Mere hours before Trump's 8pm Tuesday deadline yesterday, Pakistan's government contacted Iran with a US-written proposal for a two-week ceasefire, explicitly stated to also include Lebanon, during which they would negotiate a permanent end to the war on the basis of Iran's 10 Points. Among other things, these points include 1) maintaining strict control (joint with Oman) over Hormuz, complete with a toll; 2) the end of sanctions on Iran; 3) keeping their enriched uranium; 4) a withdrawal of US forces from the Middle East [stated by the Supreme Leadership Council but not in the 10 Points, so who knows], and 5) some plausible guarantee that Iran would never be attacked again. I've heard rumors that China may have prodded Iran to accept these terms.
In theory, these are relatively confident and maximalist demands. In practice, Iran has already achieved military and economic control over Hormuz and the withdrawal of many US troops and bases from the region, so at least a few of Iran's demands are, to a greater or lesser extent, already achieved, and with little hope for an increasingly exhausted US to undo these achievements short of nukes.
A couple hours after the ceasefire, the Zionist entity began a wave of airstrikes in Lebanon, killing hundreds of civilians, as well as flying drones into Iranian airspace. This was a strange move to make even if you assume - very sensibly - that the US is completely agreement non-capable: why not agree to the ceasefire and simply pretend to negotiate for two weeks while regrouping/repairing what assets you can and then start hitting Iran again?
One theory is that the Zionists are testing to what degree Iran is actually willing to have solidarity with Lebanon and Hezbollah. While the Resistance has been relatively united since October 7th, the formation of separate peaces instead of negotiating terms as a united front has been a major exploitable weakness. Alternatively, it's been proposed that the US didn't even consider using the ceasefire to regroup and deceive Iran, and that Trump merely wanted a way to chicken out of his threat on Iran's electrical grid - the fact that US officials have since stated that Iran's 10 Points were not the same ones they agreed to is a point supporting this, I suppose. If the conflict resumes and Trump does not deliver another 48 hour deadline (and/or makes it something silly like a month from now) then this could be the explanation.
From Iran, I am getting the sense that a lot is happening behind the scenes. Statements from top officials like Araghchi have stated quite plainly that there will be no ceasefire and no negotiations unless the Zionists stop attacking Lebanon, but as of ~24 hours after the ceasefire began, there has been no significant military response from Iran yet. There have apparently been phone calls between Araghchi and numerous regional officials, but it is unknown to what end. All the while, the global economic situation continues to deteriorate. Over the next week or two, the last tankers that left Hormuz before it closed will arrive at their destinations. If the missile exchanges begin once more, then the West, much like most of the rest of the world, will be experiencing all sorts of fuel, energy, food, and product shortages while trying to justify why they broke the ceasefire to kill more Lebanese civilians.
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.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
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 the Zionists' 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.
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.
Think of it this way, you can operate a forklift while getting the benefits of smoking weed on the clock, such as not wanting to gnash at people (I would never do this, just saying hypothetically, you know). A promising treatment option.
spoiler
I used to smoke and operate all kinds of forkliftsThat's really interesting. Apologies for getting personal & posting #different in the news thread, but I must ask: With that level of tolerance, were you still able to get the #visions when smoking & have dreams at night? Sweet spot is 3-5 days depending on quantity IMO which means sober in work environment aside from the stress reset. I need the long wizard dreams or I get crabby, & the way it impacts reading comprehension past that frequency is totally unbearable. I keep it Stalin mode
Since I know there are like, people who do DIY HRT on here, maybe some of you are able to figure out how to buy tianeptine online? That's a really good antidepressant if you just kind of follow a normal treatment regimen & don't sell it as gas station dickpills (how it got banned for you)
Also weird recommendation but I was able to make my actual urges to smoke weed disappear by supplementing potassium chloride/citrate + magnesium glycinate. I would also credit protein & creatine no joke, although I don't think there is much to support creatine supplements actually helping your brain, so it might be an indirect thing related to less stress in the body overall due to better-hydrated muscles. Protein powder with BCAAs is so noticeable I felt like I took an edible first time I tried it. Maybe that's thermogenesis tho?
I don't really dream, no. I smoke way more now than I did. Concentrates and vape carts exclusively. I don't know what you mean by visions but I have a very different reaction to smoking weed than most people I've encountered. My specialist thinks it's because I have 10/10 ADHD levels but idk my tolerance levels are beyond mortal comprehension
I go through 1g of distillate in about 3 days if I'm working. I have accidentally a whole 1g cart in a day off before, though. I don't really go for shatter much anymore because it's hard to do on the down-low with a kid. I never want to hear "daddy what's the blowtorch for?" I've taken the odd tolerance break but otherwise I've been on the pot every day for 10+ years now.
I'm currently reading hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy for the first time and I can easily pick it up after a week of neglecting the e-reader and still remember what's going on. My comprehension may just be poor due to a lack of post-secondary education lmao
If these big science words are available OTC I will try it out. I basically have 0 drive to quit even when I think I want to quit. My mind is amazing at arguing in favour of THC time.
I used to hit vape carts pretty hard but they ramp up your tolerance too much for my taste, and I’m of the mind that vaping is probably the unhealthiest way to have your weed. I mostly eat edibles and smoke the occasional joint nowadays.
Edibles plain don't work unless i eat like 500mg and then it all hits me at once 2 hours later. Shatter ramped up my tolerance faster but the convenience factor of carts i think makes you correct in the long run
500mg? That’s an absurd amount. Has that always been the case or is your tolerance just that bad now? A 10mg edible is enough to have me coasting for an entire night.
with regard to edibles I have some sort of slow metabolism. I have a similar effect to alcohol where I don't have a 'tipsy' phase. I feel nothing and then at some point i'm drunk and if I did a silly and kept drinking until I felt drunk it was frow up night night time.
I respond poorly to orally ingested chemicals i suppose?
@acute_engels@hexbear.net Interesting my issue is that I become really socially uninhibited too, so either suddenly mute because I stopped GAF or crazy tangents like this which are inappropriate w most work people. Even when I was high tolerance that was a side effect. By #visions I mean you get a huge flash of insight of the past couple days, particularly resurfacing creative ideas for music, coding, & work writing, accompanied by closed-eye visuals which have a connection to the more verbalizable thoughts. Sort of a toned down version of what acid & shrooms did (suddenly seeing a Diablo-style grayscale map of my surroundings even with my eyes open, shit like that).
Yes it's all easily available online, I don't recommend pricey supplement stores, & supermarkets are unlikely to have it. The science words are my attempt to cut through the garbled Hitler-Kundalini shit surrounding health, because they are right that vitamins in the US completely lack those 2. Magnesium oxide just makes you poop, & for some reason potassium supplements are limited to 2% DV. Eating 50 expensive cellulose pills a day is not economical.
Citrate is sour, chloride is salty & can be found as "low-sodium salt" but usually with salt in tow. &questionably-raised chickens in powder form, in the case of boullion. Great in a water bottle for reducing fatigue, gives you the wizard dreams. You probably don't need to add salt but some people do it.
Glycinate just gets absorbed better. It will make it easier to get full nights of rest.
Thermogenesis is just a fancy way of saying loss of calories due to digestion. It can be 20-35% calories of long-chain proteins & complex carbs. So that would be a good thing to add to diet math btw. It can activate THC stored in fat. Workouts make people with a weed habit get high, since so much is stowed away.
I really do not like depression & I see it as the root of weed habits along with issues in the body's endocannabinoid system (people smoke weed more to make up for lack of healthy meal afterglow, which feels the same to me) from stress + other shit
Also completely agree on the blowtorch, while I associate it with pleasant gays & college students, it was also a mainstay of all hard drug environments. You don'r want to normalize it 👍