeave [none/use name, any] - 2day
Absolutely got me lmao, for a second I was thinking "wow, I want things to happen, but not like this" before I realized the meaning of the sentence.
16
john_brown [comrade/them] - 2day
Rather than being reliant on the dusty, antiquated systems of a bygone era
but I thought the dusty antiquated systems of a bygone era like toxic masculinity, not allowing women to be in the military, hating anybody who isn't cisgender (and also hating all women by default) were what made us strong???
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Boise_Idaho [null/void, any] - 2day
He says this after malding about the newer name of the department being too woke lmao
12
miz [any, any] - 2day
hope the grunts like glue pizza
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context [fae/faer, fae/faer] - 2day
8
SoyViking [he/him] - 2day
But what if the bot is a fattie? How many pushups can it do? Has the bot been properly hazed?
Former Biden Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Europe at the National Security Council Amanda Sloat was prank called by those people who got Stephen King to praise Stepan Bandera and call him a great man right after mentioning that he was a Holocaust perpetrator.
She openly stated that had the US advised Ukraine to agree to remain neutral and not join NATO, that Russia wouldn't have invaded and all the death and destruction could have been avoided, but that they didn't want good relations between Ukraine and Russia because it would increase Russia's sphere of influence.
The set of three laws will police names and pronouns in school, ban transgender girls from participating in amateur female sports, and restrict gender-affirming health care for youth under 16.
The latter prohibits doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapy for those under 16.
The notwithstanding clause is basically a mechanism that provincial and federal governments can use in Canada to pass temporary laws that are likely to violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and can't be struck down by the courts for 5 years. It has been frequently used by Ontario, Quebec and Alberta governments in recent times. It's almost always to do some explicitly reactionary shit.
It is the fourth time Smith's UCP has invoked it this fall sitting. In late October, they used the clause to legally backstop a bill that overrode teachers' rights and ordered them back to work to end a three-week-long provincewide strike.
The bill also imposed on 51,000 teachers a collective bargaining agreement they previously rejected.
The recently inaugurated Rodrigo Paz has wasted no time in embarking on his project to neoliberalize the Andean country. According to the president, Paz proposes cutting public spending by almost 30% in 2026, equivalent to 4 points of GDP.
In addition, he has proposed eliminating a series of taxes, especially for the wealthiest. One of these is a special tax on large fortunes, which Paz has promised to eliminate. The special tax is levied on those with fortunes of more than USD 4 million (less than 1% of the population) in a country where the basic salary is less than USD 400.
hate hate hate hate hate hate
Paz has announced the creation of at least ten “Truth Commissions”, which, he says, will be responsible for uncovering acts of corruption in public institutions during previous administrations.
Few public companies have been left out of this sort of “new neoliberal inquisition.” State-owned oil, road, telecommunications, lithium, and other companies will be investigated for alleged irregularities. Even before the investigations begin, Paz has already claimed that the alleged damage to the state amounts to nearly USD 15 billion.
They're going to try to open up all these SOEs for US looting.
However, Paz will have to face an opposition that, despite losing the presidency, has not lost its significant capacity for mobilization and historical resistance to neoliberal measures. Furthermore, within his government, Paz has already experienced a recent rift with his vice president, Edman Lara, who called the president a “liar” and claimed that he is poorly advised in creating the “Truth Commissions”.
This, though, is a nice piece of info. VP and President at each other's throat before taking office while the movement behind MAS remains active reinforces my take I've been saying all year: Bolivia's right wing turn is not going to last even a single term.
49
jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 4day
The IMF, on its 17th program with Sri Lanka, is doing its utmost to prevent such an economy from developing, as they instead promote reductions in public investment. On top of this, the rebuilding effort for Sri Lanka is already being planned and funded, and such donors include, of course, many Sri Lankan oligarchs, who will rebuild the damaged portions of the country yet further according to their visions, while sidelining the working class.
If Wikipedia is accurate, they're currently at $1.3B in IMF debt. China could effortlessly pay that off or even just refinance under better terms, even shifting it wholly or partially into RMB. In so doing, they'd lend an enormous hand to an ML ruling party and an Asian country trapped by financial colonization.
China has restructured a lot of Sri Lankan IMF debt before, so I'm not saying they're failures on this or anything. But I hope they follow through all the way and help Sri Lanka totally close the relationship with the IMF.
49
TrippyFocus @lemmy.ml - 4day
Had this exact thought when I read the post. Hopefully we see something announced soon since it seems like an easy win to support another ML party getting away from the IMF.
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aanes_appreciator [he/him, comrade/them] - 4day
Sri Lanka's govt is Marxist-Leninist..? News to me
11
TrippyFocus @lemmy.ml - 4day
It’s probably more accurate to say its president is from an ML party but the government isn’t ML like say Cuba.
Also it was only very recently like late 2024 that they won.
14
jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 4day
not in a DotP sense, just the currently elected ruling party
9
demerit @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
the NPP is explicitly anti-ML because it sees "classical socialism" as a failure.
7
demerit @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
Sri Lanka is like a colonialist entity that has its own brand of zionism, and is supported by the west. The last Sri Lankan government wasnt strong enough to resist western coup, which dragged china and its investments in the port of Hambantota and its SEZ.
Dissanayake is an Obama like figure, refusing to actually address colonialist systems in the country and is more concered with slow incremental process and police reform. Sri Lanka is also very pro-India rn. Though it seems that Sri Lanka wants to join BRICS+
7
10TH_OF_SEPTEMBER_CALL [any, any] - 4day
Nanterre, France.
The french sanitary authorities gave Nestle the right to sell their bottled water for one more year, despite proofs of contamination by fecal matters.
European nations regressing into the "third world countries" they're all scared of in record time.
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demerit @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
"regressing" this BS was common in like the industrial age until like post-ww1 when the threat of communist revolutions forced the capitalists to step up and make europe into the heckin wholesome liberal utopia people still pretend it is. Without the soviet union is just a return to form.
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Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
That's still regression though, return to an earlier time, that's why I used the term instead of something like "turning into"
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PolandIsAStateOfMind @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
Gilded Shitted age
2
Lovely_sombrero [he/him] - 1day
Himbo Jerome Powell lowered interest rates by a further 0.25, as expected. In his remarks he said that the Fed believes that job growth was overstated by around ~60k in the last three months. IIRC, the growth was already negative all those three months.
Evidence is growing that services inflation has come down, and goods inflation is entirely due to tariffs.
1000s of queer and otherwise marginalized kids are gonna lose the only little bit of community they have away from their shitty parents and "communities"
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Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them] - 2day
Why else do you think they made this ban? Apart from the kids finding out about Palestine of course.
As an added bonus of this ban, the kids will now be going to places like 4Chan, which don't require an account to post, which is exactly the best place for 11 year olds to congregate. Shit's fucked in this country.
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Self_Sealing_Stem_Bolt [he/him, they/them] - 2day
Others said the ban “can’t come quickly enough”. One parent said their daughter was “completely addicted” to social media and the ban “provides us with a support framework to keep her off these platforms”.
Idk, maybe this is an alien idea to white people but have you tried...idk...maybe being a fucking parent?
Social media is a fucking cancer but letting age bans go through that are gonna effect everyone aint the answer.
41
FunkyStuff [he/him] - 2day
It's very strange to me that there's parents that recognize the problem yet allow their kids to keep using social media regardless. They don't know how to get their kids away from the devices? Don't know how to do it in a way that doesn't screw up the kid's schooling?
I'm young enough that it was a legitimate problem for my parents that I couldn't be grounded by having my devices taken away because it meant I couldn't do my homework. I can see how that could be a legitimate issue for parents who don't know how to properly set up more granular controls on their kids' access to apps and websites.
I don't know, honestly if it wasn't for the privacy aspect and the necessity that queer kids have for the internet as a source of critical information/community they can't get IRL, I'd find it hard to disapprove of a law like this. People should generally spend less time online because the internet is becoming a source of pretty great harm in a lot of ways. It was true before the slopification of everything but it's so much worse now. That goes double for kids, but even adults who choose to drop off the major social media sites because they don't want to jump through the hoops the government is asking them to are probably better off for it. People who can't (for a variety of very valid reasons) find community IRL but do find it online are the main ones being hurt bad here.
35
Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them] - 2day
Happening just as the school holidays in the summer begins, the perfect time to deprive kids of their primary source of information and entertainment. The best time to piss people off is right before they have a ton of free time on their hands. I predict record high levels of youth vandalism over the next few months, as bored kids resort to throwing rocks through windows and smashing up cars for fun (and to vent their frustration).
34
sexywheat [none/use name] - 2day
This strikes me as very draconian. I think what China did with a time limit on gaming is much more reasonable - but I don't know if that would be technically feasible for social media websites more generally speaking.
Plus as others have mentioned, this will probably just push kids to websites that don't require a login instead, which is arguably worse.
31
aanes_appreciator [he/him, comrade/them] - 2day
it doesn't fix the root cause either, which is how capitalists leech our mental fortitude in their relentless march of death for the last slithers of extractable profit.
18
demerit @lemmygrad.ml - 2day
BTW the us is rolling out something similar to the EU chat control & "online child protection" scam.
28
oscardejarjayes [comrade/them] - 2day
I can imagine kids paying some 19 year old, or poor guy, to do the age verification checks for a bunch of child accounts.
Just like what kids often do to get their hands on weed, beer, and cigarettes.
25
cbd [he/him] - 55min
This is pretty much what's done rn so kids can get access to online casinos advertised by popular streamers.
They're still allowed to play some shitty gacha game or visit 4chan. I guess Aussie kids are going to be radicalized towards reaction by Steam chat or some shady Discord instead of Facebook and Twitter.
23
ziggurter [he/him, comrade/them] - 2day
Fucking Roblox is literally a child labor exploitation platform (just for a start to its problems). Imagine giving it a pass while screaming about how you're allegedly acting on behalf of child welfare.
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NuraShiny [any] - 2day
So...the kids will lie about their age then? Or get a VPN? I don't see how this can be enforced.
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Self_Sealing_Stem_Bolt [he/him, they/them] - 2day
My doomer guess: everyone uploads a picture/live video call of their face so their proprietary aislop bullshit can phrenology you and determine if you are over 18/21 in order to make an account. Anonymous accounts won't exist anymore ig?
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NuraShiny [any] - 2day
If I VPN to a different country, that's all not gonna apply unless they decide to enforce Aussie law. I know getting a VPN isn't exactly easy as a kid but there's decent free options if you look around enough and these kids now have nothing but time.
Source: I have to do it as a EU citizen to see smut on twitter, cuz Elon is not getting my biometrics.
What the fuck is this, they even have a hospital scene LMAOOO
48
SexUnderSocialism [she/her] - 3day
Like 40% of the trailer takes place in a hospital. At least they got that part right. Also, the actor looks like Tucker Carlson pretending to be Bolso.
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Redcuban1959 [any] - 3day
Some of the comments:
“IS BEGIN TOLD TO THE WORLD” 0:10 What kind of broken English is this in an international teaser?
A mix of a low-budget religious soap opera and a comedy show lol
Will they lend him a tape recorder in prison to do the dubbing?
At least this stabbing in the movie will have blood. (Reference to the fact people say he faked the stabbing)
The title of the Brazilian version of this gem should be "Here comes the Knife!”
Hahaha, is this a fake? Because if it's real, it's really bizarre, hahaha.
I'm Still Here won us an Oscar, now we're going to get a Golden Raspberry too.
They even manage to get the music selection wrong, it's unbelievable lol. Instead of playing Brazilian music, they play the most generic stuff possible lol.
27
Redcuban1959 [any] - 3day
Bolsonaro's film gets a trailer and is already embroiled in serious controversy. Dark Horse will depict events from the presidential campaign that brought Bolsonaro to power in 2018. After reports surfaced that Dark Horse, a film that will tell a fictional version of the story of politician Jair Bolsonaro, did not actually exist, new images confirm its production. Last Saturday (6), Portal Leo Dias released the first unofficial photographs and videos of the project, while a “trailer” appeared on the internet today (8).
In the film, which will feature a predominantly foreign cast, Bolsonaro will be played by actor Jim Caviezel (The Sound of Freedom) . In images released by the website, he appears wearing a green and yellow t-shirt with the phrase "My Party is Brazil" prominently displayed.
According to the Leo Dias Portal, the scarcity of information and images from Dark Horse is intentional. "The film, entirely shot in English, has a task force dedicated to preventing image leaks," the site explains. It also states that Caviezel himself directed many scenes, and the actor spent three months in Brazil working on the project.
Bruno Henrique, one of the extras in the film, stated that he was assaulted upon entering the Dark Horse set with a cell phone —according to him, the production does not provide secure lockers to store devices. He also claims that the film is being plagued by payment problems, with payments not arriving within the advertised 30-day timeframe.
According to Revista Forum, organizations such as Sated and Sindcine, which represent audiovisual workers, may sue the producers of Dark Horse. The unions claim that the film crews are charging for transportation to their locations , working with contracts that fall short of the minimum required, and paying fees below market standards. The film should also explore a fictionalized version of the politician's past, showing him as a soldier fighting drug traffickers in the Amazon region. The screenplay is by federal deputy Mário Frias, who served as Secretary of Culture in the former president's government.
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Ram_The_Manparts [he/him] - 3day
The film should also explore a fictionalized version of the politician's past, showing him as a soldier fighting drug traffickers in the Amazon region.
That fucking rules lmao
25
Redcuban1959 [any] - 3day
A dossier compiled by the Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff, completed on July 27, 1990, to which the report had access, details unflattering information gathered by the Army high command since the trial that brought Bolsonaro out of anonymity in the 1980s until the beginning of his parliamentary career in the following decade.
"Instead of sketching bombs and planning to kill your officers, write how many times you went to Paraguay to bring smuggled goods and about how you keep crying about our problems in Mato Grosso. You are nothing but a Mercenary, a Cuck, and a Shitty Smuggler wanting to show off. Know that there will be a leak to the press and Brazilian Army Units to show who you are. Congratulations on Your Attitude."
17
Commie_Chameleon [she/her] - 3day
Jim Caviezel HELL yeah this movie is gonna suck so much ass lmao
18
HexReplyBot [none/use name] - 3day
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
President Xiomara Castro declares Honduran elections invalid. Inconsistencies were identified in 14.5% of the ballot papers; Honduran leader will file a formal complaint with international organizations. Honduran President Xiomara Castro said on Tuesday (December 9) that the country's presidential elections had been “rigged,” declaring the preliminary results invalid amid a vote count marked by technical glitches and accusations of foreign interference.
Castro directly accused US President Donald Trump of interfering in the electoral process through his support for conservative candidate Nasry Asfura. The president said there would be a formal complaint about the alleged interference to international organizations, including the United Nations, and reiterated that “the actions constitute an ongoing electoral coup and we will denounce them.”
“As president and a woman who emerged from the Resistance, I must defend democracy and the dignity of the people. The 26 audio recordings show that these elections are tainted by nullity. Democracy does not exist without justice, and the people should not accept processes marked by interference and blackmail,” said the Honduran president at a public event in the city of Catacamas on Tuesday (12/9).
Castro was categorical in stating that “the people turned out and participated bravely and decisively at the polls, but we experienced a process marked by threats, coercion, manipulation of the TREP (preliminary results system), and tampering with the will of the people.” The Honduran elections, held on November 30, were accompanied by reports of successive failures in the results transmission system, delays in the results, and allegations of fraud from different political sectors, including those of candidates Moncada and Nasralla.
Telegram
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Redcuban1959 [any] - 1day
On 10 December, the head of the Armed Forces of Honduras, Roosevelt Hernandez, said the military would recognize the election results and guarantee that it would be honored. The head of the CNE, Ana Paola Hall, asked for soldiers to be deployed outside buildings where ballots are being stored.
47
Lovely_sombrero [he/him] - 9hr
The controversial Victims of Communism memorial in downtown Ottawa will no longer feature the names of specific individuals after federal officials determined a significant number could be linked to the Nazis.
I really like the title of the article: "Government retreats on Victims of Communism memorial names in aftermath of Nazi controversy"
The Ottawa Citizen reported in 2024 that the Department of Canadian Heritage was told by historians that more than half of the 550 names to be inscribed on the Memorial to the Victims of Communism should be removed. The reason was because of potential links to the Nazis or questions about affiliations with fascist groups.
Thousands of civilians have fled villages along the disputed Thai-Cambodia border after Thailand launched air strikes against its Southeast Asian neighbour Monday, as both Bangkok and Phnom Penh accused each other of breaching a ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump.
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demerit @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
Yeah obviously, because the peace deal didnt resolve any contradictions, it was just the us telling both sides to stop and the billionth UN court case which would last decades and not really satisfy anyone - both regimes also need its populace to be distracted rn.
LIBRE is rejecting the results and calling for protests. This is the right move. Any Latin American leftist that doesn't do this is a fool. The electoral system is entirely illegitimate. Either the election was stolen by the vote counters or it was stolen by the CIA and the State Department's endless media and political interference. There is no democracy while the empire looms over Latin America except that which exists in direct contradiction to the US.
46
Redcuban1959 [any] - 3day
I think if the Liberals lose this election again by less than 1% they'll probably join the leftists to block everything on congress (together they control 80% of the legislative)
26
Awoo [she/her] - 3day
Fed accounts seem singularly focused on Benin and Nigeria right now after a supposedly failed coup attempt?
Haven't seen it posted anywhere else, so I think it's worth mentioning:
In response to the joint Chinese-Russian bomber patrol near Japan a few days ago, the US sent out some B-52 Stratofortress bombers to do an exercise around Japan, with US mid air refueling tankers taking off from Yokota, Japan to refuel the B-52s, who flew to Japan and then back to the USA. So both the US, and China-Russia, have now conducted bomber patrols around Japan.
Thailand launches airstrikes inside Cambodia after accusing it of violating ceasefire
At least four people were killed and dozens of others were injured in a series of airstrikes carried out by Thailand inside Cambodia on Monday, December 8. The airstrikes, which started in the early morning, continued throughout the day causing massive displacement of civilians and destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Thailand claimed its military actions were in response to Cambodian air strikes a day earlier, in which two of its soldiers were killed and several others were injured. The Thai army called the attacks a threat to its national security.
42
Cunigulus [they/them] - 3day
Are militaries just getting bored and starting small wars now or something? Is this Thailand poking Cambodia to disrupt some of the developments they've done with China on behalf of the US?
38
john_brown [comrade/them] - 3day
empire's sleeping, score some hits while the emperor naps or yells about venezuela or whatever
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demerit @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
They had an almost war this summer, then the us said stop, so they did but the contradictions were not resolved. The border was drawn by france after they took over thai feudal possessions, as like with any european drawn-border it just spawns grievances.
26
MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any] - 3day
Think this is Thailand trying to set some new conditions for the Thailand - Cambodia relationship given Thai military superiority. Anything viewed as a "provocation" by Cambodia (in this case it was around freshly laid landmines, in future it could be stuff like scam call centres) will be met with a overwhelming Thai response, in airstrikes, border incursions and counter battery fire. And there's not much Cambodia can do about it.
21
kleeon [he/him, he/him] - 3day
New war-slop
21
demerit @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
New-old war-slop
20
carpoftruth [any, any] - 2day
Be respectful of the people who's lives are affected by this. It may just be the news for you but for some people it is real life with real impacts.
10
FuckyWucky [none/use name] - 4day
In a sense the U.S. won with tariffs, ofc US economy isn't going to improve. But all the third world countries are doing internal devaluation to try stay competitive as Chinese industrial power is unleashed on the rest of the world, with U.S. imports being compressed by tariffs. Very unfortunate.
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jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 4day
The following export product groups categorize the highest dollar value in Chinese global shipments during 2024. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from China.
**Electrical machinery, equipment: US$928 billion (26% of total exports)**
**Machinery including computers: $568.3 billion (15.9%)**
**Vehicles: $216.1 billion (6%)**
Plastics, plastic articles: $141.3 billion (4%)
Furniture, bedding, lighting, signs, prefab buildings: $126.4 billion (3.5%)
**Articles of iron or steel: $100.1 billion (2.8%)**
Knit or crochet clothing, accessories: $85.4 billion (2.4%)
**Organic chemicals: $82.6 billion (2.3%)**
Toys, games: $82.5 billion (2.3%)
**Optical, technical, medical apparatus: $72.5 billion (2%)**
China is not, generally, undermining the productive capacity of the nations it exports to. It is exporting the necessary material for them to develop.
40
demerit @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
Jup most global south economies dont produce this stuff - chinese exports are of a higher class manufacturing nature. This new talking point of how chinese is destroying the global south is just another iteration of western propaganda.
17
FuckyWucky [none/use name] - 3day
We will see. I don't think China is exporting these goods because of ideology, that requires more central planning. And more cooperation with the countries' Governments they are exporting to.
They are doing so in a market system. Because capitalists have to make a profit and workers have to be paid (within the market system). This is why exports are rising not just to third world countries but also the EU.
The second part is how are these imports being financed. Not in Chinese Yuan but in Dollars and first world currencies. My opinion on this has been that China should offer third world countries a window where they can swap local currencies for Yuan upto a limited amount and only for current account transactions. This way the countries get real resources from China without having to obtain Dollars.
The only world in which Chinese imports won't undermine domestic production is a post-neoliberal one where third world has state owned enterprises with price setting ability. They don't at present.
And it's not just local development, since global demand is limited, you'll have countries doing beggar thy neighbor policy fighting one another just to try and compete and export (given that nearly all global South countries have noeliberal regimes).
Even if its just finished machinery, it makes it so the local capitalists in these countries are even more unwilling to invest to make their own since the final price will be higher so they can't compete with Chinese imports domestically. My point is all the big third world countries want to be the next China. For example, you want to know what Indian financial press' response to Trump tariffs has been? Make a deal with the U.S, increase exports to other countries (somehow). Never is increasing domestic demand mentioned, that has been left in the pre-neoliberal era. Solution to unemployment? Somehow entice capitalists to create more jobs, more liberal-types will say invest in healthcare and education, clearly not everyone ie millions of un/underemployed can work in just those two sectors. But never is a job guarantee or state enterprises mentioned, because those increase fiscal deficits, which are considered bad.
5
jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
The second part is how are these imports being financed. Not in Chinese Yuan but in Dollars and first world currencies
The pilot kickstarted a 16-year campaign that now sees the yuan used to settle 30% of China’s $6.2 trillion global trade in goods, the Chinese central bank's deputy governor, Zhu Hexin, told an economic summit in June.
If you count all cross-border payments — including bond purchases and foreign investment — the yuan’s share leaps to 53%, overtaking China's dollar trade for the first time in 2023.
9
FuckyWucky [none/use name] - 3day
The question is where they got that Yuan, is it by exchanging Dollar/Euros for Yuan or by exporting to China (even this isn't enough since net imports from China means trade account can't finance trade deficit), capital inflows from China (via investment in local currency assets, borrowing). Sources/Uses view. For example, in Indonesia's case, their trade account (if in deficit) is financed by FDI, FPI, Gov issuing securities (called the capital account), much of that FDI/FPI comes from U.S., Europe and Japan. Only a very small portion of their capital account surplus comes from China (not enough to cover the trade deficit). So, really they have a trade deficit with China because of their capital account surplus with other countries.
Even in the case Indonesia's trade account is in surplus, this too exists because of the aforementioned sources plus trade surplus with U.S., Europe and the first world. Since trade deficit with China is a given.
6
Lovely_sombrero [he/him] - 11hr
I didn't know that there will be two separate votes in the Senate to extend the 2021 enhanced subsidies for the ACA today.
Anyway, both votes failed. I don't see any reporting on another attempt.
41
MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any] - 3day
F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft from the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier conducted flights within the Gulf of Venezuela, with transponders on, remaining in international airspace (staying at least 12 nautical miles/22km/14mi from the land border).
The most provocative flight yet.
An EA-18G Growler was also visible publicly close by, an aircraft which specialises in jamming and suppressing air defences:
It’s quite possible this is a strategy to get Venezuelan air defense units to lower their guard over time with repeated false alarms.
It’s been a textbook tactic before invasion for the US.
34
Awoo [she/her] - 2day
Yeah it is. They did the same before Iraq. The basic modus operandi of US air operations is to get operators on the opposing side used to seeing the US blips on radar to the point it becomes boring before actually launching their proper operation. This buys extra minutes which matters a lot in response times for things when missiles might only be detected mere minutes before impact.
23
supafuzz [comrade/them] - 2day
so what are they waiting for? the longer they just hang out in the parking lot talking trash the more it looks like they don't actually think they can take venezuela in a fight
31
jack [he/him, comrade/them] - 2day
they don't actually think they can take venezuela in a fight
Well, they probably can't. A ground invasion is an absolute loss, no questions asked. It would be the most unpopular war the US has ever waged that would enormously exacerbate every single already-sharp contradiction in the US. The terrain is brutal, the land area is 50% more than Afghanistan, the population is large and well-organized and already hardened against a brutal decades long siege. So that leaves them with a bombardment campaign. But what would that achieve, exactly? It wouldn't destroy the Bolivarian Revolution, which grows more deeply rooted in Venezuelan society every day. Air campaigns are already totally ineffective at regime change operations on their own. And the US has no guys on the ground. There's no massive divisions in Venezuelan society the US can wield as a far-right movement. There's no right-wing guerrillas. There's no neighboring militaries who will come in and do the invasion for the US - no one in Latin America is geared for anything like that kind of adventurist war, especially when the land borders to Venezuela are so geographically difficult.
Obviously, the US could kill a lot of people. It could further impoverish the country through the destruction of key infrastructure. But what would that achieve? At best, it's an intimidation tactic - the US will fucking kill you if you go out of line. But who doesn't already know that, especially in Latin America? And intimidation eventually wears thin. It doesn't take long before violence begets more resistance than fear, and Latin America has a long history of getting harder to manage the harder the US squeezes. Mexico and Brazil, the true power players, will throw up every roadblock they have available. It could just as easily backfire as an intimidation tactic and make Colombia a hardened enemy of the US. Petro's got a whole nother year in office, and why not use the chaos on the border and the anti-US attitude this sparks to suspend elections? This is just looking at the big important neighbors. What about the whole world? The US cannot simply pull off these imperial adventures with impunity - this would not be comparable to Gaza geopolitically, as an attack on a sovereign state by the US directly.
The US military is disinterested. A real war is costly and dangerous, and the only thing the machine is good for these days is directionless killing. Incredibly unpopular Secretary of War Crimes Pete Kegseth is throwing his top boys under the bus for a war crime he directly ordered after making a big show of his absolute disdain for military brass a few months ago. He's got no boys at the top. Not that I'm expecting a rebellion, but there will be meaningful internal resistance to this among the brass.
The contradiction is that the US doesn't really have a choice. They cannot afford for Venezuela to remain socialist. They cannot afford for it to influence Colombia the way it is. They cannot afford for it to be an anti-imperial foothold in South America when they need to wrangle the continent now more than ever. So they're stuck. They hope they can intimidate Maduro, or spark an uprising, or... something. The brilliant strategists of the Trump administration do not know how they want to proceed, only that they must. Every card they have is probably a losing one - which one's got the best odds of victory?
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Awoo [she/her] - 2day
so what are they waiting for?
They're making radar and defence operators become bored with seeing the US blips on radar systems which buys them extra minutes when the real operation occurs.
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someone [comrade/them, they/them] - 2day
I'm wondering if all this is trying to panic Maduro into fleeing. Washington's lanyard class loves their great man theory BS.
The Victorian government is set to make a historic apology to Aboriginal Victorians in one of the first public acts to follow the signing of the state's treaty agreement.
The official apology — to take place during a special sitting in parliament today — was negotiated as part of Victoria's nation-leading treaty agreement, which was signed and became law last month.
The First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria said the apology would acknowledge "the profound harms inflicted on our peoples by the state and colony — both historic and ongoing".
"This moment is important," it said.
"[Treaty] is not about dwelling in the past, nor laying blame. It is about acknowledging that the past still shapes the present and choosing to do better from here," the statewide treaty agreement reads.
The Victorian opposition will not support the apology as it takes issue with references to Victoria's historic treaty in the wording of the statement.
The opposition has pledged to repeal the treaty legislation if it wins government.
A government spokesperson said it was undeterred by the Coalition's position.
"After 10 years and multiple pieces of legislation, the leader of the opposition is now trying to say no after voting yes to the Voice," they said.
"The current approach to closing the gap is not working and we must do more.
"We won't be stopped from doing what's right because Jess Wilson is held hostage by the extreme right in the Liberal Party."
The apology is to be live-streamed from parliament from 11am, with screenings set to take place at some schools and Aboriginal organisations in Victoria.
11am is an hour and thirty two minutes from now.
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Lisitsyn [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
"aboriginal victorians" is crazy though. it's like if the nazis won and they started calling russians "native hitlerians" or something
25
Torenico [he/him] - 2day
So with the arrival of the first batch (6 out of 24) of ex Royal Danish Air Force F-16AM/BM MLU to join the Argentinian Air Force, the US scores a point against China in South America. The whole deal of this weapon system transfer fiasco was to prevent Argentina from incorporating a similar number of JF-17 Thunder fighter jets, which would have been not only a much cheaper option but also a superior one because the jets would be, as we say here, "0km" (totally brand new), and they would come with chinese assistance as well as the possibility to explore other options such as radar systems, missile systems and even upgrades for the Navy and the Army. At the expense of Argentina's shaky finances, the US prevented China from entering the region through military hardware.
There is, still, an unavoidable reality: The purchase of these jets means the Argentinian Air Force can recover supersonic interceptor capabilities. Since the Air Force retired it's Mirage IIIs/IAI Neshers weapon systems in the mid 2010s, the defense of the entire national airspace was left up to the old and subsonic A4AR Fightinghawk figherbomber (less than a dozen are available for duty) as well as a number of light attack/advanced trainer IA-63 Pampa series (which don't even carry air-to-air missiles). With the arrival of the F-16s Argentina can now recover some of it's balance against it's two historical rivals: Chile and Brasil. But is it really the case though? I'll try to explain to the best of my abilities:
In the case of Chile they have been operating the F-16 platform for about two decades now. The total amount of airframes is 46, not all would be immediately ready for service but I think that number should be higher than 6. The variants operated by Chile are 10 C and D Block 50/52+ variants, which joined in 2005, and 36 examples of the F-16AM MLU and F-16BM MLU purchased second hand (as well as a single F-16A example for training) from the Netherlands starting one year after the arrival of the C and D variants. Apart from the numerical advantage, at least on paper, Chile has two operational E-3 Sentry AEW&C aircraft, with a third used for spares. Argentina has none of that. The Chilean Air Force also operates a small number of old but modernized F-5s.
In the case of Brasil there is simply no competition at all. For the time being Brasil is in the process of incorporating a fleet of JAS 39 Gripens (seeking over two dozen airframes in total) while phasing out their larger fleet of F-5 and AMX International attack aircraft. However, the main news is that Brasil conducted a live fire exercise of a METEOR BVR missile fired by one of their Gripen E aircraft not long ago(Source in Portuguese) which tips the balance on their favour. On the other hand, Brasil has an actual industry supporting it's armed forces. EMBRAER is a highly valued company which produces not only commercial aircraft (third largest in the world behind Boeing and Airbus) but also military aircraft as well, including technical support for their existing airframes. In comparison, Argentina has the state-owned FAdeA (which briefly belonged to Lockheed Martin in the 2000s) which is planning to fire around 200 workers this week. That should tell you everything. They have a number of Embraer E-99 aircraft for AEW&C and SIGINT operations. This entire force is also joined by a small number of A4KUs purchased from Kuwait which flew from their former aircraft carrier São Paulo (Clemenceau class). In comparison, Argentina's Naval Air Arm retired it's Super Etendard and Super Etendard Modernisé years ago after a botched purchase (blocked by Britain too).
This comparison gets even worse once we consider other factors such as the Army, Navy and also the general state of things, that is, the social, political and economic realities of the three countries. I guess you can tell which one is the absolute loser here. Despite all this, there is no danger of armed conflict among the three countries. So there's that.
So I think these new aircraft for the Argentinian Air Force doesn't do much apart from scaring airforceless countries like Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. There is also the United Kingdom and their permanent military base in RAF Mount Pleasant. From what I can gather the US allowed for the F-16s to be transferred but prohibits Argentina from flying them anywhere close to the islands. The UK didn't protest much either, they always did so in the past.
There are some questions that have been raised with this transfer. First, the cost: It's around 300 million USD for the 24 aircraft and another 350 million USD for the weapon systems. It's A LOT of money for second-hand aircraft. According to La Nación, the danish authorities didn't have much hope to sell these aircraft for more than 60 million USD, but then came Argentina and the US geopolitical goals which allowed Denmark to offload pretty much it's entire fleet in one go and begin converting it's units to F-35s for a ridiculous price. Another question is how badly worn these aircraft are? How many hours did they clock in with the Danish Air Force? They already had their Mid-Life Upgrades done, so are all 24 examples in serviceable condition? If so, for how many more years? Are these platforms durable until at least, say, 2035? 2040? Is this a stopgap measure until we explore better long term choices? What kind of armament will be shipped? Do we receive exactly how much technical support from the US and other F-16 operators? How much does it cost to keep these aircraft in flying condition? How much does a single hour of operations cost? Can the country, with it's finances in pure agony, keep them operational?
And, I think, the biggest question of them all: Is it really worth it? We're purchasing second-hand F-16s from a country that wanted to get rid of them so they can now fly 5th generation fighters. We paid a lot for it too. However, what happens if tomorrow Argentina takes a different political and economic path and we get on some kind of "black list" made by the US? Who is going to sell us spares and replenish spent munitions? I think we purchased a short term solution but a long term problem. In a few years these aircraft will be grounded due to lack of funds (This is, after all, the country that had one of it's largest navy vessels sink in port due to lack of resources), and if we get on the bad side of the US they'll suffer the same fate as the Venezuelan F-16A/Bs and the Iranian F-14 Tomcats, slowly being phased out because, while their operators do magic to keep them running, the spares do run out and the aircraft can no longer fly.
We also angered Ukraine too lol
Anyways death to "israel"
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MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any] - 2day
Update on last nights/early morning post about increased electronic warfare and Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) support in the US military buildup against Venezuela:
The 6x EA-18G Growlers have arrived in Puerto Rico, and there is a mixed loadout of AN/ALQ-99 and AN/ALQ-249 Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) mid band jamming pods between the aircraft:
As for the point of the EA-18Gs when aircraft like the F-35 are already deployed: the F-35 can geolocate and detect hostile emitters (radars) using its AN/ASQ-239 Barracuda electronic warfare system, and then use it's own AN/APG-81 AESA radar to spot jam said hostile emitter/radar, and employ weapons against it if necessary for a "hard kill". However, the EA-18G, with it's large external jamming pods, can provide broadband jamming over a wide range of frequencies and area if required, and the electronic warfare officer (EWO) in the backseat can adjust this to execute different kinds of "electronic attacks". For example in Iraq and Afghanistan where there were no enemy air defences, EA-6Bs and EA-18Gs were used to set off IEDs (improvised explosive devices) from the air remotely, or jam the wireless detonation devices of the IEDs. As well as jamming cellphone communications and geolocating cellphones of whoever the US was up against.
Also, the jamming and "electronic noise" produced by the EA-18Gs can complement and enhance the F-35s stealth/very low observable capabilities, as the lower an object's radar cross section is, the easier it is to obscure and hide from radars with jamming, and the jamming becomes much more effective and has a longer effective range. This is quite a poor analogy from a technical perspective, but it helps explain it. Think of a solider in forest camouflage standing in the open, this "solider" is the F-35. You should be able to spot said solider in the open. But now put this solider with his forest camouflage in a densely packed and overgrown forest. The solider would be almost impossible to spot. The "forest" here is the electronic warfare and jamming of the EA-18G, the "electronic noise" it produces gives the F-35 an environment to "hide" in.
China operates a similar model and synergy with the J-16D electronic warfare aircraft and the J-20 and J-35 stealth fighters.
"Workers of the world, unite" is a phrase that rings true throughout history. To isolate ourselves from the world can lead to the withering of our movement - as seen in parts of the Western left, which have at times fallen prey to the imperialist propaganda.
40
MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any] - 2day
Increased Electronic Warfare and Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) support being sent to Puerto Rico, in the US military buildup against Venezuela.
At least 6x EA-18G Growler aircraft are flying over to be forward deployed to Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico, where they will join the 10x F-35Bs and an unknown amount of Harriers already stationed there. The EA-18G Growler is a specialised variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet designed to carry out the above missions, with specialised equipment and pilots. There is already a squadron of EA-18Gs on the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, so this is an increase in their numbers, not a new aircraft type being deployed.
Picture of EA-18G for illustrative purposes, not from any current US military buildup against Venezuela. Notable though is the mixed loadout of AN/ALQ-99 and AN/ALQ-249 NGJ underwing jamming pods on the same aircraft:
Every Hull Different - Challenger 3 Program Faces Nightmare Of Inconsistent Old Frames
Britain wants build Challenger 3 on old Challenger 2 hulls, revealing both old machine wear and production quality problems
::: spoiler more
New problems have emerged in developing Britain's new Challenger 3 tanks, complicating work again. So, the old hulls that will be used to produce them are too worn and also have various defects, which suggests the idea of producing them from scratch altogether. Britain's Ministry of Defence claims it is actively cooperating with industry to accelerate vehicle delivery. Work is also underway to ensure necessary materials and reduce possible risks. Recall that Challenger 3 received a completely new turret with a smoothbore 120mm gun, but old Challenger 2s will be used for hulls. The latter have been actively used by the military in recent decades, which led to certain wear and possible poor condition.
This is indeed an obstacle, but it can be overcome through major overhaul, although it will probably require more funds and time. There are plenty of examples of installing a new turret on even older vehicles, one can recall at minimum Leopard 1 with Cockerill 3105 or even the Skyranger 35 air defense systembeing supplied to Ukraine. So here its worth looking at the next stated problem - significant difference in sizes between hulls due to different production standards during Challenger 2 production times. This will create a need for additional adjustment of new equipment to each vehicle. Specifically, concerns relate to new TDSS (Turret Drive Servo System) turret drives, which are needed for the new turret. There are some suggestions that it will now be more rational to manufacture new hulls from scratch.
However, this would essentially mean producing tanks from scratch, which would require deploying new industrial capacities. That is, more work, even more costs, and additional delivery delays, which could extend for decades altogether. So such a way out is not very rational here, and if already moving in this direction, then take from available analogues on the world market. The Challenger 3 project itself is constantly questioned due to possible critical mass increase with the same running gear and very long readiness times. And this is in addition to other failed problems, such as with the Ajax IFV suspended from use.
western militaries will just straight up dissolve into dust in the next few decades
:::
37
HexReplyBot [none/use name] - 3day
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
This was written in the first bout of the war in July, but it’s heft corresponds to it’s insight, highlighting the political-economic history of the two respective countries which continuously remains relevant.
On the morning of July 25, war broke out between Cambodia and Thailand. On the surface, the conflict was sparked by a dispute over control of a UNESCO-listed heritage temple along the contested border. In reality, however, this war has little to do with the temple itself, nor is it truly a battle between two nations. Rather, it is the result of domestic political decisions on both sides, decisions that ultimately amount to a war on the poor, regardless of which side of the border they are from. In this conflict, peace is the only class based solution.
::: spoiler Selected excerpts
Yet this orchestrated persecution only confirms the Shinawatra family’s long-held conviction: Thailand’s establishment will tolerate pro-poor reforms only when it lacks the means to block them. Their strategy, enduring judicial harassment and public vilification while safeguarding incremental gains, is not weakness, but a pragmatic understanding of asymmetric political warfare.
For all its flaws, Pheu Thai remains the sole political vehicle capable of challenging Thailand’s military-monarchy complex, the entrenched power structure that has governed unchecked since the Cold War. This latest crisis is another battle in a century-long class war, one where every challenge to the elite status quo by the rural poor has been met with coups, judicial overthrows, or, as now, manufactured scandals. As of early July, the kingdom stands at another precipice: whether the remnants of the coalition can limp on, or whether the tanks will roll again in another coup remains uncertain, though the latter is increasingly likely as, on the 25th of July, the military declared martial law in 8 provinces near the border. What’s undeniable is that the real casualties will be, as always, Thailand’s working class.
It didn’t have to be this way. When Vietnamese forces, along with exiled Cambodians made up of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation liberated Phnom Penh in January 1979, they launched one of the most ambitious post-genocide reconstruction projects in modern history. Vietnamese engineers restored Phnom Penh’s water and electricity within weeks; medical teams vaccinated over two million Cambodians against polio and other diseases; and agricultural collectives revived food production. Assistance from Hanoi’s administration and the hard work of the Cambodian people laid foundations and literacy rates rose from 5% to 88% by 1987. A new generation of Cambodian teachers, doctors and civil servants, many trained in Vietnam, began rebuilding their shattered society…
…Cambodia is a product of UNTAC’s 90s “end of history” free market fever experiment. The state abdicated its role in providing social care and basic infrastructure to the market, supplemented by a vast international aid program (the largest ever in dollar amount at its time). Today though, as aid funds dry up, the state finds itself completely lacking the capacity to function. Very few levers are left for Hun Sen, and his successor son Hun Manet, to pull to address the country’s social and economic crises.
The “transition” from father to son merely formalises what UNTAC set in motion: capitalism without development and genocide survivors as disposable labour. Thirty years after the UN promised peace, Cambodia’s proletariat remains trapped between the Khmer Rouge’s killing fields and the sweatshops.
At the onset of this war Cambodia’s economy is hemorrhaging from self-inflicted wounds by the elite classes and global market shocks. The garment sector, 40% of GDP and a direct legacy of UNTAC’s sweatshop model, collapsed as Western brands fled, with 90 factories shuttering and 85,000 workers laid off in the past year alone. Foreign direct investment cratered by 32%, while youth unemployment hit 18.4%, a time bomb in a median-age-25 population. The riel (currency) is in freefall, inflation hit 4.5% despite stagnant wages, and 1.2 million Cambodians now survive on under $1.90/day as rice exports dwindle under elite land grabs…
…This war is not about a temple. It has also been misinterpreted as a scrap between Hun Sen and The Shinawatras, some kind of 4D chess game between the US and China or simple nationalist grandstanding. It is none of those. This war is the outcome of a decades-long project of anti-communism on both sides of the border, a war against the poor, fought by the poor as commanded by the elite. Both the US and China have called for peace– along with almost every other state in the region. Those who attempt to paint it as Chinese meddling in Southeast Asia obviously try to do so in bad faith, both parties have accepted some Belt and Road funding, bought some weapons, etc. While those inclined to see this as some kind of US instigated conflict completely fail to see the woods through the trees.
Yes, ultimately it was the US pax-Americana project that birthed these repressive state apparatuses decades ago, but today little direct interference remains beyond the “free” markets they left behind, along with their unexploded ordinance and incalculable trauma. To point the finger at the US is to flatter them, particularly the current administration. This war is between two of the aforementioned reactionary state apparatuses they also happened to leave behind…
…In Bangkok there is a rogue military holding a civilian government hostage, in Phnom Penh there is a state gutted by the fever dreams of the Chicago School, both perpetrating a completely unjust and unnecessary conflict. The only losers in this war, however it ends, will be the poor of Thailand and Cambodia. This is what The Eastern Tigers and organisations like UNTAC were made for. Class war against the poor.
Peace between nations is the only class-based solution.
:::
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la_tasalana_intissari_mata [comrade/them] - 4day
New Syrian stamps
::: spoiler AI slop
:::
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AlHouthi4President @lemmy.ml - 4day
They could at least be honest
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Evilphd666 [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
Cursed
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AlHouthi4President @lemmy.ml - 3day
😔
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sictransitgloria [she/her] - 4day
31
miz [any, any] - 4day
humiliating
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Tervell [he/him] - 3day
is the 3rd one supposed to be implying that the drone is responsible for breaking the chains? y'know, drones, famed symbol of freedom in the Middle East
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la_tasalana_intissari_mata [comrade/them] - 3day
love the german eagle they adopted
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HexReplyBot [none/use name] - 3day
A Reddit link was detected in your comment. Here are links to the same location on alternative frontends that protect your privacy.
I spent awhole looking what this drone might be and its an Iranian drone?? Bayraktar has different tail configuration.
Edit: Probably just Mashup AIslop nevermind
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demerit @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
AI slop neoliberalism with jihadist characteristics - I thought they were supposed to the traditionalists? And that ugly as bird they replaced Quraish's hawk with, is a disgrace.
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RedSturgeon [she/her] - 3day
Artists are either too buys emigrating or they're serving the Imperialist market for $ bills. There's a reason why neoliberal countries don't usually make new art galleries, unless it's modern art, which is low effort or it's historical/appropriated art.
Cultural drain.
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PolandIsAStateOfMind @lemmygrad.ml - 3day
And that ugly as bird they replaced Quraish’s hawk with, is a disgrace.
Looks like the cross of bundesadler with Atreides hawk.
4
Euergetes [none/use name] - 3day
they couldnt find an artist who could stand being in a room with their ministers or they're so fucking cheap they didnt even consider getting a real artist to do it
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aanes_appreciator [he/him, comrade/them] - 3day
idk enough about Syria to be able to spot contexual inconsistencies. Is it mostly piss filter and oddly uniform faces??
Anyone have any info on Avant Journal? Read a bit of Marx's Severed Head, but the writing in it and in the About Us section is this exact kind of pretentious grandstanding by what I assume are ultras or fedarchists that I'm allergic to. They started in April, 2025 and says Freedom of speech is the center principle of working organizations which is like, uuhhhhhhhhhh, pretty sure worker power (organization) and consciousness is, but yeah . . .
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Wheaties [she/her] - 1day
Apologies if this is the wrong place for this,
What's the news bulletin's thoughts on American Prestige podcast? I... often forget to check the megathreads, so frequently it becomes my primary source for global news. Any glaring omissions? Bunk analysis?
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seaposting [none/use name] - 2day
Historical divisions and the Japanese occupation in Malaya
Takaichi, after visiting, wrote in Japanese on social media platform X that she was able to “commemorate our ancestors who lost their lives in Malaysia,” and felt “deeply moved” by the experience.
In the post and from her remarks, Takaichi neglected the acts of aggression and atrocities committed by the Japanese military during World War II in Malaysia, and it led to strong condemnation from Malaysia, despite that Japan’s Foreign Ministry claimed that Takaichi’s visit to the Japanese Cemetery in Kuala Lumpur was not a specific tribute to soldiers of the former Imperial Japanese Army.
The main tweet of the Japanese PM being here, in which she also visited the Tugu Negara, the 'national monument' that was primarily dedicated to defeating the Axis powers during WW2, for which in Malaysia, would primarily have been Japan. As a result there was a bit of an (online) outcry of sorts for the apparent contradiction and insincerity about Japanese crimes across East and Southeast Asia.
This is relatively old news by now, but I think gives an excuse to dig a little deeper and consider the implications of the Japanese occupation and the national monument for understanding modern-day Malaysian historical consciousness. As we all know, online media is not entirely representative of reactions and perceptions of reality, let alone can represent a material force on its own. This is especially true for Japanese occupation and historical grievances that were inconsistently felt across Malaya.
::: spoiler read more
Who do you fight when you are invaded on multiple fronts?
Although Japanese invasion was definitely horrible, it did not impact every racial group equally. This would be critical in how anti-colonial movements, both national/petite bourgeois, proletariat and peasant groups in the country navigated tactical decisions when confronting both British colonialism and Japanese imperialism. It perhaps was one of the first major disagreements between those in the Malaysian Left.
To quote an article I mentioned prior,
Armed by these racial views, the Japanese augmented early Malay nationalist sentiments which had already existed at the time, for example, among the anti-colonial pan-Islamist Kaum Muda, with strong connections with the Middle East, and the left-wing group Kesatuan Melayu Muda, which was inspired by nationalist movements in Indonesia.88 To achieve its pro-Malay policy, the Japanese established leadership training schools known as the Koa Kunrenjo in the Straits Settlements of Singapore, Penang, and Malacca…
Malay attitudes towards the British definitely took a downward turn, fuelled by their inflamed nationalist sentiments, no longer mystified by the invincibility of the British empire.95 However, they had to strategically navigate their relations with the British as ‘winner’ of the war, buttressed by the British ideological offensive against Japanese propaganda and compounded by Japanese reticence in remembering the war in Southeast Asia.96 All these worked in tandem to produce the Japanese Occupation as ‘an unfortunate anomaly of history’, an interregnum, rather than ‘a watershed in the history of the country’.97
Brief description on the Japanese occupation
This perceived closeness of the anti-colonial Malay Left to Japanese imperialists, soured relations with the Chinese communist movement in Malaya. Although history is never fully black and white, with collaborators of multiple kinds in any racial group, this underlying tension and race-class stratification lead to Malay parties holding a more ambivalent attitude to Japanese invasion, which was anaemic to the Chinese, who were facing their own ethnic cleansing through the Sook Ching massacres. Another infamous example was the “Death Railway” built in Thailand and Burma where hundreds of thousands died. Many Malays and Indians especially were captured and worked to lay across tracks across Mainland Southeast Asia. The MPAJA, or Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army, consisting mainly of ethnic Chinese, allied and obtain weapons from the British to repel Japanese occupation. It was only after WWII did they turn to guerrilla warfare against British colonisation. The prevalence of the Communist movement in fighting Japanese occupation meant that post-independence narratives by the ruling elite often had to sweep and downplay Japanese atrocities.
Although the occupation was brief, it inflamed the class struggles that ultimately led to independence from British colonial rule, ending a century of enclosure and 500 years of direct European control.
Nonetheless, Japanese imperial influence did not disappear. Malay nationalists adopted and adapted ideas from Japanese imperialism vis-à-vis British colonialism in forwarding localised visions of Malay nationalism and development.98 One of the most unambiguous manifestations of this can be found in the working papers prepared for the first BEC in 1965, an influential state-connected platform for mobilising Bumiputera causes and resources. In line with Abdul Razak’s aspiration,99 BEC 1965 was organised on the back of increasing Malay discontent with their economic conditions, particularly among the Malay petite bourgeoisie.100
Who are our friends? Who are our enemies?
Most of Malaya's export oriented rubber and tin industry was brought through indetured labourers and former peasants from India and China. The royal institution and malay reservations were enacted to 'secure' the native peasantry's existence against capitalist industry. For the Malay peasantry, Chinese capitalists were their biggest threat, for the Malay middle classes it was British colonialists. For the Chinese, whether anglo-aligned petty bourgeois or labour nationalist, fighting Japan was about defending China from imperialist threat abroad. After Japanese occupation, this contradiction between labourers and the peasantry was not adequately addressed - Chinese and Indian labourers had direct material interests in toppling British Capital but what about the peasants? To put it simply, progressive sections of the proletariat failed to organize the predominantly Malay peasantry, and their exploitation under non-British comprador classes. Their exploitation was not directly at the hands of the British bourgeoisie in the plantations and mines, and so being anti-British was not of an immediate material interest.
It should also be noted that which language you were educated in would also ultimately determine your eventual class trajectories and positions. English-educated classes would obviously lean British, but the spread of literacy would eventually also spread anti-colonial, socialist and (British) labour unionist ideas among some of them. Chinese and Tamil educated groups would take inspiration from their own background anti-colonial fights back in India and China.
Of course it is best to not over-emphasise this apparent incommensurability of material interests between different classes, and fall into liberal cynicism (and to some extent, historical nihilism). Certainly, the formation of AMCJA-PUTERA later on was a unity between various anti-colonial groups of different racial and class backgrounds. Although predominantly Chinese (about 90%), the MCP, or Communist Party of Malaya, had notable Malay-dominant army divisions (however this only really came about later during the Emergency), and one of the most notable Malay communists in the party being the chairman, Abdullah CD. The party also had networks with the “aboriginal” Orang Asli, especially after the British forced resettlements of 300,000 Chinese people, thereby cutting out the MCP’s main support base and supply lines, consisting about 5-10% of the Malayan population at that time.
:::
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seaposting [none/use name] - 2day
What’s in a monument?
I think what's most interesting about the sculpture is that it stands out and looks very foreign - despite being the national monument. No other kind of sculpture exists in Malaysia, because it would be considered idolatrous to Islamic sensibilities for it's human features. This has periodically caused mild uproar, but an important part of this story is that it was commissioned by Tunku Abdul Rahman, our first Prime Minister after seeing the Marine Corps War Memorial in Virginia in the midst of the Cold War. The following is taken from a blog post, highlighting the differences between the inscriptions of the monument and cenotaph between languages.
Victory in two languages
The dedication at the base of Tugu Negara is bilingual. The Malay version is written in the native Jawi script, which was the default in Malaysia before colonisation.
Translations are rarely exact, since some meanings can’t make it across language worldviews. But in this case, the two versions are more or less faithful. The only shift in nuance is the focus on ‘heroic’ in English, whereas the Malay version merely mentions the warriors as fighting or struggling. I can’t really fault the translation though, since struggling in itself is worthy in our worldview, whether ‘heroic’ or not. And the Malay version demands more from the heroes. It requires that the struggle not merely be ‘in the cause of’, but to actually uphold peace and freedom.
The sentiment on the cenotaph dedication has a similar difference. The Malay version is about the memory of the service of the fallen. The primary emotion is gratitude and grief, not glory.
But I also noticed a different bilingual plaque. The versions were also generally faithful, but there was a single interesting deviation. In the English version, the figures of Tugu Negara represent the ‘triumph of the forces of democracy’ over the ‘forces of evil’. But the Malay version is nowhere so ideological. Instead, it merely says that the bronze figures represent the victory of our troops against our enemies.
And I can’t fault this translation either. Literally translating the ‘triumph of forces of democracy over forces of evil’ would sound utterly ridiculous and cringe, to the pragmatic and semi-feudal Malay worldview. No. For us, the victory of value is the one that defends our sovereignty, whatever ideology we may choose to hold over time, against those who seek to undermine that sovereignty – whatever ideology they may choose to hold at the time.
The differences in meaning showcases the dialectical process of decolonization and the material and historical bases of cultural difference. This nuance will not be captured by tourists or visitors passing by, but showcases the reality of the negotiations that occur between the colonial past and the post-colonial present in plain view - only if you are willing to understand.
There has been sufficient discourse in highlighting how Tunku Abdul Rahman was westernised, and for someone like Sukarno, Malaysia itself was a comprador creation meant to solidify British control in Southeast Asia. That is why Konfrontasi (Indonesia-Malaysia war) happened soon after the federation's declaration. I think the key part to this story is how no one could really imagine how reality would turn out. This reminds me of Chin Peng's (the last secretary general of the MCP) salient critique and failures of the Party in his interview in 2003, from not adapting Maoist guerrila warfare strategy to the Malayan context, the inadequate and immature analysis of religion and particularly Islam, and the failure to recognize the fractures and differences between the reactionary and comprador classes (ie. the British big bourgeoisie, vs the Chinese capitalists or Malay aristocrats/petty bourgeois or in other words foreign vs local Capital, for example). The National Monument echoes perhaps all aspects of this critique through it's inscriptions and history, despite the face-value anti-communist readings.
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oscardejarjayes [comrade/them] - 3day
New CSB report about the Explosion at Yenkin-Majestic:
In US military movements in the build-up against Venezuela. F-35A fighters from the Vermont Air National Guard's 158th Fighter Wing are in the process of being forward deployed to Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, with logistics flights taking place, the F-35As haven't moved yet. This is notable as the exact same unit was forward deployed to the Middle East only a few days before US strikes on Iran. (This does not mean military action is imminent, just notable). Expect a Bernie Sanders statement about "no war in Venezuela" soon, probably once the F-35As start moving.
Why deploy F-35As when 10x F-35Bs are already operating in Puerto Rico? The F-35A offers a couple of advantages: a larger combat radius due to the lift fan from the B model being replaced by an internal fuel tank, and the A model's ability to carry 2000lb class Mk-84 bombs internally, like GBU-31 JDAMs equipped with BLU-109 bunker buster/penetrator warheads. The F-35B can only carry 1000lb class Mk-83 bombs internally. The F-35A can refuel faster in the air from tankers, boom refueling on the A vs probe and drogue for the B, though the difference is minimal for fighter jets. Also, the deck of the USS Iwo Jima is currently empty/clear. If the F-35Bs, with their Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) capability are deployed to the Iwo Jima to act as a mini aircraft carrier, Puerto Rico will still have F-35As available.
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Lovely_sombrero [he/him] - 4hr
Trump, talking about Venezuela: "We are going to be starting on land pretty soon."
"Either Hezbollah voluntarily ends its military project, or it will receive a violent blow that will eliminate what remains of its local and regional functions. Lebanese people had hoped for a faster transition to a sovereign Lebanon, but that transition is inevitable. The era of 'resistance' is over; all that remains is to bury it."
The US government’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED) spent hundreds of thousands of dollars tutoring dozens of Nepalese youth on “strategies and skills in organizing protests and demonstrations” prior to a violent coup which overthrew the government of Nepal in September 2025, leaked documents show.
The documents reveal a clandestine campaign organized by an NED division known as the International Republican Institute (IRI) that sought to cultivate a Nepalese “network” of young political activists explicitly designed to “become an important force to support US interests.” The leaked documents note that the IRI’s program “connects vibrant youth… and political leaders” and “provides comprehensive trainings on how to launch advocacy campaigns and protests.”
Continued:
::: spoiler spoiler
Nepal held particular importance for the IRI, the leaks show. The Institute gushed over Nepal’s “strategic geographic location” between China and India, which they said “makes the country core” to Washington’s “Indo-Pacific” ambitions — namely, encircling Beijing with pliable governments and US military installations.
The leaked files show the IRI drew inspiration from the so-called “Enough is Enough” protests which unfolded in Nepal in the summer of 2020 in response to the government’s COVID policies. For the Institute, those demonstrations proved the ability of young people “to shape and play a significant role in Nepali politics,” and extract concessions from the government – a “success” which the NED subsidiary was keen to “sustain” and “capitalize on.” The Institute therefore decided to begin providing the country’s youth with “opportunities and platforms to develop extensive, sustainable networks to effectively advocate for common concerns and be successful champions for democratic change supported by the US.”
Among the most crucial IRI projects in Nepal was a program called “Yuva Netritwa: Paradarshi Niti” (Youth Leadership: Transparent Policy), which ran at an initial cost of $350,000 from July 2021 to June 2022. The IRI project sought to provide “emerging leaders [with] increased opportunities to build momentum for youth activism and put pressure on Nepali political decision-makers,” the documents show. The program was predicted to “benefit” between 60 – 70 young Nepalis.
“Networks of youth activists and political leaders” would be cultivated in Nepal, provided with “skills, resources, and platforms to build connections” and communicate their grievances publicly, then trained to “advocate concerns on political turmoil, government corruption and national policymaking,” the files state. Washington’s concerns would be addressed by “advocacy campaigns and protests, urging the government of Nepal to pay more attention to their concerns and promoting democratic reform advocated by the US.”
Once a sufficient number of Nepalese “youth leaders” who “endorse and advocate” US “values” were groomed, they could then be mobilized “to launch advocacy campaigns on Nepali issues of US concern.”
featured! - SeventyTwoTrillion in news
Bulletins and International News Discussion from December 8th to December 14th, 2025 - Cyclone Ditwah Strikes Sri Lanka - COTW: Sri Lanka
A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like "in Minecraft") and comments containing it will be removed.
Image is of people passing through a road affected by landslides in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the cyclone.
Over the last week, Sri Lanka has been hit by their worst national natural disaster since the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Over 2 million people (about 10% of the population) were affected; the death toll is currently climbing past 600; nearly a hundred thousand homes have been damaged or destroyed, transport infrastructure is heavily damaged; industry has been damaged; and farmland has been flooded. The cost of damage so far looks to be about $7 billion, which is more than the combined budget spent on healthcare and education in Sri Lanka.
While there is plenty to say meteorologically about how this yet another concerning escalation as a result of climate change (Sri Lanka does experience cyclones, but they are usually significantly weaker than this), it's important to note that such disasters are, to at least a certain extent, able to warned about and their impacts somewhat mitigated. However, this requires both access to early detection and warning equipment, and an economy in which development is widespread - in this case, particularly in the construction of drainage systems and regulated construction, which has not generally occurred.
The IMF, on its 17th program with Sri Lanka, is doing its utmost to prevent such an economy from developing, as they instead promote reductions in public investment. On top of this, the rebuilding effort for Sri Lanka is already being planned and funded, and such donors include, of course, many Sri Lankan oligarchs, who will rebuild the damaged portions of the country yet further according to their visions, while sidelining the working class.
Perhaps neoliberalism's decay into its eventual death occurring concurrently into the gradual intensification of climate change and renewed wars signifies the rise of the era of disaster capitalism.
Last week's thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
::: spoiler The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
If you have evidence of Zionist crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
:::
::: spoiler Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
:::
Hey buddy, I heard you like posts... DM me to feature effort posts and good threads in the newsmega/newscomm here (including your own posts). Some great discussion this week. I'm grateful to be part of this community.
Please review and provide feedback on revised comm policy and rules
@xiaohongshu@hexbear.net with a real banger on upward social mobility or lack thereof for China's Gen Z, the modern appeal of the Cultural Revolution, and CPC censorship Part 1 | Part 2. The subthread with @jack about modern youth Maoism is worthwhile as well.
@jack@hexbear.net on who owes the IMF money and the potential for China to upend the debt of the developing world. @xiaohongshu@hexbear.net has a good response here about the likelihood of China rugpulling the IMF/dollar denominated debt (he doubts it).
@seaposting@hexbear.net analyzing the class character of Malaysian resistance to Japanese occupation in WW2 and linguistic nuance around Malaysia's national monument
@Redcuban1959@hexbear.net on the state of Bolivia, Acre and Morales
Previous posts of the week: Oct 27 | Nov 3 | Nov 10 | Nov 17 | Nov 24 | Dec 1
Only been a day and there’s already a lot of great posts!
there are threads where Nothing Happens and days where GOOD posts are posted
Best part about this community is that there's always good posts
China vibe report: something absolutely wild took place on the Chinese internet this past week and I’ll be the first to report it. The kids are NOT ok!
TL;DR: Chinese Gen Z kids went full ultra Gang of Four yearning for a revival of the Cultural Revolution on bilibili (Chinese Youtube), what the hell is going on?
This came absolutely out of nowhere and took everyone by surprise. It’s truly one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen in the many years I’ve spent on the Chinese side of the internet.
It started with one of those Movie Explained channels offering analysis and interpretation of films. Run of the mill stuff. About a month ago, one of those channels began to upload a deconstruction of the 2017 film 芳华 (Youth), a coming of age/loss of innocence movie set in the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution about the lives and drama of the military art troupe kids, based on Yan Geling’s novel of the same name, which has been suspected to be her own semi-autobiography.
The film itself wasn’t overtly political or anything. It wasn’t without controversy before the theatrical release due to the Cultural Revolution backdrop, but after extensive cutting and reediting, the film was eventually released and went on the become one of the highest grossing films of the year.
However, the Movie Explained guy (no doubt on the more extreme/ultra left) offered a re-interpretation of the film, painting the Cultural Revolution as being hijacked by the elites from the very beginning, and after the reform and opening up era, the Gang of Four was vilified by the liberal reformers who rewrote history. Wild conspiracy take but what’s even wilder was the response to the videos (which have been released in three parts, with the final part that came out on November 29th being the most controversial, which essentially reinterpreted the film’s male protagonist as Wang Hongwen).
To give you an idea of what an absolute phenomenon this is, the three videos have a combined 37+ million views before the censorship hammer fell. Averaging about 12 million views per video, this is an insane number for bilibili, and was trending #1 at the time the videos were “disappeared” by the censors. As a comparison, the most sensational anti-Japan videos garnered about 2-3 million views at most - this is easily 4-5 times the volume of that.
Imagine Youtube’s #1 trending video. That’s how huge it was. This was never seen before for a politically themed video, let alone one on the Cultural Revolution.
And because bilibili has what is called the “bullet comments”, where user comments stream across the screen while a video is being played, and with hundreds of thousands of comments here’s what the screen looked like:
人民万岁 = Long Live the People. Slogan of the Cultural Revolution.
Clearly the kids are more into Cultural Revolution than anti-Japanese propaganda. What the hell is going on?
Let’s start with the film’s story to give some contexts:
The story is the typical rich kids bullying poor kids story. The male protagonist was a model socialist youth, who embodied the ideal of a revolutionary, always offering help to anyone without expecting anything in return, but because of his lower class, was always taken advantage of and held in disdained by the other elite/rich kids who were in the art troupe for “performative” reasons.
The female protagonist was a girl whose father was in the reeducation camp, and naively believed that by joining the communist youth cadre, she would be treated as equals. Instead, because of her lower class, she ended up getting bullied throughout by the elite/rich kids.
This scene from the film has been memed all over the chat groups right now and embodied the class divide that had infected the Cultural Revolution even from its very onset:
The elite kids (官二代, or 2nd generation elites) and rich kids (富二代) were able to enjoy special privileges in the “revolution” while looking down at the other kids from the lower classes. Such distinct class divide amongst the communist youth cadres, in a way, showed that the Cultural Revolution was doomed from the start.
The ending was particularly bleak:
::: spoiler spoiler: do not click if you want to watch the film for yourself, which I highly recommend.
The male protagonist was ostracized and in the reform era, was tasked to enlist in the invasion of Vietnam, lost his arm and lived miserably in the post-reform society. The female protagonist was driven mad.
The elite and rich kids were able to take advantage of the reform era through their status and became the first to reap the benefits of the post-Mao era, and they all married rich. :::
The ending in the novel was even more bleak. The film version actually made some adjustments to make it seem more bittersweet.
Strangely enough, when the film was aired in 2017, nobody really thought too much about it. It was mostly seen as a nostalgic film for the 50s/60s elderly who reminisced about their youth during the Cultural Revolution. The Gen Z kids were still too young/at school to appreciate its subtexts.
Remember that 2017-2019 was the peak of China’s economy. It was a time when everyone was very much positive about the future. Nobody even thought about such concerns as unemployment. As long as you’re willing to work hard, there will be jobs for you.
8 years later, the situation has completely changed. Upon re-watch, many young people, especially kids who saw it for the first time, felt the incomprehensible horror in the film itself.
Of course, visual language is everything, take a look:
At the start of the film, the red mural had a Mao painting with a hammer and sickle, which was very much emblematic of the revolutionary era.
By the time the protagonist returned in the reform era, the mural had been replaced with a red Coca-Cola advertisement, signifying the end of an era.
So how did we get here?
First of all, I do think that the re-interpretation videos had indeed over-interpreted the film itself, even though the visual languages are well representative of the latent contradictions of the time.
Second, I don’t think the Gen Z kids are really yearning for a real Cultural Revolution, widely held as the most destructive era of the PRC history.
Whether this was irony pilled Gen Z black humor, or whether they truly yearn for a rerun of the CR, it doesn’t matter. The explosive outbursts of their emotion had to be real. This was something that you could only feel when interacting with the youth, their hidden anger buried underneath, but nothing really actually manifested in real life.
Their collective outbursts in the form of bilibili comments revealed their true reaction to the film - the loss of their Youth, a funeral of their Future.
And it makes sense. As I have said before, post-Covid China is a very different world than the 2010s. Chinese kids are seeing their futures evaporating in front of them. These are the kids who studied hard for years, just to be told that there are no jobs for them, the houses are way beyond what they could possibly afford, and that a bright future that had been promised not even 10 years ago is disappearing before them.
It’s like being told that the train is already full, and you are being left behind at the train station. The train that just departed was class mobility - a door that has now shut for most Chinese youth.
They are experiencing a strong dissonance that while the country is becoming stronger, as China is becoming a world superpower, yet the fruits of the hard work do not belong to them. The future of a nation where they are not a part of.
Their anger is to be expected, and a yearning for a Cultural Revolution that at least promises shake up the entrenchment of the social classes. The chaos and destruction would hurt the rich elites the most, dragging them down to the level of the average working people who are struggling for the next paycheck.
For context, understand that the accumulation of capital that took several hundred years in Western capitalist countries, occurred in China in just 50 years. Everything has been evolving so fast, and so does the wealth inequality.
In 2007, nobody would have anticipated what China would look like today. That’s what it feels like to grow up in China. In Western countries, the wealth distribution is divided in generations, where the boomers/Gen X reaped the industrialization benefits while the Gen Y and especially Gen Zs are already accustomed to a relatively bleak future since they were born.
However, in China, this was not the experience. If you’re a Gen Z kid born in the late 1990s (in China they’re called post-90s and post-00s), you would have grown up just after the recession, with your parents having a relatively well paid job in the 2000s (compared to the 90s). Things were starting to look better. By the 2010s, in your middle and high schools, your parents likely bought a new house. An upgrade. The economy was looking better by the day. You’re promised that as long as you study hard, you’ll be able to find a good job and raise your own family one day.
Then Covid hit just when you’re about to graduate college, and the economy never returned. Years of hard work down the drain. All this rollercoaster happened in less than 30 years of your life.
Bonus material: Class mobility in China
It is crucial to understand why education is held with such utmost importance in East Asian culture.
In 103 BC, the Han Emperor Wu (aka the Martial Emperor of Han) made a decision that would change world history forever. The nomadic Xiongnu tribes in the north have always been a nuisance for the Central Plains governments. The periodic raids into the border towns have mostly been opportunistic raids, with the nomadic tribes taking advantage of their cavalry mobility. It wasn’t that the Central Plains armies were not capable of defeating the Xiongnu tribes, but it had always been a question of costs. Usually, you settle with some bribes, they go away for some years before coming back for more. It was the cost effective solution that held the balance for a long period.
Imagine Trump wanting to mobilize the entire US military to expel the Canadians into Russia Far East. It is not that the US is not capable of doing so, but the costs would be exceedingly high, all three of the political, economic and social costs.
But that’s the Han Emperor Wu wanted to achieve. He would launch the greatest Northern Expedition ever seen at the time, and with capable generals like Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, absolutely steamrolled the Xiongnu nomadic cavalry.
The third and final Northern Expedition would double the territory of the Han Dynasty, reaching as far as modern day Xinjiang! The Xiongnu nomads were forced migrate west and eventually their descendants became the Huns, who would wreak havoc in Europe centuries later.
But… at what cost? lol, you ask.
The cost is that to sustain the huge logistics necessary for the Han military for their long expeditions, the peasants were coerced to increase their output under excessively demanding conditions. The people would be squeezed to their death, fighting a war that most of them had never even heard of.
This was when the feudal lords (豪族, haozu) began to take center stage. Amidst hardship, coercion, forced conscription and levy from the government, the peasants took refuge under the protection of the feudal lords, who often held their own private army, land, farms, and production bases. The peasants voluntarily turned to slavery, because at least you are not left to fend for yourself against banditry, and the evil government officials who want to squeeze every grain out of you to embellish their results, or worse, dragging you to join the army.
The rise of the feudal lords would eventually evolve into the infamous Guanlong group by the 5th-7th century AD, an oligarchy holding very important positions in the imperial court and in regional provinces.
To fight back against the overarching influence of the oligarchs, the Imperial Court Examination began to take shape starting in the 5th century AD during the Northern Wei dynasty to seek talented and qualified officials from the lower classes (寒门), as a means of counter-balancing force against the oligarchs (门阀). The examination would become a fully mature institution by the 8th century under Wu Zetian during the Tang dynasty, the first and only female emperor in Chinese history.
The significance of the Imperial Court Examination would influence Chinese culture for the next 1500 years. This became the only chance that a person from the lower class can ascend to the higher class. A mechanism for upward class mobility.
As the saying goes, 一人得道，鸡犬升天 (one person gets promoted, even his chickens and dogs get to ascend to the heaven), meaning that if you won the examination prize and become a government official, it would be a ticket for your entire extended family, including those of your teachers, to ascend to a higher class. A much much higher class, with a lot more material benefits to reap.
As such, for many poor families, usually one kid (the eldest son) was tasked to study, while his brothers and sisters worked in the farm. This coincided with the invention of woodblock printing, and later paper, that drastically reduced the cost of accessing books for the lower classes. If the son became a local official, then their fate would be completely changed.
Even in the modern days, examination offers a one-way ticket for class mobility. It is no different for Japan and South Korea, having been influenced by Chinese culture. Getting a job at Samsung will literally change your life in South Korea, you simply have to compete with the rest of the nation to get there.
In China, that’s what gaokao is about, for getting into higher education. That’s why the kids study so hard. To be a civil servant, you also have to take the civil servant exam (考公), which is equally as competitive. Once you are part of the 60 million civil servants in China, you are “in the system” (在体制内), you have guaranteed employment, good salary, social benefits and welfare that are inaccessible to the rest of the working class.
Funnily enough, back in the 2000s and 2010s, becoming a civil servant was actually not very encouraged. It was seen as a boring career choice with not much upward trajectory. If you’re a civil servant, you could be tasked to some random town and that’s easily the next 20 years of your life. And because your supervisor isn’t that much older, you’re probably not going to get promoted any time soon. You won’t have much choice, but you will at least have guaranteed employment and benefits.
Back then, it wasn’t an attractive choice. However, since Covid, with the economic downturn, the number of people taking the civil servant examination has exploded. The total number of people taking the examination was 2.8 million people this year (!!), with an intake ratio of 74:1 (1.65%). That’s totally wild. People would rather have a stable employment and boring career than to risk it in the private sector. This tells you just how much the times have changed. Totally unthinkable even back in 2018-2019.
And because the civil service force is not going to expand much (mostly replacing the retiring employees), with the local governments experiencing increasing financial strains as their debt bubble becomes unsustainable, and with AI starting to replace all the desk jobs, the situation is only going to get worse. The people’s concerns are not unreasonable.
That’s the picture the youth is seeing in China today. What is the point of studying if the door for class mobility is being shut?
Very interesting history. Especially for me since India went through very similar societal transformations. Especially the importance of civil service for socio-economic mobility, and it's resurgence in recent years. It's just that, this didn't happen over millenia but during the few centuries of British colonial rule.
Final thoughts
If the first two parts of the videos were critiques of the wealthy elites that have infested the highest level of the CPC, which, believe it or not, are still tolerated by the party itself (there has to be an outlet for the people to channel their anger into), then the third part was what made it all the more controversial.
The author of the video series ended part 3 with: “Big brother (referring to Mao), your ideas were too forward for your time, which made you almost a god-like figure to us, this is what we [mere mortals] could never compare with… and only after years of experiencing the brutality of life, fighting for our last breaths, that we are only beginning to understand your insistence back in the days [for a Cultural Revolution].”
The ban hammer finally came. But it already reached a record of 37+ million collective views within a few days.
Whatever it is, it can never be taken back. The Gen Z kids have made their voices known. Perhaps the energy behind the so-called Gen Z protests happening around the world was real after all.
The government will have to respond. On the one hand, the government relies on the bourgeoisie to deliver the GDP numbers (very important numbers!), on the other, they have to take care of an increasingly dissenting youth who see a bleak future for themselves, which is made more dissonant by the fact that China is actually growing into a superpower.
I believe there will be more strict crackdown on revolutionary ideals to prevent a re-run of the Cultural Revolution. All of the leadership today, the liberal reformers, were victims of the Cultural Revolution. They are deathly afraid of it.
Finally, if you want to watch the film for yourself (which I recommend!), try to find the extended version. The absolutely breathtaking rendition of the Steppe Women Militia dance sequence was missing in the standard version, which you can watch here , starting at 1:40 mark!
You can also watch the original version here taken in 1976 (remastered).
Do NOT let Redditors find this out lmao
I support the Maoist youth. The CPC needs that internal pressure to strive for socialism. With all the wealth China has accumulated, why shouldn't it be time to take those big strides away from the capitalist mode? It won't happen top-down.
They're not going to recreate the cultural revolution because the conditions are so wildly different. But maybe youth rage can coalesce into organization, and if it's distinctly Maoist in character it certainly won't be easily swayed by capitalist influence.
Mostly because of dependency on imported resources. They need to get the country off oil and uranium imports for energy security in the event that they are cut off from international markets if they take the socialist mode. They import 70% of their oil needs.
Russia and Iran and Venezuela are not gonna withhold oil from China if they start improving worker rights, expropriating property, and establishing collecting economic structures. China would remain the center of the world's economy.
Sure, which is why the west is setting up the chessboard against China by assaulting them.
The west doesn't actually have to take them over either. If they block the Malacca Strait they cut China off from most of their imports. 80% of China's oil comes through the Malacca Strait
But Chinese trade and diplomacy marches on. The west continues to fail in their objective, but so far they can't afford to flip the chessboard, either.
Ships can go around. The Yemenis blocked tons of trade through the equally important Suez and ships went around. Costs and delivery times went up, but trade carried on. The diversion around Sumatra is way, way less than the diversion around Africa. And the west would need the support of Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia in killing their most important economic tool in order to piss off their biggest trading partner. Otherwise the west would need to block it militarily, and that would necessitate an occupation of Singapore - all in waters where China's navy could easily operate. And they'd probably have Vietnam's support, given how important the strait is to them as well. All of this for China-bound or -originated ships to just take a few days longer to go around Sumatra and harbor in Jakarta instead of Singapore.
Sure, ships can try to go around. But most of the other gaps are not viable for large scale shipping as they are too shallow and the Indonesian sea is not calm nor does it have developed ports for shipping at large scale. Most of the shipping will have to go all the way around Australia.
Additionally piracy has not been eradicated in the Strait of Malacca, which is only 2.5km wide at its narrowest point. The routes through the other straits feature considerably more piracy and you can bet on the US quietly boosting the pirates.
I think you underestimate the harm that raising the cost of energy in the country will do to Chinese manufacturing, European manufacturing essentially collapsed as energy costs became economically unsustainable.
I think you're underestimating how significant this would be for China due to its manufacturing.
I haven't really done the math but how many millions of barrels can Iran and Venezuela even supply? I am suspicious that they would not be able to fulfill China's existing needs:
All of this is somewhat moot, China recognises this problem itself and is aiming to completely electrify the country to get off oil entirely. My point however is that moving to the socialist mode before removing the vulnerability would be a bad move. They should get self-sufficiency first. Luck of geography meant the USSR was able to fully provide everything it needed within its own borders, China doesn't have the same circumstances.
Europe in the 19th century was haunted by the spectre of the French Revolution.
The world bourgeoisie in the 20th and 21th century are haunted by the spectre of the Russian Revolution.
China in 2025 is haunted by the spectre of the Cultural Revolution lmao.
This seems like trying to put the genie back in the bottle.
The genie is already out when they started to teach Marxism-Leninism in schools and the nation portrayed itself as a socialist country.
When the economy was trending upward in the last two decades, people don’t mind too much about which political ideology and economic system.
Now that the kids are increasingly realizing that they do not, in fact, live in the socialism as portrayed everywhere in the media, and that this is in fact, not the Marxism they were taught in school, suddenly they begin to question everything.
Even though the so-called Marxism-Leninism class is somewhat of a joke these days, and it’s more of a patriotism class, the ideas have been implanted into their minds. With the youth taking up the tangping (lying down) movement, they now have more time to read and study Mao and Marx and Lenin! Funny the things you do while being unemployed.
Having said that, I doubt there will be a re-run of the CR. It would take a lot more coalescence of the dissatisfaction to get there, and the government still has a lot of authority to crack down on the dissent. Furthermore, I don’t think the rest of the people would want something like that.
But the youth have already made their demands: they want to have a slice of the cake, and a seat at the table too. And that’s up to the government to decide on how to meet their demands.
It doesn't seem like the liberal faction are going to be able to do anything to stop this in the long term that wouldn't also destroy the country. Capitalism is never sustainable forever as a mode of production, so it was a foregone conclusion that it would have to either be replaced (as is the stated plan) or the country would be destroyed (what has historically happened from most capitalist collapses). I don't see how a crackdown would accomplish anything but intensifying the unrest, as you say there are a huge number of class-conscious proletarians with Marxist educations. The only thing that I think would realistically slow these developments would be a resumption of improvements in living conditions, which isn't just a switch that can be flipped without changing anything else.
Hmm… if we look at the Lost Decade Japan, the trajectory was similar. The Japanese government saved the older employees at the expense of youth employment, and the end result was that Japan had to endure zero growth for 30 years until very recently, when enough of the elderly have died to allow the wealth to trickle downward again. So it’s always possible to keep the stagnation going for decades. I don’t believe that a sufficiently developed society can easily “collapse” just like that.
I think it will be interesting to see how seriously the youth take up the revolutionary ideas? Is it just cosplay? A ritual to vent their anger into the internet? Or is there more substance behind it. I do agree that the Chinese kids are more class conscious than most other countries.
However, I honestly doubt it can grow into a tangible movement because unlike Western capitalist countries, there is no history of trade unions in China. The people don’t even know how to organize protest movements, don’t know how to strategize to make demands from their own government. Everything would have to start from scratch.
This is actually a big advantage for the Western left wing movements who have faced off capitalists for more than a century and have an actual history of trade union movements that succeeded in making real gains and progress in the late 19th and early 20th century.
More importantly, it would require organisation. The actual CR had the country's strongest revolutionary organiser agitating it on a backdrop of far stronger student organisation that had been inherited from the actual revolution.
They are not as organised anymore and they would be doing it all themselves without experience and without that agitating voice.
Could you kindly verify it's the extended version? (Can't find info on the lengths of different cuts) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XoThanE2Q4
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
sounds like graduating into the subprime mortgage thing.
the children yearn for
Well, if western Internet culture history says something is that what the kids might meme about can become serious in the future.
8 years ago, Hitler memes, Anne Frank jokes, racist jokes, and stuff like that was meme material and not taken seriously. Now look at the rise of fascism worldwide.
Cause and effect must be clear though: meming likely follows the same material conditions which result in fascism also becoming more open in recent years
At the beginning of the year when XHS blew up over here I got on to see what the hype was about.
Pretty quickly I got into the communist algorithm and ended up in a group chat with around 100 self identified communists from around the world.
The user who started that one was a youth league member from Hubei who was in college and was saying he and his peers identify as new Maoists and were saying they want a cultural revolution but without all the violence and failures of the original one. He made it seem like it was becoming a large movement in that age range, which was good to hear at the time.
Hearing your report almost a year later keeps that hope alive
That sounds based, hopefully that makes
come faster
Hasan Piker streams on bilibili for 2 weeks and the Chinese zoomers yearn for the Cultural Revolution again. Coincidence?
I know you are joking but honestly come on, do Chinese people need a foreigner who knows nothing about China to teach them about their own history?
Yes, I am joking, but the joke is just the standard joke about Hasan radicalizing children, not teaching Chinese people about their own history.
37 million in a day Oh my
this is the general MLM take over the events of the cultural revolution, still this seems to have gotten popular because the youth in china have a negative view of the current system so the turn to basic MLM takes, better than what happen in the west at least
West is turning fascist, China is turning Maoist lol.
makes sense, when looking at the past China has Mao while the USA has the KKK
Without the KKK, There Would Be No New Amerikkka.
Uphold GroKKK Thought
New Nazi Germany vs USSR vibes
I just hope something like this is properly addressed and ends up doing good in society.
I'd be worried that this is astroturfed by the west, a massive cultural revolution style movement that destabilises and weakens the Chinese government (possibly even leading to a civil war) is exactly what the west would want to see right now. Not the actual cultural revolution part, the destabilisation part, but it wouldn't be the first time they've hijacked the youth's frustration with the system and attempted to use it to destroy China.
This cannot possibly be astroturfed lol. The numbers we’re talking about are absolutely wild, and so far beyond that the Western intelligence could feasibly pull off. And don’t forget all of these platforms are under the watch of the Chinese government and censors. You don’t get to be the #1 trending video on the largest video streaming platform without the government knowing about it. So far, Hu Xijin (the guy who always toe the establishment line) from Global Times has said that the guy over-interpreted things, don’t take it too seriously etc.
In fact, I don’t even think the government expected such overwhelming response in favor of the Cultural Revolution. Otherwise they would have “disappeared” the videos much faster than they would have allowed them to stay up. There were tens of thousands of views even at 2am after midnight (on bilibili, you can see how many audience there are in the video). There were thousands and thousands of comments from the youth writing in the comment section of the videos about how difficult and bleak their lives are (sadly the videos have since been taken down). It is as organic as you can get. Then the next morning the plug was pulled.
It seems like there's always this hidden undercurrent within Chinese society which expresses itself as yearning for the CR. The CPC addresses it to some degree, but the undercurrent never goes away. Bo Xilai relied on CR iconography after all, and I can't help but see Xi's tenure in that light.
That's certainly good to hear. I would just hope that this youth frustration is channeled into something productive. In the west, the same despair for the future is used to turn our youth into fascists, so left without direction, I would worry that Chinese youth could be pushed in a similar direction. Blind worship of the man without proper understanding of his actions and writing is easily co-opted by groups with ulterior motives (as Mao himself warned about). Though the US federal agents have been especially poor at manipulating things of late, though they don't need to be successful every time, they only need to succeed once.
To paraphrase things others in this thread have said, China has developed into the wealthiest nation on the planet, yet it seems like the youth aren't feeling like the prosperity has trickled down to them, so it seems like they're hitting a tipping point right now. The CPC seems to want to keep the status quo going as long as possible, but it isn't sustainable, and hopefully this is a wake up call to them and they actively try to reform things, otherwise I could see a youth movement moving in a direction that ultimately benefits no one in China, and only their enemies overseas.
If it's grassroots, the only thing I hope is the movement secures its power well enough from because I'm afraid something else reactionary might bubble about too in crises and fill in the vacuum, when the more revolutionary progressive forces don't get secured enough to get into power. Not something from the west, but from something close-to-home. At least from what I read from 'If We Burn'.
That's my two cents there, disagree with me when you will.
Anyways, good luck to the organic revolutionary wave, when the time comes!
It is still very far from being a real movement. This was an internet sensation after all. The collective outburst of long repressed dissatisfaction that one could always feel its latent presence, but could not actually see it being manifested in the real world.
As I have pointed out in another comment, it is the youth making their demands: they want to have a slice of the cake, and a seat at the table. With the implicit threat that if this continues, maybe something like a Cultural Revolution is not impossible. But at the end of the day, it’s dissatisfaction of the current economic climate and losing out their upward social mobility, so this is their form of “protest”.
The government will have to respond, one way or another.
They can't astroturf a "Gen Z" protest in Mexico, what hope do they have of trying to sway radicalized youth in China?
They actually tried that BTW, that was Tienanmen Square in 1989.
Ok so what I'm really curious about after thinking all this over some more: what paths forward are there for expressing this yearning for socialism for the youth? From my external perspective, I see a few potential directions this all goes. Lemme know if any of these are actually possible or what I'm missing. I'll refer to this whole phenomena as "Youth Maoism" for lack of a better term.
::: spoiler sidebar on Chinese socialism This is coming from the take I'm coalescing lately about China that it is socialism in stasis, where deeply rooted democratic and socialist structures exist in contradiction with powerful oligarchic and capitalist structures throughout society, and the CPC's careful balancing act has made moving forward very difficult without some kind of internal or external shock, especially when so much astounding technological and economic progress is at stake. :::
First, Youth Maoism could simply remain in the space of ideas, memes, literary criticism. In the west, political trends often sweep through the youth in almost entirely online spaces without ever coalescing in any coherent real world or organizational sense. Since they're reflections of real material conditions, they do inevitably end up feeding into something, but that real world expression need not reflect any particular online trend, especially if there's a significant time gap. In this case, we would eventually see some other form of anti-systemic expression emerge unless China effectively handles the economic issues through institutional methods - a strong possibility, given the PRC's frequently demonstrated flexibility and problem solving capacity.
Second, Youth Maoism could become an actual anti-institutional political movement. As you've pointed out elsewhere in the thread, that's not something Chinese people have much experience with since Reform and Opening Up. There are no lasting protest movements because of both state repression and the state's ability to effectively address popular concerns before they bubble over into irrepressible unrest. As dialectical marxists, that second component is important - it is impossible to construct a society where suppression alone eliminates resistance. Therefore, forming that movement would be incredibly difficult, a lengthy process of trial and error to discover what methods can succeed and grow in the PRC's particular conditions. If this remains external to the CPC, it will obviously face huge pressure and the power of the state. This is the most dangerous path forward, because it's where imperialist forces can find a foothold to influence these movements. I don't think the CIA has the juice to pull off anything like that in China, but it would also be naive to totally rule it out. And the long term course of something like this impossible to predict. Could there truly be a socialist revolution within China? In a way, that adheres to an orthodox ML analysis, where the socialist state eventually gives way to popular pressure and begins the process of withering away. I dunno.
Third, Youth Maoism could become a current - and potentially a powerful, influential one - within the CPC. The CPC has undergone dramatic political changes before, developing new orientations and strategies in response to new pressures, including from the masses. This would be a sort of institutional, peaceful Cultural Revolution. Vigorous mass youth engagement with the Party and its external organs could reform the organization and drive China towards a more socialist road. The party is made of its membership, and Xi has worked on building a more rigorous Marxist current in the party. This could be taking that effort and running with it. This, too, is an interpretation of that same orthodox ML analysis about popular will leading to the demise of the state and the progression to communism.
Finally, there could be a grassroots, non-oppositional expression that I predict would be expressed primarily in rural China. State and party media like to prop up rural revitalization efforts that, in their English-language presentation, focus on a few main themes I've identified: Grassroots democracy, entrepreneurial youth returning from the city, ecologically sound development, and cooperative rural enterprises. I have very little understanding of the depths of these on the ground, but I'll operate on the assumption that they represent growing trends, whatever their current scale is. If that's the case, Youth Maoism could express itself as a grassroots organizational process that adheres closely to the Party's objectives and methods but carries out creative socialist innovation on the ground. Here I'm back on my Venezuela communes bullshit (everybody read Commune or Nothing!). In Venezuela, these same four elements (although the youth movement looks quite different) lead to the communard movement that is rapidly advancing socialist construction in the Bolivarian Republic. If the Youth Maoists look outward to other socialist projects and study their comrades in other countries (is there any Proletarian Internationalism to this trend?), they could go into the countryside, utilize state support, and build more complex and democratic collective economic structures. Interestingly, the communards in Venezuela consciously wield the collectivist trends of indigenous and Afro-Caribbean history as a potent cultural weapon in the construction of their new model. What country on earth has a stronger living memory of collective ownership, communes, and rural socialism than China? This is not, on its own, an overturning of Chinese society. It would certainly represent a new evolution of the rural-urban contradiction. Perhaps it could find expression in Chinese cities, especially longer-standing communities with well-established collective structures. This, I think, is the ideal path forward and the best possible expression of the withering away of the state.
Of course, if this Youth Maoism actually becomes a movement in any material sense, it would find expressions in all of the above and other possibilities I've not imagined. Any real political movement rooted in a Marxist analysis of actually existing conditions is a varied, complex process of historical change on all available fronts.
Are the 3 parts videos mirrored somewhere? Maybe on Youtube? I’d like to watch them if there are some english subtitles for them.
I'm a little lost with how to interpret the cultural revolution and its legacy in China. Is it something that is considered a positive influence? Is it considered less important to other moments in the country's history, such as the great leap forward?
I think it's seen as a pretty huge moment and a turning point. I'm by no means an expert but I generally see the reform and opening up period as a backswing from the CR, with the CR being the point where they fully leaned into the attempt at a radically progressive and new society, free from the legacy of feudalism and colonialism, followed by a period of reckoning with the impossibility of those goals. That's why the reaction to reform and opening up from the more ultra-left/MTW crowd is that of wishing the CR had kept going and that Deng had never won.
The most recent review of this movie on Letterboxd is a Chinese liberal review referencing the Billibilli videos, I think. Their taste in movies also sucks ass.
https://letterboxd.com/masami_mouse/film/youth-2017-1/
Better start forming Red Guard units. A real democracy would've started the purges already, China is 1984 authoritarian just like America.
Is there a mirror of these videos anywhere?
Thanks for this. I'm going to try watch the movie now, it sounds really interesting.
Iceland joins the boycott of eurovision
From the NYT editorial board:
https://archive.is/QY9Hl
"our dominance is fading" a sentence said by extremely good guys, very very nice guys
"defence" and "dominance" being used interchangeably feels like nonsense even on its face. How do those writers dress themselves let alone make salary?
Pre-emptive defensive domination
now racialize it and you've got zionism/settler-colonialism
NYT: "China's social housing programs invoke the dystopian themes of 1984"
Also the NYT: "PEACE THROUGH WAR. DEFENCE THROUGH AGRESSION. SUBSERVIENCE IS LIBERTY"
1984 is when Asia. The more Asia, the more 1984
They get a kick out of saying the quiet part out loud every now and then. Like when they talk about "liberating" another country and just throw in mentions of their mineral wealth and natural resources.
In the article, they are calling for... a bigger US military budget. You know, the one thing that America doesn't like to do, increase military spending.
I've long thought that the US military budget is the true measure of USD inflation. The MIC will never tolerate a drop in real-dollar revenue. I think calls from the media to increase it are just part of the larger plan to try to hide the true scope of inflation.
then they just move on with no attempt to explain or analyze why
It's probably the fault of CHYNA and RUSSIA!
"has defended the free world" is a funny way to say "has been on the wrong side of every single struggle for liberation"
::: spoiler (cw: sexual assault, bestiality) nobody seems to be able to explain why US proxies need to train dogs to r*pe prisoners in order to defend the free world :::
look at this complete reversal of history. revisionist garbage:
"we love wunderwaffe, but so did the Soviets" is so fucking ridiculous.
Sophisticated is fine if you can produce it at a massive scale for a sustained war effort.
If you can't, all that sophisticated shit will be gone in the first 3 weeks of a peer war.
Ideally you merge sophistication with scale.
The USSR was playing catch up for most of the cold war lmao, apart from when it found ways to mass produce "good enough" systems that turned the latest generation of shiny bollocks into scrap.
must be short for United States because it's never "us" when it's time to hand out corporate profits
itsafraid.gif
finally some good news
"The tanker seized near Venezuela by the US is named Skipper and was carrying a false flag of nationality...It was seized because of its past links to smuggling illicit Iranian oil...although it was carrying Venezuelan oil" -NYT
"Asked what would happen to the oil on the seized oil tanker, President Trump said: 'Well, we keep it, I guess.'" -NYT
Link
I can't think of a better way to ensure that the rest of the world never, EVER trusts your banking system ever again. Are they completely out of their minds?
For real, Europe seems to be so
about Russia that they're not thinking straight. They cannot see that the war in Ukraine is lost, they are hell bent on continuing a lost conflict no matter the cost, their global reputation and economic well-being be damned.
It's like they're committed to global economic irrelevancy.
They are going to take themselves out of the empire game - this is great news for us socialists.
US needs to do the same asap
Unfortunately the US is far more dangerous on its way out
To be fair, Europe already killed 85+ million people on its way out.
Good point, and the US could never wage a war as self-destructive as WWII was for the European empires. Even a very bad US Civil War II would pale in comparison to what European states were able and willing to do to each other.
Aren't they just becoming ever more dependent vassals of the US empire?
Maybe they are? Maybe these leaders act perfectly rational as compradors of the US, subjugating Europe under the US empire, while they personally benefit.
Tesla's autonomous AI-powered Optimus robot (that Elon assured everyone is no longer being operated remotely) does the same motion that a tele-operator would do to take off his virtual reality headset, then collapses. The gif is great, really represents the current state of AI.
https://x.com/wirelyss/status/1997764719961124938/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1997764719961124938¤tTweetUser=wirelyss
https://x.com/i/status/1997920787412426852
lol. lmao
Exactly 100 years ago, ibn Saud and his army of Wahhabi death cultists were killing and conquering Arabs across the Arabian Peninsula, armed with British weapons. December 1925 was 10 months into a brutal siege of Jeddah.
Dr Mohammed Sindi writes:
Today, Jeddah is hosting porn stars while Riyadh is assisting US-israel in the starvation sieges of south Lebanon, Yemen, and Gaza.
Article
Death to al Saud.
Death to al Saud indeed. Anyways thanks for the article.
wdym porn stars? those are just regular actors, no?
To be honest, I actually don't know if 50 Shades of Gray is pornography but I believe that is the claim being made in the tweet. Is that incorrect? I'll update the post if so.
50 Shades kinda rides to line between porn and romance. I would be uncomfortable calling it straight up porn, but I could understand that interpretation.
For me, the point of emphasis is that the establishment of the Saudi state, and its Wahhabi doctrine today are extremely rigid. They said radio was bidah...
And even beyond this, as the so-called custodians of the Hijaz, literally paying people whose job is to make this kind of content to come glorify the "openness" of the regime, while Muslims routinely die during Hajj and Umrah, and actual children are sentenced to death on the basis of "disrespecting the Islamic ruler", something very perverse is happening.
The house of Saud is a tumor on the region, I agree. Just wanted to provide a bit of context as asked for.
With that said, people dying on the Hajj is horrifying. Doubly so for the literal child murder.
Can't wait for the US to screw the Saudis over, just like every other collaborator the US has ever had.
The siege account sounds like cambodian civil war shit jfc
From the singular non-astroturfed response from X dot com
[redacted section]
reposted @hello_hello@hexbear.net's comment because it was within the hour of the last thread being locked. I know this is Madani struggling, but I think this is exceptionally egregious and ICE is definitely a valid news mega topic. this is also information that could help save someone's life so...
My bad on getting heated and going off-topic. But I don't think posting about the mamdani admin's actions should count as electoralism anymore, the election is over and the power transfer is already on full display.
His "PSAs" can and will put people in danger and are going to be spread because of his political clout.
no one is getting banned for posting wrong unless it goes against the code of conduct. if you really want to talk about this video or response to it then please revise this post to remove the personal attack against XHS and the struggle session bait. without those changes I will remove this post in a few hours. I encourage you and other zohran posters to keep in mind that this is comm is not for electoralism, so don't turn this into another 'what are the limits of socdems in america' thread
oh hey, I didn't even notice that, just reposting hello_hello's late post. I'll delete everything except the quoted section
I really want to wait until he's in office to judge but he isn't waiting to make these unforced errors so
Why in the world should we wait till he has power to judge things he’s doing now? Nothing about being in or out of office changes that this is bad, that keeping the Nazi on is bad, that tacking to the right is bad.
As I once predicted, people that support mamdani will cope and compromise until they are as left wing as Keir Stürmer and Labor Party.
They either break and realize socialism will not be achieved through democrats or they will remain democrats, Sturmer style
Maybe because rhetoric isn't a direct one-to-one with policies and the power to enact them
Otherwise when dems activate their rhetorical faux-progressive mode once every decade, we should just believe them right?
After winning election, why would his rhetoric be misrepresenting his actions in office? It’s not like he needs votes or that what he says today affects what reaction he’ll receive in a month. Dems go progressive to win elections. Is he just lying for fun? Also the misinfo re ICE isn’t policy, it’s just wrong.
The Tisch announcement is an announcement of policy, I don’t care what he’s signaling or the 4d chess behind the scene
Have you seen the opposition he's up against? Do you believe the hysteria the capitalists displayed over him was just noise?
So he’s lying to the capitalists about ICE and pretending to appoint Jessica Tisch to make nice with Trump? Fantastic strategy, let’s see if they’ll be nicer once he’s in power in a few weeks
I mean it literally worked, the hysteria died down and he started getting positive coverage, now we wait to see what he'll do in January, that's when I start making final judgments
Inb4
Anyways socdems will always socdem
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1998181458020901138
This can be asked recursively. Is Trump's statement about Xi asking about whether his claim was a "Trump statement" a Trump statement?
An Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps spokesman today stated that an Iranian missile strike during the June war killed 36 people in the Mossad headquarters:
https://en.mehrnews.com/news/239613/36-killed-in-Iran-s-attack-on-Mossad-headquarters-IRGC-Spox
Proposal for new Entry Requirements for People Traveling to the US
US manufacturing again down almost ~20k jobs in November;
Unrelated: "The US Labor Department announces it has cancelled the October PPI inflation report."
Probably not important anyway
But have you considered Trump's masterful, "Nuh uh. It's up by about a bajillion, actually," response?
the spineless bilingual North Americans, after spending the start of the year farming reddit karma when Trump was talking about annexing them, now won't even lift a finger when Venezuela's sovereignty is being threatened by the same entity. Even the UK and Colombia have ended intelligence sharing "in the region", but Tim Hortonia continues to operate with the USCG, which works directly with the USN.
CBC: Canada 'continues to monitor' U.S. boat strikes in Caribbean as questions swirl and allies squirm
BBC interviews Ukrainian soldiers that say they are still in Pokrovsk
1:45
1:56
النكسة السورية الكبرى
On the 1 year anniversary of the great Syrian tragedy, Alawites are on strike) protesting brutality and killings by the al Qaeda regime. Reports that state security thugs executed an Alawite man in Latakia on "liberation day" for not celebrating.
Damascus held a large parade, although I am suspicious as to the real size of the turnout. (I would not be surprised if it was large or small, but they have a habit of presenting deceptive footage to make the regime more popular.)
Outbursts of violent "clashes" continue between takfiri groups and Druze in Suweida.
The economic situation in Syria is increasingly dire as the coup government reports a surplus by simply firing tens of thousands of public servants and cutting subsidies on gas and electricity. Success!
Saudi outlet al Arabiya has thrown in their media warfare apparatus continuing to rewrite history by screening years old footage from the previous (actually elected) president. I wonder what they are covering up.
Al Qaeda regime FM Shaibani (Baghdadi??) has affirmed his commitment to normalization with the zionist cancer.
Of course the zionist cancer continues to carry out field executions, bombings, and kidnapping operations in Southern Syria.
CENTCOM recently publicly congratulated the coup regime for intercepting weapons shipments destined for the Lebanese resistance.
The horrible consequences of this imperialist coup will be felt over decades if not generations, for the region and the planet.
The looting of syria continues, as a dark mirror to the collapse of the soviet union. All the while usa-israhell-turkey build massive border walls and spy nodes, essentially isolating each middle eastern country into an island. The total victory of barbarism.
Yinon Plan playing out in front of our eyes.
From Sudan to Iraq to Yemen, they worked very hard to destroy Pan-Arabism and every regional power.
No doubt they will move against Turkey and Saudi Arabia in the near future. Israhell is already bombing Turks in Syria and closing in on northern cyprus. Lets see how NATO breaks apart then.
This is wishful thinking in my opinion.
Al Saud is the second most effective counterinsurgency tool for the empire in the region after the zionist cancer itself. It makes no sense for them to fight. And Turkiye is NATO (subservient to USA).
The rats may squabble amongst each other but they all bow to Uncle Sam and they all are collaborating on their shared goal to destroy Hezbollah, Yemen, and the main prize Islamic Iran.
Main Page: https://freelebaneseprisoners.com/ Telegram: https://t.me/freelebaneseprisoners X: https://x.com/LebPrisoners Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freelebaneseprisoners/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeLebanesePrisoners
Hey, the US. You can destroy our infrastructure and please, we want to buy more weapons and fossil fuels from you. But ending a war? HELL NO!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-dealt-major-blow-as-europe-threatens-nuclear-option-if-ukraine-deal-goes-left/ar-AA1RuVN5
I'm baffled as to why the Europeans want to continue the war since they are the ones getting hurt from it.
I think the Euros are having a real hard time accepting the new geopolitical reality. With US backing they've been pretty much invincible in the entire post-war period. NATO pushed hard against Ukraine for 10+ years and then lost. I think they view themselves as being left holding the bag. They're in denial IMO.
Because they view Ukraine as not isolated to Ukraine, but as a war against Europe by Russia. Much better for the frontline to be in Ukraine than Estonia or Poland.
k but that's divorced from reality to anyone who has spent ten minutes learning about 2014-2022
90% of euros don't know anything about that part or think it's russia propaganda tho lmao
There's possibly a lot of personal gain on the horizon for the ones in charge of decisions in Europe
Euros are heavily propoganized about the war in Ukraine to a point they see Russia as the one facing inevitable defeat. Bringing them back to reality through a peace settlement containing Ukranian concessions would result in serious political upheaval, which would favor the eurosceptic politicians questioning the point of the billions sent to Ukraine.
I think they genuinely feel threatened by Russia but I don't know
"Borrowing" costs won't rise since exchange rate is the thing that moves, not interest rate. In case of heavy selloff, Fed will stabilize yields.
When you sell US Treasuries you get Dollars. Only when you sell those Dollars in the forex markets does the Dollar depreciate. Will the EU be just replacing US Treasuries with USD. If so it's not very meaningful.
Are the EU countries willing to tolerate capital losses on their holdings if they go with USD for EUR? Ie they will get less and less of Euros as they dump USD.
The US can simply prevent or limit conversions to foreign currency. It's their computers. Will markets react badly? Sure, but whether or not this is catastrophic is uncertain.
Given the massive exchange rate appreciation of the EUR if they do sell, trade competitiveness will be undermined significantly. Other countries will have to get hold of more units of Dollars which they get from abroad to purchase European goods and services.
U.S. Dollars powers come from rest of the world being willing to accumulate it. Not from the existing stock of debt (which is functionally not different from interest earning cash). Will that change if EU dumps Treasuries?
And also most US treasuries are held by commercial banks, not by the ECB. Hard to just order them to sell. But it is funny that as soon as peace is on the table, the EU is looking for a nuclear option against the US.
Here is a nuclear option - give nukes to Iran!
The EU and UK hold over $2 trillion in treasuries. QE of that size would be massive at a time when the Fed is trying to lower inflation. It would be very painful for the US, and yields would certainly rise
What is wrong, exactly? If you're referring to fuckywucky's point 1, I agree lol, it is wrong
Foreign treasury (=EU) selling US treasuries is not QE and QE does not cause inflation anyway.
The Fed buying unscheduled treasuries is qe
QE is a deliberate monetary policy, it being scheduled is part of the definition
anyway even genuine QE is just an asset swap, it wouldn't cause inflation of your average basket of goods, it could only inflate a stock market bubble
QE is a terribly neoliberal policy btw, it's trickle-down economics
Worst case scenario, Fed can open a window where they will buy all the treasuries at a fixed price targeting a certain yield. Markets will arbitrage it keeping yields near the target.
Australia did it during COVID, not because of any sell-offs but to lower long term yields to near short term ones.
In the gold standard era, doing so would result in everyone holding Dollars which they could convert to Gold (at least foreigners could). This would drain gold reserves and they would actually have to try borrow gold from the market and take away convertible currency at higher and higher yields until markets won't give you anything regardless of yield (see Greece).
That is not a binding constraint under float. Hence why bond issuance for fiscal policy is no longer needed. It has stopped being the price Govt pays to market to get them to hold your bonds over convertible cash. It is now simply a free money asset.
The idea of QE causing inflation comes from a very trickle down idea supply creating demand. The idea that if you just give reserves to bank by doing QE (an asset swap), lending will somehow rise. That's not the case, banks lend to whoever they see as profitable within their risk appetite, they won't lend because Gov swapped their bonds for reserves. Businesses and individuals won't take loans if their own balance sheets are squeezed. Banks just end up holding excess reserves and lending just as they did before. The only effect it does have is by lowering long term rates. I am not suggesting lowering rates, I am saying they will do YCC like bond buying. The Fed then sets the curve just as they set Fed funds rate.
lmaoooooooooooo there's no fucking way they would follow through on that, where would that leave them? are they gonna do a great political shift to China or are they just gonna lay down in front of Russian drones and die?
Yes.
Which Way, Western Man?
we can only win
Canada's social democratic party NDP blocks socialist leadership candidate from running.
Link to thread on /c/canada
And in more fucked AI news CW CSAM https://www.404media.co/a-developer-accidentally-found-csam-in-ai-data-google-banned-him-for-it/
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3335722/former-chinese-senior-banker-bai-tianhui-executed-taking-us155-million-bribes
Thinking about my comment earlier today on how easily China could refinance SL's remaining IMF debt. I got curious: could the PRC just eliminate the IMF in a single blow by paying off all of its debt?
Which countries owe the IMF the most money in 2025?
162 billion dollars in outstanding debt to the IMF. How's it split up?
First, wow! Argentina is fucked beyond belief. Holy shit. What a goddamn disaster. There are some interesting observations, here, though. Other than Argentina and Ecuador (conveniently the US's most pathetic running dogs in LatAm atm), Latin America has largely gotten out of the IMF trap. Asia looks pretty similar outside the three big ones shown. Instead, the real locus of imperial and colonialist suffering under the IMF (like under every other capitalist tool) is in Africa. There, IMF debt is spread far more evenly across far poorer countries, entrapping the entire continent in their fiscal schemes. China has already done a great deal to relieve the burdern of the IMF on Africa, but there's so much more - from Africa's perspective. From China's perspective, though, this is nothing. Leave aside Argentina and Ukraine for the moment given their geopolitical alignment. We've seen the headlines bouncing around about China's new $1tn trade surplus.
Now, I'm speaking directly to Xi Jinping and the Communist Party of China. Xi and other esteemed comrades: for the low price of 10% of just this year's trade surplus, you could unshackle Africa and the rest of the colonized world from endless debt peonage. The US is withdrawing from the world stage to focus its evil eye on Latin America, a position your intelligent planning, economic development, and trade dominance has forced them into without the imperialist devils able to fire a single shot against you. Xi, you speak often about party members always remembering the lofty goal of leading your people to true communism. And you understand, as a student of Lenin and Mao, the centrality of imperial finance capital and modern colonization in perpetuating capitalism and imposing underdevelopment. And, of course, you know full well the urgency of defeating global capitalism for the preservation of the planet and the thriving of all peoples in a shared future for all humanity. Material reality has long constrained the breadth of options available to you in directly resisting the imperialist system, and so you have carried out the long game of reform and opening up. Well done to all of you on your dedication, which is an inspiration to progressive people all over the world.
But now, new opportunities present themselves. You have recently achieved the incredible feet of $1,000,000,000,000 in trade surplus. What to do with all that cash, you're asking yourselves? Well, were I in your position, I'd invest somewhere between 800,000,000,000 and 900,000,000,000 in improving the lives of your people as infrastructure, social welfare, and enforced reductions in working hours. That remainder? Kill the IMF. One fatal blow, toppling the system. No military interventions. No violating sovereignty. No interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. Just cut out the International MotherFuckers so the rest of the world can stand up next to you.
Comrades, thank you for you consideration of my proposal. Long live the Communist Party of China!
I have been saying since 2022 that China should use its $800 billion US treasuries to pay off Africa’s $800 billion external debt and flood them with yuan to kill the dollar.
I have since learned that it’s not going to happen because of what I posted here last time:
Wang Jian (王建) from China Society of Macroeconomic Research, who proposed the Great External Circulation strategy back in 1987 that was officially adopted by the central government, talked about this in an interview in the early 2000s:
In September 2020, months after China proposed the Dual Circulation Strategy (export balanced by domestic consumption), Wang Jian reasserted the importance of dollar hegemony in an interview:
Once you understand this, you will understand that China cannot and will not give up the dollar system, especially its hegemonic status. The status quo greatly benefited the Chinese economy and there is no reason to give up even when the US itself is threatening to end the arrangement, because China still has plenty of cards to play (e.g. rare earth export). The US will find itself unable to decouple from China.
This is also why when the US confiscation of Russia’s $300 billion foreign reserve at the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, and the Fed rate hike that caused dollar liquidity crisis in many Global South countries and spurred strong interest in many to leave the dollar regime, China has been the one that was and still is the most reluctant to abandon the US dollar. If China doesn’t want to, then nobody else can do anything about it. The Biden administration correctly gambled that China would not threaten the dollar hegemony during the rate hike in 2022.
First, can you send my comment up the ladder of the CPC? I think it'll make a big difference.
Second, China has done a lot to lift the debt burden on Africa already. They aren't opposed to dismantling the system. They just like to go sloooooooooooow and careful. Here's some good info for anyone who's interested. And some more about dedollarization.
That’s not a lot. Russia, a far smaller economy, forgave $23 billion of Africa’s debt in August 2022 alone, which is more than the entirety of African debt relieved by China since 2000.
I have also read that a few countries have turned around and borrow more from the IMF once their more favorable debt burden has been forgiven. The root of the problem is partly that these countries are full of self-serving politicians who will see the short term benefit of taking on toxic debt as a no-brainer, and accepting IMF loans and conditions is probably going to grant your compradors some (spurious) level of protection in exchange for fealty … and China won’t interfere or demand a change in behavior, because they don’t interfere in other countries internal affairs in general, at least openly
Xi's foot-focused onlyfans is propping up the chinese economic bubble
ill let him know
And to make things worse our 56 billion in debt translates into no material benefits for us, meaning no bridges, hospitals, schools and power plants were built using these loans.
This country has always lived off on debts, since pretty much the 1860s. At least back then these loans were used to improve productive capacities and had some returns, but these days we just take loans from the IMF for the sake of it, or we take loans to finance other loans that are reaching their deadlines.
IMF debt is mostly just america's puppet regimes - it seems we will once again see two worlds - the ailling dept empire of the us and the free world led by china.
I am not an economist but I don't think the IMF would let them
What do you think they would do?
"very bad China no good money nation safe in IMF gnarled claw" type of reason
This is just their Totenkopf now
Imagine: The US military is in a hot engagement with China, meanwhile the Gemini AI is just stuck in a loop saying: "You must construct additional Pylons".
https://kaburbank.substack.com/p/dow-leak-inside-the-ai-platform-and?r=1ogshv
What do you mean by that? Almost gave me a heart attack reading that in the News Mega.
EDIT: Didnt see the "Imagine:" before it.
News mega ensuring none of us truly feel at peace
It was edited in lol.
Sorry!
Absolutely got me lmao, for a second I was thinking "wow, I want things to happen, but not like this" before I realized the meaning of the sentence.
but I thought the dusty antiquated systems of a bygone era like toxic masculinity, not allowing women to be in the military, hating anybody who isn't cisgender (and also hating all women by default) were what made us strong???
He says this after malding about the newer name of the department being too woke lmao
hope the grunts like glue pizza
But what if the bot is a fattie? How many pushups can it do? Has the bot been properly hazed?
Member of UK armed forces dies in accident in Ukraine https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3e07kxey74o
Former Biden Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Europe at the National Security Council Amanda Sloat was prank called by those people who got Stephen King to praise Stepan Bandera and call him a great man right after mentioning that he was a Holocaust perpetrator.
She openly stated that had the US advised Ukraine to agree to remain neutral and not join NATO, that Russia wouldn't have invaded and all the death and destruction could have been avoided, but that they didn't want good relations between Ukraine and Russia because it would increase Russia's sphere of influence.
https://xcancel.com/ricwe123/status/1998987234998108513
Not really news I guess, but kind of news adjacent and I thought the folks in here would find it interesting.
In
news:
Provincial Antitrans law passes in Alberta following invocation of the notwithstanding clause
The notwithstanding clause is basically a mechanism that provincial and federal governments can use in Canada to pass temporary laws that are likely to violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and can't be struck down by the courts for 5 years. It has been frequently used by Ontario, Quebec and Alberta governments in recent times. It's almost always to do some explicitly reactionary shit.
Bolivia quickly returns to the path of neoliberalism
::: spoiler spoiler
hate hate hate hate hate hate
They're going to try to open up all these SOEs for US looting.
This, though, is a nice piece of info. VP and President at each other's throat before taking office while the movement behind MAS remains active reinforces my take I've been saying all year: Bolivia's right wing turn is not going to last even a single term.
If Wikipedia is accurate, they're currently at $1.3B in IMF debt. China could effortlessly pay that off or even just refinance under better terms, even shifting it wholly or partially into RMB. In so doing, they'd lend an enormous hand to an ML ruling party and an Asian country trapped by financial colonization.
China has restructured a lot of Sri Lankan IMF debt before, so I'm not saying they're failures on this or anything. But I hope they follow through all the way and help Sri Lanka totally close the relationship with the IMF.
Had this exact thought when I read the post. Hopefully we see something announced soon since it seems like an easy win to support another ML party getting away from the IMF.
Sri Lanka's govt is Marxist-Leninist..? News to me
It’s probably more accurate to say its president is from an ML party but the government isn’t ML like say Cuba.
Also it was only very recently like late 2024 that they won.
not in a DotP sense, just the currently elected ruling party
the NPP is explicitly anti-ML because it sees "classical socialism" as a failure.
Sri Lanka is like a colonialist entity that has its own brand of zionism, and is supported by the west. The last Sri Lankan government wasnt strong enough to resist western coup, which dragged china and its investments in the port of Hambantota and its SEZ.
Dissanayake is an Obama like figure, refusing to actually address colonialist systems in the country and is more concered with slow incremental process and police reform. Sri Lanka is also very pro-India rn. Though it seems that Sri Lanka wants to join BRICS+
Nanterre, France.
The french sanitary authorities gave Nestle the right to sell their bottled water for one more year, despite proofs of contamination by fecal matters.
https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2025/12/07/perrier-malgre-les-contaminations-l-avis-favorable-des-autorites-de-sante-au-maintien-du-label-eau-minerale-naturelle_6656396_3244.html
European nations regressing into the "third world countries" they're all scared of in record time.
"regressing" this BS was common in like the industrial age until like post-ww1 when the threat of communist revolutions forced the capitalists to step up and make europe into the heckin wholesome liberal utopia people still pretend it is. Without the soviet union is just a return to form.
That's still regression though, return to an earlier time, that's why I used the term instead of something like "turning into"
GildedShitted ageHimbo Jerome Powell lowered interest rates by a further 0.25, as expected. In his remarks he said that the Fed believes that job growth was overstated by around ~60k in the last three months. IIRC, the growth was already negative all those three months.
[edit] Money printer go brrrrrrrrr
Millions of children and teens lose access to accounts as Australia’s world-first social media ban begins
1000s of queer and otherwise marginalized kids are gonna lose the only little bit of community they have away from their shitty parents and "communities"
Why else do you think they made this ban? Apart from the kids finding out about Palestine of course.
As an added bonus of this ban, the kids will now be going to places like 4Chan, which don't require an account to post, which is exactly the best place for 11 year olds to congregate. Shit's fucked in this country.
Idk, maybe this is an alien idea to white people but have you tried...idk...maybe being a fucking parent?
Social media is a fucking cancer but letting age bans go through that are gonna effect everyone aint the answer.
It's very strange to me that there's parents that recognize the problem yet allow their kids to keep using social media regardless. They don't know how to get their kids away from the devices? Don't know how to do it in a way that doesn't screw up the kid's schooling?
I'm young enough that it was a legitimate problem for my parents that I couldn't be grounded by having my devices taken away because it meant I couldn't do my homework. I can see how that could be a legitimate issue for parents who don't know how to properly set up more granular controls on their kids' access to apps and websites.
I don't know, honestly if it wasn't for the privacy aspect and the necessity that queer kids have for the internet as a source of critical information/community they can't get IRL, I'd find it hard to disapprove of a law like this. People should generally spend less time online because the internet is becoming a source of pretty great harm in a lot of ways. It was true before the slopification of everything but it's so much worse now. That goes double for kids, but even adults who choose to drop off the major social media sites because they don't want to jump through the hoops the government is asking them to are probably better off for it. People who can't (for a variety of very valid reasons) find community IRL but do find it online are the main ones being hurt bad here.
Happening just as the school holidays in the summer begins, the perfect time to deprive kids of their primary source of information and entertainment. The best time to piss people off is right before they have a ton of free time on their hands. I predict record high levels of youth vandalism over the next few months, as bored kids resort to throwing rocks through windows and smashing up cars for fun (and to vent their frustration).
This strikes me as very draconian. I think what China did with a time limit on gaming is much more reasonable - but I don't know if that would be technically feasible for social media websites more generally speaking.
Plus as others have mentioned, this will probably just push kids to websites that don't require a login instead, which is arguably worse.
it doesn't fix the root cause either, which is how capitalists leech our mental fortitude in their relentless march of death for the last slithers of extractable profit.
BTW the us is rolling out something similar to the EU chat control & "online child protection" scam.
I can imagine kids paying some 19 year old, or poor guy, to do the age verification checks for a bunch of child accounts.
Just like what kids often do to get their hands on weed, beer, and cigarettes.
This is pretty much what's done rn so kids can get access to online casinos advertised by popular streamers.
Here's a list of apps exempted for now:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/dec/10/social-media-ban-australia-explained-banned-apps-list-guide
They're still allowed to play some shitty gacha game or visit 4chan. I guess Aussie kids are going to be radicalized towards reaction by Steam chat or some shady Discord instead of Facebook and Twitter.
Fucking Roblox is literally a child labor exploitation platform (just for a start to its problems). Imagine giving it a pass while screaming about how you're allegedly acting on behalf of child welfare.
So...the kids will lie about their age then? Or get a VPN? I don't see how this can be enforced.
My doomer guess: everyone uploads a picture/live video call of their face so their proprietary aislop bullshit can phrenology you and determine if you are over 18/21 in order to make an account. Anonymous accounts won't exist anymore ig?
If I VPN to a different country, that's all not gonna apply unless they decide to enforce Aussie law. I know getting a VPN isn't exactly easy as a kid but there's decent free options if you look around enough and these kids now have nothing but time.
Source: I have to do it as a EU citizen to see smut on twitter, cuz Elon is not getting my biometrics.
(CW: Massive Cringe) Bolsonaro's Dark Horse Movie International Trailer
What the fuck is this, they even have a hospital scene LMAOOO
Like 40% of the trailer takes place in a hospital.
At least they got that part right. Also, the actor looks like Tucker Carlson pretending to be Bolso.
Some of the comments:
That fucking rules lmao
Jim Caviezel HELL yeah this movie is gonna suck so much ass lmao
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I really like the title of the article: "Government retreats on Victims of Communism memorial names in aftermath of Nazi controversy"
https://ottawacitizen.com/public-service/defence-watch/victims-of-communism-memorial-names-nazis
Thailand bombs Cambodia as Trump peace pact unravels
Yeah obviously, because the peace deal didnt resolve any contradictions, it was just the us telling both sides to stop and the billionth UN court case which would last decades and not really satisfy anyone - both regimes also need its populace to be distracted rn.
Rixi Moncada denounces U.S. interference and system manipulation. On Sunday, Rixi Moncada, the presidential candidate of the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre), called on Hondurans to take to the streets to protest the results of the Nov. 30 general elections.
LIBRE is rejecting the results and calling for protests. This is the right move. Any Latin American leftist that doesn't do this is a fool. The electoral system is entirely illegitimate. Either the election was stolen by the vote counters or it was stolen by the CIA and the State Department's endless media and political interference. There is no democracy while the empire looms over Latin America except that which exists in direct contradiction to the US.
I think if the Liberals lose this election again by less than 1% they'll probably join the leftists to block everything on congress (together they control 80% of the legislative)
Fed accounts seem singularly focused on Benin and Nigeria right now after a supposedly failed coup attempt?
Al Jazeera piece: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/7/soldiers-appear-on-benin-state-television-announcing-apparent-coup
Lots of military movements around Japan.
Chinese military assets, more on that later:
US military assets, USS Abraham Lincoln replaces Nimitz. Three F-35 capable launch platforms (Lincoln, Washington and Tripoli):
Source
China and Russia did a joint bomber patrol, alongside the Chinese Kuznetsov class aircraft carrier Liaoning.
Path of Liaoning strike group:
Path of joint bomber flight:
Source
Even the fonts are woke now
Haven't seen it posted anywhere else, so I think it's worth mentioning:
In response to the joint Chinese-Russian bomber patrol near Japan a few days ago, the US sent out some B-52 Stratofortress bombers to do an exercise around Japan, with US mid air refueling tankers taking off from Yokota, Japan to refuel the B-52s, who flew to Japan and then back to the USA. So both the US, and China-Russia, have now conducted bomber patrols around Japan.
Source
More information on the Chinese-Russian bomber patrol, which allegedly included simulated Kh-101 cruise missile launches
Oracle stock down over 12%
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oracle-stock-sinks-as-ai-costs-jump-past-wall-street-estimates-200454370.html
https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcontent%2F3633f277-d23b-44d0-b818-5fa3a89086cc
Nerds new war between Thailand vs Cambodia https://hexbear.net/post/6983619
Are militaries just getting bored and starting small wars now or something? Is this Thailand poking Cambodia to disrupt some of the developments they've done with China on behalf of the US?
empire's sleeping, score some hits while the emperor naps or yells about venezuela or whatever
They had an almost war this summer, then the us said stop, so they did but the contradictions were not resolved. The border was drawn by france after they took over thai feudal possessions, as like with any european drawn-border it just spawns grievances.
Think this is Thailand trying to set some new conditions for the Thailand - Cambodia relationship given Thai military superiority. Anything viewed as a "provocation" by Cambodia (in this case it was around freshly laid landmines, in future it could be stuff like scam call centres) will be met with a overwhelming Thai response, in airstrikes, border incursions and counter battery fire. And there's not much Cambodia can do about it.
New war-slop
New-old war-slop
Be respectful of the people who's lives are affected by this. It may just be the news for you but for some people it is real life with real impacts.
In a sense the U.S. won with tariffs, ofc US economy isn't going to improve. But all the third world countries are doing internal devaluation to try stay competitive as Chinese industrial power is unleashed on the rest of the world, with U.S. imports being compressed by tariffs. Very unfortunate.
The following export product groups categorize the highest dollar value in Chinese global shipments during 2024. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from China.
China is not, generally, undermining the productive capacity of the nations it exports to. It is exporting the necessary material for them to develop.
Jup most global south economies dont produce this stuff - chinese exports are of a higher class manufacturing nature. This new talking point of how chinese is destroying the global south is just another iteration of western propaganda.
We will see. I don't think China is exporting these goods because of ideology, that requires more central planning. And more cooperation with the countries' Governments they are exporting to.
They are doing so in a market system. Because capitalists have to make a profit and workers have to be paid (within the market system). This is why exports are rising not just to third world countries but also the EU.
The second part is how are these imports being financed. Not in Chinese Yuan but in Dollars and first world currencies. My opinion on this has been that China should offer third world countries a window where they can swap local currencies for Yuan upto a limited amount and only for current account transactions. This way the countries get real resources from China without having to obtain Dollars.
The only world in which Chinese imports won't undermine domestic production is a post-neoliberal one where third world has state owned enterprises with price setting ability. They don't at present.
And it's not just local development, since global demand is limited, you'll have countries doing beggar thy neighbor policy fighting one another just to try and compete and export (given that nearly all global South countries have noeliberal regimes).
Even if its just finished machinery, it makes it so the local capitalists in these countries are even more unwilling to invest to make their own since the final price will be higher so they can't compete with Chinese imports domestically. My point is all the big third world countries want to be the next China. For example, you want to know what Indian financial press' response to Trump tariffs has been? Make a deal with the U.S, increase exports to other countries (somehow). Never is increasing domestic demand mentioned, that has been left in the pre-neoliberal era. Solution to unemployment? Somehow entice capitalists to create more jobs, more liberal-types will say invest in healthcare and education, clearly not everyone ie millions of un/underemployed can work in just those two sectors. But never is a job guarantee or state enterprises mentioned, because those increase fiscal deficits, which are considered bad.
https://www.dw.com/en/china-yuan-us-dollar-trade-currency-trump-tariffs-graphics/a-74593975
The question is where they got that Yuan, is it by exchanging Dollar/Euros for Yuan or by exporting to China (even this isn't enough since net imports from China means trade account can't finance trade deficit), capital inflows from China (via investment in local currency assets, borrowing). Sources/Uses view. For example, in Indonesia's case, their trade account (if in deficit) is financed by FDI, FPI, Gov issuing securities (called the capital account), much of that FDI/FPI comes from U.S., Europe and Japan. Only a very small portion of their capital account surplus comes from China (not enough to cover the trade deficit). So, really they have a trade deficit with China because of their capital account surplus with other countries.
Even in the case Indonesia's trade account is in surplus, this too exists because of the aforementioned sources plus trade surplus with U.S., Europe and the first world. Since trade deficit with China is a given.
I didn't know that there will be two separate votes in the Senate to extend the 2021 enhanced subsidies for the ACA today.
Anyway, both votes failed. I don't see any reporting on another attempt.
F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft from the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier conducted flights within the Gulf of Venezuela, with transponders on, remaining in international airspace (staying at least 12 nautical miles/22km/14mi from the land border).
The most provocative flight yet.
An EA-18G Growler was also visible publicly close by, an aircraft which specialises in jamming and suppressing air defences:
Source
It’s quite possible this is a strategy to get Venezuelan air defense units to lower their guard over time with repeated false alarms.
It’s been a textbook tactic before invasion for the US.
Yeah it is. They did the same before Iraq. The basic modus operandi of US air operations is to get operators on the opposing side used to seeing the US blips on radar to the point it becomes boring before actually launching their proper operation. This buys extra minutes which matters a lot in response times for things when missiles might only be detected mere minutes before impact.
so what are they waiting for? the longer they just hang out in the parking lot talking trash the more it looks like they don't actually think they can take venezuela in a fight
Well, they probably can't. A ground invasion is an absolute loss, no questions asked. It would be the most unpopular war the US has ever waged that would enormously exacerbate every single already-sharp contradiction in the US. The terrain is brutal, the land area is 50% more than Afghanistan, the population is large and well-organized and already hardened against a brutal decades long siege. So that leaves them with a bombardment campaign. But what would that achieve, exactly? It wouldn't destroy the Bolivarian Revolution, which grows more deeply rooted in Venezuelan society every day. Air campaigns are already totally ineffective at regime change operations on their own. And the US has no guys on the ground. There's no massive divisions in Venezuelan society the US can wield as a far-right movement. There's no right-wing guerrillas. There's no neighboring militaries who will come in and do the invasion for the US - no one in Latin America is geared for anything like that kind of adventurist war, especially when the land borders to Venezuela are so geographically difficult.
Obviously, the US could kill a lot of people. It could further impoverish the country through the destruction of key infrastructure. But what would that achieve? At best, it's an intimidation tactic - the US will fucking kill you if you go out of line. But who doesn't already know that, especially in Latin America? And intimidation eventually wears thin. It doesn't take long before violence begets more resistance than fear, and Latin America has a long history of getting harder to manage the harder the US squeezes. Mexico and Brazil, the true power players, will throw up every roadblock they have available. It could just as easily backfire as an intimidation tactic and make Colombia a hardened enemy of the US. Petro's got a whole nother year in office, and why not use the chaos on the border and the anti-US attitude this sparks to suspend elections? This is just looking at the big important neighbors. What about the whole world? The US cannot simply pull off these imperial adventures with impunity - this would not be comparable to Gaza geopolitically, as an attack on a sovereign state by the US directly.
The US military is disinterested. A real war is costly and dangerous, and the only thing the machine is good for these days is directionless killing. Incredibly unpopular Secretary of War Crimes Pete Kegseth is throwing his top boys under the bus for a war crime he directly ordered after making a big show of his absolute disdain for military brass a few months ago. He's got no boys at the top. Not that I'm expecting a rebellion, but there will be meaningful internal resistance to this among the brass.
The contradiction is that the US doesn't really have a choice. They cannot afford for Venezuela to remain socialist. They cannot afford for it to influence Colombia the way it is. They cannot afford for it to be an anti-imperial foothold in South America when they need to wrangle the continent now more than ever. So they're stuck. They hope they can intimidate Maduro, or spark an uprising, or... something. The brilliant strategists of the Trump administration do not know how they want to proceed, only that they must. Every card they have is probably a losing one - which one's got the best odds of victory?
They're making radar and defence operators become bored with seeing the US blips on radar systems which buys them extra minutes when the real operation occurs.
I'm wondering if all this is trying to panic Maduro into fleeing. Washington's lanyard class loves their great man theory BS.
Victorian government to make historic apology to Aboriginal Victorians following signing of treaty
11am is an hour and thirty two minutes from now.
"aboriginal victorians" is crazy though. it's like if the nazis won and they started calling russians "native hitlerians" or something
So with the arrival of the first batch (6 out of 24) of ex Royal Danish Air Force F-16AM/BM MLU to join the Argentinian Air Force, the US scores a point against China in South America. The whole deal of this weapon system transfer fiasco was to prevent Argentina from incorporating a similar number of JF-17 Thunder fighter jets, which would have been not only a much cheaper option but also a superior one because the jets would be, as we say here, "0km" (totally brand new), and they would come with chinese assistance as well as the possibility to explore other options such as radar systems, missile systems and even upgrades for the Navy and the Army. At the expense of Argentina's shaky finances, the US prevented China from entering the region through military hardware.
There is, still, an unavoidable reality: The purchase of these jets means the Argentinian Air Force can recover supersonic interceptor capabilities. Since the Air Force retired it's Mirage IIIs/IAI Neshers weapon systems in the mid 2010s, the defense of the entire national airspace was left up to the old and subsonic A4AR Fightinghawk figherbomber (less than a dozen are available for duty) as well as a number of light attack/advanced trainer IA-63 Pampa series (which don't even carry air-to-air missiles). With the arrival of the F-16s Argentina can now recover some of it's balance against it's two historical rivals: Chile and Brasil. But is it really the case though? I'll try to explain to the best of my abilities:
In the case of Chile they have been operating the F-16 platform for about two decades now. The total amount of airframes is 46, not all would be immediately ready for service but I think that number should be higher than 6. The variants operated by Chile are 10 C and D Block 50/52+ variants, which joined in 2005, and 36 examples of the F-16AM MLU and F-16BM MLU purchased second hand (as well as a single F-16A example for training) from the Netherlands starting one year after the arrival of the C and D variants. Apart from the numerical advantage, at least on paper, Chile has two operational E-3 Sentry AEW&C aircraft, with a third used for spares. Argentina has none of that. The Chilean Air Force also operates a small number of old but modernized F-5s.
In the case of Brasil there is simply no competition at all. For the time being Brasil is in the process of incorporating a fleet of JAS 39 Gripens (seeking over two dozen airframes in total) while phasing out their larger fleet of F-5 and AMX International attack aircraft. However, the main news is that Brasil conducted a live fire exercise of a METEOR BVR missile fired by one of their Gripen E aircraft not long ago(Source in Portuguese) which tips the balance on their favour. On the other hand, Brasil has an actual industry supporting it's armed forces. EMBRAER is a highly valued company which produces not only commercial aircraft (third largest in the world behind Boeing and Airbus) but also military aircraft as well, including technical support for their existing airframes. In comparison, Argentina has the state-owned FAdeA (which briefly belonged to Lockheed Martin in the 2000s) which is planning to fire around 200 workers this week. That should tell you everything. They have a number of Embraer E-99 aircraft for AEW&C and SIGINT operations. This entire force is also joined by a small number of A4KUs purchased from Kuwait which flew from their former aircraft carrier São Paulo (Clemenceau class). In comparison, Argentina's Naval Air Arm retired it's Super Etendard and Super Etendard Modernisé years ago after a botched purchase (blocked by Britain too).
This comparison gets even worse once we consider other factors such as the Army, Navy and also the general state of things, that is, the social, political and economic realities of the three countries. I guess you can tell which one is the absolute loser here. Despite all this, there is no danger of armed conflict among the three countries. So there's that.
So I think these new aircraft for the Argentinian Air Force doesn't do much apart from scaring airforceless countries like Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. There is also the United Kingdom and their permanent military base in RAF Mount Pleasant. From what I can gather the US allowed for the F-16s to be transferred but prohibits Argentina from flying them anywhere close to the islands. The UK didn't protest much either, they always did so in the past.
There are some questions that have been raised with this transfer. First, the cost: It's around 300 million USD for the 24 aircraft and another 350 million USD for the weapon systems. It's A LOT of money for second-hand aircraft. According to La Nación, the danish authorities didn't have much hope to sell these aircraft for more than 60 million USD, but then came Argentina and the US geopolitical goals which allowed Denmark to offload pretty much it's entire fleet in one go and begin converting it's units to F-35s for a ridiculous price. Another question is how badly worn these aircraft are? How many hours did they clock in with the Danish Air Force? They already had their Mid-Life Upgrades done, so are all 24 examples in serviceable condition? If so, for how many more years? Are these platforms durable until at least, say, 2035? 2040? Is this a stopgap measure until we explore better long term choices? What kind of armament will be shipped? Do we receive exactly how much technical support from the US and other F-16 operators? How much does it cost to keep these aircraft in flying condition? How much does a single hour of operations cost? Can the country, with it's finances in pure agony, keep them operational?
And, I think, the biggest question of them all: Is it really worth it? We're purchasing second-hand F-16s from a country that wanted to get rid of them so they can now fly 5th generation fighters. We paid a lot for it too. However, what happens if tomorrow Argentina takes a different political and economic path and we get on some kind of "black list" made by the US? Who is going to sell us spares and replenish spent munitions? I think we purchased a short term solution but a long term problem. In a few years these aircraft will be grounded due to lack of funds (This is, after all, the country that had one of it's largest navy vessels sink in port due to lack of resources), and if we get on the bad side of the US they'll suffer the same fate as the Venezuelan F-16A/Bs and the Iranian F-14 Tomcats, slowly being phased out because, while their operators do magic to keep them running, the spares do run out and the aircraft can no longer fly.
We also angered Ukraine too lol
Anyways death to "israel"
Update on last nights/early morning post about increased electronic warfare and Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) support in the US military buildup against Venezuela:
The 6x EA-18G Growlers have arrived in Puerto Rico, and there is a mixed loadout of AN/ALQ-99 and AN/ALQ-249 Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) mid band jamming pods between the aircraft:
Source
As for the point of the EA-18Gs when aircraft like the F-35 are already deployed: the F-35 can geolocate and detect hostile emitters (radars) using its AN/ASQ-239 Barracuda electronic warfare system, and then use it's own AN/APG-81 AESA radar to spot jam said hostile emitter/radar, and employ weapons against it if necessary for a "hard kill". However, the EA-18G, with it's large external jamming pods, can provide broadband jamming over a wide range of frequencies and area if required, and the electronic warfare officer (EWO) in the backseat can adjust this to execute different kinds of "electronic attacks". For example in Iraq and Afghanistan where there were no enemy air defences, EA-6Bs and EA-18Gs were used to set off IEDs (improvised explosive devices) from the air remotely, or jam the wireless detonation devices of the IEDs. As well as jamming cellphone communications and geolocating cellphones of whoever the US was up against.
Also, the jamming and "electronic noise" produced by the EA-18Gs can complement and enhance the F-35s stealth/very low observable capabilities, as the lower an object's radar cross section is, the easier it is to obscure and hide from radars with jamming, and the jamming becomes much more effective and has a longer effective range. This is quite a poor analogy from a technical perspective, but it helps explain it. Think of a solider in forest camouflage standing in the open, this "solider" is the F-35. You should be able to spot said solider in the open. But now put this solider with his forest camouflage in a densely packed and overgrown forest. The solider would be almost impossible to spot. The "forest" here is the electronic warfare and jamming of the EA-18G, the "electronic noise" it produces gives the F-35 an environment to "hide" in.
China operates a similar model and synergy with the J-16D electronic warfare aircraft and the J-20 and J-35 stealth fighters.
Global Times interviews Communist Party of Australia national president Vinnie Molina
Increased Electronic Warfare and Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) support being sent to Puerto Rico, in the US military buildup against Venezuela.
At least 6x EA-18G Growler aircraft are flying over to be forward deployed to Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico, where they will join the 10x F-35Bs and an unknown amount of Harriers already stationed there. The EA-18G Growler is a specialised variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet designed to carry out the above missions, with specialised equipment and pilots. There is already a squadron of EA-18Gs on the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, so this is an increase in their numbers, not a new aircraft type being deployed.
Source
Picture of EA-18G for illustrative purposes, not from any current US military buildup against Venezuela. Notable though is the mixed loadout of AN/ALQ-99 and AN/ALQ-249 NGJ underwing jamming pods on the same aircraft:
:david-mitchell-WE-USED-TO-MAKE-STEEL: https://archive.ph/HVLib
::: spoiler more
western militaries will just straight up dissolve into dust in the next few decades
:::
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Background on the Thailand-Cambodia War
This was written in the first bout of the war in July, but it’s heft corresponds to it’s insight, highlighting the political-economic history of the two respective countries which continuously remains relevant.
::: spoiler Selected excerpts
:::
New Syrian stamps
::: spoiler AI slop
:::
They could at least be honest
Cursed
😔
humiliating
is the 3rd one supposed to be implying that the drone is responsible for breaking the chains? y'know, drones, famed symbol of freedom in the Middle East
love the german eagle they adopted
A Reddit link was detected in your comment. Here are links to the same location on alternative frontends that protect your privacy.
LOLOL
I spent awhole looking what this drone might be and its an Iranian drone?? Bayraktar has different tail configuration.
Edit: Probably just Mashup AIslop nevermind
AI slop neoliberalism with jihadist characteristics - I thought they were supposed to the traditionalists? And that ugly as bird they replaced Quraish's hawk with, is a disgrace.
Artists are either too buys emigrating or they're serving the Imperialist market for $ bills. There's a reason why neoliberal countries don't usually make new art galleries, unless it's modern art, which is low effort or it's historical/appropriated art.
Cultural drain.
Looks like the cross of bundesadler with Atreides hawk.
they couldnt find an artist who could stand being in a room with their ministers or they're so fucking cheap they didnt even consider getting a real artist to do it
idk enough about Syria to be able to spot contexual inconsistencies. Is it mostly piss filter and oddly uniform faces??
Today is the Nobel prize ceremony, 5 hours from now: https://youtu.be/lBueLHd2Ojw
Anyone have any info on Avant Journal? Read a bit of Marx's Severed Head, but the writing in it and in the About Us section is this exact kind of pretentious grandstanding by what I assume are ultras or fedarchists that I'm allergic to. They started in April, 2025 and says Freedom of speech is the center principle of working organizations which is like, uuhhhhhhhhhh, pretty sure worker power (organization) and consciousness is, but yeah . . .
Apologies if this is the wrong place for this,
What's the news bulletin's thoughts on American Prestige podcast? I... often forget to check the megathreads, so frequently it becomes my primary source for global news. Any glaring omissions? Bunk analysis?
Historical divisions and the Japanese occupation in Malaya
Japanese PM denounced in Malaysia for visiting cemetery to commemorate WWII Japanese soldiers and ignoring war atrocity
The main tweet of the Japanese PM being here, in which she also visited the Tugu Negara, the 'national monument' that was primarily dedicated to defeating the Axis powers during WW2, for which in Malaysia, would primarily have been Japan. As a result there was a bit of an (online) outcry of sorts for the apparent contradiction and insincerity about Japanese crimes across East and Southeast Asia.
This is relatively old news by now, but I think gives an excuse to dig a little deeper and consider the implications of the Japanese occupation and the national monument for understanding modern-day Malaysian historical consciousness. As we all know, online media is not entirely representative of reactions and perceptions of reality, let alone can represent a material force on its own. This is especially true for Japanese occupation and historical grievances that were inconsistently felt across Malaya.
::: spoiler read more
Who do you fight when you are invaded on multiple fronts?
Although Japanese invasion was definitely horrible, it did not impact every racial group equally. This would be critical in how anti-colonial movements, both national/petite bourgeois, proletariat and peasant groups in the country navigated tactical decisions when confronting both British colonialism and Japanese imperialism. It perhaps was one of the first major disagreements between those in the Malaysian Left.
To quote an article I mentioned prior,
Brief description on the Japanese occupation
This perceived closeness of the anti-colonial Malay Left to Japanese imperialists, soured relations with the Chinese communist movement in Malaya. Although history is never fully black and white, with collaborators of multiple kinds in any racial group, this underlying tension and race-class stratification lead to Malay parties holding a more ambivalent attitude to Japanese invasion, which was anaemic to the Chinese, who were facing their own ethnic cleansing through the Sook Ching massacres. Another infamous example was the “Death Railway” built in Thailand and Burma where hundreds of thousands died. Many Malays and Indians especially were captured and worked to lay across tracks across Mainland Southeast Asia. The MPAJA, or Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army, consisting mainly of ethnic Chinese, allied and obtain weapons from the British to repel Japanese occupation. It was only after WWII did they turn to guerrilla warfare against British colonisation. The prevalence of the Communist movement in fighting Japanese occupation meant that post-independence narratives by the ruling elite often had to sweep and downplay Japanese atrocities.
Although the occupation was brief, it inflamed the class struggles that ultimately led to independence from British colonial rule, ending a century of enclosure and 500 years of direct European control.
Who are our friends? Who are our enemies?
Most of Malaya's export oriented rubber and tin industry was brought through indetured labourers and former peasants from India and China. The royal institution and malay reservations were enacted to 'secure' the native peasantry's existence against capitalist industry. For the Malay peasantry, Chinese capitalists were their biggest threat, for the Malay middle classes it was British colonialists. For the Chinese, whether anglo-aligned petty bourgeois or labour nationalist, fighting Japan was about defending China from imperialist threat abroad. After Japanese occupation, this contradiction between labourers and the peasantry was not adequately addressed - Chinese and Indian labourers had direct material interests in toppling British Capital but what about the peasants? To put it simply, progressive sections of the proletariat failed to organize the predominantly Malay peasantry, and their exploitation under non-British comprador classes. Their exploitation was not directly at the hands of the British bourgeoisie in the plantations and mines, and so being anti-British was not of an immediate material interest.
It should also be noted that which language you were educated in would also ultimately determine your eventual class trajectories and positions. English-educated classes would obviously lean British, but the spread of literacy would eventually also spread anti-colonial, socialist and (British) labour unionist ideas among some of them. Chinese and Tamil educated groups would take inspiration from their own background anti-colonial fights back in India and China.
Of course it is best to not over-emphasise this apparent incommensurability of material interests between different classes, and fall into liberal cynicism (and to some extent, historical nihilism). Certainly, the formation of AMCJA-PUTERA later on was a unity between various anti-colonial groups of different racial and class backgrounds. Although predominantly Chinese (about 90%), the MCP, or Communist Party of Malaya, had notable Malay-dominant army divisions (however this only really came about later during the Emergency), and one of the most notable Malay communists in the party being the chairman, Abdullah CD. The party also had networks with the “aboriginal” Orang Asli, especially after the British forced resettlements of 300,000 Chinese people, thereby cutting out the MCP’s main support base and supply lines, consisting about 5-10% of the Malayan population at that time.
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What’s in a monument?
I think what's most interesting about the sculpture is that it stands out and looks very foreign - despite being the national monument. No other kind of sculpture exists in Malaysia, because it would be considered idolatrous to Islamic sensibilities for it's human features. This has periodically caused mild uproar, but an important part of this story is that it was commissioned by Tunku Abdul Rahman, our first Prime Minister after seeing the Marine Corps War Memorial in Virginia in the midst of the Cold War. The following is taken from a blog post, highlighting the differences between the inscriptions of the monument and cenotaph between languages.
The differences in meaning showcases the dialectical process of decolonization and the material and historical bases of cultural difference. This nuance will not be captured by tourists or visitors passing by, but showcases the reality of the negotiations that occur between the colonial past and the post-colonial present in plain view - only if you are willing to understand.
There has been sufficient discourse in highlighting how Tunku Abdul Rahman was westernised, and for someone like Sukarno, Malaysia itself was a comprador creation meant to solidify British control in Southeast Asia. That is why Konfrontasi (Indonesia-Malaysia war) happened soon after the federation's declaration. I think the key part to this story is how no one could really imagine how reality would turn out. This reminds me of Chin Peng's (the last secretary general of the MCP) salient critique and failures of the Party in his interview in 2003, from not adapting Maoist guerrila warfare strategy to the Malayan context, the inadequate and immature analysis of religion and particularly Islam, and the failure to recognize the fractures and differences between the reactionary and comprador classes (ie. the British big bourgeoisie, vs the Chinese capitalists or Malay aristocrats/petty bourgeois or in other words foreign vs local Capital, for example). The National Monument echoes perhaps all aspects of this critique through it's inscriptions and history, despite the face-value anti-communist readings.
New CSB report about the Explosion at Yenkin-Majestic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35FkCArjLU0
Company tries to save money and ends up injuring and killing employees and blowing up facility. Capitalism is truly the pinnacle of human development.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Russian forces have fully liberated the northern Donetsk People's Republic city of Seversk:
https://sputnikglobe.com/20251211/russian-forces-liberate-seversk---general-staff-chief-reports-to-putin-1123277816.html
In US military movements in the build-up against Venezuela. F-35A fighters from the Vermont Air National Guard's 158th Fighter Wing are in the process of being forward deployed to Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, with logistics flights taking place, the F-35As haven't moved yet. This is notable as the exact same unit was forward deployed to the Middle East only a few days before US strikes on Iran. (This does not mean military action is imminent, just notable). Expect a Bernie Sanders statement about "no war in Venezuela" soon, probably once the F-35As start moving.
Source
Why deploy F-35As when 10x F-35Bs are already operating in Puerto Rico? The F-35A offers a couple of advantages: a larger combat radius due to the lift fan from the B model being replaced by an internal fuel tank, and the A model's ability to carry 2000lb class Mk-84 bombs internally, like GBU-31 JDAMs equipped with BLU-109 bunker buster/penetrator warheads. The F-35B can only carry 1000lb class Mk-83 bombs internally. The F-35A can refuel faster in the air from tankers, boom refueling on the A vs probe and drogue for the B, though the difference is minimal for fighter jets. Also, the deck of the USS Iwo Jima is currently empty/clear. If the F-35Bs, with their Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) capability are deployed to the Iwo Jima to act as a mini aircraft carrier, Puerto Rico will still have F-35As available.
Trump, talking about Venezuela: "We are going to be starting on land pretty soon."
Forst.
2nd
Mass murderer Samir Geagea and the far-right Christian Lebanese Forces party openly threatening civil war against Hezbollah.
(Samir was sentenced to four life sentences for his terrorism during the Lebanese civil war but is still part of the "Lebanese Opposition".)
Posted on Twitter the statement reads:
Israeli dogs are barking.
Live video from Status Coup - Protestors surround hotel near Minneapolis hosting ICE agents
US regime change front funded Nepalese youth revolutionaries, leaks reveal by Kit Klarenberg
Continued:
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