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submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

Image is of Joseph Robinette Biden, who has stepped down and will not run against Trump in the 2024 election.


In the aftermath of Trump surviving an assassination attempt, many professional opinion-havers are now talking about the scourge of "political violence" that has overtaken, or will soon overtake America, and how we must not let chaos rule. This is, of course, patently absurd. The American government and its allies have been the greatest force of political violence on the planet since the beginning of colonialism, and the foundations of the country are made of corpses. Today, America commits political violence by forcing Ukrainians into the maw of Russian artillery instead of trying to reach a peaceful settlement, which Russia has repeatedly expressed interest in and offered Ukraine relatively favourable terms. They supply Israel with endless weaponry to destroy entire cities and populations, while Biden supporters insist that somehow things could be worse than daily massacres and mass starvation.

In May 1945, French police fired on protestors, causing retaliatory attacks on French settlers, killing about a hundred. In response, the French murdered 45,000 Algerians in a little under two months, in a frenzy of political violence called the Sétif and Guelma massacre. As the massacre was being completed, the International Court of Justice was established. It goes without saying that Algeria never benefited from the ICJ, and the War of Independence from 1954 to 1962 was made inevitable. Over a million Algerians were killed before France could bear the fighting no longer and gave up, and Algeria won itself a state. Comparisons to the ongoing war of independence and genocide in Palestine are obvious.

While the means of colonial violence have evolved over the centuries, the basic structure of it has not. As in Algeria, Vietnam, and Cuba, resistance groups in and around Palestine are fighting for a world with less political violence. The American government would drown every city in the developing world in blood to prevent peace.


The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Algeria! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli 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 Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.

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.
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.


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[-] Yor@hexbear.net 131 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

squidward-chill not voting for a war criminal

squidward-nochill contextphobic

squidward-chill not voting for a cop

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[-] FuckyWucky@hexbear.net 115 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

BBC is acting like he died of hunger naturally. Idk which is worse.

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[-] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 110 points 4 months ago

Joe Biden just stepped down? Wow. I didn’t know that. You’re telling me now for the first time.

He led an amazing life. What else can you say? He was an amazing man. Whether you agree or not, he was an amazing man who led an amazing life. I’m actually saddened to hear that. I am saddened to hear that.

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[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 101 points 4 months ago
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[-] MolotovHalfEmpty@hexbear.net 100 points 4 months ago

NYT on Crooks' motive...

"When the F.B.I. was able to finally access Mr. Crooks’s cellphones and other electronic devices, agents could see that he had searched for images of Mr. Trump as well as President Biden, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and even F.B.I. Director Christopher A. Wray.

Mr. Crooks also had at typed in “major depressive disorder” and searched for dates and places for appearances for both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump.

One of Mr. Trump’s planned appearances happened to be about 50 miles from Mr. Crooks’s house in Bethel Park, Pa."

Motive might have just been that Trump was a shorter drive than Biden or others.

Extremely American.

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[-] KnilAdlez@hexbear.net 98 points 4 months ago
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[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 98 points 4 months ago

Biden struggles to remember defense secretary's name, refers to him as 'Black man' instead

Wtf????

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[-] nat_turner_overdrive@hexbear.net 96 points 4 months ago

the libs on reddit are all shouting "donald trump is the oldest presidential candidate now! haw haw haw!"

this argument makes liberals sound insane after riding for biden for so long but they're just as out of touch as the republican base are

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[-] CoolerOpposide@hexbear.net 96 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Apparently there is some MASSIVE IT fuckery afoot right now. We are almost certainly in the midst of the single largest IT outage in history. Will update the list below as necessary, and I’m sure there’s a lot more than this too

911 services disrupted in AK, AZ, IN, MN, NH, OH

London stock exchange major disruptions

Payment systems in UK and Australia major disruption (Australian government has called for an emergency meeting)

Several major banks experiencing payment issues

Widespread outages in USA hospital EMR systems

Major Microsoft services out

FAA has grounded delta, American, United flights

Berlin has suspended flights

UK and Australian supermarkets experiencing widespread outages

ALL airports in Spain impacted by outage

Sky News went off air for three hours, came back on air for 5 minutes, is now back off air

Singapores Changi airport only able to do manual checkins. Same situation in Hong Kong

Telegraph reporting that ALL of their PCs are down

Airports around the world reaching deadlock as flights are grounded, delayed, and then unable to be rescheduled or rebooked

University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein is forced to cancel all planned operations today

JFK Airport checkins are backed up out of the door at 5:20am

Widespread reports of PCs being stuck BSoDing (Blue Screen of Death)

Washington DC suspends ALL rail service

MTA claims that NYC transit will remain functional for use but is having back end issues providing information to riders

Pharmaceutical companies reporting widespread outages

Belfast airport being forced to resort to using whiteboards for updates on flights

NHS reporting outages impacting critical systems

Widespread rail service disruptions across the US and UK

Stores across Japan unable to do business

Systems at Paris Olympics are not functioning properly

Container ships unable to load or unload cargo at some ports

~~I would advise that if you have a PC that you~~

~~don’t~~

~~update it~~

~~for now.~~

Ok you should be good to update it now. A fix has been rolled out but like… don’t update to fix it yet if you could just keep not doing work and getting away with it. And we certainly haven’t seen the last of the impacts yet so I’ll keep updating if anything else juicy happens

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[-] ThomasMuentzner@hexbear.net 96 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

ICJ !!!!! WELCOME TO THE RESISTANCE !!!!

ISRAEL IS A APARTHEITSTATE !

ISRAEL IS ENGAGED IN RACIAL SEGREGATION !

ISRAEL HAS TO REMOVE ALL SETTLERS AND ALL SETTLEMENTS FROM THE OCCUPIED PALESTINE TERRITORIES !

obaida-index

Edit : this comes directly after the german intervention .. hilarious..

EDIT. nOt , fuck fucking fuckermy

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[-] MelaniaTrump@hexbear.net 96 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeBiden/comments/1e8vnow/im_sitting_here_taking_in_the_news_a_manual/

Which one of you wrote this highly upvoted masterpiece on /r/JoeBiden?

I'm in shock. I don't know what was the final straw for the President, a man who I have considered -- and still do consider -- to be a real-life Jed Bartlett hybridized with Captain America.

I trust the President and always have. He has never let me down. For him to make such a move means he must have compelling reason to do so.

I keep thinking back to 2020. That year, in a moment of somber and morbid inspiration, we lost Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an icon to whom, if she were a religion, I would convert despite my pro-life -- yet otherwise liberal -- tendencies. Her death was like a clarion call for all of us to rise up and remove the now-convicted-felon donald trump. I wondered much these last few weeks what would be the move which would propel us in this election.

Starting now, we must quickly pick up the pieces and, just as Captain America said in Endgame, we must "Assemble". We have a convention coming up. The delegates, democratically chosen by the voters, will democratically elect at that Democratic convention the nominee of the Democratic Party.

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[-] BynarsAreOk@hexbear.net 94 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Hey Ukraine how is the war going?

Very well apparently so we got time for a little vacation, as a treat of course.

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[-] da_gay_pussy_eatah@hexbear.net 94 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

A drone has exploded in the middle of Tel Aviv, less than 100m from a US consulate building. At least 8 settlers have been wounded with at least 1 death, and Netanyahu has reportedly cancelled his US visit in response. Yemen is claiming responsibility for the strike, which reportedly entered "Israeli" airspace from over the Mediterranean.

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[-] mar_k@hexbear.net 92 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

just learned that not a single president has won a second term with an approval rating below 48% before election day (dubya in 04 was the lowest and only won by a pretty small margin)

lmao joe biden's at 37%. lyndon johnson dropped out of the race when he was slightly higher than that (from 538, data since 1945, scroll down n hover around day ~~1,835~~ 1,385)

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[-] Greenleaf@hexbear.net 91 points 4 months ago

Gov. Newsom signs first-in-nation bill banning schools’ transgender notification policies

This is good, and honestly pretty common sense: a trans kid is scared of telling their parents they are trans, so they can be out at school and not have to worry about consequences at home (like a forced detransition).

Of course the evangelical nuts are losing it over this. And this is Musk’s response:

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[-] jackmarxist@hexbear.net 89 points 4 months ago
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[-] Parzivus@hexbear.net 87 points 4 months ago
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[-] mar_k@hexbear.net 87 points 4 months ago

a couple weeks ago i managed to get chatgpt to talk like exaggerated italian-american mario and with the new memory feature it does it in every single new chat i make, i'm surprised by it every time 😭

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[-] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 87 points 4 months ago

Palestine Action continues to show how it's fucking done:

Palestine Action UK broke into a facility and proceeded to smash shit:
https://xcancel.com/Pal_action/status/1812817029180567674

Palestine Action Austria fucked up a bunch of solar panels among other things:
https://xcancel.com/Pal_action/status/1812894782294769862

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[-] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 85 points 4 months ago

GERMAN TROOPS TO EXIT NIGER, ANOTHER NEOCOLONIAL DOMINO DOWN:
https://xcancel.com/african_stream/status/1813979908277719450#m

[-] Woly@hexbear.net 85 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

No matter what hellish fate awaits us, we can always cherish in our hearts the week where Biden sat alone in his house, sick and sad and betrayed by everyone around him.

This is a battle long lost, but it's amazing that he's pissing and shitting himself (literally I assume) at the prospect of the Democrats doing to him what they did to Bernie four years ago. Fuck you old man, I hope the China virus eats your brain to death.

Also, for all the articles that make it seem like he's about to step down, I have a feeling the libs are going to "learn" what we've all known forever: that beneath the dementia and the goofy old heehaw bullshit, Biden is actually just a huge stubborn fucking asshole.

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[-] CoolerOpposide@hexbear.net 84 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

~~Yemen is claiming to have hit Tel Aviv with a second drone strike.~~ Self crit: I was not immune to propaganda and there was not a second attack claimed by Yemen. There was an oxygen tank explosion that people were speculating was another attack and I didn’t vet my source well enough!

That being said, the following remains true:

A new age of warfare is truly upon us. Yemen flew a drone over 1000 miles through some of the most heavily layered air defense and hit an extremely well protected target deep within the enemy’s borders.

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[-] RION@hexbear.net 84 points 4 months ago

Biden held 'tense' call with group of House Democrats over concerns he can't win

"Tell me who enlarged NATO, tell me who did the Pacific basin! Tell me who did something that you've never done with your Bronze Star like my son


and I'm proud of your leadership, but guess what, what's happening, we've got Korea and Japan working together, I put Aukus together, anyway!" he said.

Brandon trying the Trump strategy of insulting veterans to increase his popularity thonk

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[-] companero@hexbear.net 83 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Not gonna lie, part of me wanted him to stay in so we could continue to harp on "Genocide Joe" and say "I told you so" when he inevitably lost against Trump.

The other part of me does recognize that the real problem isn't a single person but rather the entire system. It just sucks that all the crimes against humanity committed under Biden's genocidal regime will be forgotten by many people due to a different puppet steering the ship.

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[-] Wertheimer@hexbear.net 83 points 4 months ago

Biden’s legacy will be ‘Genocide Joe’: Arab American advocate

Abed Ayoub, executive director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), says despite some domestic achievement, Biden’s will rank as “one of the worst” presidents in US history because of his unconditional support for Israel.

“He’ll be remembered for the hundreds of thousands killed, injured and displaced in Gaza,” Ayoub told Al Jazeera. “There is no way around it. Genocide Joe is what he’s going to be remembered as.”

@mkultrawide@hexbear.net did it

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[-] puff@hexbear.net 83 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Viet Namese communist party leader Nguyen Phu Trong dead. Weeks where decades happen. Probably more capitalist reforms in store for Viet Nam. Sigh. Let's hope they at least get someone pro-China and pro-Russia to strengthen the anti-West alliance

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[-] TerminalEncounter@hexbear.net 82 points 4 months ago

Weird that AOC has no problem telling dems to resign if they think dems can't win but can't bring herself to say Biden should resign

I mean, she was always gonna be like this but it is weird to watch her speed run progressive outsider to establishment

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[-] PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net 82 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I have heard of tech companies keeping an employee after making a million dollar mistake, because they know they will never make the same mistake again. I wonder if they will keep an employee after making a trillion dollar mistake. 🤔

The fact that it is even possible for an INDIVIDUAL to make such a costly error indicates a vast systemic failure. We are all only human.

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[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 81 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yesterday Yemen may have dropped flyers in Tel Aviv warning settlers to leave as soon as possible

That or this is a joke made by Palestinians. I can't tell for sure to be honest everything's getting foggy.

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[-] SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net 81 points 4 months ago

BREAKING: Grindr experiencing outages due to unprecedented traffic in Milwaukee, WI.

https://xcancel.com/computer_gay/status/1813392864094687268

thonk

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[-] kleeon@hexbear.net 81 points 4 months ago
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[-] CarmineCatboy2@hexbear.net 81 points 4 months ago

am I correct to surmise that the modern world can be brought to its knees when actual cyberwarfare comes into play?

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[-] FortifiedAttack@hexbear.net 81 points 4 months ago

Rumor has it that the totalitarian German regime sends the Gestapo out for anyone unlucky enough to view the following symbol:

🔻

Pray for our German comrades 😔

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[-] Neptium@hexbear.net 81 points 4 months ago

In Communist North Korea, supporting the victims against the oppressor is illegal and you will be put under house arrest. yeonmi-park

Strait Times - Self-radicalised S’porean teen, 14, and ex-public servant, 33, given ISA restriction orders

The 33-year-old, on the other hand, staunchly supported the Axis of Resistance, a network of Islamist militant and terrorist organisations, including Hamas and the Houthis, and advocated violence against Israelis and Jews, said the ISD.

“militant and terrorist” - comprador

Since the two people have been issued restriction orders, they cannot change their residence or employment, or travel out of Singapore, without the ISD director’s approval.

They also cannot access the internet or social media, issue public statements, address public meetings, or print, distribute or contribute to any publication, or hold office in or be a member of any organisation, association or group without prior approval.

Both Malaysia and Singapore have these ISA laws that were initially used against Communists and labour unionists, originating from the colonial era before independence. So much for “Asian values” while retaining colonial laws.

[-] edge@hexbear.net 80 points 4 months ago

Biden directs DHS to give Secret Service protection to RFK Jr.

Biden is basically following Trump's order there.

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[-] edge@hexbear.net 80 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It doesn’t matter much but Biden and RFK Jr are tied in Utah polls. And that was before the debate.

It would be hilarious if Biden comes in third in a state.

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[-] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 80 points 4 months ago

I hope Bernie and AOC had dump trucks full of money delivered to their homes because theyt basically tanked whatever credibility that they had left lmao

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[-] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 80 points 4 months ago

Al Jazeera It's Joever coverage

We also have the first reaction from Moscow.

“The elections are still four months away, and that is a long period of time in which a lot can change,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“We need to be patient and carefully monitor what happens. The priority for us is the special military operation,” he added, referring to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Peskov noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin had characterised Biden as a predictable candidate, who Russia would have preferred.

Biden was the Russian candidate all along! putin-wink

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[-] EmoThugInMyPhase@hexbear.net 79 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

There’s already a new babushka/umbrella man conspiracy theory. People are pointing out some lady with sunglasses standing behind Trump who calmly started recording instead of ducking when the shots rang out

This is why I never want to be on camera for any video that goes viral. I rather not be doxed and murdered because some brainwormed yakubian determines that I’m part of a cabal of assassins

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[-] thethirdgracchi@hexbear.net 79 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It's officially Joeover. Biden is dropping out of the 2024 election. Now the chaos begins to replace him. What a shitshow.

Edit: source is https://xcancel.com/JoeBiden/status/1815080881981190320

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[-] CarmineCatboy2@hexbear.net 79 points 4 months ago

Kamala's husband tested positive for covid 10 days before Joe.

All hail Queen Kamala. She's getting rid of two rabbits with one stone.

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[-] plinky@hexbear.net 79 points 4 months ago

so computers go on crowd strike, and and hexbearoids don't support them. Curious, i see your vitalist chauvinism, sicko-hexbear-crowd

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[-] Antiwork@hexbear.net 79 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Person got killed during eviction. Cops claimed they shot first. But maybe just maybe if you didn't bring out the whole sheriffs force to take someone's home they could still be alive and have a home.

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[-] FakeNewsForDogs@hexbear.net 79 points 4 months ago

Fuckin teamsters president speaking at the RNC right now. Surreal.

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[-] ThomasMuentzner@hexbear.net 79 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The Future looks bright for Students who started and ran a business in a disadvantaged community for at least three years.

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[-] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 79 points 4 months ago

⚡️🇷🇺WOW: The craziest Russian motorcycle assault of the entire war so far. Dozens of motorcycle troops blaze through explosions to successfully storm and capture Urozhaynoye. And since we have subsequent footage of the flag being raised on the town, any Ukrainian claims of "motorcycle meat-assaults" are cope.

Cavalry bros we are so back

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[-] GeorgeZBush@hexbear.net 79 points 4 months ago
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[-] Coolkidbozzy@hexbear.net 78 points 4 months ago

Uncommitted has the most delegates out of anyone left in the primaries

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[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 78 points 4 months ago

President Lula has announced that Brazil is thinking of joining the Belt and Road Initiative. “Since China wants to discuss the Silk Road we'll have to prepare a proposal to discuss what Brazil can gain if it takes part in this deal," he said,"What is Brazil's important share?”

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[-] bbnh69420@hexbear.net 78 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

PSL statement about the assassination attempt related to the megathread topic: https://www.liberationnews.org/psl-statement-the-attempted-assassination-of-trump-and-its-political-fallout/

Full Text

In an instant, the political situation in the United States was transformed when a gunman shot Donald Trump while he was on stage at a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania on July 13.

The situation is still evolving, but the initial political impact is highly favorable for Trump. Instructing his Secret Service detail to pause as they evacuated him from the stage, Trump pumped his fist and yelled to the crowd, “Fight!” — instantly creating iconic images that make Trump look heroic and strong. The contrast between his (self-created and false) image as an unstoppable fighter and Biden’s feebleness has never been greater.

Immediately following the shooting, the Biden campaign suspended its advertisements. Practically every major Democratic Party elected official rushed to express their sympathy for Trump and wish him well. A range of corporate leaders, perhaps seeing Trump’s victory as now inevitable, issued statements embracing him.

The main argument the Democratic Party had in the campaign up to now was that Trump was an aspiring dictator and pathological liar who represented an existential threat to democracy. They instantly dropped all these talking points in the name of “coming together” and “turning down the rhetoric.” The furthest Biden now goes is to say Trump has a “competing vision” for the country.

The right wing, on the other hand, immediately went on the attack. J.D. Vance, a vice-presidential contender, directly blamed Biden’s rhetoric for the shooting. Donald Trump, Jr. immediately said after the shooting that his father “will never stop fighting to save America, no matter what the radical left throws at him.” There is zero indication the “radical left” had anything to do with this, as the shooter himself was a registered Republican, but such comments have saturated the far-right political ecosystem. They are meant to cow Trump’s liberal critics into silence, lest they be seen as supporting violence. It also lays the groundwork and creates a pretext for a new wave of repression, either under a second Trump presidency or even now under Biden.

Already the White House has signaled Biden is planning to go on a new political offensive this week against the campus encampments in solidarity with Palestine as an example of “violent extremism.” This is absurd. The encampments were launched to stop the genocidal violence against the Palestinian people; the student protesters attacked no one and were, in fact, targets of violence themselves.

Trump is headed to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention. His speech at the RNC will set the tone for the next phase of the campaign. Trump is reportedly rewriting his speech, which had originally been an all-out attack on Biden, to focus more on themes of national unity. With leading capitalists extending him an olive branch, Trump could calculate that his best move would be to move in a “moderate” direction and demonstrate to fellow members of the ultra-rich elite that he can be a unifying, “presidential” figure and present strength for the Empire. Trump has no fixed ideology and solely cares about his image and legacy.

In another sign that an elite consensus was emerging around Trump as the next president, the judge in the classified documents criminal case against Trump suddenly dismissed all charges two days after the assassination attempt. Soon, a DC judge will have to decide if other charges relating to the plot to overturn the 2020 election can go forward in light of the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

Fake pacifism and a new cycle of political violence

“There is no place in America for this kind of violence,” Joe Biden says. “No exception.” It is important not to lose sight of the extreme hypocrisy of the powerful figures now issuing blanket condemnations of violence.

The same people who are so appalled that someone would shoot at a politician did not bat an eye at the news the same Saturday morning that Israeli fighter jets had just killed 90 Palestinian civilians in a failed assassination attempt of a resistance leader in Gaza. They normalize and defend all the violence carried out by the state — whether in oppressed neighborhoods inside the United States, at the U.S.-Mexico border, or overseas. But then they turn around and say, “violence has never been the answer.”

All the politicians who have suddenly become pacifists for a weekend don’t really mean it. This is about their own safety and no one else’s.

More than anything, they are concerned about a new wave of political violence that could destabilize their rule. Contrary to Biden’s assertions that such political violence is “unheard of,” working-class leaders and social movement leaders have been targeted by violence throughout U.S. history. There have also been periods of U.S. history where violence and assassination have been the methods used to resolve disputes within the ruling class. The U.S. Civil War came about after years of escalating political violence. A century later, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy in 1963 and 1968 profoundly reshaped the presidential campaigns that were underway in each of those instances. Then came the shooting that left George Wallace paralyzed in the 1972 election, an election which also saw President Nixon order the break-in to the offices of the DNC. The impeachment of Nixon, and the subsequent appointment of an unelected president and vice-president, Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller, capped off this period of extreme instability in the ruling class — and to end it, Nixon was pardoned in the name of “national unity.”

In periods of major upheaval domestically and internationally, the tendency to resolve struggles within the ruling class using violence grows stronger, as does the tendency to use violence against the people.

Lest we forget: from 2017 to 2020, Democratic Party leaders attempted to undo the 2016 election with the phony Russiagate conspiracy, asserting that Trump was elected because of Russian interference in the election. From Day One of the Trump presidency, the Democratic Party leadership and their supporters were looking to impeach him for being a “puppet” of Putin. Then, in turn, Trump tried to undo the 2020 election by mobilizing fascist forces to seize the Capitol at the moment the vote was to be ratified. And in between these two events, there was a mass uprising against police killing of unarmed civilians, during which the National Guard was called out, Democratic mayors complied with Trump to impose curfews and conduct mass arrests, and Trump itched to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military to occupy cities in the United States. Talk about instability.

Headed into the 2024 election, there remains all the same explosive potential around the election and the transfer of power. The underlying social crises — of job destruction, climate destruction, military confrontation, state violence, the cost-of-living crisis, etc. — cannot be solved by either faction of the capitalist class. Neither party can control the two egomaniacs who lead them. The trust in Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court are at record lows. There are already hundreds of millions of guns in circulation among the population. The country appears to be on a collision course. No wonder they’re saying, “Cool it.”

All this is more important than who, if anyone, the shooter was connected to politically. Theories already abound, and there will now be extensive investigations by multiple different arms of the government with contradictory political interests. There is intense speculation about how the gunman was able to position himself so close to the stage and why police did not stop him. Some of that may become clearer in the coming weeks, but it also may remain shrouded in mystery. Rather than focus on that, class-conscious workers should pay more attention to how the ruling class will politically utilize this assassination attempt in the here and now.

Real working-class unity — no unity with the ruling-class establishment!

The Democrats now want to invoke “unity” and American patriotism to silence criticism of the institutions whose legitimacy has been rapidly in decline. The Republicans also talk of unity and wrap themselves in the flag, but they want to use this event to blast through any opposition to their radical pro-corporate agenda.

The hypocrisy of elite politicians aside, they are playing on a sincere feeling among many working class people that the United States has become deeply divided in a way that has dangerous consequences. People do desire peace over instability, unity over division. The question, then, is what is the answer to “polarization”?

Socialists desire working-class unity, but no unity with the tiny billionaire class that has doubled their profits in the last four years by exploiting people of all backgrounds. The problem is not that people are politically polarized, but that we are polarized on totally the wrong basis.

Working-class people who vote for Biden or for Trump, or neither, have more in common than they may think. They share the same problems paying for rent, mortgage, a tank of gas, and a dozen eggs while dealing with stagnant wages, disrespectful bosses, decrepit schools, exorbitant child care, and parasitic insurance companies. They have almost no democratic say in any of it. They generally want to stay out of wars abroad and would much prefer to see their tax dollars used to build stronger communities.

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this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
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