#blatant attack on indigenous people

[blackbackedjackal]

I'm not mad I'm just disappointed because if you spent two seconds to think about how fur and leather alone has deep ties to human culture and our understanding and appreciation of the natural world it's honestly really beautiful and just feels so strange to me that people who say they love nature want to divorce themselves from it.

Like yes, capitalism bad. I don't agree with the way that animals are treated as products to the point where blatant animal cruelty is excused by mega corporations. I want places like that to be held accountable and made to follow higher welfare standards for the animals they raise and the underpaid employees out there working in sometimes awful and very unsafe conditions.

But if you're simultaneously ignoring the culture of African leathermaking or the beautiful leather and wool textiles crafted by Indigenous artisans or the ways that ancient humans appreciated the animals they killed for meat and clothing by telling stories and making art depicted on the skins of the animals they took, that's what bothers me.

So many people are willing to just attack vulnerable communities instead of learning about thier culture and how animal products were used traditionally and today. There are better ways to raise animals for products sustainably and humanely and many of these communities have spoken very loudly about it but are yelled over by people who just want to be right or don't want to listen or just don't care.

So yes, I will continue to speak my mind and educate myself because if nothing else I wanna be the start of the change I wanna see in the world. I love animals and I love learning the history of humans and our relationships to animals. I want to be able to appreciate them in the ways we always have. With respect to the natural world and understanding that we're also a part of it.

[zatdummesmadchen]

I completely support Israel being held accountable for its crimes against humanity, but we also can’t ignore that Indonesia has been violently occupying West Papua - a region more than twice the size of occupied Palestine - for the past 55 years, and has murdered 500,000 indigenous West Papuans in the process. Indonesian soldiers routinely burn indigenous villages to the ground, pose with the bodies of murdered Papuan civilians, and actively prevent journalists from reporting on the genocide. West Papuans often refer to their homeland as “Indonesia’s Palestine.”

There's nothing to add. I agree. I am not trying to imply that all of the countries supporting Palestine don't have their own interests or agendas or that they are perfect in any way. Such as China or, say, Iran. Not everything is black and white, and there are definitely multiple geopolitical reasons for their actions or stand.

There are definitely many biases when it comes to geopolitical situations and blatant hypocrisy.

I completely understand and do sympathise with the West Papuans.

Undoubtedly, the situation is awful and has been going on for years. Basic research shows plenty of results of the brutal Indonesian occupation and brutality against the people.

《 Here is this website I found which might be helpful to gain some insight, feel free to drop more and I will add it to the post. 》

The West Papua Genocide Monitor

Welcome to the Awareness Campaign page for West Papua genocide. You have come to the right place if you are looking for information about West Papua genocide. - the introduction. Very good information.

The situation is indeed very similar to Palestine, with some mentions of settler colonialism in some of the articles. Hence the name is fitting I suppose. Hypocrisy runs high in politics and history, no doubt.

Countries such as Turkey and Egypt come to mind, its very telling. They probably put out statements to pacify the outrage and the anger of their own citizens since it would and should threaten their power otherwise.

This includes several Arab governments such as Jordan (there are huge protests daily)

The information about it is easy to find although I think a much more educated blog would do well in explaining the situation.

[0alanasworld0]

Always always always free Palestine

i ofc havent been active on here at all these past couple of months but i am online elsewhere and have seen the same horrific things as you have. i do make an effort on other platforms to share what i can and i do try to donate within my means as well.

i will always maintain the fact that this is not a war. it is not a conflict. it is an attempted ethnic cleansing of the INDIGENOUS palestinian people by a state founded upon the principles of settler colonialism and white supremacy. as if the past 75+ years of torment under israeli occupation havent been enough, the bombing raids since October the 7th have been reported to be the most brutal since it all began. the images and videos being shared across the internet are very real and beyond horrifying. the palestinian people do not have the time to grieve, they dont have the dignity of a proper burial. theyre forced to raise the bodies of their martyrs to the cameras and even then they're not believed.

the bombing raids alongside a complete blockade of any food, water and aid imports only solidifies what has been said from the very beginning. israel is constantly commiting war crimes on the palestinian people under the false pretense that they have a right to the land. Israelis have to steal palestinian homes because, "If i dont, someone else will" to quote one of them.

zionists constantly spread false information about palestinians and their resistance movements. some of the most blatant propaganda ever crafted and palestinians are still doubted regarding their plight. livelihoods are put at risk in countries that flaunt the principles of free speech. safety is jeopardised and palestinians and their supporters will always be villified no matter how careful they are with their wording.

there are no two sides. the attack on october 7th did not happen in a vacuum. its a culmination of 75+ years of corruption, vilification and gaslighting by israel and the west. you cannot condemn them without condeming israeli first and attributing fault to the vile regime.

as a muslim, my only comfort is that these people are incredibly strong in their faith. they are killed in their thousands but i believe that they will be among the very first to enter the highest levels of jannah. may their suffering not go in vain, may their oppressors be punished in the dunya and akhirah and may the people of palestine see justice in the dunya and akhirah and may allah help us all and grant us strength and protection from all evil as we stand with palestine. Ameen.

[cumbiazevran]

I know I’m batting at the hornet nest, and please know that if you like this character, it’s nothing personal bc we interpret things as they make more sense to us that being said, I cannot stand the Solas gang who paint him as nothing BUT someone who has the interest of elves at heart and was their liberator, who is just kind and thoughtful and does his best to help people. I do not have a problem with people who like Solas bc this isn’t a morality competition about who has the most correct opinions, nor I care about people who do that, but did we play the same game?

Destroying the world is not the revolutionary move of liberation you think it is. I think we have seen enough movies that deal with that ecofascist narrative (bc even if the character isn’t, the narrative is). People still live in the world, and anyone who would genuinely suggest this would be destroyed in an argument by people who do actual mutual aid and left-based activism. What is or isn’t revolutionary doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and the devs being terminally Canadian/USAmerican don’t get to redefine things that exist beyond and over them

Solas isn’t a particularly helpful person. Not even to elves. Thinking pitifully of city elves and as the Dalish as savages, without any will to recognise the culture that flourished among them is also not the solidarity move you think it is

Solas isn’t particularly kind. Being soft spoken isn’t the same as being kind

For a fandom that usually has a lot of issues with other characters being used as BioWare mouth pieces (which is honestly understandable and I’m not jabbing at bc me too bestie), a lot of people in this fandom seem to be okay with Solas being one of the most blatant mouth-pieces there is

A person who laments hurting you, and saying he doesn’t want to hurt you, and how he wish he wasn’t hurting you, and who has the space to STOP and DOESN’T is you know. not someone who’s particularly interested in listening to other people

This is the guy who killed his best friend because he had the audacity to believe that a city elf could actually better the conditions of elves who are currently alive. Which is the revolutionary thing to do

The Elvhenan being destroyed is literally Solas’ doing. Organise unions and commit regicide like a normal person if it bothers you so much

“But they were enslavers” gee listen, I’m not saying the ancient elvhen empire should be pristine and perfect and a happy utopia, but you’ve never stopped to think how it’s at least a little racist that they modelled a people after several indigenous cultures and cultures of colour and then decided that the guy who wanted to fix them was a white looking king and fallen god who thinks people who are lesser than him are underdeveloped and savage? Not only that but that BioWare decided that that very culture was going to be based on slavery like a wildly inaccurate, racist, methodologically questionable global north high school text talking about Mesoamerican cultures? That they took the ancient practice of face tattoos and decided they were slave markings? How white are you???

Once again he constantly distances himself from modern elves, and the only one he speaks kindly of is a high approval Dalish Inquisitor.

He is one of the biggest “all faith in anything at all is subjugation if you disagree with me you are committing an attack on the very concept of freedom" characters in the franchise. I fully see going that route when you’re playing with Andrastianism, because of the narrative around it in the game and the influences it has. But with other minority religions and Otherised cultures in the game? It is straight up racist to me, and sounds too close to white atheism for my comfort. This isn’t just a Solas thing, but a Bioware thing in general. Even if Andrastianism is criticised or portrayed as genuinely damaging, every single person who isn’t a human andrastian is portrayed as being Oppressed Without Knowing It. every single dialogue and investigation option is framed like this.

Also foreign liberators don’t really tend to be liberators. People who seek to free other people because they know better should be met with resistance. It is with the people or not at all, and Solas actually fits in this category. He sees himself as the granter of Freedom. Where I come from, we call these people gringos or conquistadores, so you choose.

I’m not saying you can’t find entertainment, enjoyment, pathos or whatever else in this particular character. On the contrary, as different narratives and different narrative devices satisfy different things. That, however, doesn’t mean the narrative they use is extremely skewed and can be interpreted as extremely infective in terms of what people pretend it is aka a story about Liberation.

In my personal opinion, Bioware doesn’t have stories about liberation because it does not have the range for it in Dragon Age, which leaves us with a lot of half assed attempts, but I digress. My point is I’m not claiming to know what you see in this character just because I don’t enjoy him, or that you can’t at all. I’m not the boss of you. I am, however, proposing that perhaps people should stop ignoring Solas’ negative traits and the actual text material to pretend he’s some benevolent, lost, elvhen King Arthur come to fix things while being willing to kill everyone else in the process. Again.

[coffeefrenchandhistory]

top 5 insane things anti-zionists have done/said since oct 7

Anti-Zionists Antisemites, Jew-haters, genocide simps... different names for the same thing.

Claiming Israelis are just White Americans/Europeans to the point of even giving them fake White names to dehumanize them even further (and engage in blatant antisemitic ideals that Jews are a people who have no homeland, when we returned to our indigenous homeland).

2. That because Jews had to Hebraize our surnames to eschew the Diaspora — the forced expulsion and 2 millennia of dispossession from our ancestral homeland — that it's """proof""" we don't belong in the Middle East and that we're eUrOpEaNs

3. Liberals, leftists, and other of the social democratic left cheering on the mass rape, murder, and torture of 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of 250 Israelis (132 of which are still in Gaza, including little Kfir Bibas who turned 1 in January, 19 women, and 109 men). Not to mention Avera Mengistu (kidnapped in 2014), Hisham al-Sayed (kidnapped in 2015), and the bodies of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin (kidnapped since 2014). And the college professor at Cornell who said that he was "exhilarated" by the atrocities and war crimes that Hamas committed.

4. The fucking fan fiction and fan art of Hamas terrorists and Israeli hostages, trying to show them in love. For the sake of my own sanity, my mental health, and because I see that art those disgusting images as vile and inhumane, I'm not linking those.

5. The fucking SILENCE of every single organization which says they care about the victims of sexual violence. The sheer misogynistic antisemitism that was unleashed on 10/7 is vile, disgusting, and sickening. Israeli women were raped. Israeli men were raped. They were sexually tortured. And Hamas carried it out. This is fact. And the fact that it took until FUCKING MARCH 2024 for the UN (that cesspit of shit) to say it speaks volumes.

[bulletbilltime]

Between the BLM protests, everything going on in Gaza, and Tumblr's rampant transphobia, it's so blatant how people disproportionately excuse the violence of oppressors and demonize even the slightest amount of pushback from the oppressed. And how it keeps happening Every. Single. Fucking. Time.

People turn a blind eye to the deaths of people of color at the hands of the police ("they must have deserved it somehow"). They excuse the genocide of an entire people ("They shouldn't have tried to fight back"). They condemn a trans woman for being frustrated by inaction over a campaign of harassment ("She was just looking for trouble").

Then, the moment people get sick of having their plight ignored by the entire world, their response is scrutinized and violence is dealt back tenfold.

It takes one police precinct burning after centuries of black people being abused and killed by police for cops to turn into wanna-be military soldiers and fire rubber bullets point blank at protesters. It takes one counter-attack to justify 30k+ civilian murders and the destruction of an entire nation's infrastructure. It takes one vent involving cars and hammers exploding a CEO to ban a trans woman plagued for months by a transphobic hate train and for said CEO to stalk and harass her himself.

I need you all to realize that this is a PATTERN in how our society behaves. Ignore the constant suffering of the oppressed, cry wolf at the slightest growl they show in response, and then beat them into submission even harder. It's the modus operandi of the oppressor. Always has been. Even going back to how colonizers dealt with indigenous people.

So if you find yourself thinking people should just peacefully protest, or never say anything violent in response to constant harassment... remember that you're evaluating a deeply uneven dynamic. That both sides of this exchange are NOT, in fact, on equal standing. That the oppressed being violent, or even just being more rowdy than is socially acceptable, in an attempt to free themselves of said oppression... it is far more of a risk than it is for the oppressor to use violence to keep them suffering.

[doberbutts]

thank you for trotting out the one palestinian journalist who toes the zionist propaganda line rather than giving any acknowledgement to the hundreds of palestinian survivors of the attack -who say that the IDF ordered the hospital to evacuate under threat of bombardment before it was hit. also very cool that you claim landback considered black people settlers when we have literally never done so. i love to get back from protesting my peoples largest burial site getting bulldozed to see this.

I did actually talk about the evacuation order, so you're just blatantly lying at this point.

Again. I don't actually know what happened because I was not there. I am repeating what MULTIPLE NEWS SOURCES AND RESEARCHERS have said on all sides which you are acting like is some deep coverup conspiracy rather than like. An ongoing investigation where as many people as possible are looking for answers and are reporting them as they find them. And somehow that makes ME the bad guy???

Also also, lmao, Al Jazeera as pro-Israel, you have proven you didn't even click the link because it's surrounded by articles condemning Israel's actions, but that's obviously not good enough for you because it doesn't fit in line with what you personally want to believe.

Also blatant lie- there is antiblackness in Indigenous communities just like there is anti-indigenous sentiment in black communities. Why do you think my father's family was not allowed to call themselves Native despite being so? Why do you think so many registers are still reluctant to accept afronatives? When an anon says "go back where you came from if you're not Native" and mentions me being black in the same paragraph, yeah, they ARE including black people in that.

You wanna be mad, go be mad at someone who does actually support Israel's actions. Don't be mad at me for pointing to articles reporting an ongoing investigation of a tragedy. Get some real proof or get the fuck out of my inbox. I am tired of arguing this all day with someone who is refusing to understand that THE ENTIRE POINT is that you're calling a random Jewish user a Zionist for saying exactly what everyone else researching the explosion is saying INCLUDING PRO-PALESTINIAN NEWS SOURCES. God DAMN.

I guess this is considered pro-Israel Zionist propaganda now

[warrantyissue]

Oklahoma's governor is horrifically racist towards Native Americans

OK governor Kevin Stitt constantly makes attacks on tribal sovereignty, which often involves racist stereotyping and blatant lies. Recently he has put out videos attacking tribes' rights to set laws on reservation land, vetoed a bill that would allow tribal students to wear cultural regalia when graduating (thankfully this was overturned), fought native people's rights to hunting and fishing, and many other things.

He lies about Indigenous people getting easier prison sentences and even stated that they "have different speed limits."

Stitt's family actually was allotted land from the Cherokee nation when his ancestor faked tribal membership through bribery. He has personally benefitted from the tribe but now wants to take away rights from actual Cherokee people living in Oklahoma today.

I'm a white person living in Oklahoma and am not sure how best to combat this issue, but I thought I'd make a post about this POS because I don't hear him talked about enough. The links I have are only some examples of his actions. Settler colonialism is an ongoing process and as fascism rises Indigenous people will see attacks on their autonomy.

Fact-checking Oklahoma Governor's claim that Indigenous, non-Indigenous drivers have different speed limits | KOSU

NY Times report questions Kevin Stitt's tribal ancestry... - The Lost Ogle

Gov. Kevin Stitt won't renew hunting, fishing compacts with OK tribes (oklahoman.com)

Oklahoma Governor vetoes graduation tribal regalia bill | KFOR.com Oklahoma City

[dolleyesdollmouth]

“The Israeli government has done bad things to Palestinians that I do not support but the Israeli government is not committing genocide. Hamas are the ones that are aiming for genocide. They want to eradicate the entire Jewish people.”

Hamas’ Arabic acronym translates into “The Islamic Resistance Movement”, which should clue you that it was formed as a reaction to resist something. Hamas literally formed in the 1980’s because they wanted to resist Israel’s attacks on Palestine that were blatant attempts to take their land. Separate the fact that Israel has a large Jewish population and throw away the notion that Palestine hates Israel because they’re Jewish because that’s complete bull at this point. Palestine has a grudge against Israel because Israel has been the ones occupying their land since 1967 and committing a genocide on them for 10 years and are STILL committing attacks on Palestine. A direct summary of a fact about Hamas from cfr.org: “Israel has declared war on Hamas following its surprise assault on southern Israel in 2023, the deadliest attack on the country in decades” I highlighted that part because factually this recent attack from Hamas has been the deadliest one they’ve committed so far in the decade long genocide Israel has been committing against them.

Another article keeping track of the actual death toll of Palestinians vs. Israeli peoples only in the recent war not even in the last 10 years of Israels occupation in Palestine: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/west-bank-death-toll-climbs-as-israel-pursues-palestinian-militants#:~:text=More%20than%201%2C400%20people%20have,killed%20there%20since%20Oct.%207.

Please do more ACTUAL research from legitimate unbiased sources rather than believing in your close knit community of people who aren’t actively being displaced by the thousands in the year 2023.

Jews are indigenous to Israel and Jews have been displaced from their land for centuries. Hamas isn’t resisting anything. They’re a terrorist organization who wants to eradicate the entire Jewish population. Israel isn’t committing genocide. The Israeli government has done bad things to Palestinians that I don’t agree with but it’s far from genocide. I want the Palestinian people and the Israeli people to live on peace but Israel has every right to defend themselves from Jew hating, power hungry terrorists

[kipskiptrip]

It's kind of insane how a rich, white woman would gain this much of a following to veil blatant racism in the name of feminism.

The amount of people who would mask bigotry (ex., this shitshow, TERF bullshit, etc.) as a wave of giving women power fail to understand women's existence beyond the Eurocentric, normative comprehension.

This type of argument of attacking other groups in sake of "feminism" is so often used against minorities, particularly BIPOC, queer, and disabled women. I have never seen something so vile as to demonizing a Hispanic creator for expressing his life, particularly his sex life and worth (which, might I add, he has a right to sing about whatever he wants, but we'll get more onto that later), becoming more popular than an ethnically white multi-centimillionaire. (Continued under cut)

It doesn't matter what parasocial safe spaces she may have provided for you, Taylor Swift is a white, cishet woman. By cutting off a group of people for simply being hispanic, doesn't matter what this person could have done, you are 100% the asshole, and shame on you.

Would you have cut off disabled people if the artist was disabled? Trans? How about if this artist was a gay man, and only sang about how rich and gay he is? Would you have prevented your friends from talking to anyone who is Black, Indigenous, Arab, Jewish, if the artist was any of those? The amount of demonization ethnic minorities get for simply not "meeting the norm" and restricting themselves to the appropriate Christian Eurocentric topic is immense, and quite frankly one of the reasons we have bigotry rampant here in the first place. (Tying BIPOC to being dangerous and evil, Queer people to being sex offenders, disabled people to freakshows who can't take care of themselves, etc.)

You are restricting your friends from speaking to their Hispanic friends in the name of a music artist coming into power is the most disgusting thing I have heard in a while, and a prime example of how a group can be easily ostracized in favor of another. Favoring white women over Hispanic men, what about Hispanic women? What about your friends' friends who are Hispanic women who listen to TS as well? Are they supposed to be kicked out of a community for their culture? Their ethnicity? Again, prime example of Eurocentrism and how easily groups can be ostracized in the name of another. White feminism veils racism over female rights, while failing to accept women of other backgrounds other than the typical WASP one.

What is the root of your disgust for the other artist in the first place anyway? You can dislike him, sure, but by throwing away and spoiling his following for only singing about sex, meanwhile TS also sings about sex, claiming it in a name of feminism? Sexual expression and freedom has always been a matter of feminism! Flappers are a prime example of this (won't be explaining why, go search it up! It's interesting and one of my favorite parts of AP U.S. History)

You want to know where else a group of people were put down for being overly-sexual? The queer community we are both in!!! The same queer community your favorite artist claims to help you find.

The reason why transphobia and homophobia is so rampant today is because people tied being queer automatically to being dangerous and over-sexual, meanwhile sexual expression is a huge part of our history, and still holds up a great amount of our community. By admitting sexual expression as vile and unorthodox, you can target a singular group of people known for such. This happened to us, and it happens to Hispanics as well.

I have a feeling I know exactly which artist you're talking about (even if I don't, I'm still going to use him as an example), and while I also don't favor him, I can tell you how he mixes and sings also ties into his culture. He sings in Spanish because he isn't ashamed of doing so. He incorporates bachata into his work because that's part of his history and culture. And while I'm not a fan, I appreciate how he is taking his culture (and mine too) and putting it out there without shame!

Putting him down and other Hispanics too (which also, depending where you're from, you have different cultures and beliefs, so you're generalizing an entire, extremely diverse population to one culture) for singing about such is stripping Hispanics of their culture and their right to be in the music industry and express themselves. And btw, Taylor Swift is still #1 Artist on Spotify! While he and Miley Cyrus are #1 Album and #1 Song respectively, Taylor is still Top Artist! (Source at the bottom)

All-in-all, you are targeting a group of people for something they have no responsibility for, and letting racism slide as a means to expand (white) women's rights. I hope you can change your view on how you see how your actions ultimately reflect that, and build a safer world for people to exist and express themselves in.

https://www.wecb.fm/taylor-swift-bad-bunny-and-miley-cyrus-at-the-top-on-spotify/#:~:text=As%20of%202023%2C%20Taylor%20Swift,1%20album%20and%20song%2C%20respectively.

was I the asshole for telling my followers to sabotage a hispanic artist?

(13 <– to find this)

this happened awhile back but I'm remorseful and I want to know if I was the asshole or if I'm just overthinking.

I (24NB) had a pretty big TS fan account on twitter (I said "had" bc I'm no longer active). her music saved me from suicidal ideation, helped me get rid of my anxiety, and overall it was always very comforting to me. her music accepted me for being non-binary when most of my irl friends didn't. I felt like I belonged.

in recent years a certain hispanic artist started to get famous and well known and tbh I don't know how or why, all he sings about is his dating life, his sex life, how much money he has... unlike TS who crafts feminist masterpieces. this guys music wasn't my cup of tea and I realized he already had more views than her on youtube and he was the number one artist on spotify for a few years so um. I was honestly VERY angry that taylor's hard work was gonna go to waste again because of a man. so long story short I told my followers to sabotage this hispanic artist and also encouraged them to stay away from/talk less to their hispanic friends for awhile. as far as I know most of them agreed with me.

my wake up call was being accused of being a set up account (a set up is an account made by someone who is not from a fandom pretending to be in order to make said fandom look bad) after that post of mine was shared on reddit even though they censored the @. since that day I stopped being active on that account, tbh because I was ashamed of myself. I feel like an asshole but my closest friends from within the fandom constantly tell me a real fan is not ashamed to show love and support and that what I did was genius. so the worst part is despite being remorseful I still somehow feel like I'm failing her and the fandom.

was I the asshole?

What are these acronyms?

[realjaysumlin]

BOOK REVIEW: “Behind the Screen: Tap Dance, Race, and Invisibility During Hollywood’s Golden Age” by Brynn W. Shiovitz | L.A. Dance Chronicle

Nothing has changed since colonization started and it continued in radio and filming. Black Indigenous People globally were discriminated against while others who were not considered as being white were often treated better than the Black Indigenous People were.

Black Indigenous People who lived in the Caribbeans and other tropical regions were treated a little differently than the Black Indigenous People of America. Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier were treated nothing like the many Black Americans because of where they came from and that the so-called white people knew that these people came from a region that is more aggressive than the white supremacists were.

The shit people who call themselves white knew that they could dehumanize Africans and Black Americans to outlandish levels without the fear of uprising because most Black Africans and Americans are Christians and are compassionate people in general.

Micro aggressive behavior and absolute force of violence against people will always make them less aggressive to their oppressors but very aggressive towards the people who are also being marginalized and oppressed, this is why psychologists used the term of being internally oppressed, because it's the effects of self destruction rather than attacking the real enemies who designed the system.

The entire human race suffers from internalized oppression because each group kills each other more than they do to the people who are being mistreated. The people who call themselves white do more killings against Black Americans than they do towards anyone else.

Black Americans and Black Africans kill each other more and will never attack and kill people who call themselves white and we can even see this in Black Law Enforcement agencies around the world. You never hear about a Black Officer killing a so-called white person but white criminals kill Black Officers more.

Black law enforcement officers never speak out against Black Indigenous People who suffer from police brutality against their white colleagues no matter the rankings of the Black Indigenous officials where many are chief of police and mayors.

[collymore]

When you punish innocent people they usually tend to fight back!

By Stanley Collymore

If another nation attacked a British or USA Embassy or Consulate or, for that matter, any of the NATO member countries killing g diplomats and staffers within that said establishment, which in international law is part of its own sovereign country, what do you quite honestly think, and no virtue signalling bullshitting please, the country that owned that targeted consulate or that embassy, including your own, would do?

And to asininely claim or even distinctively disingenuously state that Iran had military personnel as well as diplomats in its own Damascus Consulate, rather conveniently overlooks the well-known fact that at the USA, Britain, France and simply all of the actual NATO member states do routinely have military personnel in their respective foreign embassies and consulates. Just go, for instance, and obviously check the USA Embassy in London. In fact it is really standard procedure. So Iran wasn't doing anything extraordinary! And if it's basically good for Western countries why not Iran? Unless you're a white supremacist moron!

And, as for obsessively, feverishly and also dementedly, actually delightedly employing your favourite canard, that Iran discernibly supportively backs Hamas and Hezbollah; what blatant hypocrites you are! Both the USA and Britain created and massively too supported Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan when the legitimate government there distinctly and legally, as it was entitled to do, clearly and diplomatically as well as legally quite crucially invited their neighbour's and also their friends to unquestionably, discernibly and instinctively, most crucially set up bases in Afghanistan. The USA and Britain rather obviously didn't like this and decided quite obviously through terrorist means to really sabotage this clearly undoubtedly Russian and Afghanistan agreement.

What stinking hypocrisy by the USA and its servile lapdog Britain. Afghanistan should not invite a next door neighbour Russia, in to its territory but the USA can repeatedly set up bases all over the world effectively thousands of miles from the USA. Equally Britain can barbarically kick the indigenous inhabitants of the Chagos Islands located in the Indian Ocean, quite crucially ban its people from ever going there while rather happily handing the largest island Diego Garcia since the 1960s to the USA for a quite luxury base it has on the island, while despite the UN and likewise also the world court, the International Court  in the Hague ruled that Britain should return the Chagos Islands to its people, Britain and the USA  continue to ignore international law! With Britain using its ill-qualified position as a permanent member of the UNSC to cock a snooty at international law.

Yet these are the very people who accord to themselves the inalienable right they do think to illegally and immorally lord it over those don't specifically care for or literally want to subjugate as the incarnate bullies they are. Little wonder they support their infant terrible Israel!

Additional to all the aforementioned both the USA and Britain, along with France are the creators of ISIS and other subversive groups in the Middle East and elsewhere, and the USA's recurrent terrorist backing in the Americas is legendary; and effectively believing these self-centred and similarly self-entitled bullies is akin to undoubtedly essentially sanctifying the likes of Jimmy Savile and Jeffrey Epstein! And effectively Israel is a rogue state which these western bullies are happy to back, as its discernibly odious genocides and racists are distinctly like themselves.

(C) Stanley V. Collymoregreed, hate 16 April 2024.

Author's Remarks: Here's part of the patently odious track record of the USA, Britain and the rest of this western NATO mafia. Distinctly illegal wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya. The USA's horrors distinctly and discernibly committed in Vietnam and Cambodia. And as for Israel's quite oft repeated mantra echoed by the USA, Britain etc. that it has a right to actually defend itself,  well so do Iran, obviously the Palestinians and its others victims!

[lizardbytheriver]

You’re an ignorant person. You don’t know what Israel wants, you don’t know what every Israeli person wants, you don’t know what all Jewish people want. Please just stop posting like you know everything, it’s exhausting.

I think I have a pretty clear idea of what Israel wants. Israel just killed thousands of people, kept pushing the Gazan population downward, is advocating for Egypt to open the border, has plans to develop/resettle the Gaza strip, has repeatedly denied calls for a "two-state" solution, etc. Its not hard to figure out. Israel wants Gaza (and the West Bank). Israel does not want Palestinians or a Palestine Identity existing within "its borders". This isn't difficult to understand. Its expansionist and colonial, much the same the USA and Canada were. I never said I know what every individual Israeli or individual Jewish Person wants. I think I could be more vocal that the crimes of Israel are not the crimes of Judaism or the entire Jewish People, rather it is the crimes of settler colonial ideology. There are Jewish Organizations fighting for Palestinians. There are Holocaust Survivors who support Palestine, the Palestinian People, and Palestinian Statehood. There are Israelis who get beaten-up for flying a Palestinian Flag. There are Israelis being reprimanded and even imprisoned for humanizing Palestinians. There are Israelis going to jail for not serving the IDF (and by extension for not killing Palestinians). I actually have a lot of sympathy for Israelis who were born in Israel or were moved to Israel at a young age. Because... you were forced to take part in colonization without even your consent. And then comes the topic of decolonization... which is always scary. Because what about my land? What about my home? Would they lose it all in decolonization? The answer is... probably not. The answer is also... housing ingeneral ain't great in Israel, anyway. And there is always an irony in these questions.... because those homes and land were already stolen. And a redistribution/restructuring of land is not only morally justifiable but also entirely necessary. Sorry for the tangent. But to get back to the message. I don't know everything. But I know what I am seeing. I am seeing forced displacement, mass death, and very blatant calls for genocide. I see a population that has been radicalized through bigotry and military service. I see a population who is the equivalent of a spoiled child, who abuses their neighbors and is protected from any repercussions/retaliation because of its daddy. It doesn't take a genius to know what is happening is wrong. I often asked people... what would they do during the Iraq War? What would they do during the Trail of Tears? Yes, Israel has a different history. Yes, the situations are not exactly the same. But like the Iraq War... we have a western nation retaliating against Middle Eastern People... over a terrorist attack. Subsequently, the Western Nation overreacts and commits one of the greatest atrocities in modern times. Killing thousands of innocent people, who had no involvement in the deed/situation. Or the Trail of Tears. We see an indigenous population being abused by colonizers and forcibly removed from their own lands. Why? Did God promise you that land? If Israel still exists in the future. We are going to have Israelis doing land acknowledgements. People wondering why the folks of the past were so cruel. No lessons will be learned. Just a bunch of hyper-nationalists praising the creation and cry-baby liberals lamenting the destruction, yet both still profiting from the massacres all the same. Israel is a reflection of our past and of our future. And that should worrisome to all.

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Coastal Cities Priced Out Low-Wage Workers. Now College Graduates Are Leaving, Too. (NYT) Major coastal metros have been hubs of the kind of educated workers coveted most by high-powered employers and economic development officials. These urban centers have become a class of their own—“superstar cities”—with outsize impact on the American economy fueled by the clustering of workers with degrees. But it appears in domestic migration data that, years after lower-wage residents have been priced out of expensive coastal metros, higher-paid workers are now turning away from them, too. Boston’s pull with college graduates has weakened. Seattle’s edge vanished during the pandemic. And the analysis shows San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles and Washington all crossing a significant threshold: More college-educated workers left than moved in. The college-educated workers who’ve turned away from them are increasingly migrating toward major metros that are still prosperous but not quite so expensive. Remote work has altered the bargain that educated workers must swallow high living costs to access the highest wages.

3 People Killed and 6 Injured in New Mexico Shooting (NYT) An 18-year-old gunman fired indiscriminately while roaming a residential street in Farmington, N.M., on Monday morning, killing three people before the police arrived and killed the suspect, the authorities said. Six other people, including two officers, were injured. Chief Steve Hebbe of the Farmington Police Department said that the gunman, whom he did not name, had used at least three different weapons, including an “AR-style rifle,” a gun commonly used in mass shootings, as he roamed through the neighborhood, randomly firing “at whatever entered his head to shoot at” including at least six houses and three cars. The shooting sent shock waves through the city of about 46,000 people, which is about 140 miles northwest of Albuquerque near the Navajo Nation reservation. The city serves as a commercial hub for nearby oil-producing areas as well as much of northwestern New Mexico.

Chief Standing Bear (NPR) Chief Standing Bear, whose landmark lawsuit in 1879 established that a Native American is a person under the law, is on a new postage stamp. The stamp’s release comes 146 years after the U.S. Army forcibly removed Chief Standing Bear and some 700 other members of the tribe from their homeland in northeast Nebraska. Standing Bear’s son was among those who died of hunger and disease after the tribe’s 600-mile journey on foot to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma. When Standing Bear made the perilous trip back to Nebraska to honor his son with a burial in the tribe’s homeland in 1879, he was arrested and imprisoned at Fort Omaha. His arrest was the catalyst for a lawsuit that led to an 1879 ruling that determined a Native American was a person under the law with an inherent right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

One Secret to a Latin American Party’s Dominance: Buying Votes (NYT) Democracy is being tested across the planet. In some countries, leaders have attacked democratic institutions, including in the United States, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico, while in other places they have upended the democratic process altogether, as in Russia, Venezuela and Nicaragua. But in many nations, a less visible, but just as pervasive threat continues to afflict free and fair elections: buying votes. Political parties in Mexico have handed out gift cards, groceries and even washing machines. Election observers said last year’s vote in the Philippines was plagued by “blatant vote buying.” In February, a politician in Nigeria was caught with $500,000 and a list of possible recipients the day before national elections. Last month in Paraguay, a nation of 7.4 million in the center of South America, The Times witnessed a different, but well-established practice: Political operatives rounded up Indigenous people in Paraguay’s remote north and tried to control or purchase their votes. In one case, a Colorado candidate for governor personally handed out 200,000 guaraníes, or nearly $30 each, to more than 100 Indigenous voters outside a polling station. That amount is equivalent to several weeks’ earnings for Paraguay’s poorest. The Colorado Party has held power for seven decades.

Chile’s firefighting goats (Reuters) In the southern Chilean city of Santa Juana, hit hard by wildfires earlier this year, locals have a special taskforce helping fight blazes: a herd of 150 goats. The goats have already saved the native forest of the Bosques de Chacay once, preventing the park from being consumed by February forest fires—fueled by heatwaves and a punishing drought—that left dozens dead, thousands injured and almost 440,000 hectares destroyed in south-central Chile. The technique, also used in Portugal and Spain, relies on grazing goats to control dry pastures and other vegetation that fuel forest fires in the summer. Goat droppings also help enrich the soil and prevent further erosion. The technique is known as “strategic grazing.”

Once Europe’s Headache, Greece Finds Its Feet (WSJ) Greece’s economy nearly broke the euro last decade. Now it is one of the fastest-growing in Europe’s common-currency zone. Greece still has a long way to go to heal from the deepest slump suffered by any developed economy since the 1930s. Nonetheless, the Greek economy grew by nearly 6% last year.

Zelenskyy’s European tour (AP) Volodymyr Zelenskyy set off across Europe with a long shopping list. Ukraine’s president will head home with much of what he wanted—though not the Western fighter jets he seeks to defend against Russian air attacks. European leaders promised Zelenskyy an arsenal of missiles, tanks and drones during a whirlwind three-day visit to Italy, the Vatican, Germany, France and the U.K. that sought to replenish Ukraine’s depleted weapons supplies ahead of a long-anticipated spring offensive aimed at turning the tide of the war. The trip was also about shoring up European political and military support for the longer term, to ensure Ukraine can hold any ground it takes back and press for a favorable peace.

Ukraine authorities expose piles of cash in Supreme Court corruption probe (Reuters) Ukrainian anti-graft authorities said on Monday they were investigating large-scale corruption in the country’s Supreme Court system and shared a photograph of piles of dollars neatly lined up on a sofa. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) did not name anyone accused of corruption, but two local media organizations reported Supreme Court Chief Justice Vsevolod Kniaziev had been detained on suspicion of receiving a $3 million bribe. Brussels has made fighting corruption a precondition for Kyiv to join the 27-member European Union. Despite progress in recent years, Ukraine ranks 116th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

Rupees and Russia (DW) Russia has become a global pariah economically, as many governments allied or sympathetic to Ukraine are cutting Russia out of global financial networks. One country that’s still buying Russian oil and gas is India, and even that’s causing problems for Russia. India’s imports of Russian crude are up from practically nothing in March of 2022 to over 1.5 billion barrels per day, with India spending $41.5 billion on Russian imports in total in the first 11 months of the 2022-23 fiscal year. There’s a problem for Russia, though, in that India exported just $2.8 billion worth of goods to them, which means that Russian entities have a gigantic pile of Indian rupees in their bank accounts and cannot actually find a way to spend them.

Move over, U.S. dollar. China wants to make the yuan the global currency. (Washington Post) Newsan, one of Argentina’s biggest home appliance retailers, imports most of its products from China. Until now, it was paying for fridges, TVs and parts in U.S. dollars, the currency of international trade. But last month, as part of a bid to relieve pressure on Argentina’s dollar-strapped economy, Newsan started doing something new: settling deals in Chinese yuan. “The yuan is becoming increasingly relevant as currency for international trade,” said Luis Galli, chief executive of Newsan. “But beggars don’t get to choose. This deal was born out of necessity.” The deal was welcome news for Beijing, which has long wanted its currency in wider use and to enjoy some of the power and prestige that the United States enjoys thanks to the dollar’s global domination. It wasn’t having much luck—until recently. Suddenly more customers are willing to settle their bills in Chinese yuan, thanks variously to domestic economic crises, Western sanctions against Russia, China’s position as a major lender and growing concerns about being beholden to Washington’s policies. The dollar’s widespread use makes it difficult to displace. Because it is widely used, it is easy to exchange, creating more incentive for countries to use it. This network effect encapsulates part of the challenge to adoption of the yuan, which is more expensive and inconvenient partly because there is less of it circulating outside China.

With eye on Ukraine, top Chinese general calls for unconventional warfare capabilities (Reuters) Drawing lessons from the Ukraine crisis, a top Chinese general urged greater integration of novel capabilities, including artificial intelligence, with conventional warfare tactics ahead of any confrontation with the West. A new genre of hybrid warfare has emerged from the Ukraine conflict, with the intertwining of “political warfare, financial warfare, technological warfare, cyber warfare, and cognitive warfare,” General Wang Haijiang, commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Western Theatre Command, wrote in a front-page article in an official newspaper on Monday. “At present and in the future, local conflicts and turmoil are frequent, global problems are intensifying, and the world has entered a new period of turmoil and change,” Wang wrote in Study Times. The PLA’s combat-readiness in a hypothetical war has become a focus in recent months as China flexes its military muscle over Taiwan, putting itself in potential conflict with the United States.

Fire at New Zealand hostel kills at least 6 people, officials say (AP) A fire ripped through a hostel in New Zealand’s capital overnight, killing at least six people and forcing others to flee the four-story building in their pajamas in what a fire chief on Tuesday called his “worst nightmare.” Officials said 52 people had made it out of the building alive but they were still trying to account for 11 others. Police said the cause of the fire was not known yet but they didn’t believe it had been deliberately lit. Residents told reporters that fire alarms would regularly sound in the building, possibly from people smoking or overly sensitive smoke monitors, so many had initially thought it was another false alarm.

Air strikes, artillery fire escalate as factions battle in Sudan capital (Reuters) Air strikes and artillery fire intensified sharply across Sudan’s capital early on Tuesday, residents said, as the army sought to defend key bases from paramilitary rivals it has been fighting for more than a month. The air strikes, explosions and clashes could be heard in the south of Khartoum, and there was heavy shelling across the River Nile in parts of the adjoining cities of Bahri and Omdurman, witnesses said. The fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has caused a humanitarian crisis that threatens to destabilise the region, displacing more than 700,000 people inside Sudan and forcing about 200,000 to flee into neighbouring countries. Those who have remained in the capital are struggling to survive as food supplies dwindle, health services collapse and lawlessness spreads.

Michigan boy, 13, saves sister by hitting potential kidnapper with slingshot (Guardian) A 13-year-old boy in Michigan saved his younger sister from a potential kidnapper by shooting the attacker with a slingshot, according to authorities. Police called the boy’s actions “extraordinary” and said he deserved to be commended after defending his sister with a weapon many associate with the biblical hero David. The boy’s eight-year-old sister was hunting for mushrooms in her back yard in a rural area of Alpena township on Wednesday when a 17-year-old boy emerged from the woods, according to Michigan state police. “The suspect had come through the woods on to the property and came from behind her, grabbed her like you’d see in the movies—hand over the mouth, arm around the waist—and was attempting to pull her into the woods,” the state police lieutenant John Grimshaw told the local news outlet WGTU. The girl’s older brother saw the apparent abduction attempt from his bedroom window and proceeded to shoot the assailant in the head and chest with his slingshot, police said. Police arrested the 17-year-old (who had slingshot injuries) after they found him hiding at a nearby gas station.