Once again a shutdown looms

will I be the only person in my office legally allowed to work for the next ??? weeks? find out very soon

People in NYC holding banners during a CEO Event at Ziegfeld Ballroom

cw: link

U.S. Files Murder Charge Against Mangione That Could Bring Death Penalty

Jordan Peterson moves to US

In a recent episode of The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast, hosted by his daughter, Peterson cited his feud with the College of Psychologists of Ontario and concerns about a contentious bill targeting hate speech as among the key reasons for his decision to leave Canada.

"The issue with the College of Psychologists is very annoying, to say the least, and the new legislation that the Liberals are attempting to push through, Bill C-63, we'd all be living in a totalitarian hellhole if it passes," Peterson said.

What's C-63, you may ask?

The Minister of Justice has examined Bill C-63, An Act to enact the Online Harms Act, to amend the Criminal Code, the Canadian Human Rights Act and An Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide an Internet service

oh

🙏

https://xcancel.com/Slatzism/status/1868795614491800032#m

It seems the school shooter left a manifesto. It seems from said manifesto that she was quite far-right. No big surprises here.

Trump calls for abolishing the debt ceiling

Scholz lost the vote so his government is now finally gone. Only 207 of 733 voted for him and 394 against. This doesn't come as a shock or anything this just makes it official elections are in 60 days in feb. Based on the newest poll SPD is going to lose quite a bit and get between 15-17%. CDU/CSU is going to be the biggest party with 31-35% greens might actually also lose after mentions of a Green-Black (Greens and CDU) coalition are around. AfD looks to double their % from the elections up to 20% maybe even higher.

No idea if what the greens in Belgium did had any influence since there a city government was decidedly won by the left and greens formed a gov. coalition with right-wing freaks.

Statement from Ansarallah on last night's operations against the US Navy.

Statement implies that the US shot down their own aircraft while trying to intercept cruise missiles and drones. Impressive military operation by the Yemeni Armed Forces. I wondered why they didn't fire any ballistic missiles last night, this seems to be the reason why, they wanted to confuse the US Navy with targets that can appear similar to an aircraft. Maybe even shadowing one? Either way, they succeeded in causing a chaotic situation that lead to the downing of a US F/A-18F aircraft. That is impressive. May Ansarallah continue in their operations to dissuade the imperialists and defend Palestine.

Twitter source

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Just going to add a tweet that Mohammed Ali al-Houthi made on the 8th March 2024, I think it fits in nicely given the current situation:

The heroes in the [Yemeni] armed forces know about the loopholes that can be exploited by synchronizing the take-off or landing of American aircraft on the battleships.
I advise the American and their ally to issue a decision not to take off at all.

It seems as if the "loophole" was used. The Americans were warned, they were told what would happen months in advance, and it happened. 1 F/A-18F down.

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi tweet

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In news from countries you don’t really hear about

Albania is set to ban TikTok for a year https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/21/albania-bans-tiktok-for-one-year-following-school-stabbing)] (removed amp link)

First Offical Statement by "Citizen" Bashar Al- Assad

After losing a vote in the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee over the Dem ranking seat on the House Oversight Committee following Nancy Pelosi and establishment Dems throwing their support behind a 74-year old with cancer, AOC appealed to the general House Democratic Causus, and lost again. Lmao get fucked snake.

The r/politics comments are actually kinda funny. It's hard to tell to what extent reddit shitlibs have changed after the election and the extent to which the DNC isn't paying for astroturfing now that the election is over.

This person jaq James has written several in depth papers criticizing the various major China bad uyghur genocide reports. I've mentioned the ohchr Xinjiang report on hexbear a few times as the maximal credible set of accusations. Working paper 4 in the link below is about that and is worth reading. These are very legal arguments but are quite readable.

https://www.cowestpro.co/papers.html

Is the U.S. Government discourse back in Paul Ryan era again? It's really sad to see all the hand-wringing about the national debt.

And this time, there is

IMF data on GDP at purchasing power parity at the end of 2024.

1. China - 37.1 trillion.
2. USA - 29.2 trillion.
3. India - 16 trillion.
4. Russia - 6.9 trillion.
5. Japan - 6.6 trillion.
6. Germany - 6 trillion.
7. Brazil - 4.7 trillion.
8. Indonesia - 4.7 trillion.
9. France - 4.4 trillion.
10. Britain - 4.3 trillion.

Trump threatens Panama's government with an American takeover of the Panama Canal.

https://neurosciencenews.com/long-covid-spike-protein-brain-28156/

Key facts

• Spike protein persists in brain tissues and skull bone marrow for years post-infection.

• mRNA vaccines reduce spike protein accumulation in the brain by 50%.

• Chronic spike protein presence may accelerate brain aging and increase stroke risk.

link to the poll. This section is a ways down, might want to ctrl + f "vaccinate"

The highest support, 76%, is for requiring transgender athletes to play on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth.
Support for increasing oil and gas production in the U.S. is nearly as high, at 74%.
More than two-thirds, 68%, favor allowing parents to make medical decisions about their minor children, including whether or not to vaccinate them against measles, polio, and other disease.
Sixty-one percent favor banning “gender-affirming” care such as hormone therapy or surgery for transgender minors under 18.

The latest from Justin Podur talked in depth about one aspect of the Syrian War that IMO has become a bit of an elephant in the room. This is one war where sanctions played an important role, albeit with massive caveats.

There was a civil war that ruined the country, and then a part of it was occupied. That part was permitted some rebuilding and was supplied by the occupying force. Either financially (Americans buying the SDF's oil in the northeast) or directly (Turks sending their oligopolies to rebuild and supply the local economies in Idlib and Afrin). The portion of the country that remained under control of the central government more or less failed to rebuild - wether that's an indictment of Assad's government, Russia's and Iran's financial werewithal, the power of the sanctions themselves, or all of the above is up for discussion.

The truly bleak statement from Justin is that while the sanctions architecture might create a real demand for acquiescence, the moment the country bends the knee slightly it doesn't get rewarded for it. Western policy seems all stick, no carrot. Assad is gone. Yet Syria went from being bombed 3 times a week by the Israelis to 300 times in 3 days. The entire security infrastructure of the country is just gone. And still the Europeans and Americans are dithering on wether they'll even remove sanctions imposed on a new regime which, by and large, is giving them everything they ever asked for and then some.

So in my view this is a cautionary tale to the likes of Venezuela and Cuba. Juan Guaidó could have taken over the former and turned PDVSA into a Chevron subsidiary. Something tells me the Americans would still never forgive these countries for mildly inconveniencing them.

In this whole article, the discussion is only around wild birds spreading disease. No mention of feeding the doodoo to cows 🤦‍♂️

Scientific American How the U.S. Lost Control of Bird Flu, Setting the Stage for Another Pandemic

Edited to fix an autocorrect typo

Bird flu sweeps through zoos with ‘grave implications’ for endangered animals

some wild speculative article in naked capitalism that some of the drones are searching/training to search dirty bomb.

Simpler explanation that usa cities are routinely filmed from drones to search for undesirables is impossible of course

Apparently the attacker in Magdeburg was a Saudi doctor living in Germany since 2006. Things are about to get ugly in Germany, especially given they currently don't have a government and there are elections in February. Fully expect the AfD to take advantage of the rampant Islamophobia latent in all Germans, and pair that with "it's time for Syrian refugees to go home to a Safe Syria." Grim.

Source: https://www.barrons.com/news/saudi-man-arrested-after-magdeburg-attack-state-premier-7df18630

Chocolate Prices Soar Amid Exploitation and Climate Change

Cocoa prices have skyrocketed by 80% since September, reaching EUR 9,876 per ton last week. This surge is fueled by rising global demand, climate change, and exploitative farming practices that are squeezing crop yields.

Belgian chocolate producer Leonidas reports stagnant sales as consumers, already squeezed by the ongoing cost of living crisis, cut back on chocolate purchases due to soaring costs.

In the Global South, poverty-stricken cocoa farmers are forced to adopt unsustainable practices, planting monocultures in direct sunlight to boost yields. While this accelerates growth, it leaves trees—naturally healthier when grown in shaded, biodiverse environments—more vulnerable to drought, disease, and climate-related failures. These methods worsen the already severe impact of climate change on cocoa production.

Meanwhile, growing demand from countries like China has further strained global cocoa supplies. Experts predict prices will continue to rise, potentially exceeding €12,000 per ton. For Western consumers, accustomed to cheap chocolate, the treat may soon return to being a luxury item.

• Source: DR (state media), December 15th 2024

It turns out the father of the editor-in-chief of African Stream is a Central Committee member of Sudan’s Communist Party:
https://africanstream.media/african-streams-ceo-sits-down-with-his-father-to-discuss-sudans-war/

Jackson Hinkles Chinese social media got banned lmao

Ansarallah continue their streak of being Allah’s strongest soldiers

🇾🇪🇸🇾🇵🇸🇮🇱 The Leader of Yemen's Revolution Sayyed Al-Houthi on the latest developments in the region:

As time goes on, I continue to think Louisville is the most barbaric city in hell world https://www.lpm.org/news/2024-12-19/pregnant-kentucky-woman-cited-for-street-camping-while-in-labor

apparently they shut down airspace over Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio on Friday night because there were a bunch of drones.

article includes audio of air traffic chatter mentioning them.

(sorry if this has already been posted, I searched the name of the base with and without the hyphen and didn't find any results on this comm)

Belousov said that the Russian Defense Ministry must be prepared for any development of the situation, including a possible military conflict with NATO in Europe in the next decade

According to him, the decisions at the alliance summit and doctrinal documents indicate that such a conflict is possible.

Other statements:

— The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost over 560,000 people in 2024

— In total, during the Second Military Operation, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost about 1 million people, and during the “Kursk adventure” — 40 thousand

— The speed of advancement of Russian troops is currently on average about 30 square kilometers per day

— In 2024, Russian troops liberated almost 4.5 thousand square kilometers of territory occupied by the Ukrainian Armed Forces

— Over 427 thousand people have entered the military under contract since the beginning of 2024

— Compared to 2022, the Russian military will receive 7 times more tanks, 3 times more infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, and 23 times more drones

— In the special operation zone, over 58 thousand units of weapons and equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were destroyed in 2024, including 18 thousand of foreign manufacture

— Russian air defense shot down 86 Storm Shadow and Scalp missiles, 215 ATACMS, 1,629 HIMARS projectiles, and more than 27,000 drones in 2024

— The US will modernize all components of the nuclear triad by 2030 and create new nuclear warheads

Zambian soccer player Barbra Banda, 24, was the target of transphobic attacks from exclusionary trans groups after being named the BBC's British Player of the Year. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, notorious for her attacks on trans rights, was one of the figures who endorsed the comments on social media.

Active at Orlando Pride in the United States since March of this year, Barbra Banda is Brazilian Superstar Football player Marta's colleague. Barbra is a cisgender woman (in other words, she identifies with the gender she was assigned at birth). In other words: she is not a trans woman. That same year, Rowling was also one of the public people to use her X profile to attack Algerian boxer Imane Khelif during the Paris Olympics.

The player was announced as BBC Player of the Year on Tuesday (26). The result is based on a popular vote. She was part of a shortlist with other players, all of whom were defined, according to the British newspaper, by “a large panel of experts involved in soccer from around the world”. After Nigeria's Asisat Oshoala in 2015, Banda is the second African player to win the newspaper's title.

The player told the BBC that she was “shocked and surprised” by the nomination and thanked her family, the Pride team and the Zambian national team (she was also part of the squad at the Paris Olympics). “Growing up in Zambia was never easy, especially as a girl,” said the athlete, saying that it took a while for her mother to support her in pursuing athletics. “It wasn't easy, but I think hard work and consistency really helped,” she added.

“Presumably the BBC decided that this [naming the Band Player of the Year] was more time-efficient than going door-to-door to spit directly in women's faces,” tweeted J. K. Rowling when sharing a post by The Telegraph's sports editor-in-chief. Another figure known for speaking out against the rights of trans people and their inclusion in sports is British swimmer Sharron Davies. She said on her X profile that the nomination is “trolling pure and simple”. “Of all the fabulous female footballers in the world, the BBC has deliberately chosen a man to be the best female footballer of the year,” she wrote in one of her posts.

Ecuador On Track To Allow a U.S. Military Base in the Galapagos Islands - Telesur English

Pisrael strikes sanaa again and professional traitors in jordan (allegedly) intercepted a drone from yemen

Warplanes are in Yemeni airspace conducting aerial assualts, according to the Al Mayadeen correspondent stationed there. Explosions were reported in Sana'a, as well as the sounds of aircraft. This appears to be in response to Yemen's ballistic missile attack yesterday that evaded Israeli air defenses. Unknown at this time if it's Israeli, US or UK aircraft, or a coalition force of multiple countries. US surveillance aircraft and drones were operating close to Yemen within the last few hours, and the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), was spotted less than 600km off of the coast of Yemen today. Mohammed al-Houthi also tweeted about it. Just be aware that most of the photos circulating online are of previous attacks and not the current attack.

Al Mayadeen twitter source

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So it was a US airstrike, no Israeli involvement as of now. Also apparently no anti-ship ballistic missiles were launched at US Navy ships this time, only cruise missiles and one way attack drones. Again, all according to US sources. Also I'm not posting US sources because I uncritically believe what they say, but rather to get an idea of what they were doing and who was responsible for this attack.