If someone's status and livelihood depends on engagement it should be a rule that you % do not listen to them.

This isn't even the man's first PPB. There's been a few over the years. One of the biggest to do it.

~~They have interesting CAPTCHAs that actually work and you can complete in any language too. I was blown away the first time I used a Chinese site with one.~~

Scratch that. Apparently I just got lucky a few times. Lots of them are in fact terrible and absolute require you the be able to read the language.

America is the basement dwelling school shooter of the international community.

I realise this is just two op-ed writers (one of whom is a 'former' military intelligence officer), but whenever I read this kind of rhetoric from the States I remember an inverview I heard about ten years ago with a former senior diplomat whose career had spanned the 70s to the 2000s. In short his depressed, fatalist arguement was; America will destroy itself because it's given up on diplomacy. He argued that the US simply didn't train diplomats anymore and that the service was full of political think tank graduates with zero interest or understanding of diplomacy, all high on their own supply of limitless American superiority.

I can't find that interview (it was on some kind of early, possibly university linked affairs podcast) but for the decade or so since I've seen articles bemoaning the turmoil and staffing issues for the state department and diplomatic services.

During Obama's second term there was a bunch of articles from journalists on behalf of anonymous diplomats begging for a more robust focus on diplomacy and the service after his appointment of special envoys had failed and been filled with vanity appointments.

William Luers (plenty ghoulish, but less foaming at the mouth than those who came after) said to the New York Times that as viloence became frames as "less between states and more dealing with terrorists, the military and the C.I.A. have been in the driver’s seat in dealing with governments throughout the Middle East and in state to state relations.”

In 2021 a study was done to try and address the scale of brain drain:

Their report finds that “31.42% (797) of current officers surveyed are seriously considering leaving the Foreign Service and are actively exploring their options. Of these officers, 31.27% (247) plan to leave in the next year and 56.58% (447) plan to leave in the next five years. This indicates a clear discontent within the Foreign Service that will increase attrition above the Department’s historical averages”.

And the situation only seems to have gotten worse.

Thanks. In fact that was the narrative that much of the reporting at the time focused on - that missiles hadn't been deployed inside London since the second world war - usually instead of the residents' concerns.

Plenty of them know, despite their occassional protests when they're caught. The Intergrity Initiative and Institue for Statecraft scandals here in the UK (quick recap: NGO's, which actually get most of their funding from UK/US governments and intelligence, supposedly countering Russian disinfo overplayed their hand and got caught interferring in the electrion by getting their journalist network to push anti-Corbyn smears before doing it themselves too) scratched the surface of a much deeper and murkier removedprivate finance-media orchestration full of dodgy payroll to 'journalists' across British and European media and a load of non-existant 'think tanks' and charities registered to abandoned buildings and random, unoccupied, residential homes. When members of the UK and EU Parliments called for investigations into these groups, they mysteriously found themselves as the targets of online smears and hostile press attention. The EU, partly due to their distate for being targeted by the Brits, took the situation a little more seriously, although ultimately nothing was done. Here in the UK, the mea-culpa was merely a long line of Guardian and 'centre left' broadsheet journalist lining up to write op-eds about how that money was just resting in their account and how unfair it was that an Integrity Initiative social media intern getting too clickhappy with anti-Corbyn stuff had allowed the evil Russia to portray all the money, contacts, and free scoops they'd been handed as somehow dodgy.

This isn't a surprise. James Cowan - the author of this sycophantic exercise in doublethink and CEO of the HALO Trust - is a complete ghoul and (I have it on at least one person's impression who met him while working with another NGO in that orbit) a "total fucking prick".

He's a privately educated posh boy who signed up with the Ulster Defence Regiment in order to carry out occupationist violence against Irish catholics, before taking a break to get a cushy ride at Oxford in return. His career in Afghanistan and Iraq, for which he recieved most of his honours and press contacts, were some of the most spectacular failures in both wars, including the experiment to retake Marjah and install a new government there that was a huge embarrasment and barely lasted two months. He also ran an infantry batallion in Iraq that got caught numerous times lying about successes, including claiming that one assualt on a small town was big military win because they found 1.5 tonnes of poppy seeds and bomb making equipment. When investigated later it turned out to be mostly piecemeal bits of ordinary electronics and 1.3 tonnes of mungo beans, not poppy seed at all (or alternatively, that was what was handed over for verification).

He was the head of the counter-terrorism task force surrounding the London olympics too. A task force that pushed (successfully) for the government to round up and imprison hundreds of people without due process or cause, on the basis that they were 'known activists' who might protest. I personally know that at least one of these people was an animal rights activist who had attended anti-monarchy protests in the past. They spent 48 hours in a police station after their flat was raided in the early hours of the morning, being treated as though they had some secret plan to attack the Olympics and then were continuously and intimidatingly 'surveilled' afterward.

This was also the task force that treated poorer London neighbourhoods like Republican Irish ones, as an occupying force, the biggest scandal that made the press being forcibly placing missile batteries on the roofs of public housing. The military had originally promised consultations but pulled out of the first public meeting at the last minute when they heard the decision was unpopular with local people. Their position then became, 'this is important, you're not' essentially. The same person who called him a "total fucking prick" said he had it on good authority that Cowan held a grudge about the fact that they weren't going to be greeted with a heroes welcome at that meeting. One of the buildings organised a legal challenge, taking the government to court over it, in part arguing that they had chosen to make their private residences at target for the terrorism the military was supposedly trying to prevent. They lost in court, with the government simply shouting 'terrorism' over and over again at a friendly judge. But that didn't stop Cowan using his friendly media contacts to do PR for the unpopular decision, including inviting a friendly Telegraph reporter to come and LARP with one before writing articles that not-so-subtly implied that residents kicking up a fuss about their homes coming under military occupation and stacked with high explosive were somehow unpatriotic or possibly even useful idiots helping terrorists.

HALO Trust does some good work, but it's also rotten with types like Cowan who have come with an agressively political agenda and seem to use it as much to further their own social climbing and image as promote the organisation.

In short, Cowan is a fucking snake of the military/media/state establishment ladder. His concern over the lasting damage and legacy of war didn't extend to Ireland, it didn't extend to Afghanistan, it didn't extend to Iraq, and it's no surprise it doesn't really extend to Ukraine either. He's an idealogue ghoul, run through with ambitious narcissism.

UK anti-terror police & intelligence services detained journalist Richard Medhurst recently and have now arrested Palestine activist and Gaza linked journalist on terrorism charges.

She gave the details of her impossible to abide by bail conditions in an interview someone else had to set up as she's forbidden from travelling, touching any electronic device.

I've had to remove the link entirely. The female journalist in question Sarah Wilkinson. Her Twitter account seems to be being run by a friend or her son now and you can search out the couple of interviews she's given so far

~~Sorry for the rubbish links. Xcancel just 403s for me and none of the four Hexbear recommended YouTube link alternatives work. All either don't work at all or are not allowing new users / posts. If the links are too tricky or you don't have time to watch the 30-45min interview here's the key points.~~

• First thing in the morning her home was raised by anti-terror police who wouldn't identify themselves, some even wearing balaclavas to hide their identities
• They claimed a warrant exists but would not show it or tell her what was contained in it as anti-terror legislation says they don't have to
• She wasn't allowed to dress, call anyone, or get her medication (she suffers from Crohn's disease).
• The tightness of the cuffs caused injuries to her hands but weren't loosened
• They ransacked her house and physically restrained her son, including throwing him up against the wall.
• They confiscated any and all electronic items, phones, and computers, as well as files, address books and more. These are the items that were on the official itemized list they provided her.
• They also stole money, personal items, and her passport, taking them without listing them.
• Taking her passport without itemising it guarantees she cannot meet the terms of her bail as she is required to turn it in on a future date. Her bail conditions also stop her applying for a replacement. The penalty for not being able to hand it in is likely to be 5 years in prison without a trial or legal representation.
• She also cannot travel, including buying any form of train or bus ticket despite living in a rural village, seeming including to her required 'check ins' on future dates.
• They deliberately desecrated her parents' ashes, spreading them so she couldn't retrieve them all, and damaged the urn.
• They loaded her into an unmarked black van, cuffed but unsecured and gave her a rough ride.
• They deliberately drove 45 minutes in the wrong direction, away from the police station they said they were taking her to. At this point she seriously considered that she might be being kidnapped as they still hadn't shown her a warrant or verifiable ID and were hiding their identities.
• While being held, they denied her any medication meaning that she also couldn't eat, essentially denying her food or drink.
• They eventually brought her a cup of tea and said she could have her meds as soon as she'd drank it. When she did, they then denied her meds again in an apparent attempt to make her ill.
• When she demanded to see a doctor they eventually sent in someone they claimed was a nurse. However, she seemed to have little to no medical knowledge, didn't seem to actually know anything about Crohn's disease despoite claiming to and couldn't even spell it when asked to. She did not appear to be a qualified medical professional and wouldn't give any details of her qualifications.
• They tried to deny her access to a lawyer, claiming she didn't have that right until she repeatedly demonstrated that she knew she did under Section 12 of the law. They eventually relented for the interrogation.
• She gave a no comment interview, but the questions they asked over several hours were apparently very interesting. They were riddled with racist comments and questions that implied Palestinian's weren't human, they repeatedly asked her "why she would value Palestinians over people like us" which she took to mean white and/or Zionist.
• She also says that her interrogators frequently used talking points, language, and tactics that organisations like the IDF and Shin-Bet do.
• Most notable was their interrogation and demand that she give details of the people in Gaza that she works with via a charity that digs wells and provides water. They wanted names, locations, contact details, phone numbers etc. Naturally she refused as she suspects they would be then given to Israel to use for targeting purposes.

In a bid to increase productivity in its economy (now mostly owned by Northern Europe after the financial crisis) and 'fill gaps in skilled work' Greece is now moving to a 6 Day Work Week in many sectors.

Congratulations European technocrats, you've managed to roll back hard won progress by almost 200 years.

The BBC refused the air the South African prosecution's case at the ICJ.

It aired Israel's defense live, and in full.

I feel a little sorry for the Lemm.ee users here that came to make measured, personal posts specific to the annoucement. There's a fair amount of long off-topic arguements happening in bits of the thread now and that probably makes it harder to read and manage.

This is something that's often been pointed to as a pure result of Hexbear users or federation with Hexbear and given rise to accusations of 'brigading here and in the past'. While I don't think every segue into debate has been useful here, and have also told comrades that I didn't think this was the place for specific comments (which they removed) I also think there's some important context to point out - and I hope it helps lemm.ee users wondering about all this traffic not to fall into the trap of assuming the worst based on a couple of comments:

• Hexbear is a very big and very active instance. A very small proportion of users posting in a thread (especially one explicitly about them) can seem like a lot to a lot of instances.
• Hexbear doesn't have downvotes and Hexbear users do not have the ability to downvote posts or comments on other instances. This creates a culture where if people disagree, they tend to reply, not downvote instead. Another reason we're very active.
• This thread has constantly been at the top of people's feeds on Hexbear. if they're not only set to 'local'.
• Finally - and I say this fully acknowledging and appriciating the many ordinary, good faith, pleasant lemm.ee commenters that I've enjoyed reading and talking too even when I totally disagreed with them - a lot of these off-topic arguements and more heated comments do not come from nowhere. While not at all the majority, I do see a pretty shocking amount of actively hostile, hateful, and insulting behaviour here. Sadly, quite a bit of it would be banned under Hexbear's moderation policy against things like slurs and hate speech too.

So try to keep in mind if you see salty Hexbear users replying to people that, just in reading through this thread myself, I've the following instances of abuse or smears against my comrades (and they continue popping up). So I absolutely support them defending themselves (as long as they stay within the rules here):

• Dimissal as the pejorative "tankie" - 4 times (although we actually think this one is pretty funny usually)
• Users stating that Hexbear users are propagandists - 8 times
• Stating that people from Hexbear are specifically paid Russian/Chinese bots/propagandists - 10 times
• Direct equivalences of Hexbear posters to Nazis or just straight up calling us Nazis/fascists - 7 times
• Insults regarding mental health or IQ that would be classed as ablism on Hexbear - 8 times
• Dismissing users as children - 2 times
• Claiming Hexbear users are using vote-manipulation (impossible, as explained above) - 4 times
• Accusations of deliberate brigading rather than just commenting, being active - 11 times

I've tried not to count repeated instances from the same users. But sadly that's not all. Just a handful of the following are comments that have been made against Hexbear users in this thread, without any kind of equal hostility. As far as I can tell they all still remain:

• "You guys are like cancer"
• "Braindead fucking tankies"
• "Get fucked"
• "Asshole" (multiple)
• That our beliefs are "moralistic bullshut"
• That some of our beliefs are "a criminal ideology"
• A comment that simply states "No Russians"
• That we're "evil" (multiple times)
• An elaborate comparison to us "vandalising a Jewish graveyard" and other Nazi equivalences
• And of course a comment that explictly minimised the Nazi death toll with glee, seeming to imply they should have killed more. On the subject of disagreeing with equating the hammer and sickle to the swastika (hidden with spoiler tag, for those who don't want to see it repeated)...
  
  spoiler

  "you are right, it is nor really fair to nazis, who killed measly 17 million people, compared to impressive 100 million killed by communists."

There's also been numerious instances of users misgendering Hexbear users. I'm not going to put all of these down to malice, but at Hexbear we display our pronouns for a reason - we love our trans comrades! You don't have to, but could you please at least respect them and not misgender them?

Again, this isn't the majority, but it's honestly disappointing and worth keeping in mind amongst some of the louder, minority yells of 'brigading' etc.