Image is from Wikipedia’s article on the war..
I’ve wanted to cover Myanmar for a while now but haven’t had the needed knowledge to write much more than “This situation really sucks.” After doing a little reading on the situation, I feel even more confused. A decent analogy is the Syrian Civil War, at least while Assad was in power (though it’s still pretty true today) - many different opposition groups, some co-operating with the United States, others not. The main government supported partially by an anti-American superpower, but who could live with that government collapsing if there are deals to be made with the group coming into power. A conflict kept going and exploited at least partially by the United States and other imperial core powers, though with plenty of genuine domestic animosity and desires for political independence.
Recently, the Myanmar government - the mainstream media uses “junta”, which is probably accurate despite the connotations - has promised elections at the end of 2025. This doesn’t seem likely to happen, and even if it did, how this would work in a country as war-torn as Myanmar is unclear. The government is losing territory and soldiers at a quick pace; they now hold only 21% of the country, though that 21% does at least comprise many of the cities. It’s difficult to get a handle on the number of people affected because civil wars and insurgencies have been ongoing in some shape or form for decades, but we’re talking at least millions displaced and thousands of civilians killed.
Here’s a comment by @TheGenderWitch@hexbear.net from fairly recently that covers the situation in Myanmar:
comment
The military government of Myanmar is losing to the Rebel Groups, and badly. https://www.voanews.com/a/myanmar-s-rebels-closing-in-around-junta-into-fifth-year-of-civil-war-/7958145.html
somethings really afoot though, news about myanmar from western outlets and channels have suddenly all remembered myanmar exists and written quite a lot about them in the last few days. Its suspicious, it could be capitalists trying to signal their want for US involvement in the civil war. It could also be a targeted propaganda campaign already pre planned in order to make sure people are clued into the conflict.
I think this seems to be another Assad situation. The Military government is pretty unpopular domestically and is losing quite a bit of ground. I would be surprised if they lasted to 2027. Supplied by both Russia and China, theyve been able to keep some flow of weapons, but are suffering a lot from manpower issues. Conscription has been enacted, but conscripts are a poor replacement for trained soldiers. According to reports, they only hold about 21% of the land and are losing lots of territory. They also have extended their emergency rule for another 6 months, throwing doubt on the ability to follow through with their 2025 election. They’ve lost large amounts of territory, thousands of soldiers, and 2 regional commands. They’re not dead yet though, as they have some ability to retake some territory and win some battles, but again 21%. Rebels currently are making steady progress towards the second largest city in the country.
while I don’t like the rebels, they are western aligned, they have popular support and are allied to many of Myanmar’s ethnic minority defence groups. Im wondering who really has the power in this situation though, since many of the gains seem to be made by the Ethnic armies, not the NUG. This revolutionary energy could be fueled to establish a socialist federation, but won’t, and the popular revolutionary energy is fueled toward the NUG. It’ll probably be another pro-west bourgeoisie democracy. It will probably then turn against the ethnic rebels and we’ll end up basically where myanmar was pre coup. Probably will have a strong military influence on politics as well, since the rebel forces seem to be made up of officers and very little political groups. By then, people will be extremely tired of war and more likely to accept any conflict resolution than another civil war. In the midst of “It Happened” stands a stronger, unmovable “nothing ever happens”. Would be neat if the Communist Party of Burma could somehow come out on top, but they have only around 1000 soldiers and don’t control a large amount of territory.
China’s interests in the region are still secure, but siding with the Junta is a bad idea, one I understand though. China doesn’t want a western aligned power to take over a china aligned state, and is trying to make sure their economic investments in the area are protected and their mineral income is continued. They have deep ties with many Ethnic Minority states, especially on their border, and the NUG forces, mostly again to protect infrastructure investments and keep the minerals flowing. They might flip back to the NUG as the Junta starts collapsing over the next year or so, especially since the new US administration seems to be really cutting back on foreign aid. The General in charge of the rebel government forces complained quite a bit about how much aid ukraine got and how much he wanted that aid. He was basically begging for anti aircraft systems “like in ukraine” lol. China could definitely swoop in and back the rebels, which while hurting their reputation, is probably the best move long term. China’s only interest is to keep Myanmar from being pro-west, keep control of Myanmar’s mineral flow, and protect other investments in the area.
Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
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.
Yemen has BANNED the import of BURGERS. We salute the People of Yemen and Ansar Allah in their brave campaign against treatlerism.
even imagining a burger can lead to ruin, many such cases
This is a human rights violation and I support US efforts to airdrop happy meals into the afflicted territories
🍔
Unlimited Genocide on international burgerism
*comprador treatlerism, specifically.
This seems to be more of a ban on imported pastries and bread than anything else for self sufficiency.
import substitution time
Good. Fuck im
People already clowning on his corpse lmao
what a piece of shit
Yeah the fact that there are just random people who would do that in the street says a lot about this piece of shit.
With regards to the cease fire proposal agreed on between Ukraine and the US, it’s hilarious but also indicative of western arrogance on the world stage to think the west has anything to dictate in peace negotiations. A 30 day cease fire, all the while EU lackeys are banging the war drums and screaming they want to give ukrainians more wunderwaffe… i mean, how did they think russia would react?
The sooner these morons realise that its a war, and russia is winning it, the better. They need to get over themselfs ffs
Russia should stop referring to it as a peace deal and call it what it is, surrender. No need to sugar coat it any longer, if Ukraine wants to stop losing territory they must surrender and abide by terms dictated by the victor.
A 30 day cease fire, all the while EU lackeys are banging the war drums and screaming they want to give ukrainians more wunderwaffe…
“If Putler rejects this honest proposal, it just goes to show how the Russians don’t want peace!”
Especially when Europe explictly and admittedly used the Minsk agreements just to bide time in order to increase Ukraine’s military build up. I’m pretty sure Putin remembers that fellas.
Putin remembers it even if the western liberals that actually did it don’t remember it.
They shot themselves in the foot with that, like Angie you know that it will basically not make russia trust any deal the Euros propose? But back then they thought that russia would be balkanized by chrismas.
Bolsonaro claims to be a US informant and agent and asks the US government for help. The former president claims, without proof, that the agreement between the countries was for the construction of nuclear weapons and suggested American intervention to avoid a “new Venezuela” in Brazil. Congressmen are asking the Attorney General’s Office to investigate this, as Bolsonaro has committed the crime of treason.
- Telegram
Wtf is going with Bolsonaro?
Damn:
https://xcancel.com/TVFreePalestine/status/1899569710288556172
https://xcancel.com/TVFreePalestine/status/1899841928239214963The case of #MahmoudKhalil is a perfect example of the limits of Liberalism and collaboration with the Zionist Empire in hopes of gaining some equity or change in the power structures. For those who don’t know, Khalil is a Syrian citizen who collaborated with the Imperialist plot against his homeland, and worked for the UK embassy in Lebanon coordinating destabilization programs. He also worked in the NGOs in the USA designed to drive the Syrian diaspora youth astray from decolonization, and into the arms of Wahhabi and Ikhwani collaborationist rule.
As for his role at Columbia University, he was a go-between agreed upon by the Zionist Administration and the Palestine liberation supporters; ie he was not a member of the movement, and only a messenger. He was also against the Hind Hall movement and actions.
So, here is Mahmoud Khalil, a man who sold his country to the wolves for a few measly dollars, who acted as reasonable messenger of Zionist power to the Palestinians at Columbia, and all he got in return was to be disappeared by Zionist Master in the White House.
Moral of the story here, as an Arab or Muslim, no matter how much you suck up to Zionists, they will never treat you as an equal human, and the more you suck up to them, the more they will humiliate you when you outlive your usefulness.
We hope Mr Khalil returns home safely to his family, but you should all know what you are supporting, and to do so in spite of his shortcomings, because his disappearing even though he is a tool, fool or even agent, signals that all Arabs and Muslims in the USA could be treated even worse.
Mahmoud Khalil was the program director of the Syria office at the UK mission in Lebanon, and had full security clearance on all the regime-change operations according to embassy staff; but somehow our post that also tells people to still support his rights, is being painted as conspiracy theory by both Jewish White Supremacist accounts and Wahhabi/Ikhwani/Liberal accounts.
An anti-american fever sweeps Canada over trumps threats, meanwhile to the south…
Tens of thousands of Mexicans rally with president to celebrate US decision to delay tariffs
how tf has Canada took more heat than Mexico this go around? I think Sheinbaum is the trump whisperer. I think she knows the “trump just agrees with whoever he talked with last” meme and is actually exploiting it (along with constantly massaging his ego in negotiations, I’m sure)
In Trump’s statement announcing the delay, he didn’t point to any specific further concessions from Sheinbaum on either fentanyl or trade, even though there are some policy shifts he might reasonably have hoped to achieve, as we noted on Monday,” he wrote. “Sheinbaum’s midday post also did not point to any specific policy commitments beyond general continued cooperation on migration, fentanyl, and guns.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said at a news conference Thursday that, in her call with Trump, she cited a graph from U.S. Customs and Border Protection showing a drop in fentanyl seizures, which she said Trump hadn’t previously seen. "In February alone, the reduction in fentanyl seizures on the United States side of the border with Mexico was reduced by 41.5%. He didn’t know about this graph until I sent it to him, she said.
“she had the best graph folks, you should have seen this brilliant graph. Much better than Justin’s, much better than Biden.”
Sheinbaum keeps winning
how tf has Canada took more heat than Mexico this go around?
Because México is actually deploying their national guard along the border, who are arresting cartel leaders, while the USA runs reconnaissance flights along the México border (even more aircraft have just headed to the USA from Italy for that). Even if these national guard operations are just for the press and PR and aren’t actually doing much to the cartels, this pleases a personality like Trump. He can talk on Fox News about how “México is deploying their army against the cartel, very good”. When you combine it with data about fentanyl getting into the the USA being lower and border crossings being down (even if it’s misleading or cherry picked), that really makes Trump happy. So yes you’re right, for now at least Sheinbaum has figured out how to deal with Trump and appease him.
Ukraine accepts 30-day ceasefire with Russia proposed by the United States. However, Russian acceptance is still required. The agreement provides for US protection by air, sky and land and the exploitation of Ukrainian minerals.
- Telegram
The agreement provides for US protection by air, sky and land and the exploitation of Ukrainian minerals.
So is this just a, “Once again, Russia: please accept NATO on your doorstep”?
Cool what does Russia get out of it? Do they have any incentive to sign this, or is it just another “let’s both stop fighting this war that you are winning.”
I received a report from our delegation on their meeting with the American team in Saudi Arabia. The discussion lasted most of the day and was good and constructive—our teams were able to discuss many important details.
Our position remains absolutely clear: Ukraine has been seeking peace from the very first second of this war, and we want to do everything to achieve it as soon as possible and in a reliable way—so that war does not return.
At this meeting with the Americans, Ukraine proposed three key points: silence in the skies—stopping missile strikes, bombs, and long-range drone attacks; silence at sea; real confidence-building measures in this whole situation, in which diplomacy is ongoing, which primarily means the release of prisoners of war and detainees—both military and civilian—and the return of Ukrainian children who were forcibly transferred to Russia.
The American side understands our arguments and considers our proposals. I am grateful to President Trump for the constructive conversation between our teams.
During today’s talks, the U.S. side proposed taking an even bigger first step—a 30-day full interim ceasefire, not only stopping missile, drone, and bomb attacks, not only in the Black Sea, but also along the entire front line.
Ukraine is ready to accept this proposal—we see it as a positive step and are ready to take it. Now, it is up to the United States to convince Russia to do the same. If Russia agrees, the ceasefire will take effect immediately.
Our position remains absolutely clear: Ukraine has been seeking peace from the very first second of this war…
Ah. So they’re actually saying that they are “seeking peace” the same way they have been for the last 3 years.
setting aside the first two pieces, the ‘return of ukrainian children’ is a guaranteed spoiler for negotiations on this. it’s not a measurable goal - how many children are they talking about, do they have a list of names, are ukrainians sure they are in russia and not part of the unauthorized exodus from ukraine by people who don’t want to be drafted?
they mostly are referring to children who were abandoned or orphaned in Donbas that Russia evacuated from the war zone and placed into foster care.
They all were originally from territory that Russia now controls. So handing them back to Ukraine wouldn’t make much sense since they would be sent to areas they never lived in, to speak a language they don’t know, in a country that hates them for being “Russian speakers”.
“return of ukrainian children” -> either refugees or now russian citizens, so in either case thats a nonsense “goal” and likely just done for PR
Large scale Ukrainian UAV attack currently taking place on Moscow ahead of Ukrainian talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia tomorrow.
Videos and photos of the attacks
The Ukrainian drone attack is said to have killed one person and injured three, with seven apartments being damaged and a house burning down as a result of the attack. Domodedovo railway station was also damaged during the attack.
Pope Francis’ improvement “further consolidated”, says Vatican; doctors withdraw guarded prognosis. However, in view of the complexity of the clinical picture, the Pontiff will remain “in a hospital environment for a few more days”
I’ve just checked what Zizek was up to nowadays
I shouldn’t have
CW: SA
(from the end of January)
This romanticized notion of Russia is often combined with another leftist dogma: that NATO is the ultimate evil. According to this view, anyone in conflict with NATO must have something good or virtuous about them. By this logic, Ukraine is disqualified from support because it’s seen as merely fighting a “proxy war” on behalf of NATO.
when I pointed out that treating Ukraine’s defense as a proxy war for NATO essentially insults Ukrainians, people don’t seem to grasp it. Ukrainians are being portrayed as if they could choose peace but instead decide to engage in a war that displaces a quarter of their population, just for the sake of a proxy war. But in reality, it’s a matter of their survival.
So, as of mid-march, not a proxy war at all
I once made this comparison: it’s like a woman, Ukraine in this case, being brutallyremovedd. In despair, she tries to do something — what would you do if you were in that situation? I can only imagine as a man, maybe you would scratch, try to hit his eyes, or do whatever you could to survive. And then the West’s response would be to say to this woman, “It’s too painful, don’t provoke him.”
I truly, deeply deplore this analogy, not that war is nice, but someone who has been writing about Marxist aesthetics should know better, should know that metaphors are ideological constructs, and explaining war with sexual assault is straight out of the trashcan of ideology
For propagandistic purposes, sure, but this is just trash, and not worthy from a “marxist philosopher”
living through balkanization and carrying water for NATO is wild
he was a ‘disident’ in Yugoslavia. he wrote in the anti yugoslav slovene magazine Mladina, he ran for president in independent Slovenia in 1990 as the candidate for the liberal democratic party, and was widely involved in many liberal organisations that pushed for the breakup of Yugoslavia. balkanisation was a proud moment of his career, not a dark time of suffering
It makes sense, if you know that he was an active participant in that balkanization on the side of the west “bravely defending liberal dissidents from government repression”.
he told you to get the bag, he getting it himself
something something believe themZizek had been effectively banned from the “mainstream” presses since 2015. Then during the Ukraine war, suddenly he had a piece in the Guardian and another in the New Statesman, both of which he had never written a piece for in years. I’ll leave you to decide why would that be the case.
NATO is the ultimate evil. According to this view, anyone in conflict with NATO must have something good or virtuous about them. By this logic, Ukraine is disqualified from support because it’s seen as merely fighting a “proxy war” on behalf of NATO.
I mean … yea?
Hearing Zizek speak on nuclear proliferation really just solidified my opinion that he has no clue about what he’s talking about half the time. Even pro NATO analysts called him out for being ignorant.
A Nuclear Ukraine Accomplishes Nothing
Note the paragraph about Zizek’s comments. Zizek doesn’t even understand the difference between compellence and deterrence.
This romanticized notion of Russia is often combined with another leftist dogma: that NATO is the ultimate evil. According to this view, anyone in conflict with NATO must have something good or virtuous about them. By this logic, Ukraine is disqualified from support because it’s seen as merely fighting a “proxy war” on behalf of NATO.
No Zizek. Anyone in conflict with NATO is not necessarily good. But anyone in conflict with NATO is good for us. There is a difference.
When we have a revolution who are we going to be fighting against Zizek? Who is going to be our enemy and who is going to be the likely potential sources of supply and weapons that we might be able to tap into? Enemies of NATO.
NATO are not going to be allies when revolution occurs.
when I pointed out that treating Ukraine’s defense as a proxy war for NATO essentially insults Ukrainians, people don’t seem to grasp it. Ukrainians are being portrayed as if they could choose peace but instead decide to engage in a war that displaces a quarter of their population, just for the sake of a proxy war. But in reality, it’s a matter of their survival.
They don’t survive by fighting a war. And they aren’t being exterminated. Palestine is being exterminated, the two wars look COMPLETELY FUCKING DIFFERENT and he’s insulting everyone’s intelligence by continuing to try to pretend this is a war of extermination or a genocide perpetrated by Russia, it obviously is not.
but someone who has been writing about Marxist aesthetics should know better
He does know better. He’s just a deeply dishonest dickhead and a piece of shit.
an anticom grifter who has always had trouble hiding his misogyny
Despite famously having a younger, attractive wife for a time, he’s basically an incel. He stayed on a friend’s couch when visiting their university and he fucking reeks in person and is very obviously a pornography addict with serious sexual impulse control issues.
Yep, Zizek is a “Marxist” in the same way that AOC is a “socialist.”
He also gave an interview to Süddeutsche Zeitung, published yesterday (in German). Shitty hot takes include:
But we must not forget that the origin of the Enlightenment is humility. Humility in the sense that Europe is the only great civilization to expose itself to permanent self-criticism.
So humble.
The worst thing in Trump’s eyes is for Europe to say: yes, we should significantly increase our military spending. That would be an example of principled pragmatism. Of course I am in favor of peace. But there are situations in which the only way to make peace a little more likely is to arm ourselves and prepare for a possible war.
So doing want Trump says he wants (increase the military budget) is actually the best way to own him, because he doesn’t actually want that. Also why? Then something something “principled pragmatism”, probably just trying to confuse people with that. I hope he chokes on this sophistry.
At the end of the interview he starts blaming migrants for not wanting to be integrated.
Great civilizations comes from humility!
This dude has gone full trash can of ideology
Former far-right Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is arrested in Manila for crimes against humanity. The International Criminal Court is accusing Duterte of mass killings in his “war on drugs”. The defense said that the arrest is a violation of his constitutional right and a random lawyer filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court of the Philippines to stop the country from obeying the ICC. Duterte asks to be tried in a Philippine court.
Rodrigo Duterte is on a flight to The Hague, where he will appear to answer charges of crimes against humanity, says the current president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos. Duterte’s youngest daughter accused the ICC of “kidnapping” her father to The Hague. Duterte, who turns 80 this month, is accused of killing more than 30,000 Filipinos in his war on drugs.
- Telegram
no fan of his but it wouldn’t have happened to a white guy
witness all the western nations falling over themselves to announce they wouldn’t arrest Netanyahu
There is almost no fucking movement in the UK to oppose assisted dying and I am pulling my hair out what the fuck why is everyone so apathetic about this.
I’m scared shitless about where this goes.
It’s going to be a eugenics program here in the UK just like it is in Canada. It’s going to play out exactly the same fucking way. They will use it to kill the disabled and clear up the benefits system.
I kinda wish we had an option for AD. In the US if you’re poor you have to go on Medicaid, part of being accepted means you have to have less than 2000 dollars and sign your house over to the state who will liquidate your estate upon death to recoup costs spent (even though people pay through payroll taxes their whole lives). The states administer a Medicaid estate recovery system and it’s essentially a way for the state to steal property from the poor in order to get health care for the elderly. Out of pocket expenses would be around 10,000 a month which only the very wealthy can afford… I’m definitely not for eugenics on the disabled but if I live to be 85 plus I would rather use AD rather than impoverish my family more so.
I would rather use AD rather than impoverish my family more so.
I did see articles previously where Canada’s MAID program has been offered to those in poverty.
Literal kill the poor program.
You’re absolutely right. I’ve been saying this is literally the capital class / state building a eugenics programme for a while and it’s only this week that a few people even in my cynical, lefty circles have started treating it as anything except silly hyperbole - despite the fact that we’ve had people who literally went to eugenicist conferences pushing this stuff in government for years.
The Trussel Trust said earlier today that calls to suicide hotlines have fucking exploded with people really scared and hopeless over Labour’s new eugenecist welfare cuts. And while I have complicated feelings about the moral and practical implications of assisted dying, the one thing I’m absolutely certain of is that a state already actively killing disabled people & trying to increase the pace at which they do it cannot be trusted with euthanasia laws.
It’s so fucking scary. We need to do a MASSIVE push to educate people in the UK on the left about Canada’s program, how it has expanded and how it’s even gotten to the point where people who are 27 and only diagnosed with ADHD and Autism can be eligible for it. This family lost their case to prevent their daughter from using it. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-maid-father-daughter-court-injunction-judicial-review-decision-1.7154794
This is exactly what the program would become here too. The right won’t oppose it. The neoliberals won’t oppose it. It will expand every year with every proposal to make new groups eligible for “dignity” and stupid ass liberals will agree how great that is while literal fascists cackle as it expands more and more into a eugenics program.
I have absolutely no doubt that this is what the program would become here in the UK. 100%. We need people to take it fucking seriously and it has to start with showing people Canada’s program because they literally no NOTHING about it.
Everyone says “I’m ok with it as long as it stays just the terminally ill blah blah blah” IT FUCKING WON’T WE ALREADY KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IT’S ALREADY HAPPENED.
Nobody thinks it will be that bad because nobody has seen the horror of Canada’s system.
are 27 and only diagnosed with ADHD and Autism
To be clear we don’t know this is the case, this is the only health issues her father knew about and thus what was entered into court, but it’s possible she was diagnosed with something terminal or had other health issues and refused to tell her parents.
On the other hand I’ve had disabled friends who’ve had MAID brought up by doctors, mainly because their benefits situation is so dire they can’t afford to live in an apartment that covers their needs. It’s absolutely a eugenicist system, I just don’t like using the story you linked as an example as it could easily be a legitimate use of MAID, because we don’t know the details.
Yeah, I met someone in their 30’s who was seriously considering MAID because they could not get reliable healthcare for their mental and physical conditions, which required significant supports and accomodations. Their situation was fucked up, because the combined disablement from their conditions was pervasive and life-ruining, but taken separately (i.e., physical only, or mental/cognitive only), they often slipped through the cracks of whatever system they’re reaching out to help from (e.g., supports for adults with mental disabilities). They spent most of their life getting shuffled between healthcare experts because nobody could handle/treat/support all of this person.
And at the same time, most instances of MAID in Canada have been for very old and very sick people: “… The median age of recipients was about 78, and […] cancer was the most frequently cited medical condition, at 64 per cent.”. I know many more people whose parents or grandparents chose MAID because the alternative was to spend the final weeks, months, or years of their lives barely alive and in severe chronic pain.
In a better society where healthcare and notions of health aren’t poisoned by capitalism, I can see the benefits of MAID for reducing suffering and providing a peaceful, less painful end to someone’s life. Until then, I think that MAID programs created by capitalist societies will inevitably become a nightmarish biofascist, eugenicist killing machine used to cull the “unproductive” and “costly” people.
I agree and to the extent that I can, I’ve been having conversations with liberal contacts in orgs like Sense and the Trussel Trust and smaller ones that I won’t name because I’m closer to about the fact that this stuff is really important and worrying context. And honestly it’s been mostly deaf ears until more recently, but it’s still too little understanding, too slow.
Part of the challenge too is that American Christian-Right money has absolutely flooded the zone of these discussions for years. It’s only recently that liberals in the corners of the media have started noticing this. The Guardian identified the pernicious funding of lots of the biggest ‘grassroots’ anti-euthanasia groups by the likes of CARE and the American far-right. And in true lazy, liberal fashion its just been to (deliberately or not) shitcoat the entire anti-euthanasia cause without highlighting non-Christian-fash funded groups and doing zero analysis on why they might be pouring money into this. Because I do believe that the US Christian right are fine with the shitcoating aspect and knows that it’s win-win either way for them.
It’s really disturbing how anglos advancing eugenics, just one century ago shit, with only people mildly protesting are christians, who torpedoed their arguments on the altar of abortion.
doing Aktion T4 but as sensible and rational public policy for 100% humanitarian reasons and definitely not the reification of social murder this time no it’s good and sensible and there’s no fascism in sight please do not look under the rug
but its #freemarket doing these policies, the state didnt force people to do this11!!!11!
Attacking Moscow the day before saying you want a ceasefire seems like a bad play. Like a little kid trying to get the last punch in before the parents intervene.
So Ukraine launches the largest drone attack on Russia ever right before asking Russia for a ceasefire?
love this coverage. “Ukraine and US agree to a ceasefire which will now be presented to Russia”. definitely not a proxy war btw
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was in Saudi Arabia but did not participate in the talks, said the ceasefire was a "positive proposal, " that covers the frontline in the conflict, not just fighting by air and sea."
So a freeze on the frontlines for 30 days, at least that’s more realistic than a freeze on just the air and sea.
My hypothesis has been that the US intelligence sharing would resume as soon as Russia wraps up Kursk, and that seems to be the case.
The story was originally broken by Al Arabiya a few hours ago.
Honestly I can see Russia accepting it once Ukraine is fully out of Kursk over the next few hours or days, and Russia gets to launch their last air attack. But only if there are further territorial concessions likely in the next phase of negotiations, for the parts of the four oblasts currently not under Russian control, and elections take place in Ukraine.
It’s just a way for Trump to say he pushed for peace. Russia will obviously reject it and probably also respond to Ukraine’s drone attack on Moscow with another major missile strike. Then they’ll say Russia doesn’t seem to want peace.
Trump’s only real goal was securing the mineral deal, which he now did.
So, from what I understand about Myanmar/Burma, the two main factions are the Junta/Tatmadaw and the National Unity Government/People’s Defense Force. Besides them, there are some ethnic armies that are supported by the US and China. And it seems that both the US and China have also tried a peace deal between the Junta and the NUG, but it doesn’t seem to have worked. The junta doesn’t want the military and its friends to lose their privileges and doesn’t seem to have any real ideology beyond the fact that they want to rule Myanmar.
Somewhere in the mix with this is also that Myanmar is once again the #1 opium producing country, a trend that started during the war/right after the US pulled out of Afghanistan.
Also apparently a big human trafficking location where people are being forced to work in scam factories
idk, maybe things have changed but the “some ethnic armies” seem much more developed and militarily powerful. With coalitions like the Three Brotherhood Alliance playing a decisive role in the tide turning against the military government. Some of these national liberation armies have been i. armed struggle for self determination for decades, with only a brief respite in fighting during Myanmars brief period of liberal democracy, while NUG is a coalition that was sort of hastily put together with the liberals who fled and went into hiding after the coup in 2021.
I think what has been missing from some of the analysis I have read is just how we are supposed to understand the class-politics of the conflict and relationship to imperialism in the conflict. I disagree that the conflict is entirely a US proxy war, although the US has played an important and malign role. The military government was looking at political defeat in 2021, in part because they had nearly identical politics with the NLD but no mass base or celebrity leader. I think the military government saw the rising conflict with China and the US and felt that seizing power would avoid the same level of isolation and sanction that they had had before liberalizing. They believed they could get away with it, because both China and the US would want to continue a positive relationship with whoever was left in power (for different reasons)— But this has led to a strange position for China, who seems to only want a stable neighbor without conflict on their border. As the military government falters, China is less likely to put all of its eggs in one basket. On top of that the military government has also done things to upset China (one of Myanmar’s generals was implicated in a fraudulent call-center ring across the border in Yunnan). So even though I am sympathetic to the argument that the US is flooding the region with arms to destabilize China’s neighbor, I am not certain that China is committed to upholding the current government. They just want to conflict to resolve (but preferably with a government that isn’t hostile)… I am not sure that there hasn’t been historic support for the national liberation factions from China in the last, particularly in the 60s and 70s… If relations are relatively good between China and the major nations in Myanmar, given their outsized influence in fighting the government I could see China coming out of the conflict without a major loss if either side wins. The loss already occurred for them when the coup happened (and Myanmar was embroiled with armed struggle)
“Pro Palestine” hacker group dark storm is taking credit for taking down Twitter multiple times today. Cool if true but it made me do work today.
https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1899157996036673857
Edit: added quotes to pro Palestine since I don’t know the nature of the group or their motives beyond taking down Twitter. It’s weird to target Twitter itself and not thousands of other things too.
