Serious question: What will Russia's response be if the US gives the OK for the Ukraine to hit sites deep in Russian territory with US missiles? Some options:

-Russia starts indiscriminately carpet bombing Ukraine. All of it.

-Russia gives the Houthis some Khinzhals and the western fleet in the Red Sea goes bye-bye

-Russia directly and rapidly arms Israel's opponents, gives them to go-ahead to bye-bye Israel

-Nuclear war (on the dance floor)-

Another heroic action, running up to a tank

https://streamable.com/91mnpx

Karim Khan going from the guy that the West, including Israel, wanted in the ICC a couple years back to safely ensure that nothing would ever happen to them, to the media going "So, is Karim Khan a bigger antisemite than Hitler, Goebbels, and Goring combined, and wants to murder every single Jewish person on the planet? We investigate this claim." is really very funny

TSMC’s EUV machines are equipped with a remote self-destruct in case of an invasion (archived page is a bit messy)

"Yes my liege, we vow to commit industrial seppuku should the mainlanders attack"

I wrote up the following response as an answer to @join_the_iww’s really great question of: ”Do Americans realize that the majority of people ruled over by Israel are not Jewish?” and thought it might have some interesting standalone/discussion value so I’m crossposting the comment here:

I don’t think pro-Israel Americans know this and I also don’t think pro-Israel Americans would really care all that much/believe you if you told them.

The average American who supports Palestine is relatively well read on the issue, or at least knows that fundamentally what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people is wrong. They are smaller in number than the Pro-Israel crowd but have way more passion for the issue.

Whereas

The average American who supports Israel does so because that’s what the default opinion is supposed to be. They know little to nothing about the situation on the ground. The most the average Pro-Israel American can tell you is: ”Israel is our closest ally in the Middle East.” and ”Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.” and they don’t particularly care about these issues all that much. Generally, they aren’t vocal about the issue at all unless some outside force intentionally riles them up, but the support does quickly as interest wanes.

That’s why I think this moment for Palestine is huge, but even bigger than most people realize as it pertains to the future of young people in America. The media and government both tried very hard to get American conservatives and liberals aligned and galvanized on the issue by stoking the coals that burn under each side and generally grab their respective interests.

The media/government tried to galvanize liberals through the traditional method of pinkwashing, espousing Israel’s so-called liberal social beliefs, and advocating for a two state solution so that Israel can appear to no longer be oppressing Palestinians.

The media/government tried to galvanize conservatives via Islamophobia, “invasion” rhetoric, freedom and democracy rhetoric, badass military rhetoric, etc.

Historically this has worked well enough, even with younger demographics, but this time it fell flat on its face because the United States and Israel are incapable of adapting this strategy in a way that effectively utilizes the historic method of suppressing information about what exactly Israel is doing. The average nominally pro-Israel American just stopped caring and the issue lost their attention at the same speed it always has. This differs immensely from the pro-Palestine side, which not only sees the ongoing issue with Israel’s actions, but also the issue of the combined effort the media and government are utilizing to suppress the issue/obscure the truth as much as possible.

I may be jumping to conclusions when I say that Tiktok has been an enormous catalyst in regards to galvanizing young people to be pro-Palestine, but at the very least it has been an incredible tool to study this conflict as a social trend amongst its primary user base. Pro-Palestinian content on Tiktok occurs at a rate 2000% higher than pro-Israeli content. A recent study, conducted by computer scientists at Northeastern University who specialize in mass online sociological patterns, determines that “The pattern of pro-Palestinian posts is consistent with a prolonged social movement… while the pattern of pro-Israeli posts is typical of what follows a major news event.” and we can see that demonstrated in the way support for Palestine has remained steadfast no matter what major news event the combined propaganda departments of the United States and Israel try to throw at it. This is an absolutely unprecedented shift.

In my opinion, when accounting for the dual issue of the Israel-Palestine conflict and subsequent obvious bias/obfuscation regarding the conflict, this is potentially the largest mass deprogramming/radicalization event for young Americans I can think of in any stretch of American history. I do not see any major event that touches the speed and depth of which young people have turned against a combination of domestic, international, and media dealings AND narratives. I do not believe that even the events surrounding the George Floyd Uprising (and potentially even the Vietnam war) will have such lasting impacts as the shift in young peoples’ opinion on the issue of Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid; in each of those corresponding issues, never was the entire government, its international allies, and private media propaganda so completely aligned while being so thoroughly rebuked.

She claimed by paying to push an article in the paper, I could get asylum in the US.

Interesting thread on Chinese migrants taking the route through south america, this stood out to me though. This is a solid tactic to get negative stories written by people about a communist country that aren't true. If I was a fed I'd be doing this (and suspect these are feds).

What would you do? You want to migrate to america but couldn't get a visa and you know you have a pretty poor asylum claim. So you pay to write some made up bullshit for an outlet or newspaper or whatever that you can then use as part of your asylum claim. You will never admit that it's made up bullshit too because your entire claim to asylum falls apart if you ever do that.

Source thread: https://x.com/WeiDuCNA/status/1793593455144476739

if anyone wondered How America could justify the position the ICJ has no authority to make arrest warrants for Netanyahu, but does have the authority to make arrest warrants for Putin, they found a way. it's because evil, authoritarian countries like Russia will never punish their criminal president on their own, but Israel totally could try and sentence Netanyahu for war crimes. eventually. just give them time.

"The ICC was established by its state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction. Those limits are rooted in principles of complementarity, which do not appear to have been applied here amid the Prosecutor’s rush to seek these arrest warrants rather than allowing the Israeli legal system a full and timely opportunity to proceed. In other situations, the Prosecutor deferred to national investigations and worked with states to allow them time to investigate. The Prosecutor did not afford the same opportunity to Israel, which has ongoing investigations into allegations against its personnel."

very funny referring to the prime minister as just "personnel". and "no, he's of course not outside the law, can't you see he's already so well known for corruption that he's being investigated for bribery!" and "clearly there is no chance of anyone in his cabinet being indicted for war crimes, but isn't the theoretical possibility of him being indicted for political corruption years from now basically the same?"

According to documents from Denmark's Liberal Party-controlled ministry of defense, a donation to Ukraine of 100 vintage Leopard 1 tanks from Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands has been so riddled with defects that the Kiev regime at one point refused to accept more.

The defects includes cannons that couldn't fire due to missing parts and faulty electric and hydraulic systems. Especially the German subs industry is being blamed for not being able to keep it's promises.

Some of the tanks had previously been used by the Danish army but were decommissioned in 2010 and sold to a German arms dealer who kept them on a lot in Flensburg until 2023 when the Danes bought them back and hastily restored them to send them to Ukraine.

The tanks were supposed to be ready in April of 2023 but that didn't happen as the German company doing the restoration couldn't source the parts needed and the Danes had to dust off museum tanks to give Ukrainian crews something to train in. In September 20 tanks had been delivered to Ukraine. The Ukrainians found defects on all of the tanks and refused to accept any more and Denmark had to send teams of mechanics to Germany to help get the tanks ready.

Today Denmark's Liberal Party-controlled ministry of defense claims that "more than 90" tanks has been restored to a state where they can be used by the Kiev regime.

Why does he look like a 49 years old man? Isn't he like 20 lmao?

There was a ~200 mph tornado in Greenfield (in Iowa) yesterday, huge chunk of the town looks legitimately flattened

Mexico: The candidate for the Popular Party of Chiapas, Lucero Lopez Maza was killed after an attack by armed groups. President AMLO denounced the assassination.

Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman is heading to Iran for the first visit by a Saudi royal in two decades.

Nyt talking out of both sides of their mouth about the Gaza pier https://archive.is/9lZ8u

They admit its a failure but imply the blame is in "looters" without elaborating. The solution?

Paul D. Eaton, a retired major general, was in Somalia in 1993 when the U.S. military put a pier in place to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians caught in the war there. Some four light infantry Army battalions — 2,000 troops — were on the ground to help the aid get through, General Eaton said in an interview.

Oh we just need to put 2000 American troops on the ground.

Hamas uses VLC player

https://x.com/AJArabic/status/1794727531276292172

The term of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky officially ended on Monday (20). Despite this, he will remain head of the country's executive.

At war with Russia since February 2022, the country has since been under martial law, which makes it impossible to hold elections in the country. The election, which was scheduled to take place on March 31, had already been canceled long before, in November last year.

On November 6, 2023, Zelensky released a message in which he said that it was not time for elections. At the end of February, he said that any talk questioning his legitimacy was a “hostile narrative”.

In addition to martial law, the president and experts argue that it would be impossible to hold full elections in Ukraine due to the conditions of the country, invaded by the Russians, and its population -- many have had to flee their homes and even the country. In addition, soldiers would not be in a position to vote.

The text of the Constitution is not entirely clear on this point. One of the articles, for example, states that the term of office is five years. But, according to “The Economist” magazine, constitutional experts in the country say that martial law provides for an exception, which is in Article 108 of the Charter, which states that the president exercises power until his successor is sworn in - except that elections are prohibited during the period of martial law. Ukrainian legal experts consulted by the Deutsche Welle news agency said they expect Zelensky to remain in power until a new president is elected.

According to DW, the legitimacy of Zelensky's mandate after May 20 derives not only from the law, but also from broad popular support. A poll conducted by Ukraine's Razumkov Center in January revealed that 69% of respondents trust Zelensky. Less than a quarter said they didn't trust the president.

Another poll, by the International Institute of Sociology in Kiev (IISK) at the beginning of February, showed that 69% of respondents believe Zelensky should remain in power until Martial Law ends. Only 15% of respondents supported holding elections under the current circumstances, and 10% wanted Zelensky to hand over power to the speaker of parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk.

It's Joever

Trump is ahead according to Gamblers

I have very few words for the images I have seen from Rafah tonight, but they will haunt my memories for a lifetime or more.

Israel must be dismantled. There is nothing else to say.

Michael Roberts wrote a piece a week ago where he talks about all the business with US tariffs on Chinese products. I think we're all familiar with the basic premise: the US is doing protectionist trade policies in the face of Chinese production of electric vehicles and renewable energy and such.

Article TLDR:

Chinese EV imports are only 2% of the US market and the new tariffs, in total, constitute only about 7% of US-China trade; so the US is still evidently unable to cut their reliance on China. The reason why the US cannot cut their reliance is that Chinese dominance in this territory is not just skin deep. China is dominant in EV production, and the battery manufacturing for those EVs, and the manufacture of cathodes and anodes for those batteries, and the refining of the chemicals that go into the batteries.

China produces 80% of the world's solar photovoltaic modules, 60% of wind turbines, 60% of electric vehicles and batteries. In 2023 alone, China's solar power capacity grew more than the entire installed capacity in the US.

Chinese firms have rerouted supply chains to the US via Morocco, Mexico, and South Korea, which have free trade agreements with the US. Most solar cells come to the US via various South-east Asian countries. In response, the US government has mandated that US automakers won't receive tax credits if any company in their battery supply chain has 25% of its equity, voting rights, or board seats owned by a Chinese government-linked company. Nonetheless, American firms like Ford and Tesla have partnered with China's CATL to make batteries, in a way that makes them compliant with that law. I mean, they kind of have to, given China's dominance in that sector. For what it's worth, Trump has expressed support for China building factories in America so long as they employ American workers.

Here's the thing: this general strategy has been tried before. US protectionist measures against Chinese solar panels resulted in an 86% drop over the 2012-2020 period, and the US solar industry received billions in subsidies from Obama and Biden, but not only has it not revitalized the industry, the market share of the global solar industry has plummeted from 9% in 2010 to 2% in 2024. China has risen from 59% to 78% over the same period.

Part of the reason is that China does subsidies much better than the US. Chinese businesses on average receive subsidies equivalent to 3.7% of their revenues, compared to 0.4% in the OECD (more or less, the imperial core). And subsidies in China are usually low-cost loans, while in the OECD it is tax concessions. Therefore, the Chinese government can maintain control while in the West, tax concessions just let the private sector fuck off with the money. Additionally, Chinese state aid focuses on boosting manufacturing and export sectors, not protecting weak sectors. The US does the opposite, which even the IMF admits is not a strategy for good long-term growth.

The US accusing China of "non-market practices" given this context is obviously hilarious; so is the US pretending to discover that overcapacity resulting in mass exports is a thing that exists but only China is doing it.

Obviously this will all have a big climate impact; reducing access to renewables isn't going to make renewables easier to build in the US. But even in an economics sense, because China is so dominant in so many industries, the protectionism just means that input costs will rise, not that new American industries will come along and replace Chinese imports. This reduces profitability, and obviously corporations will refuse to take that hit, so they'll raise prices for the working class.

Cool article on China's railgun testing and the US' failure to get very far with it

https://asiatimes.com/2024/05/china-firing-railguns-while-us-blows-hot-and-cold/

Looks like a huge Ukraine propaganda op is going on today. My reddit feed is filled with it.

I send my warmest sympathies to comrades trapped on Terf Island in these trying times of cringe and liberalism. May you outlive the shitshow and see better days again.

They went and put ERA on an Abrams, the Warthunder memes are real

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, also a Republican, called the move an “outrageous decision” that is “a slap in the face to the independent judiciary in Israel, which is renowned for their independence”.

Graham said he will work with Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of Congress to “levy damning sanctions against the ICC”.

A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has denounced requests from the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-dpa-money-mines-canada-analysis-1.7214664

The U.S. military has, for the first time in generations, spent public money on minerals projects inside Canada: nearly $15 million US to mine and process copper, gold, graphite and cobalt in Quebec and the Northwest Territories.

The U.S. has expressed escalating unease over its dependence on its biggest rival. China controls the global mineral supply, has cut off minerals exports in the past, and fears a potential standoff with the U.S. over Taiwan.

Washington said two years ago that it was weighing funding Canadian mining startups under the U.S. Defense Production Act (DPA). It promised funding last year, and this month, it formally revealed the first such initiatives.

The cash comes with no strings attached — for now. This is free money, in the form of grants, to help companies get through final feasibility studies and permitting.

In other words, the U.S. military could leap to the front of the customer line.

$15m is peanuts in the grand scheme of resource extraction and junior miners. Still, this is an interesting advancement. If either of these projects go ahead I expect the pressure, funding and expectations of the US military will increase

Houthis bagged another US drone

Israel cuts connection between Spanish consulate in Jerusalem and Palestinians in the West Bank

good NC article on US bragging about their behaviour in LATAM and how project colombia is a model for others, like ecuador/peru. Worth reading in full imo but here are some quotes.

If there’s one thing most historians can agree upon, it is that “Plan Colombia”, the US government’s anti-narcotics drug-eradication program, was an unmitigated disaster — at least from an anti-narcotics perspective. Signed in 1998 by President Bill Clinton and his Colombian counterpart, Andrés Pastrana, it burnt through $10 billion of US and other overseas funds over two decades, worsened the violence in Colombia, bathed more than a million hectares of farmland in a rich brew of toxic chemicals, including Monsanto’s “probably” carcinogenic weedkiller glyphosate and exacerbated organised crime — all while overseeing a significant upsurge in coca production.

Global cocaine production reached the highest level ever reported in 2016, with most of the production coming from Colombia, according to the United Nations’ World Drugs Report 2018.

One of the main architects of Plan Colombia was then-US Senator Joe Biden. In 2022, former Colombian President Ivan Duque personally thanked Biden for helping to draw up the plan, which, he said, allowed the Colombian government to “confront and defeat many challenges we had.” But two years earlier, the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee admitted that Plan Colombia had been a resounding failure from a counter-narcotics perspective. It did, however, provide short-term benefits from a counter-insurgency perspective:

As I reported in December last year, both Ecuador and Peru have entered into “Plan Colombia”-style initiatives with the US, with the ostensible aim of combating the increasingly powerful drug cartels. Since then, the Milei government in Argentina has announced plans for the Southern Command to deploy military personnel to an Argentine base in Tierra del Fuego, near Antarctica, and signed an agreement, through the General Port Authority, for The United States Army Corps of Engineers to have a presence along the Paraná waterway and fulfil “advisory tasks” on the management of ports and navigable waterways.

tldr - war on drugs is used as cover to embed military assets into latin american countries as a warmed over monroe doctrine, with current major targets of US imperialism being ecuador, panama, peru and argentina. I wonder if USSOUTHCOM forces are being used in panama to go after land defenders and people who are against the cobre panama mine that first quantum was operating until they were shut down.

Utah man declined $100K offer to travel to Congo on ‘security job’ that was covert coup attempt (May 25)

Marcel Malanga, the 21-year-old son of eccentric coup leader Christian Malanga, was detained by Congolese forces Sunday morning, along with a former classmate from their hometown of West Jordan, Utah, after his father was killed in a shootout while resisting arrest. His high school football teammate, Tyler Thompson, 21, was one of two other Americans arrested after an ill-fated attack on the presidential palace in Kinshasa.

... Although it’s unclear whether Thompson was offered money, multiple teammates told the AP that he had alluded to such incentives, telling one friend that the trip could be a “big financial opportunity.”

... “Marcel was pretty secretive about his dad. He didn’t even know him well until he spent last summer in Africa,” Gonzalez said. “There’s no way Marcel had any idea what he’d be getting us into or he never would’ve offered. He’s one of the best friends a person could have.”

... Marcel had told Gonzalez that his father was letting him hire a friend so he would have company during his summer abroad. He seemed excited to be able to offer such a substantial amount of money to a close friend who needed it, Gonzalez explained.

The Malangas had promised on-the-job training, full coverage of travel expenses and the chance to explore a new part of the world while making an income, he said. Marcel insisted repeatedly that it was safe, but didn’t share details about his father’s background.

So, what's the Hexbear take on this?

Translation of an interview of someone who was in one of the helicopters that didn't crash: https://twitter.com/AryJeay/status/1792940529526747394

The bombshell is that there was apparently a survivor of the crash:

After some tries, calling the cellphone of the captain accompanying the president, someone picked the phone. It was Ayatollah Hashem, the friday imam of Tabriz. He told us that I’m not feeling well. He didn’t tell us anything special. I asked him what exactly has happened? He told us that he didn’t know what has happened, when asked on his whereabouts, he said that he didn’t know. He only described what he could see, described to us what he saw, e.g. surrounded by trees. I asked him about the condition of the others, the Ayatollah replied that he’s alone and couldn’t see anyone else and he’s alone.

This is bizarre. It doesn't seem likely that some 60+ year old dude would survive jumping off a helicopter that's about to crash into a mountain, so maybe there's some truth to the earlier reports describing the crash as a hard landing. I also remember the very early reports mentioning that they were about establish communication with some people in the crashed helicopter, so I guess they were talking about him.

Ukrainian eBay account selling Russian military scrap, equipment, and surplus military equipment https://www.ebay.com/itm/386232697556

Based on the suggested items, it seems like there are many Ukrainians selling spare/captured equipment lol

Holy shit the Rishi Sunak election announcement is one of the funniest farcical humiliations I’ve seen in a long time

Sopping wet while a New Labour anthem drowns you out

Edit: video - https://x.com/scottygb/status/1793315621662290087/mediaViewer