The r/China subreddit has been a ghost town lately with mostly positive to neutral comments. One of the top posters has nothing new posted after January 19th lol

Assalamu Aleykum to the good people of Hexbearistan. Finally back from my Iraq trip with my wife and the kid. Absolute top tier travel destination, would recommend for sure if you're thinking about doing a lil Middle East trip one day. Here are some little notes on the trip:

• Flew from my city to Istanbul, spent a few miserable hours in Istanbul's expensive ass airport, then flew to Baghdad. My kid was surprisingly chill during almost the whole trip, no extended periods of crying or anything. The plane from Istanbul to Baghdad was filled with non-Arab foreigners, which was quite surprising honestly. Lots of Chinese people for some reason, which usually leads to new schools and ports spawning in any country that the Chinese visit.

• Baghdad Airport is functional but quite rundown. I went in with my Lebanese passport which technically needs a paid visa on arrival, but the guy on the counter waived the fee for me and just said welcome. My wife's uncle was waiting for us outside and we were on the highways of Baghdad after a few kisses and hugs. The first few kilometers must be a shock for every new visitor to Baghdad, as it is filled with posters of Qassem Soleimani, Yahya Sinwar and Hassan Nasrallah. Iraq is still a very anti-imperialist country, you will finds flags of Yemen, Palestine and Lebanon in every corner. I thought it was super cool that one could find posters of the Houthis on billboards and shops selling Hezbollah memorabilia.

• Baghdad as a city has recovered well from the American invasion and occupation. New roads and bridges spawning everywhere, barely any armed military presence, new and shiny malls and restaurants everywhere, massive international schools and it's just alive in a way that only Beirut can reach. The biggest problem is the traffic congestion, which the new Baghdad Metro project hopefully solves in a few years. The trash situation is also annoying, Baghdad is a quite dirty city, the people are as responsible as the government there honestly.

• The food was fucking amazing, but I've gained a few extra kilos from all the fatty foods. Some of the new restaurants are insanely good, and white people will never understand the appeal of a nice proper cafe with hot tea, diabetes-inducing sweets and hookah. Internet was decent, but this website barely loaded without a VPN for some reason. I paid around $10 for a week of unlimited 4G data.

• Made a quick one-day trip to Erbil, capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan. Took a smooth four hour drive there and crossing the inofficial "border" was pretty straightforward. Very beautiful city with great markets and more good food. Lots of new exciting construction projects in Erbil and it's cleaner than Baghdad, but same traffic issues. It's a good intro city for someone that wants an authentic Middle Eastern city, but not too "complicated", nor too artificial like the Gulf cities.

• Finished the trip with a Shia Islam religious pilgrimage megatour with my wife's family. We started in Baghdad and visited the Shrine of Imam Musa bin Jafar Al Kazim, then we drove around two hours to Karbala and visited the Shrine of Imam Hussain and Imam Abbas, then another hour to Najaf and visited the shrine of the greatest Muslim to ever live, Imam Ali bin Abu Talib. Was a great trip even if I'm not really the strongest believer out there. The shrines were magnificent, definitely something I'd recommend to everyone here.

• Overall summary is that Iraq is worth visiting, especially if you want to give your tourist dollars to a country that 100% doesn't use them to murder Palestinians or buy American senators. It will be a culture shock for sure, but Baghdad is a nice and historic city, with the added bonus of having top tier food. I'll upload some pics if I figure out how to do it in a non-doxxing manner.

It's so cool how the state has so successfully created a mechanism to shield the rich from consequences that they managed to create an entire class of failsons who believe they'd do even better without that mechanism.

Lmao America boycotting the G20. Basically giving hegemony to China on a platter

I will NOT attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg.

South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote “solidarity, equality, & sustainability.” In other words: DEI and climate change.

My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.

https://xcancel.com/SecRubio/status/1887288685517021298#m

https://apnews.com/article/trump-netanyahu-washington-ceasefire-1c8deec4dd46177e08e07d669d595ed3

Note the number of Gazans proposed to be ethnically cleansed - 1.8 M. The 2023 population of Gaza was 2.3 M give or take. That is a lot of death. Thanks Biden.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says that the freezing of USAID funds has plunged entire NGOs, media outlets and journalism (🤣) around the world into chaos. They readily pronounce that much of the world's “journalism” is paid for by Washington's dollars.

“In Ukraine, 9 out of 10 media outlets rely on USAID funding” USAID programs funds US interest media in more than 30 countries The agency funds at least 6,200 journalists, 707 “news outlets” and 279 media-sector “civil society organizations”. Any sovereign country has already prohibited this.

The best part is that RSF's director came out, pearls clutched, to say that the foreign aid industry IS in fact very much in line with U.S. interests.

• Camila Kawsachuan News

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Byg8VZdKK88 "Trump can't be a fascist because he's simply working within our system of government" is quite a take from Jon Stewart and his writers.

CIA sends ‘buyout’ offers to entire workforce

The Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday became the first major national security agency to offer so-called buyouts to its entire workforce, a CIA spokesperson and two other sources familiar with the offer said, part of President Donald Trump’s broad effort to shrink the federal government and shape it to his agenda.

Trump and his allies have claimed at different points that intelligence officers at the CIA have been part of a “deep state” determined to undermine him, and some critics have described the deferred resignation program as a purge – something Trump officials have denied. Some national security officials in Trump’s orbit believe that the CIA in recent years has become too heavily weighted towards analysis at the expense of clandestinely collecting intelligence and carrying out covert operations – functions of the agency’s much smaller Directorate of Operations. Ratcliffe during his confirmation hearing vowed to reinvest in both. “To the brave CIA officers listening all around the world, if all of this sounds like what you signed up for, then buckle up and get ready to make a difference,” he said in his opening statement. “If it doesn’t, then it’s time to find a new line of work.”

Every day a frightening new development of fascism, but also every day, more of the empire apparatus getting hollowed out. I wonder where the critical point is for this to collapse and reform into a new state.

I don't want to get all "muh constitution" but if the president can just unilaterally decide to eliminate federal departments there really isn't a constitution at that point is there? Like that's so far out of bounds of what's legal in any way. Looks like it's just going to happen?

I also don't understand any of the reporting or statements regarding being denied access to the buildings either. Every report I have read (and I have gone intentionally searching for this) has said that they were told no. It does not specify who told them no, the democrats are not specifying who is telling them no. The closest I have been able to find is an article The Hill saying the dems were stopped by "security forces". WHO ARE THOSE PEOPLE? Is anyone going to ask who the fuck they are working for or under whose authority? What answer could they possibly give you that would be acceptable to pack up and leave?

If I drop you off at a gas station and 20 seconds later you came back and said "they said no." I would be like "who said no? What did they say? And you just keep repeating "they said no" I would get actually pissed at you! Yet that's what were getting for some reason?

There was this story in the guardian

• “They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: ‘Get out of my way,’ and they’re looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,” said Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa official who is now a fellow at the University of New Hampshire. “They will have access to the entire computer system, a lot of which is confidential information.”

What is even going on here?!?! If you walked into where I work and were like "hey were taking over?" I would be like "who the fuck are you? what the hell is going on?". Even if I don't give a shit about my job I'm not just going to leave my post because some goofball told me to. Could I actually just walk into any federal building and say I'm with doge and they just let me in? Because that's legitimately what it feels like here!

So we have people we know nothing about, closing down federal office buildings, locking everyone out and nobody cares who is doing that? Do they have names? Are they security for the agency? Who gave them the orders? Are they just random people? I feel like these are kind of important questions that are being completely glossed over!

It’s so fucking funny that the cia is being declawed and yet trump is posturing to project American imperialism simultaneously like they are so fucking stupid and lost. It’s like they have the instincts of the Israeli right but imagine if the Israeli right decided the mossad was bad but for incoherent reasons and fucked it over leading to them fucking themselves over

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei: 'Negotiations with the United States are useless, and will not benefit the country in any way' In his speech today, the Supreme Leader once again emphasized that negotiating with the U.S. is not of any benefit to the Iranian nation:

"For some time now, you have been hearing, in newspapers, in cyberspace, and in the words of various people, that there is discussion about negotiations with America. They mention the word 'negotiation', saying, 'Sir, negotiation is a good thing,' as if someone is opposed to the goodness of negotiation. Today, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is one of the busiest foreign ministries globally. That is its job, after all. It negotiates with countries around the world — Eastern, Western, all kinds — it travels back and forth, speaks, and signs agreements."

"The exception that exists is America. Of course, I do not mention the Zionist regime because it is not a real country. The Zionist regime is a gang of criminals who came and occupied a land and are committing crimes. That is not a subject of discussion. The exception is America. Why is it an exception? What is the reason? Negotiating with America has no effect on solving the country's problems. We must understand this. They should not make it seem as if sitting at the table with that government will solve this or that problem. No, not at all."

"No problem is solved through negotiations with America. The reason? Experience. In the 2010's, we sat down and negotiated with America for about two years. A treaty was formed with them (JCPOA). Our government sat down and negotiated. They went, came, sat, stood, negotiated, talked, laughed, shook hands, became friends — they did everything. A treaty was formed. In this treaty, the Iranian side was very generous. It gave many concessions to the other side. But the Americans did not implement the treaty."

"The very person who is now in office [Trump] tore up this treaty. He said, 'I will tear it up,' and he did. Even before he came, those with whom this treaty was signed did not implement it. The treaty was meant to lift U.S. sanctions. The U.S. sanctions were not lifted at all. We should learn from this experience. We gave concessions, we negotiated, we compromised, but we did not achieve any result. That is what happened. Even this treaty, with all the concessions we gave, was still undermined, violated, and torn apart by the other side."

"Negotiating with such a government should not be done. Negotiation with them is neither wise, nor intelligent, nor honorable. We must solve our problems internally, not relying on outside factors. As for the Americans, they comment on us, they talk, they express their opinions, they issue threats. If they threaten us, we will threaten them. If they carry out their threat, we will carry out our threat as well. If they violate the security of our nation, we will undoubtedly violate their security as well. This is our duty.'"

yoav gallant admits that israel used the hannibal directive on oct 7. we all knew this here but i was surprised that he was willing to say it https://thecradle.co/articles-id/28788

WhatsApp hacked by Israeli spyware firm - and you don't even need to click a link. Just receiving the message leaves you vulnerable.

Israel targeted around 100 journalists in the attack, according to Meta.

So yeah, if you have WhatsApp, it's time to not have WhatsApp.

What we know about China’s retaliatory measures against the US

As we reported earlier, China’s Finance Ministry has slapped tariffs on certain American items in retaliation for the Trump administration’s 10 percent tariff on all Chinese goods entering the US.

Here are more details on China’s tit for tat levies:

• Starting on February 10, China will impose levies of 15 percent for US coal and LNG and 10% for crude oil, farm equipment and some autos.

• China’s Commerce Ministry and its Customs Administration said the country is also imposing export controls on tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum and ruthenium-related items to “safeguard national security interests”.

• China’s anti-monopoly regulator has also announced it is launching an investigation into Google, without offering details. Google products, including its search engine, are blocked in China, but it works with local partners, including advertisers, in the country.

The Saudis already pouring cold water on this plan.

I don’t doubt Trump wants to do this, he’s had Bibi whispering in his ear all day about it. Just like how he wants to take over Greenland, the Panama Canal, and fucking Canada. But operationally this plan is DOA. The Saudis aren’t on board, Sisi knows he will get coiled by the military if not murdered by his own people if he goes along. And I think most actually knowledgeable people in the deep state know how bad it’s gonna look when Qassam starts releasing videos of US soldiers getting got.

Trump wants a lot of things, but there is no way this happens. Honestly IMO I think even Bibi knows this and he’s only hyping this up to Trump to try and torpedo the ceasefire deal.

DEATH TO "AMERICA"

DEATH TO "ISRAEL"

GLORY TO THE RESISTANCE. GAZA AND PALESTINE WILL WIN.

A spokesperson for Netanyahu’s party just tried to defend the plan to deport Gazans to Jordan and Egypt by comparing it to the establishment of the state of Israel after WW2. Literally comparing themselves to the Nazis

Was on BBC NewsHour so no link

"Stop Playing Nice,' Says AOC as Senate Dems Help Approve Yet Another Trump Nominee"

"There has to be a political price to pay" for Elon Musk's takeover of federal agencies, said the congresswoman.

A political price.

shitlib redditors being dumbfounded part 4630135:

Former gov lawyer here:

1. it is illegal. Like not even close. My whole job is making nuanced "It depends" statements, but this isn't that. The last three weeks is mind melting.

2. it doesn't matter. Like at all. By the time a judge gets a case number, they've moved on to the next atrocity. They might not even be in office by the time any substantive briefs hit their desk. Scotus is complicit and will give them 80% and tut at the other 20 in the name of fairness.

The system relies on good faith, but that time has passed. We're fornly into the Real Politik "the strong do what they will" territory.

The worst part is that voters asked for this and they're happy with the dysfunction.

We got the government we deserve.

you stupid idiot, it was always realpolitik! only D-flavoured liberals are terrible at it except when they are supporting genocide, sending weapons to azov-nazis, bailing out wall street, or clamping down progressive movements

trump has suggested a US occupation of Gaza

I am starting to wonder if the last 24 hours is actually good for Palestinian liberation. Trump's proposal for Gaza has been viewed in such negative terms by EVERYONE across the globe, since I don't think he will be able to implement it, I think it only further isolates Israel and makes them even more of a pariah.

Cows Have Been Infected With a Second Form of Bird Flu (NYT)

Dairy cows in Nevada have been infected with a new form of bird flu that is distinct from the version that has been spreading through herds over the last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Wednesday.

The finding indicates that the virus, known as H5N1, has spilled from birds into cows at least twice — leading to these two sets of infections — and that it could continue to do so. It also suggests that the virus may pose a persistent risk to cows and to the people who work closely with them.

Before last year, scientists did not know that cows were susceptible to this type of influenza.

“This is not what anyone wanted to see,” said Louise Moncla, an evolutionary biologist who studies avian influenza at the University of Pennsylvania. “We need to now consider the possibility that cows are more broadly susceptible to these viruses than we initially thought.”

And Suddenly , there is silence.

• no Pictures of Protestors in Russias Periphery kissing in front of the Police .

• no Nafo Trolls

• No concerned Tik Tokers "we need to talk about X Country, okay: so the Leader is like super corrupt and payed by russia , and people! are! sick! of! it!.. "

• No Argument on Hexbear if the Protest in Slowanigorgiazyprus that they heard about from Reddit , might be legit or not..( No ,we didnt learn , dont you worry , Slowanigorgiazyprus - protest is just not on reddit anymore)

Trump going around and demanding nations pay a tribute like a mongolian khanate

BREAKING: Elon Musk supports the idea of Ron Paul leading a Federal Reserve audit team

https://xcancel.com/LeadingReport/status/1888341322626658741

This is very unsubstantiated, but also

Nathan Tankus’s latest piece: Day Five of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025: Not “Read Only” access anymore

… a top DOGE employee, 25 year old former SpaceX employee Marko Elez, has not only read but write access to BFS servers

…

Additionally, I can exclusively report that while there was initial hesitation from “IT Leadership” to give them access, they relented. However, they still believed this was extremely risky with one member of leadership saying “I’ve never done anything like this before”, according to a source familiar with the situation. A current IT employee of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service told me “This level of unchecked access is critically dangerous to the economy and the government”. When I replied “this is terrifying” to being informed that they have “write access” this source replied “Yeah it's not good. Read privileges on its own still would have left room for catastrophe, but read and write is apocalyptic.”

It is as of yet unclear whether anyone on the Payment Application Modernization (PAM) system or the “Secured Payment System” (SPS) have been put on “paid administrative leave”, coerced into resigning or quit in protest. All that is known is that Marko can “access and query” SPS and that there was someone who gave Marko a “tour” of the facilities. We do not know where they are in operationalizing any control. One senior IT source can see Mark retrieving “close to a thousand rows of data” but they can’t see the content because the system is “top secret” even to them. No source I have has knowledge of what DOGE is doing with the data they are retrieving.

Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, said that cocaine is no worse than whiskey, “it's just illegal”. Petro also said that the illegality of Cocaine only exists because it is “a product of Latin America” and that US drugs, such as fentanyl, are not subject to the same ban.

• Telegram

Half a billion dollars in USAID funding was allocated for coup efforts in Venezuela in 2017-2019, much of which filled the pockets of the Guaido opposition and other fraudsters, including NGOs. Through money laundering operations like NGO, Venezuelan opposition figures working with Guaido have been able to purchase high-end condominiums in Madrid, Miami and Bogotá, in cooperation with Colombian paramilitaries.

• Kawsachuan News

Army was ordered to kill Israelis during Al-Aqsa flood confirmed by the war criminal himself

Gotta give Trump some credit now, his dumbass instincts seem to have accidentally stopped any chance for Saudi-Israel normalisation. Official Saudi media sources are absolutely livid after the latest comments by Trump and Satanyahu and are weirdly enough using resistance-like lingo in describing the Israeli state, which I haven't seen in a more than a decade now. It would be so funny if Trump manages to unite the Arab position just by being an imbecile like always.

I don't know if anyone else here has posted about this yet, but in more 'pulling the copper wiring out of the wall' news, the Boer has decided to take down several important data from the CDC and Census websites. These include, but are not limited to, data from CDC PLACES (Population Level Analysis and Community Estimates), the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), and the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST). This data is very important for a lot of research and long term planning. I was still able to access CDC PLACES data by using a direct link to the download page, so it is not yet entirely gone. It seams from this article that CDC employees think that the data will eventually return, after it has been altered to become 'politically correct', but I think it would be best to expect them to never return. Much of the data is also still available from 3rd party data conglomeration, although at an extremely high cost for personal use.

Is capital falling back to the ethnic nation, nationalism and colonial acquisition (greenland, canada, panama) because pinkwashing and moral authority failed as a means of doing imperialism?

For decades they used, successfully I might add, moral authority of spreading "western values" as the tool of justifying their wars on the middle east while elsewhere they used anti-communism. These collapsed, as we've seen with support for Palestine, opposition to Israel, and even support for Iran.

If the "western values" and pinkwashing and superior moral authority are no longer effective tools of waging conflict. Falling back to the previous tools makes sense, the ethnic "nation", my land my people, and religion, which all worked for far far longer than the changed attempt to wage western superiority over everyone else on the basis that it was uniquely better.

I've been thinking about why "the west has fallen" is so prevalent and the reverse course towards religious, patriarchal and ethnic "values" happened. It was a conscious decision made by people that want the population in their society thinking in a certain way in order to use it for specific purposes but the exact reasons for it are rarely discussed in terms of this set of thought being a means to an end. Even in marxists circles it's only vaguely referred to as "threatening capital" and "pillars holding up capital" without specificity of what it materially gives them. This also has to be painted and analysed in the sense that the small group of billionaires that are pushing it all understand climate change and climate migration as an incoming threat.

Update on military action on the US - México border/deportation flights situation: México gives more concessions to the USA, Belize accepts a US military aircraft directly, first removal/deportation flights to Guantanamo Bay, India and potentially El Salvador, Colombia continues to send their own military planes for repatriation flights, more flights to Guatemala.

Overall it's quite a depressing update, to be honest I really didn't want to make it, but I feel as if I had to, otherwise this information just sits in aviation geek or chud circles with brainless losers cheering it on.

Popular resistance is growing to the Kiev regime military’s conscription campaign. Plus, some combat footage.

Ukrainians have started blowing up Kiev regime military conscription offices in Pavlograd and Rovno. In another incident, a man with a hunting rifle shot and killed a conscription officer in Poltava oblast. An IED strike killed another in Kharkov: https://southfront.press/war-against-mobilisation-gains-momentum-in-ukraine/

Civilians captured and beat a Kiev regime conscription officer (18+ video): https://odysee.com/@Support4Z:b/%F0%9F%93%BD%EF%B8%8F-A-%F0%9F%87%AC%F0%9F%87%A7-%F0%9F%87%AB%F0%9F%87%B7,--Zelensky-Gestapo-bastard-is-captured-by:3

Russian anti-tank mine destroys US-built “Bradley” infantry fighting vehicle (video): https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/02/05/1030079.html

Russian drone strikes British-built Challenger 2 tank (video): https://www.rt.com/russia/612228-ukrainian-challenger-tank-drone/

El Salvador offers to house violent US criminals and deportees of any nationality in unprecedented deal

Beijing assumes that Washington’s own policies will dismantle the foundations of U.S. global hegemony, even if it creates a lot of turbulence for other countries in the process. China’s top priority, then, is simply to weather the storm.

https://archive.is/Oywuf

To nobody’s surprise, the Qassam brigades are inducting new recruits at speed

“🇵🇸🇵🇸 The Al-Qassam Brigades has recruited thousands of new fighters since the beginning of the ceasefire. The fighters swear that they will confront the occupation with everything they have, and will continue the path of resistance until the complete liberation of Palestine, no matter the sacrifices.”

https://streamable.com/lfmnu0

Source: telegram

I haven’t been posting because frankly there’s too much, but the abductions, beatings, and killings have continued of any minority from supposed alawites and assadists to supposed queer people. While the zionist president travels the region, his merry men continue their rampage across Syria

Apparently the President of Brazil, Lula da Silva, recently appeared wearing a cap that read “Brazil belongs to Brazilians”. Clearly inspired by the MAGA cap. But for some reason, this angered the Brazilian right, since the right-wing in Latin America only serves to support the United States, It's quite funny to see these people having a meltdown over a cap.

Tweet with the Video

Old Pic of Lula using a Hip Hop cap

1- Trump says something stupid

2- His opponent responses

3- The market panics

4- Rich people buy the dips

5- ''Negotiation'' comes to something

6- Market normalized its price

7- Profit.

8- repeat in the next month

It do be like that sometime

But vibes!

Homelessness increased 18% in 2024, affecting over 770,000 people. Child homelessness also increased 33%, with nearly 150,000 kids living without a home.

CW: SA, child prostitution

"You've never been with a daddy?"

The public prosecutor's office found that this message was sent to a child prostitute by a portuguese Far-Right local MP before asking the boy's age, to which he said 15. After having sex with the boy he paid him 20 euros. He tried for a second encounter but was rejected.

This one is far more serious than the national MP that was stealing bags from airports and selling them on Vinted.com that was revealed a few weeks ago, especially from a party where members call LGBT people "pedophiles".

I'd like to think it would have some electoral repercussions since this type of criminality is not the usual scandals the far-right here get caught up in, but we'll see.