Image is from Futurama.
Happy holidays, fellow godless communists. We are in year three of the Five-Year Plan to eliminate all Christmas cheer and create a world free of the joys and festivity of Christmas. Nobody should have to be reminded that in our concrete brutalist communist strongholds, NO ornaments are allowed in December. Please report any Christmas trees, snowflakes, baubles, and presents to the evil secret police, and anybody caught violating their Volcel Pledge by having a tentative kiss under a mistletoe will be shot on sight.
Developments lately have been grim. Our Supreme Communist Dictator Brandon is being removed from office by Christmas-loving patriots, and soon, Christmas will adorn the White House for another four years. This is obviously very disappointing, but while Christmas joy is strictly prohibited, good vibes are still strongly encouraged. Revolutionary optimism (a term we only bring out when things are going very badly and we need to be delusional) shall triumph over defeatist rhetoric by stooges of the Christmas regime.
We must have hope. Our foreign allies aiding us in destroying Christmas now possess hypersonic weaponry, allowing us to compete with and overcome the engine technology powering Santa’s sleigh. Abroad, they have destroyed factories and hit cities with missiles travelling at unimaginable speeds into precise targets, while the Christmas regime struggles to produce their own such missiles, as they are still reliant on aircraft bombing campaigns. Precision has a quality all its own, or something along those lines. We just have to hold out another two years or so, and I swear to you: we will live in a world without this accursed holiday.
No current struggle session discussion here in the news megathread please, you will be banned from the comm and your comment will be removed.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
https://xcancel.com/nodutdol/status/1873462671909224508
This week, reports confirmed South Korea’s Intelligence Command purchased over 200 DPRK (North Korea) military uniforms back in July. Lawmakers allege Yoon’s plan was to kill those dissenting from martial law and deceive people into thinking the DPRK had attacked South Korea.
Since Yoon declared martial law on Dec 3, many reports and testimonies in parliament have alleged Yoon planned to restart the Korean War. Some reports are even alleging plans to attack US soldiers and bases as part of false flag operations.
https://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/View/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0003089942 (Korean news site)
During Carter’s presidency, the U.S. continued to support Indonesia as a cold war ally, despite human rights violations in East Timor. The violations followed Indonesia’s December 1975 invasion and occupation of East Timor. Under Carter’s administration military assistance to Indonesia increased, peaking in 1978. This was antithetical to Carter’s stated policy of “not selling weapons if it would exacerbate a potential conflict in a region of the world”.
The Indonesian invasion of East Timor, known in Indonesia as Operation Lotus (Indonesian: Operasi Seroja), began on 7 December 1975 when the Indonesian military (ABRI/TNI) invaded East Timor under the pretext of anti-colonialism and anti-communism to overthrow the Fretilin regime that had emerged in 1974. The overthrow of the popular and short-lived Fretilin-led government sparked a violent quarter-century occupation in which approximately 100,000–180,000 soldiers and civilians are estimated to have been killed or starved to death.
Huge Text about the East Timor Genocide
After the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, they granted independence to East Timor (a small Catholic-majority nation in Asia). Australia and Indonesia wanted to invade the country to take control of East Timor’s minerals and oil. The US supported Indonesia because FRELIN (a mostly left-wing party) would win East Timor’s civil war, which began after Portuguese troops left. Indonesia invaded the country with the help of Australia and the US and with the support of the UDT (a conservative right-wing political party and guerrilla faction made up of wealthy natives and Portuguese descendants).
After invading and conquering East Timor, Indonesia began oppressing the locals and attacking the Catholic Church. Soon, the Indonesian regime created its own puppet government and, eventually, part of the UDT could not support the East Timor genocide any longer and joined a United Front with FRELIN (The National Council of Maubere Resistance, Portuguese: Conselho Nacional da Resistência Maubere, or CNRM). Portugal, Brazil, China, Angola, Mozambique, the USSR and Libya supported this United Front against Indonesia (which was supported by the USA, Australia, the UK, France, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Netherlands, its former colonizer).
In 1999, the Indonesian regime was in a bad situation and most of the world had turned against it over East Timor (mainly because of the 1991 massacres in East Timor). A referendum was held and the independence movement won. Indonesia was furious about this and ordered their far-right East Timorese Militias (who hate the East Timorese identity and culture) to destroy and kill everyone they came across. Finally, FRELIN and the UDT asked for help from the UN, which sent Australian, Brazilian and Portuguese peacekeepers to suppress the right-wing terrorists, which they did, and East Timor gained its independence in 2002.
Dems are going as hard right-wing on Cuba as the Republicans in order to win Florida. Not only did they suffer huge losses in Florida anyway, two Dem state reps have switched party to Republican this week, one just announced it a few hours ago. Republicans have a supermajority in Florida now, lmao. Something that also helped the Dems lose this year was not even having a Dem primary in Florida, instead just directly rewarding Biden the win. There were lots of state elections on the same day and Democrats lost a lot of local races because the Florida Dems depressed their own turnout by not having a Dem primary on the same day. But hey, at least Joe Biden got 100% of the Florida Dem primary vote in 2024, congrats!
liberals doing neoliberal policies and enabling the rise of worse neoliberals is such a classic.
Georgia’s outgoing president refuses to quit as successor sworn in - BBC
Thousands of Georgians protested in the capital Tbilisi as a new president allied with the ruling Georgian Dream party was inaugurated. Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former pro-footballer, has been sworn in during a critical political period for the country after the government suspended its application to join the European Union.
Georgian Dream won parliamentary elections in October, but the victory was mired in allegations of fraud which have since sparked several street protests. Outgoing president Salome Zourabichvili refused to step down on Sunday, saying she was the “only legitimate president”.
Addressing crowds gathered outside, Zourabichvili said she would leave the presidential palace but branded her successor illegitimate. “This building was a symbol only as long as a legitimate president was sitting here,” she said. A few minutes’ walk away, Kavelashvili was sworn in at a closed-doors ceremony in parliament, where he was accompanied by his family. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze also attended the inauguration.
Speaking after taking the oath, Kavelashvili went on to praise Georgian “traditions, values, national identity, the sanctity of the family, and faith”. “Our history clearly shows that, after countless struggles to defend our homeland and traditions, peace has always been one of the main goals and values for the Georgian people,” he said.
Georgia’s four main opposition groups have rejected Kavelashvili and boycotted parliament. Kavelashvili is a former MP with the Georgian Dream party and was the only candidate for the job. Zourabichvili has previously denounced his election as a travesty.
Salome Zourabichvili is a French-born Georgian politician, former diplomat and the fifth president of Georgia – the first female president in the country’s history. Zourabichvili was born in Paris, France, into a family of Georgian political refugees. She joined the French diplomatic service in the 1970s and over three decades went on to occupy a variety of increasingly senior diplomatic positions. From 2003 to 2004, she served as the Ambassador of France to Georgia.
In 2004, by mutual agreement between the presidents of France and Georgia, she accepted Georgian nationality and became the Foreign Minister of Georgia. During her tenure at the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), she negotiated a treaty that led to the withdrawal of Russian forces from the undisputed parts of the Georgian mainland.
On 27 December, U.S. Republican Congressman and Chairman of the Helsinki Commission, Joe Wilson, extended an invitation to Zourabichvili, recognizing her as the sole legitimate leader of Georgia, to attend the inauguration of Donald Trump. He wrote on X: "As the only legitimate leader in Georgia, I am grateful to extend an invite to President Salome Zourabichvili to attend the inauguration of President Donald Trump. I am in awe of her courage in the face of the assault by Ivanishvili and his friends in the CCP & Iranian regime.
In the course of the 2008 Georgian presidential election, Zourabichvili and many other opposition politicians voiced support for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Bagrationi dynasty, which the Patriarch of Georgia, Ilia II, had advocated.
???
Some say the tumor was benign, but whether it was cancerous or benign, Netanyahu underwent a prostate surgery a few hours ago, and the surgery was reportedly successful.
I was just clicking around in the ICJ case files for Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem randomly. Opened document 186-20230531-req-01-03-en.pdf which is 400 pages long. On the first page is this, from 1991:
and actually I was looking at something just the same, from the 70s, I can’t find it now.
I know I know, everyone knew the whole time. But even in the words of their own allies it sounds so nasty.
Fukuyama is the type of guy who spams “ff 15 minutes” if the mfer just waited 3 months he would have seen Musk Trump choosing h1b over maga and not declare history has not ended
Syria government plans to draft constitution for some years (and i guess jolani would be president for all that time?). Kinda fascinating that he is truly power hungry guy who is ready to do everything to not fuck it up (if he wasn’t in fucking isis i would have even believed his benign intentions to make jordan 2.0)
kurd question still reigns though*also, also literally cycling through lib logic faster than assad in 10 years
r/JimmyCarterAliveCheck in shambles
Do we recognize any of these names? New list of “Syrian” “generals” just dropped
images in Arabic and machine translated
https://xcancel.com/RTSG_News/status/1872735726187757724#m
Leader of Russian Communist Party meets with American Communist Party member Jackson Hinkle
mason @freeflowin7739 Dec 28 Replying to @RTSG_News He didn’t even look into @jacksonhinklle eyes while he was speaking to him. Jackson was begging for his eye attention. What a fuckin shame
https://xcancel.com/OllieVargas79/status/1873038022406808043
This is how Evo Morales travels now. A convoy of union members, bigger than what the US secret service gives Netanyahu at the UN.
