anyone else forget the DNC was happening today?

The Liberal Party of Canada is the latest major group to withdraw from the annual Ottawa Pride parade after organizers pledged solidarity with Palestinians in a statement earlier this month. Among several others, including some Children's hospital board, the CHEO. Really putting all the cards on the table.

is it bad that I saw this tweet's image and was like "with a bit of cropping, this would make a great hexbear emoji"?:

Lmao they put glass behind him too just in case his own supporters shoot him

British billionaire missing after yachting accident off the coast of Sicily

This comes 2 days after his codefendant in a fraud trial was hit by and car and critically injured

Venezuelan Supreme Court has issued a final verdict following the review of the July 28 elections. The country's maximum judicial authority ratified Maduro's victory after an "expert review" of electoral material submitted by the CNE, political parties and candidates.

The Venezuelan Superior Court of Justice declared that the minutes presented by the CNE are valid, thus validating the CNE's electoral results.

The OAS and the parties of the unitary platform had already announced that they do not recognize the TSJ as an actor in the dispute, and that therefore any decision of itss would be useless for them.

Maria Corina Machado, opposition leader, posted this a few minutes ago, which has the following connotation: "Supreme Court: here's your victory, Maduro".

Opposition leaders, and several countries in the OAS and around the world, have already said that they will not accept the TSJ's decision as valid.

Venezuelan Supreme Court (TSJ) ruling states that based on results of the expert report, it's concluded that the CNE bulletins are supported by the voting records (actas) issued by the voting machines and fully coincide with records in the databases of the counting centers.

OAS literally has no power in Venezuela, as they are not a member of the OAS lol.

The Scottish Government announces that it is suspending all meetings with the Israeli government and its officials until there is "real progress" towards peace in Gaza.

cuck n chad ranking: COTW son edition

A reminder of the rules (which change whenever I want): First row is reserved for UKR vs RUS, because we respect traditions on this website. 2nd and 3rd rows are random, anything can be included here. 4th is just people. I'm doing these once a month these days, enough room to give some new material and I have less free time since lil Hassan spawned.

Gigachad	Chad	Neutral	Beta (Fe)Male	Virgin Cuck
News nerds (us daily Telegram readers are finally vindicated, things are hot again for the first time since 2022)	Putin (downgrade, he took a reputation L with Kursk, but things are going so quick and well on the real front so he's still a chad)	Zaluzhny (he did lots of useless shit as commander-in-chief, but he's vindicated for questioning and refusing to accept some of the current clown show)	Zelensky (little upgrade for our actor, he got some positive coverage for Kursk and got his F-16)	Syrskyi (so stupid and incompetent that he's actually Russia's strongest solider)
Hamas, PIJ, Qassam, PFLP and all resistance groups in Gaza (Allah's bravest soliders)	Hezbollah and Iran (based on paper considering past record, but:	Cuba olympic team (amazing socialist sports program, but sanctions and athletes immigrating and getting bought by rich capitalist nations have decimated this wonderful program)	Bahrain olympic team (buying a bunch of Armenians and Kenyans just to win gold medals, embarrassing)	LargePenis (this person should never make predictions again, he deseves this cuck place until he understands this)
The people of Gaza, especially Yahya Sinwar (bravest people ever)	Ansarallah (undefeated by the great satan and his little cucks, eat shit Saudi Arabia)	Bangladeshi "revolution" (still haven't decoded who's based or not here, but I mostly respect people getting angry and getting out on the streets)	Bernie Sanders (getting more coherent socialist ideas from Theo Von these days)	Lebanese Maronite nationalists (strong competitor to the Iranian diaspora in cucked behavior, imagine wanting your country to get bombed because you don't like Hezbollah and want to speak French like a true comprador cuck)
Ismail Haniyeh (lived an honorable life, and died an honorable death)	Pan Zhanle (record-breaking Chinese swimmer that made the mayos seeth)	Kamala Harris (dems did some competent moves, she sucks but she will win just because she kinda looks normal compared to that freak Trump)	Donald Trump (completely fumbled the easiest election ever, has lost his steam and even his getting shot aura)	Emmanuel Macron (familiar place for this cuck, imagine getting booed at your own olympics lmao)

Demonstrators gathered near the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to protest U.S. aid to Israel amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza. They emphasized that the Democratic Party must earn their votes. A smaller group of pro-Israel supporters advocated for continued U.S. support for Israel's defense. The protests reflect a growing divide in opinions on U.S. foreign policy regarding Israel and Palestine.

https://www.newsminimalist.com/articles/protesters-demand-change-in-us-policy-on-israel-17498278

https://www.marchondnc2024.org/

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman, Brigadier General Ali Mohammad Naeini:

—

The enemy should be prepared for precise strikes at the appropriate time.

Today, the zionist regime has admitted defeat, and even American politicians acknowledge this fact, as they have not achieved any of their goals so far.

The people of Iran are intelligent and know that the commanders of the armed forces carefully assess all conditions at the highest decision-making levels, make precise and calculated decisions, and through effective actions, change the enemy's calculations.

Time is on our side, and the wait for this response may be prolonged.

For now, the zionists must remain in a state of imbalance, and must taste the bitterness of waiting for the next Iranian response.

Iran's response may not necessarily be a repeat of past operations. The response scenarios are not uniform, and our commanders have the experience and skill to effectively punish the enemy without rushing into action.

No attack against Iran's objectives has gone unanswered, and the enemy should be prepared for calculated and precise strikes at the appropriate time.

Tehran does not consider US moves sincere; it is a party to the war on Gaza.

Iran supports any move to end the war and help Gazans.

Political developments have nothing to do with our right to respond to "israel."

There it is, folks: stop holding your breath, the response will come when it comes.

Chicago police arrest dozens of anti-genocide protesters on second night of DNC | The Cradle

I've seen the critiques of the Non Committed movement for being too nice to the Democrats, but the fact the DNC wouldn't let them give a speech that isn't really radical is definitely something we can use to point out that Harris won't change anything.

Reporters are being briefed, it seems, that the DNC accepted Dem state Rep @Ruwa4Georgia as a Palestinian speaker for tonight on the stage but @uncommittedmvmt turned her down. That is simply not true. It’s a lie. Being told, I assume, by DNC spinners now on the defensive. Uncommitted are the ones who pitched her! And there’s still time for the @DNC to put @Ruwa4Georgia on stage tonight for two mins. If they have time and space for a former Republican congressman, and for Israeli family members of a hostage, they have time and space for an elected Palestinian Democratic lawmaker. Anything else is straight up racism and erasure.

https://x.com/mehdirhasan/status/1826735037934698760

Response from Rashida Tlaib:

Oh, also, Peelon is now working with th DNC to censor the Uncommitted twitter account:

When Kkkamala said that she wants to make America more lethal, she meant it.

Guess what percentage of foreign Thai workers get SA when they work in the Zionist entity:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-21/ai-chatbot-psychosocial-training-bunbury-regional-prison/104230980

The psychosocial safety training company that used the full name of an alleged sexual harassment victim in a course at her former workplace says artificial intelligence (AI) is to blame.

Psychosocial Leadership trainer Charlotte Ingham said she used Microsoft's Copilot chatbot to generate examples of psychosocial hazards employees might face at Bunbury prison, where she was delivering the course.

The N/T ratio for last week's megathreads landed at about 0.75. Week over week the news megathread has been decelerating. At this rate I expect we'll reach the end of history in 3 to 4 weeks.

What's it with Liberals and the need to "Humiliate" foreign adversaries. Putin apparently gets Humiliated everyday because the Russians either did something strategic like pulling out of a death trap or mess up some operation.

And the whole "Saving Face" thing they do with Xi where anything good happening in China is Xi saving face and anything bad is "Humiliating" and him "losing face".

Sucks to suck:
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-vessel-hit-kills-soldier-during-hezbollah-s-response

The killed sergeant and the two injured soldiers were aboard a Dvora-class boat off the northern coast of occupied Palestine near Nahariya when their vessel was struck by shrapnel.

The shrapnel allegedly came from an Iron Dome missile that had attempted to intercept a Hezbollah drone, according to the Israeli occupation army's claim.

Who would've thought the political party that was established for the sake of upholding chattel slavery would continue to be shitty centuries later?

I should bait Israeli's into getting mad that Hunter x Hunter is coming back on Oct 7th

Another national Presidential election being disenfranchised and not voting for anyone...

so how long until the CIA uses one of those home-use humanoid robots (backdoored of course) to kill someone they don't like? 10 years max?

On this occasion I would like to recommend Pedagogy of the Oppressed for the COTW reading list.

Especially if you are a teacher. There are great passages about the humanization of children and other oppressed groups and it makes you think of your class as something like a Maoist guerrilla cell, which can only be a good thing.

the betting markets are swinging back toward Trump:

https://electionbettingodds.com/

did the convention go badly or something?

A couple of months ago I saw a translated copy of 'journey to the west', the chinese classic about monkey king, on the shelf in the library and picked it up on a whim. I had an idea about the character of monkey king or sun wukong because of other video games but had no idea that black myth was coming out soon. I read this recent translation by julia lovell. The specific translation I picked up was quite abridged compared to a word for word translation (about 350 pages compared to 2000). I really enjoyed it so I'll share some things I learned with the newsheads here. I'm doing my best here to be accurate but I'm not a chinese speaker or reader so I encourage others to correct me.

Though the book was written about 500 years ago, the story of Journey to the West starts about 1500 years ago. A buddhist monk from the tang empire in China, xuanzang, went on a journey to the west to india to study buddhism, retrieve and translate buddhist writings, and generally be a diligent travelling scholar. He made a 15-20 year round trip, brought back a bunch of writings, and wrote a book called 'Records of the Western Regions' about his travels. His book RotWR covers all kinds of non-religious matters - geography, ethnography, local industry/agriculture, manner of government, etc. A little like Herotodus' history without making a bunch of shit up. Anyway, xuanzang brought all this scholarly work back, the Tang emperor offered him high civil honours but he declined, deciding to stay in the monastery, translating texts and doing effort posts about buddhism.

Xuanzang was rightly lauded and his travels were remembered as folk tales over the next few hundred years. I get the impression that while Wu Cheng'en wrote down the 'definitive copy' of all the stories about Xuanzang, the stories had been floating around in the zeitgeist for the past thousand years. in that time, the figure of xuanzang grew larger than life and his stories became one of a traveling troupe of himself the monk and various monstrous companions on a path of redemption, monkey king among them, as well as a big river monster, a flying, gluttonous pig, and a disgraced failson who was turned into a horse.

There's three main parts of the overall monkey king story - the first part is about monkey on earth doing shenanigans, getting in trouble with heaven, and then devouring/stealing all kinds of heavenly objects, effectively gaining him superpowers. The second part is about the monk xuanzang getting selected to go west by the tang emperor and the buddhist figure guanyin, and the third part is the majority, xuanzang getting together with monkey and the others and going on adventures across the land. There's a short epilogue where they eventually all make it back with buddhist teachings and are rewarded with appropriate roles in the heavenly court. Most of the story is the journey, taking the form of short, episodic adventures in different places, most of which involve demons trying to eat one or more of the characters and them escaping through monkey's wit and warrior wisdom.

I enjoyed the book on a few levels. First, it's funny. There's a ton of satire of bureaucracy of all sorts, in heaven, on earth, and in the underworld. Monkey is irreverent and brash and shits on many people, often literally. Second, it's got endless fights and encounters with crazy monsters. It's easy to see the influence of the book on shows like dragonball Z or avatar the last airbender. I can see why it would be a fun concept to turn into a game. A bit deeper than that, the group of companions collectively are an allegory for different human feelings. Xuanzang the monk is morally upright but rigidly so, and often a coward. Monkey is selfish and arrogant but also has a heart. The pig is lazy and loves treats, while the river monster is pretty chill and goes along to get along. Together they remind me of how the cast of star trek TNG collectively represent different aspects of human personality and experience, navigating challenges as an integrated whole that is not without conflict.

Anyway A++ would culturally enrich myself again

Lemmy and Reddit libs are some of the saddest people I’ve come across. I’ll make a passive comment giving a “bad country of the week” some props and the replies will be filled with frothing Americans and some Euros. They love making emojis to show me how not mad they are.

I then click on their profiles and it’s nothing but obsessive posting about Russia, China, and every other bad country. Several comments made in the last hour alone and it goes on and on.

Like even I don’t spend that much time ranting about liberals or the US but I can tell these guys do nothing but that even irl.

This thread of David Cross making fun of one of the Pod Johns on their own show is

https://x.com/Edward__Bernays/status/1815974647793435040

Subjected myself to MSNBC in the car on my ride home... the fawning over Kamala is so fucking pathetic. Literally talking about "vibes" and how Kamala represent "a new generation" (she's three years younger than Ocrumbo!).

Found a guy irl who is Vote Blue No Matter Who, but also supports the Palestinian Armed Resistance

I take it Kamala's speech last night was really bad huh?

New Eli Valley dropped

CW: Gruesome illustration

You know what? My critical support for Iran is now dropping because the US has evolved passed Spongebob and Spiderman and now has heroes - Kamala Harris and Charli XCX - yet they have not struck them with a drone missile.

Trump calling bibi asking him to not make a deal on the ceasefire (even though it sucked to begin with) is actually a perfect escape-goat for the Dems to not actually deliver on a ceasefire for their base that might actually be on the fence about voting for Kamala. Harris campaign can go the rest of the year saying “oh yeah we are pushing for a ceasefire deal! All the way through November then when they get the votes they can just forget like nothing ever happened and it’s back to business as usual. Then people will forget all about Gaza in 4 years time which is perfect for the dems to ramp up false promises again and just attach them all to Michelle Obama. People will love it

Currently watching the DNC with my MSNBC in-laws. I love them to death but dear god libs man. I have no clue how people don't just have disdain for Obama, Biden, et.al.

New investigation claims that the UK funded much of the equipment used in the Kursk incursion in an effort to encourage other NATO members to also escalate their roles in the war.
This seems to have backfired as the incursion was predictably unsuccessful (except perhaps on the PR front), and the US is denying any role in the attack or even any foreknowledge of its occurrence.

From Al-Jazeera Live Updates:

Why is Israel demanding to keep control of the Netzarim Corridor?

The Netzarim Corridor, a 7km (4.4-mile) stretch established by the Israeli military that divides northern and southern Gaza, has become a major point of contention in ceasefire negotiations.

Israel is now insisting that its forces maintain control over this corridor, directly opposing one of Hamas’s central demands — Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza.

Hassan Barari, a professor of international affairs at Qatar University, told Al Jazeera that control of the corridor is crucial for Israel because it allows it to screen any Palestinians moving from south to north.

Israel’s military fears that if Palestinians are able to move freely to the north, “it would be an opportunity for Hamas to regroup and attack Israel”, said Barari. “The memory of October 7 is still there.”

However, Barari stated that by including this stipulation in ceasefire demands, Israel is negotiating in bad faith, knowing it is a non-starter for Hamas.

“Hamas wants Israel’s full withdrawal from the entire Strip … and to make sure those who are displaced can return to their homes once and for all,” he said. “Anything short of that Hamas would interpret as a kind of capitulation.”

Further evidence that Israel wants to turn Gaza into the West Bank.

One thing I don't get is how Argentina is still standing as a country. I've read the UNICEF reports about kids being forced to skip meals and adults having to sell off their insurance and valuables. But really, forget Iran's measured response, how tf is Milei still standing after months of pulling copper wire out the walls.

It really proves that if you are backed by the US the military won't fuck with you. Bangladesh was 100% a color revolution and Sheikh Hasina would still be in power if she acquiesced to US demands.