#sanctions and their effects

[chromatic-lamina]

Chapter 1125 spoilers: Hunger

Also, I put it as an reply/reblog of another person’s post, but remember that the servants and slaves are starving too. They would have been malnourished, regardless, if we go by Kuma and Ginny's story, but if the food supplies to the Celestial Dragons have been cut, then you can believe that those to their workers are disrupted too. And they'll die for it. Whether from a bullet or lack of food. Oda is good with his layers.

[justsumtransdude2000]

So tired of bitches with zero credentials trying to tell me if I'm trans or not. Like, my gender identity has been carefully observed and confirmed by multiple people with PHDs, and I'm not sure you passed middle school. Fuck off.

[fruitsofhell]

WE HAVE TO FUCKING NORMALIZE PEOPLE WITH PERSONALITY DISORDERS AAA (runs into oncoming traffic)

[aropride2]

we have gottttt to start shaming people for saying shit like "fuck the police includes the identity/fandom/whatever police" like 😭 regardless of ur opinions on exclusionism or fandom discourse u have to be able to acknowledge that those are not even close to actual real life cops

[desidov]

I have seen some contradictory calls to action so I just want to boost the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) calls for boycotts as of Jan 5 2024:

The BNC is currently encouraging consumer boycotts of HP Inc, Chevron (Caltex, Texaco,) Siemens, PUMA, Carrefour, AXA, SodaStream, Ahava, RE/MAX, and Israeli produce.

The BDS movement calls for a complete boycott of these brands carefully selected due to the company's proven record of complicity in Israeli apartheid.

The BNC supports grassroots consumer boycotts of McDonald’s (US), Burger King (US), Papa John’s (US), Pizza Hut (US), and WIX (Israel).

The BDS movement did not initiate these grassroots boycott campaigns but supports them due to these brands’ complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid against Palestinians. If these grassroots campaigns are not already organically active in your area, BNC suggests focusing your energies on their encouraged targets, though they specifically endorse escalating the boycott of McDonalds.

Focusing effort on completely boycotting a small number of targets is more impactful than attempting boycotts of every corporation in any way supportive of Israel, and it gives the movement fuel to pressure other corporations.

[ext-raordinarymachine]

thinking of how next year or maybe even this one might be the last years of not heavily restricted internet access in my country 🥲

[delusionalinsecurewreckpiningphd]

You know, with whatever the *gesture wildly at America* is going on, can't help but wonder where are all the fixit fic from political science, social science students and the like? Isn't this what we study for? The bs of politics may prevent things from being real and there are troves of published IPs about a fantasy land somewhere that has things done well for them but what about us?

Maybe, I don't know, what's going on with Florida currently. Yes, we understand that decades of gerrymandering have stripped the power of the people and enabled that ruling interest to extract and exploit to enrich their patrons. And yes, let's not go all "screw Florida" and "they deserve it for all of the shit they've done" because the action of the elite few also harms the population which has tried and failed to change, not they are a monolith that is uniformly ignorant or advocate for the same interest.

And any IR students ever studied economic sanctions can tell you that regardless of its effectiveness in instituting change, sanctions hurt the population more. Taking away federal funding from those states most likely mean the people who need it the most (from disaster, poverty, medical assistance program, even schools) will lose access to it, further worsen their life. Because that local government may not already be interested in funding those programs in the beginning, and yes they have only been taking the federal funding for themselves or other non-social welfare programs.

So how about this? A fixit fic based on the concept of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) born out of the 1990s where the international community considers the very specific conditions where the need to save a population from genocide or systemic violence override the respect for sovereignty. Yes, we need a distinct concept to basically go into another country to do good because it is the year 1990s and we're not imperialist colonizers anymore haha. But anyway how about that? Federal government just go into those states and do those things, you know, that they have a bunch of practice elsewhere in the world? Safe passage for refugee for instance, for those wishing to get the hell out of those holes. Relief program delivering food, necessities, water during flood or, maybe, preventable-but-happen-anyway power outage done not by the local government because they don't care anyway, but by the feds or an independent third party like the absolute symbolic-and-dubiously-effective UN Peacekeeper Red Cross or Doctors without Borders. Or, even better, satisfying the military industrial complex as well, initiating an armed campaign under the guise of "we installed nuclear weapons there" or "this is a failed state that threatens our security" and just overthrow that local government so that others will accuse you of regime change. And 20 years later, Hollywood will produce a summer blockbuster titled something like "24 Hours: Red vs Blue" by Michael Bay that half the country will not care about.

That is, if the Writer's Strike and the Actor's Strike end by then.

Please recommend me tag or blog to follow for this kind of fic Im desperate

[a-shrieking-cloud-of-bats]

like I dunno I played borderlands 1 for like fifteen minutes and decided I did not want to do that shit but the idea that in a game with randomly generated loot, there is a theoretical best option, and as a result that best option is astronomically rare, I don’t know who is legitimately factoring in this astronomically rare theoretical best option into their actual practical builds

I think there are games that do this wrong (path of exile comes to mind) but they’re pretty far and few between

[999-roses]

tendency of rate of profit to fall has "forced" American manufacturing to outsource abroad because the labor cost was cheaper. In order to continue making profit, domestically, wages must be suppressed, in direct opposition to demand for higher wages ($15/hr isn't enough to make rent in some places now). One of the solutions that capitalist liberal democracy has for this contradiction is prison labor, pennies for wages or otherwise legalized slavery. Oh look what a coincidence that bipoc are historically and routinely targeted for incarceration, and homelessness is both on the uptick and increasingly criminalized.

i just think itd be funny if he goes through with the 100% tariffs. us hegemony ended in a week

[luckystarchild]

I've been keeping it off my face as much as I can on video, but I'm livid about the TikTok ban.

I have about 100,000 followers on that app. I joined during the pandemic. I was lucky to find a community full of incredible people, many of whom I now consider lifelong friends. Because of the community I found on that app, I found space to experiment with my gender presentation. I was able to come out as nonbinary (to feel SAFE ENOUGH to come out as nonbinary) because of that app.

I've seen a few Tumblr posts in which people gloat they never got into TikTok. Good for you. You won't suffer emotionally, and that makes you feel superior. But if you have no concept of what that app has meant for more than 170,000,000 Americans (that's half of all Americans!), many of whom do not have access to community in physical spaces, kindly sit down.

The ban constitutes the largest mass layoff in American history. We will lose billions of dollars in our domestic economy. Over 7 million small businesses are impacted because of the ban. You will feel the effect of that whether or not you were on the app. If you can't grasp the significance of that, again: kindly sit down.

The language of the TikTok ban has set a dangerous precedent for the American government to shutter any tech platforms they deem "dangerous" for arbitrary, undisclosed, nebulous reasons. This will affect Americans' ability to organize, spread information, and protest. They have effectively banned our right to assembly in digital spaces. This is the greatest infringement of free speech that has ever occurred in the United States. If you can't grasp the significance of that, either: kindly sit down.

This is bigger than "never falling for the TikTok craze." This is an enormous governmental overreach sanctioned by our own Supreme Court. It's bigger than teens doing silly dances you can sneer at from your smug high horse.

And if you can't grasp that: Kindly. Sit. Down.

[just2bruce]

Rail freight inducements hope to drive new loads

Several national rail agencies are actively working to increase rail traffic, with a focus on reducing costs and emissions.

This interesting article ties together several efforts by national rail agencies to drum up more traffic. The countries range from Russia to the UK. When you have a national railroad, rather than private enterprise, you can make quick changes that will reduce costs for the kinds of shipments you want. The article focuses on Russia, which is losing lots of cargoes from the Far East headed for…

[wonderhecko]

as you see the inhuman list of items banned from entry into gaza, you should be keenly aware the partner in israel's murder-suicide pact, the united states, has had an embargo on cuba (effectively doing the same to iran with sanctions too btw) for decades that includes medical supplies.

none of this was lifted for covid 19. both our cruel, barbaric countries will deny the absolute bare necessities for our genocidal economic projects

[amarriageoftrueminds]

It's not really fanon though, is it, it's more like a dark!Steve / HydraCap AU.

I mean if you wrote a fanfic where Steve Rogers willingly gave an infinity stone to:

A) a Nazi, B) who was so extreme a Nazi that they thought Adolf Hitler wasn't extreme enough, C) and is also the specific Nazi who has just murdered Natasha.

And this fanfic Steve also: - somehow knew what Hydra minions' secret signal to each other was / smirked at impersonating a Hydra agent, - did nothing about Natasha being dead even though he knows wizards who can reverse time and has all 6 magic 'can do literally anything including bringing back dead people' infinity stones, - abandoned Bucky in the future (...because being stuck alone in the future is bad when it happens to Steve, but Bucky can just choke??), - abandoned Sam (hey Sammy, thanks for the loyalty, here's a millstone, go fuck yourself), - To go and be trapped in a time Steve criticised in his movie as the 'kids are riddled with polio and all the food is boiled' era, - and marry a Nazi collaborator, whom he never even dated, - but who did violently attack him, after assuming he was a dumb bitch/male predator of women himself but still wanting to date him, - and who -- for decades -- employed and signed pay-checks to Bucky's Nazi torturer, and the guy who invented Winter Soldier mind-control - the Nazi also tortured other American POWs of Steve's father's regiment to death, tried to kill Steve once before, made the tesseract bomb Hydra wanted to drop on Steve's home city of New York, also made Project Insight (which she lied to Steve about days before said Nazi tried to kill him for the second time?) - and she made said Nazi immortal?!

And Fanfic Steve does this, even though Steve explicitly said he didn't want the white picket fence life, had always identified New York and Brooklyn as his home (not DC), such that Sam would fly to New York without prompting if Steve told him to take them 'home', and Steve also said that he couldn't just sit there and do nothing when he sees something wrong, and he's not sorry that he is this way?)

...you'd have to tag that fic like #HydraCap, #Evil-Steve, #Dark-Steve, #Skrull-Steve, #Not Steve Rogers Friendly, etc., or people would be complaining in the comments that this 'AU where Steve is a TWAT' Dark Fic wasn't properly warned for. 🤷‍♀️

just going to say that you’re not a real steve rogers stan if you think endgame made sense for his character. you prefer fanon, and that’s ok, but the real steve rogers would never go back in time rather than March forward. he would never abandon his friends. he would always choose a pickett line over a pickett fence. bc that man could retire from being captain america, but never from being steve rogers

[twrambling]

.

This year is an election year for Venezuela ,,,, and I can't help but feel like something is gonna go wrong again

[heritageposts]

What does life in North Korea look like outside of Pyongyang? 🇰🇵

Hey, I'm back again with a very scary "tankie" post that asks you to think of North Koreans as people, and to consider their country not as a cartoonish dystopia, but as a nation that, like any other place on earth, has culture, traditions, and history.

Below is a collection of pictures from various cities and places in North Korea, along with a brief dive into some of the historical events that informs life in the so-called "hermit kingdom."

Warning: very long post

Kaesong, the historic city

Beginning this post with Kaesong, one of the oldest cities in Korea. It's also one of the few major cities in the DPRK (i.e. "North Korea") that was not completely destroyed during the Korean war.

Every single city you'll see from this point on were victims of intense aerial bombardments from the U.S. and its allies, and had to be either partially or completely rebuilt after the war.

From 1951 to 1953, during what has now become known as the "forgotten war" in the West, the U.S. dropped 635,000 tons of bombs over Korea — most of it in the North, and on civilian population centers. An additional 32,000 tons of napalm was also deployed, engulfing whole cities in fire and inflicting people with horrific burns:

For such a simple thing to make, napalm had horrific human consequences. A bit of liquid fire, a sort of jellied gasoline, napalm clung to human skin on contact and melted off the flesh. Witnesses to napalm's impact described eyelids so burned they could not be shut and flesh that looked like "swollen, raw meat." - PBS

Ever wondered why North Koreans seem to hate the U.S so much? Well...

Keep in mind that only a few years prior to this, the U.S. had, as the first and only country in the world, used the atomic bomb as a weapon of war. Consider, too, the proximity between Japan and Korea — both geographically and as an "Other" in the Western imagination.

As the war dragged on, and it became clear the U.S. and its allies would not "win" in any conventional sense, the fear that the U.S. would resort to nuclear weapons again loomed large, adding another frightening dimension to the war that can probably go a long way in explaining the DPRK's later obsession with acquiring their own nuclear bomb.

But even without the use of nuclear weapons, the indiscriminate attack on civilians, particularly from U.S. saturation bombings, was still horrific:

"The number of Korean dead, injured or missing by war’s end approached three million, ten percent of the overall population. The majority of those killed were in the North, which had half of the population of the South; although the DPRK does not have official figures, possibly twelve to fifteen percent of the population was killed in the war, a figure close to or surpassing the proportion of Soviet citizens killed in World War II" - Charles K. Armstrong

On top of the loss of life, there's also the material damage. By the end of the war, the U.S. Air Force had, by its own estimations, destroyed somewhere around 85% of all buildings in the DPRK, leaving most cities in complete ruin. There are even stories of U.S. bombers dropping their loads into the ocean because they couldn't find any visible targets to bomb.

What you'll see below of Kaesong, then, provides both a rare glimpse of what life in North Korea looked like before the war, and a reminder of what was destroyed.

Kaesong's main street, pictured below.

Due the stifling sanctions imposed on the DPRK—which has, in various forms and intensities, been in effect since the 1950s—car ownership is still low throughout the country, with most people getting around either by walking or biking, or by bus or train for longer distances.

Kaesong, which is regarded as an educational center, is also notable for its many Koryŏ-era monuments. A group of twelve such sites were granted UNESCO world heritage status in 2013.

Included is the Hyonjongnung Royal Tomb, a 14th-century mausoleum located just outside the city of Kaesong.

One of the statues guarding the tomb.

Before moving on the other cities, I also wanted to showcase one more of the DPRK's historical sites: Pohyonsa, a thousand-year-old Buddhist temple complex located in the Myohyang Mountains.

Like many of DPRK's historic sites, the temple complex suffered extensive damage during the Korean war, with the U.S. led bombings destroying over half of its 24 pre-war buildings.

The complex has since been restored and is in use today both as a residence for Buddhist monks, and as a historic site open to visitors.

Hamhung, the second largest city in the DPRK.

A coastal city located in the South Hamgyŏng Province. It has long served as a major industrial hub in the DPRK, and has one of the largest and busiest ports in the country.

Hamhung, like most of the coastal cities in the DPRK, was hit particularly hard during the war. Through relentless aerial bombardments, the US and its allies destroyed somewhere around 80-90% percent of all buildings, roads, and other infrastructure in the city.

Now, more than seventy years later, unexploded bombs, mortars and pieces of live ammunition are still being unearthed by the thousands in the area. As recently as 2016, one of North Korea's bomb squads—there's one in every province, faced with the same cleanup task—retrieved 370 unexploded mortar rounds... from an elementary school playground.

Experts in the DPRK estimate it will probably take over a hundred years to clean up all the unexploded ordnance—and that's just in and around Hamhung.

Hamhung's fertilizer plant, the biggest in North Korea.

When the war broke out, Hamhung was home to the largest nitrogen fertilizer plant in Asia. Since its product could be used in the creation of explosives, the existence of the plant is considered to have made Hamhung a target for U.S. aggression (though it's worth repeating that the U.S. carried out saturation bombings of most population centers in the country, irrespective of any so-called 'military value').

The plant was immediately rebuilt after the war, and—beyond its practical use—serves now as a monument of resistance to U.S. imperialism, and as a functional and symbolic site of self-reliance.

Chongjin, the third largest city in the DPRK.

Another coastal city and industrial hub. It underwent a massive development prior to the Korean war, housing around 300,000 people by the time the war broke out.

By 1953, the U.S. had destroyed most of Chongjin's industry, bombed its harbors, and killed one third of the population.

Wonsan, a rebuilt seaside city.

The city of Wonsan is a vital link between the DPRK's east and west coasts, and acts today as both a popular holiday destination for North Koreans, and as a central location for the country's growing tourism industry.

Considered a strategically important location during the war, Wonsan is notable for having endured one of the longest naval blockades in modern history, lasting a total of 861 days.

By the end of the war, the U.S. estimated that they had destroyed around 80% of the city.

Masikryong Ski Resort, located close to Wonsan. It opened to the public in 2014 and is the first, I believe, that was built with foreign tourists in mind.

Sariwon, another rebuilt city

One of the worst hit cities during the Korean War, with an estimated destruction level of 95%.

I've written about its Wikipedia page here before, which used to mockingly describe its 'folk customs street'—a project built to preserve old Korean traditions and customs—as an "inaccurate romanticized recreation of an ancient Korean street."

No mention, of course, of the destruction caused by the US-led aerial bombings, or any historical context at all that could possibly even hint at why the preservation of old traditions might be particularly important for the city.

Life outside of the towns and cities

In the rural parts of the DPRK, life primarily revolves around agriculture. As the sanctions they're under make it difficult to acquire fuel, farming in the DPRK relies heavily on manual labour, which again, to avoid food shortages, requires that a large portion of the labour force resides in the countryside.

Unlike what many may think, the reliance on manual labour in farming is a relatively "new" development. Up until the crisis of the 1990s, the DPRK was a highly industrialized nation, with a modernized agricultural system and a high urbanization rate. But, as the access to cheap fuel from the USSR and China disappeared, and the sanctions placed upon them by Western nations heavily restricted their ability to import fuel from other sources, having a fuel-dependent agricultural industry became a recipe for disaster, and required an immediate and brutal restructuring.

For a more detailed breakdown of what lead to the crisis in the 90s, and how it reshaped the DPRKs approach to agriculture, check out this article by Zhun Xu.

Some typical newly built rural housing, surrounded by farmland.

Tumblr only allows 20 pictures per post, but if you want to see more pictures of life outside Pyongyang, check out this imgur album.

[alastaircarstairsdefenselawyer]

this is your daily reminder that it's been over 65 years since cuba overthrew batista's US-backed fascist dictatorship and the US is STILL keeping cuba in extreme poverty using an "embargo."

back in the 1950s, using US funds and US-trained soldiers, batista (not castro) removed most of cubans' rights, including the right to strike, censored all media, and used secret police to torture and publicly excute anyone who protested his dictatorship. In a document released by the CIA in 2005, it stated as many as 20,000 people were killed. In return, batista gave control of most of the arable land to the US. during the revolution, this land was reclaimed and redistributed, which means that USAmericans can now sue anyone who "traffics" in this "confiscated" property.

Despite US sanctions being an "embargo," the US also fines foreign companies for doing business in Cuba, meaning it's effectively a blockade. Despite Obama lightening some of these restrictions, Biden has done little to undo the tightened policies from Trump's administration.

In November, the UN called for the 31st time (!!!) for the US blockade to end, supported by 187 countries and opposed only by the US and its bestest buddy (I'll let you guess who).

Cuba has been in economic crisis for years. Monthly income in Cuba is $30-60. There is very little food and it is hard to purchase anything like toiletries, clothes, and over-the-counter medicines. Domestic production is down because they don't have the resources to sustain them. The US has been intentionally impoverishing and starving Cuba for decades, and they continue to make it clear that it is not going to stop.

So, yeah. US democracy is a joke, end the US blockade on Cuba, and fuck genocide joe.