#Stephen Zunes

[vyorei]

Live coverage of the 4th of December 2023 has now begun.

Here is an amalgamation of news from the last hour, oldest at the top, latest at the bottom.

I'll be posting sporadically as I have to attend to something but there'll be batch updates

[plitnick]

Israel's Hypocritical Objections to Abu Akleh Investigation

Israel’s Hypocritical Objections to Abu Akleh Investigation

In a surprise announcement, the U.S. Department of Justice said the FBI was launching an investigation into Israel’s killing of Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh. What was not a surprise was Isarel’s reaction. Outgoing Defense Minister Benny Gantz and outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid both blasted the American decision, as did Ted Cruz, who said, that “everyone involved in this…

[theexceptionalconservative-blog]

Monday, October 2, 2023, at 9:00 AM ET A FEATURE TECN.TV PRESENTATION

CHRIS EDDY PROFESSOR STEPHEN ZUNES DAMON GRAYSON

TECN.TV / Chosen Generation With Pastor Greg Young chosengenerationradio.com

[spideyandstark]

O-O-H Child, it’ll get better or some inspirational shit like that

The ship’s a mess, and Quill knew this before Gamora pointed it out, and before he compared its interior to a Jackson-Pollock painting, and before Rocket went hurtling over a stray crate (a moment that Quill has not let the quote-unquote raccoon live down) — but Quill does not expect his mess to be the reason he comes downstairs to find a spider-enhanced kid curled up by the seats, pale fingers gripped tightly around his ears.

Peter had appeared back on Titan last, with Quill standing over him with an outstretched hand. He’d promised to take him back to his dad. Peter didn’t bother correcting him.

So now Quill has two options. His first is to slowly back up the stairs like he never saw the kid, but that makes his heart turn with nausea because he thinks for a fleeting moment that he can send Gamora down to deal with it, but Gamora is gone and Drax and Mantis aren’t the best with the heart-to-hearts, even if one of them’s an empath. As for the Doctor guy, he keeps vanishing and appearing again on different parts of the ship, and sometimes he's not there at all, and maybe he's never made a portal across time and space before, but he's getting closer.

That leaves option two - Quill mans the F up and talks to the kid.

(He imagines Rocket elbowing his knee and offering him that god-awful wink as he says: “Secret third option, Quill. You throw yourself into space, ain’t no problems out there.”)

Swallowing his pride, he walks over to the tangle of shaking limbs and sits opposite, crossing his legs and clearing his throat. Peter's eyes flicker up to meet his, and the kid instantly tries to relax, prying his fingers from his head - but then he winces and they come back up again, and he buries his face in his knees in embarrassment.

Quill wonders if this is something to do with the Iron Man.

"Hey, uh, kid," Quill starts. "Peter, right? Yeah. Same name. Awesome. But irrelevant," he adds.

Peter doesn't move.

"Yeah, okay." Quill drums his fingers against a box absently, then watches as Peter flinches and quickly retracts his hand to his side. It's the noise. He looks at the kid's face, eyes squeezed shut, skin pinched tight in pain, and realises that his ship is too much. He lowers his voice the next time he speaks.

"You need something to block it out?" he asks, and Peter gives a fumbling nod, and Quill leaps to his feet.

He finds Drax upstairs, sitting in the pilot seat while he eats some sort of exotic fruit.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, dude! What did I tell you about eating in the seats?" Quill exclaims as he reaches the large, curved window displaying the myriad of close-lit stars.

Drax takes another bite, and offers him a purposeful stare. "I don't know. I wasn't listening."

Quill pinches his nose. "Yeah, how about to not to. Come on, man, you're getting my seat all sticky."

The aforementioned alien looks down at the seat and shrugs. "It was like that when I got here."

"No it wasn't!"

"Quill." Drax narrows his eyes. "Since when have you cared about the state of your ship? It is filthy."

Since ten minutes ago, when some kid lightyears from home started freaking out because all this filth is too much input-

"Doesn't matter. You got a blindfold or something?"

Drax contemplates the question as he takes another few excruciatingly slow bites, and Quill watches him hopefully, buzzing with energy, before Drax eventually settles on: "No."

Quill sighs and walks away. Drax is still eating in his goddamn seat.

He almost runs out into space as the Doctor appears again - a swirling girdle of yellow-tinted sparks flashing in bright contrast to the emptiness beyond - and gasps in a shuddering breath. Quill steadies him in surprise. Strange's forehead hosts a thin sheen of sweat.

"Did you make it?" he asks stupidly.

"Does it look like I did?"

Quill narrows his eyes, ready with a snark comeback, but he abruptly snaps his mouth shut as he notices the shroud of red tracing comforting patterns on Strange's subtly shaking hand.

"Dude," he says, "I need your cape."

"First of all, it's a Cloak, and -"

"You know the spider kid? He's having some sort of panic attack, he needs something to block out stuff, or -"

Strange raises a hand to stop him, his interest piqued, and a hint of concern underlaying his sharp features. "Where is he?"

"Yeah, I'll show you."

They rush back downstairs and find Peter in the same spot, his head now tilted back against the wall, and his eyes squeezed shut as he takes in shallow breaths. Strange ducks down to his level, and the Cloak comes off effortlessly, forming a spacey sort of dome around Peter's head. Strange sits outside of it and takes Peter's wrist, mentally counting his pulse, his lips pulling into a thin line at how fast it is.

"Do you have anything to cancel out noise? Maybe a replacement?"

Quill's eyes widen. "Oh-ho-ho, yes."

He takes off to his room and returns with a pair of headphones and his Sony Walkman. Strange quirks an eyebrow, but inclines his head to Peter. Quill ducks under the Cloak, and Peter glances at him - seeming less pale, more focused - and smiles weakly.

"Hey, Mr. Lord. I'm sorry -"

Quill smirks. "Star-Lord. Also, no apologies. Now," he grins, "you're gonna love this, kid."

Peter registers the Walkman with a strange concoction of emotions, but he seems impressed above all. Then he says: "That's so old."

The Walkman goes back to Quill's chest on reflex, his eyes narrowing in mocking hurt. "I'm officially offended."

Peter laughs. "But it's cool!"

Quill rolls his eyes but he doesn't bother hiding the grin that tugs at the corners of his lips. He gently leans across and pulls the headphones over Peter's ears, lowers the volume and expertly sets it up. Peter's eyes light up as the soft music filters through the device, and his muscles relax instantly, and Quill's smile widens.

And Peter stays in his headspace, the gentle red of Strange's Cloak backlit by the overhead lights, casting an orange-tinted glow on the slate grey beneath his legs, and later, after Peter's up again and rambling the ears off of anyone within ten feet of him, Quill hears the kid in the cockpit, leaning back in his chair, eyes shining with constellations, mouth humming gently the chorus of an old eighties hit, and as the ship trembles on, his heart sings of stardust.

(Quill later remembers that Mantis can calm people down, but he doesn't regret a thing.)

[horseboneologist]

Tag game time!! Thank you @thebloker ! I'm blushing (◠‿◠✿) I've been thinking "the bloker seems super cool" from afar this whole time and here you are being friendly <3 <3

Here are some people I'd love to know better! Feel free to answer or ignore as you please, no pressure whatsoever! @pensivetense @kenanda @eldritchcatpossumamalgam @dathen @saintbleeding @losyanya @saltbright @lasalebete @tired-beholding-bitch

relationship status: Single on purpose tyvm

fave color: Pink. All pink all the time.

fave food: Not exactly a food on its own but I think my favorite has to be Lao Gan Ma (spicy chili crisp style) - it's a chinese sauce/topping that I put on EVERYTHING it's truly incredible

song stuck in head: C'mon Baby, Cry by Orville Peck. He's just. He's taking over my brain rn.

last thing googled: "How to draw water ripples," "hazing synonyms," "orville peck dance gif" (I refuse to be embarrassed about that last one)

dream trip: Japan! Beautiful nature! Amazing food! Huge cool cities!

last book read/currently reading: I'm slowly making my way through a book called Queer Sex by Juno Roche, where she interviews a bunch of trans and non-binary people about their experiences navigating sex and intimacy in the queer community, and talks about her own experiences as well. It's really lovely so far!

last book enjoyed: Probably Thirteen Storeys as well, I was going through TMA withdrawals and picking up another thing in Jonny's style was really delightful

last book hated: Oh boy I don't know if I remember - I'll drop a book pretty quickly if it's bad. Instead I'll give one with mixed feelings - Salem's Lot by Stephen King. The horror elements are very well done, prime King style, but it's an older book and imo there's some totally unaddressed sexism with the female love interest (zero personality aside from "woman," zero role in story aside from "love interest"), and honestly I couldn't stand the main character. Still worth a read though, it's genuinely pretty scary.

fave thing to cook/bake: Crepes. So tasty, so easy, so versatile

most niche dislike: Uy, I'm not sure entirely how to put it all into words, but I suppose something that riles me up on a pretty regular basis is how the course of technology is becoming less usable, more sleek & marketable. I held onto my old ipods and fixed them & used them until about 2 years ago, when they were finally worn down beyond repair (also: fuck apple and their proprietary repair manuals, istg). I now use basically a knockoff Zune 😔. But I think it's worthwhile to have a tool that's *just for its one purpose!* I don't want people calling me when I'm listening to music, I don't need a news feed on my laptop homescreen, I don't need a smart fridge! Gimme headphones with a cord so I don't have to charge them! Gimme a car I can fix myself! Give me a phone that has buttons! Yeesh!

opinion on the circus: I did ride an elephant at a Ringling Bros circus when I was little. It was like doing the splits, sitting on that thing's back. I hope she got to retire somewhere nice 😓

sense of direction: It's all about the cardinal directions baybee! Once I can get those down in a new city, I'm golden.

[isitmcucanon]

Earth 616 Brands

Converse- The Avengers, Steve Rogers wears Converse sneakers in the gym

Apple- Captain America: The Winter Soldier, one of the things on Steve's list of things to check out from his time in the ice is "Steve Jobs (Apple)", & Sam plays music from his iPhone while Steve is in the hospital; Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter Parker has an iPhone 3

Twitter- Captain America: The Winter Soldier, when Sitwell orders SHIELD agents to scan surveillance footage and social media for clues on Steve's location, he says "if somebody tweets about this guy, I wanna know about it"

Disney- Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ultron sings "I've Got No Strings" from Disney's Pinocchio; Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Shang-Chi and Katy sing karaoke to "A Whole New World"

Baskin Robbins- Ant-Man, Scott's very short lived first job out of prison

Microsoft- Doctor Strange, Stephen Strange's Microsoft Surface laptop; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Peter Quill inherits a Zune

Lego- Spider-Man: Homecoming & Spider-Man: No Way Home, running gag with a Lego Death Star set

Vine- Black Panther, Shuri quotes the "what are those?!!?" vine

Starbucks- Avengers: Infinity War, Okoye jokes about wanting a Starbucks in Wakanda

Pez- Ant-Man and the Wasp, Luis' Pez dispenser

Sanrio- Ant-Man and the Wasp, said Pez dispenser was a Hello Kitty one

Hot Wheels- Ant-Man and the Wasp, Luis picks a shrunk-down car out of a Hot Wheels car holder

Blockbuster- Captain Marvel, Carol crashes thru a Blockbuster store when she lands on Earth

Google- Avengers: Endgame, a fan's Google Pixel phone

Air Jordans- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Shang-Chi's sneakers

Funyuns- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Shang-Chi asks if it's allowed for Katy's grandma to place Funyuns on Katy's grandpa's grave as an ancestral offering

DC Comics- Eternals, Phastos' son Jack calls Ikarus Superman

Ikea- Eternals, Phastos mentions that his dinner table is from the "Ikea fall collection" right after Ikaris breaks it in half thinking it's made of vibranium

Rubik- Moon Knight ep. 01: "The Goldfish Problem", Steven Grant tosses a Rubik's cube as he tries to stay awake

Motorola- Moon Knight ep. 01: "The Goldfish Problem", Marc's burner phone is a Motorola flip phone

Nickolodeon- Moon Knight ep. 01: "The Goldfish Problem", Steven references Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is a Nickolodeon show

KFC- Moon Knight ep. 02: "Summon the Suit", Marc calls Steven's/Mr. Knight's suit "psycho Colonel Sanders" (Colonel Sanders is the KFC mascot/logo)

Cheetos- Thor: Love and Thunder, Darcy gets Jane some Hot Cheetos; She-Hulk: Attorney at Law ep. 01: "A Normal Amount of Rage", Jen and Bruce eat some Cheetos

Old Spice- Thor: Love and Thunder, Valkyrie stars in a Old Spice commercial

YouTube- Ms. Marvel ep. 01: "Generation Why", Kamala runs a YouTube channel

Samsung- Ms. Marvel, Kamala has a Samsung phone

Hot Topic- Ms. Marvel ep. 02: "Crushed", Kamala teases Aamir about his emo phase & his former job at Hot Topic

LinkedIn- She-Hulk: Attorney at Law ep. 03: "The People vs. Emil Blonsky", Nikki finds Wong's LinkedIn profile

Target- She-Hulk: Attorney at Law ep. 03: "The People vs. Emil Blonsky", Wong's LinkedIn profile showed that he worked at a Target in Nepal for like 9 years before becoming a sorcerer

Crocs- She-Hulk: Attorney at Law ep. 03: "The People vs. Emil Blonsky", Emil has Crocs

Warner Brothers- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, clips of CNN play on Everett Ross's TV, which is a channel owned by Warner Bros (as an aside look into media consolidation it's some crazy stuff)

Venmo- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Riri confronts someone about forgetting to send her money via Venmo

Louis Vuitton- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Okoye wears Louis Vuitton sunglasses

Fenty Beauty- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Shuri mentions that Okoye's foundation is Fenty 440

Peloton- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine makes a weird joke to Everett Ross about a Peloton

Nintendo- The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Groot receives a Game Boy for Christmas

[imanes]

Salut Imane.

Est-ce que tu as des livres (ou autres) sur la situation du Sahara au Maroc à me recommender?

Je suis marocaine et j'aimerais bien être plus informée sur le sujet car actuellement je n'ai que des idées vagues dessus.

Merci d'avance !!

salut!! désolée d’avoir mis du temps à te répondre je cherchais des livres écrits par des marocains et pas par pierre paul jacques lol mais du coup pas moyen de trouver un livre qui ne relève pas de la propagande soit pro-algérienne soit pro-marocaine (ou alors pro-ONU/”résolution internationale” aka re-colonisation lol quel bordel) donc du coup je vais juste te donner ma liste de livres à lire sur le sujet mais je ne les approuve pas (jusqu’ici en tout cas)!

Global, Regional and Local Dimensions of Western Sahara’s Protracted Decolonization: When a Conflict Gets Old de Raquel Ojeda-Garcia, Irene Fernández-Molina et Victoria Veguilla 

Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution de Stephen Zunes et Jacob Mundy

Guerre secrète au Sahara occidental de Hassan Alaoui (celui-ci est très pro-Maroc donc je le mets juste pour avoir un auteur de couleur mais bon c’est à prendre avec des pincettes)

dis moi si l’un d’entre eux t’intéresse je le lirai en même temps que toi!

[azspot]

Israel and the UAE have for a long time been engaged in commercial and security ties. In July, two Israeli defense companies signed agreements with an UAE tech firm that works in artificial intelligence. And, even before the new normalization of relations, senior Israeli officials had visited the UAE for a number of years. More importantly, according to Rashid Khalidi, professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, the UAE’s air defense system and missile defense system are manufactured in Israel. They are made by Raytheon, which is an American company, though they are largely made in Israel. And the ties between Israel and the UAE are not new. Reporting by UPI in January of 2012 had already revealed that the UAE had “discreet ties with private security companies in Israel to protect its oil fields and borders.” They report that ties between the UAE’s Critical National Infrastructure Authority and several Israeli companies may go back to as early as 2007. Shockingly, and little discussed, clandestine ties go back even further than that. According to intelligence columnist for Haaretz, Yossi Melman, Israel and the UAE established intelligence community ties at least as early as the 1970s. And, he says, “Every head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency since then has had a relationship with his counterpart in the UAE.”

The same is true of Bahrain: Israel and Bahrain began forging ties decades ago. Stephen Zunes, professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco, told me in a personal correspondence that there have been informal economic relations between Israel and Bahrain going back at least a couple of decades. Israel has reportedly sold spy software to Bahrain. According to reporting by the New York Times, Bahrain had already hosted an Israeli cabinet official as early as 1994. Three years ago, in 2017, Bahrain even sent a delegation to Israel. In the same year, at a security conference in Munich, Bahrain’s foreign minister approached Israel’s foreign minister to pass on a message from the king that he had already decided to “move towards normalization with Israel.” Bahrain is ruled by a US backed dictator whose family has ruled the kingdom for over two hundred years. The U.S. fifth fleet is based in Bahrain, making Bahrain one of the most crucial allies in the web of US allies. The U.S. military actually controls about 20% of Bahrainian land.

[vyorei]

Analysis from Stephen Zunes on the revised Israeli death toll that was updated earlier today from 1400 to 1200

[plitnick]

Pompeo tries to extort cash from struggling Sudan

Pompeo tries to extort cash from struggling Sudan

Mike Pompeo’s decision to air a remarkably dull speech from Jerusalem to the Republican National Convention stirred great controversy. But that controversy overshadowed what was a dismal failure of a Middle East tripfor the Secretary of State. Indeed, it only served to highlight this administration’s inability to capitalize on good fortune, its thorough lack of capacity to lead, and its utter…

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Aided by the longest conveyor belt in the world, a steady stream of chalky white powder emerges on the North African coast from deep within the desert. The belt, its presence betrayed by the bright windswept powder scattered around it on the brown earth below, travels 61 miles across the rugged terrain of Western Sahara, from the mines of Bou Craa to Port El Aaiún, where massive ships transport its contents across the globe.

The white powder is phosphate rock—a commodity both valuable and vital. Without it, humanity’s growing population couldn’t feed itself. Phosphate, along with nitrogen, is one of the two most necessary components of synthetic fertilizer. But unlike nitrogen, which makes up 78 percent of the atmosphere, phosphate is a finite resource. And there’s no way to manufacture it.

Western Sahara has been occupied by Morocco, just north along the coast, since 1975. If you include this disputed region, Morocco holds more than 72 percent of all phosphate-rock reserves in the world, according to the most recent United States Geological Survey study. The next closest country, China, has just shy of 6 percent. The rest is spread out in smaller pockets around the globe. Morocco aggressively and sometimes violently argues that the notion of Western Sahara statehood is illegitimate, and that the region’s rich supply of phosphate is theirs. As a result, Western Sahara has been the stage for a growing human-rights conflict as well as significant regional geopolitical tensions.

“I've been to 70 countries, including Iraq under Saddam and Indonesia under Suharto,” says Stephen Zunes, an international-studies professor at the University of San Francisco.* “[Western Sahara] is the worst police state that I’ve ever seen.”

This political conflict, like the natural resource issues tangled into it, has remained obscure on the global front. But as other country’s domestic reserves of phosphate become more costly to extract in the coming decades, this disputed region could have more of a monopoly over phosphate than OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, has over oil—which has major implications for the future dynamics of food and its availability in the developing world.

* * *

In the 1960s, the widespread use of synthetic fertilizer, part of the Green Revolution, allowed millions of people who would have otherwise starved to be fed by dramatically expanding the land suitable for agriculture around the world. This was driven by the Haber process, which allows atmospheric nitrogen to be converted into a form biologically available for crops. But for any increase in nitrogen in soils, life also requires a commensurate increase in phosphorus, which is mined in the form of phosphate from geologic deposits around the world. The demand for mined phosphate skyrocketed.

No matter how impressive technological advances become, a Haber-like technique for creating phosphate will never exist: There is a fixed amount in the Earth, it’s stuck in the ground, and the only way to get it is to mine it. So now there’s a controversy about how much phosphate remains in the world, and how its distribution will affect food production in the future.

In 2009, a research paper based on then-current United States Geological Survey estimates of phosphate reserves sparked fear that the world was about to enter a period of “peak phosphorus.” Its authors argued that current reserves could be depleted within a century’s time. In response, the International Fertilizer Development Center—a non-profit NGO focusing on the fertilizer industry, food security, and global hunger—released its own independent study of phosphate reserves the following year. They estimated almost four times the USGS’s amount, allaying concerns over the commodity’s imminent disappearance.

Stephen Jasinski, the USGS specialist in charge of monitoring phosphate reserves, says that almost all of this massive increase came from a reinterpretation of data provided by Morocco’s state-run mining company back in the 1980s, as well as independent studies from the same time period. The USGS now accepts these new Moroccan values as accurate. But according to Olaf Weber, a professor of sustainability management at the University of Waterloo, in Ontario, “it’s hard to figure out” exactly how much phosphate Morocco really has.

* * *

A great deal of this uncertainty likely comes from the region’s tense political situation. At the center of the conflict are the Sahrawi people, who have inhabited Western Sahara since before colonial times—a fact that Morocco contests—and have been fighting for the right to self-determination since Spain agreed to allow Morocco and Mauritania to split the area in 1975. (Mauritania later abandoned their claim to the region.)

According to Zunes, the Moroccan government squashes any hint of Sahrawi nationalism, follows foreigners, and bans the press. The United States, Morocco’s long-time ally, has acknowledged many of these issues in the State Department’s most recent human-rights report. Much of the native population now lives in Algerian refugee camps.

Thanks partly to foreign military support on both sides, an armed conflict following the 1975 occupation ended in a stalemate in 1991, when a United Nations treaty was signed by the Sahrawi nationalist movement, which is known as the Polisario Front, and the Moroccan government. The treaty installed a peacekeeping force referred to as MINURSO (an acronym for the French translation of United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara) and laid the groundwork for a future referendum on Western Sahara statehood. Zunes argues that this vote has no chance of occurring due to the political structure of the UN.

MINURSO is the only UN peacekeeping force in the world without a mandate to report on human rights, and in March of this year, civilian MINURSO workers were briefly expelled from the region because the UN’s secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, used the word “occupation” during a visit to Algerian refugee camps. Now, the conflict is back in the news once again, because Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has been campaigning to rejoin the African Union, an organization Morocco left in 1984 when it recognized Western Saharan statehood.

* * *

Currently, the price of phosphate is not high enough for there to be an economic need for governments and private companies to rely on Western Sahara’s sources, says Weber; there are sufficient domestic or other international reserves. In fact, an increasing number of companies have been divesting their interest in Western Saharan phosphate due to investor concerns about human rights, says Eric Hagen, of the Western Sahara Resource Watch, a Norwegian-based NGO that monitors and advocates against the international trade of resources originating from Western Sahara.

But according to Stuart White, the director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney, demand for phosphate in fertilizer will rise in the coming decades, partly due to demand from an increasingly developed Sub-Saharan Africa, which he describes as “a sleeping giant in terms of demand for phosphorus,” and also due to global dietary changes. While there has been a plateau in meat consumption in places like the U.S., Europe, and Australia, he says, places like Southeast Asia and China are seeing skyrocketing rates, and meat requires relatively more phosphate for production.

That means an increased reliance on the phosphate of Western Sahara. As the value of that resource increases, so too will the pressure to hold on to it. According to the Western Sahara Resource Watch, about 10 percent of Morocco’s phosphate income comes from the Western Saharan mine in Bou Craa. If that reflects, even broadly, the relative amounts of phosphate in Morocco’s undisputed territory and the disputed Western Sahara region, then Western Sahara is the second largest reserve of phosphate rock in the world. If Western Sahara gained independence, it would become a counter to the massive phosphate monopoly Morocco otherwise would enjoy as other reserves become less viable.

The dynamics of the entire phosphate market, then, could be shaped significantly by the conflict in Western Sahara, its resolution, or its continued stalemate. In 1975, a UN fact-finding mission to Western Sahara suggested that Morocco and Western Sahara combined would one day become the largest exporter of phosphate worldwide. Morocco has argued that its own reserves of phosphate are large enough to make the Western Saharan reserves insignificant. But, as Toby Shelly argues in Endgame in the Western Sahara: What Future for Africa’s Last Colony?, that position ignores the fact that an independent Western Sahara would significantly reduce Moroccan market share and their ability to control the price of the commodity.

The existence of a Moroccan monopoly would have a disproportionate effect on poorer countries, according to White and other researchers. In a 2011 Nature comment, the sustainability and natural resources scientists Jim Elser, of Arizona State University, and Elena Bennet, of McGill University, argued that “developing-world farmers cannot afford phosphate fertilizers even at today’s non-monopoly prices,” let alone in a future dominated only by Moroccan phosphate. “Many of the world’s food producers are in danger of becoming completely dependent on trade with Morocco, where press reports have emerged of Dubai-style luxury developments being planned in anticipation of phosphorus windfalls.”

Morocco, for their part, has been denying Western Saharan independence with growing vigor. In February of this year, Morocco’s Minister of Communication announced a program to train Moroccan youth to defend the government stance on Western Sahara through social media. Leaked diplomatic cables suggest increased concern over the international perception of Morocco’s claim to the land. The Polisario, meanwhile, have stated that they are ready to raise arms, once again, over Western Sahara.

The future of the region, the actual distribution of the world’s phosphate reserves, and the market forces driving the commodity’s future are full of uncertainty. The one thing that is certain is mentioned in a footnote in the USGS mineral resources report: “There are no substitutes for phosphorus in agriculture.”” - Alex Kasprak, “The Desert Rock That Feeds the World.” The Atlantic. November 29, 2016. Picture is ‘A vehicle carries untreated phosphate at a phosphate mine in Western Sahara.’ YOUSSEF BOUDLAL / REUTERS

[antoine-roquentin]

There is little evidence for this contention that Iran in general or Soleimani personally is responsible for killing hundreds of Americans. When the State Department claimed last April that Iran was responsible for the deaths of 608 American servicemembers in Iraq between 2003 and 2011, investigative journalist Gareth Porter (Truthout, 7/9/19) asked Navy Commander Sean Robertson for evidence, and Robertson “acknowledged that the Pentagon doesn’t have any study, documentation or data to provide journalists that would support such a figure.”

Porter showed that the US attribution of deaths in Iraq to Iran is an unsubstantiated government talking point from the Cheney era, one that was exposed at the time when Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno admitted that, though the US had attributed Iraqi resistance fighters’ weapons to Iran, US troops found many sites in Iraq at which such weapons were being manufactured.

Scholar Stephen Zunes (Progressive, 1/7/20) similarly demonstrated the lack of evidence for the idea that Iran is behind the killing of US forces in Iraq. Zunes noted that the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, compiled by America’s 16 intelligence agencies, downplayed Iran’s role in Iraq’s violence at roughly the same time that the Bush administration was saying that Iran was culpable.

As Porter pointed out, there was a much simpler explanation for American deaths in the period: The US targeted Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army and the Mahdi Army fought back, imposing more casualties on US troops.

That the pundits dusted off 13-year-old propaganda to rationalize killing Soleimani is a clear indication that they were desperately grasping for any imperialist apologia within reach. If the American public is led to believe that Soleimani killed hundreds of Americans, large swathes of it are likely to regard his assassination as justified, necessary, or at worst a feature of the tit-for-tat ugliness inherent to war.

The narrative also ideologically shores up the US war on Iran in the American popular consciousness by presenting Iranians as primordially violent savages out to spill the blood of Americans, notably those in the military who are in the Middle East, presumably doing nothing but minding their own business. Presenting Iran as the reason for attacks on US forces in Iraq also implies that Iraqis had little objection to the US invasion, legitimizing the US’s ongoing military presence in the country. The most obvious point about the deaths of US soldiers in Iraq is that they wouldn’t happen if US soldiers weren’t in Iraq.

the main iranian proxy in iraq is the badr organization. in its role as occupying power, america appointed the brother of the founder of badr to the interim governing council, then agreed with the maliki government to appoint a former badr military commander to the position of minister of the interior. in turn, the american colonel james steele was appointed to advise the creation of the “wolf brigade” death squads under the ministry, who were supplied by the americans and staffed by badr members, for the purpose of expediting a civil war among shi’ites and sunnis in iraq. ultimately, after 3 years and hundreds of thousands of deaths, the prior religious makeup of iraq was completely destroyed and a degree of segregation between sects never before seen was imposed. the actual organization that america accuses of being supported by soleimani in the killing of americans is the mahdi army, lead by moqtada al-sadr. in contrast to iranian hopes of an accord with the americans in 2003-4 (they were very happy that their biggest enemy had been taken out), the mahdi army initially attempted to build a broad, anti-sectarian resistance to american forces. they then got into a war with the badr organization in 2006. today al-sadr is soliciting support from the saudis as a counterweight to iran and allying with the iraqi  communist party in elections in order to portray himself as an iraqi nationalist.

[protoslacker]

None of the successful cases I studied included a pacifist or moral commitment to nonviolence. They realized as a practical matter that using violence would play into the strengths of the coup plotters. Instead, they wanted to weaken the morale, and even win over as many as possible of those on the ground level who were supposed to repress them. And the activists couldn’t win them over if they were attacking them.

Stephen Zunes quoted in an article by George Lakey in Waging Nonviolence. Mass direct action might be the only way to stop Trump from stealing the election

The more quickly we nonviolently disrupt Trump’s plans — at scale — the less longer-term disruption to our country and our lives.

[elisaphoenix13]

Petals For You

Quill came to Earth because he wanted to properly meet those he had fought beside against Thanos and his army, as well as catch up with what he had missed. Technology had very obviously been upgraded while he was gone if his Zune was anything to go by, and Tony's AI's blew his mind. When he arrived at the tower asking if he could stay for a little while, the billionaire stuck him with...well he wasn't sure who. Thumbelina couldn't have been their real name. Tony asked FRIDAY to call 'Thumbelina' up to the family floor, and Quill munched on some chips Peter and Harley had offered him. They were right. You couldn't eat just one.

When Scott finally made it up to their floor, Tony properly introduced them.

"Thumbelina...Porcupine." Stephen had actually facepalmed at his husband's idea of an introduction. "He's gonna crash on your floor while he's here and whenever he visits."

Quill sticks out his hand and barely catches the weird look the shorter man gives him. "Quill. Peter Quill. Or Starlord."

"Uhh...Scott Lang. Antman." He reaches out to shake Quill's hand while another weird look flashes across his face and then he looks at Tony. "I don't mind, but why my floor?"

Tony shrugs. "Figured you guys might like the same things and you're one of the few that has the patience to ask any questions Porcupine has. He hasn't been on Earth for thirty years."

Scott's eyes widen and he looks at Quill. "You're joking."

"Nope." Quill replies.

Scott took that knowledge in stride and Tony was right. He did like some of the same things that Quill did, introduced him to the newest technology, apps like Spotify, and always answered any questions the pirate had even if it came out sounding dumb. Scott just smiled and assured him that thirty years away from Earth was a good excuse. They were fast friends, best friends, and did almost everything together. Watched movies, ate dinner, hell...Quill even went with Scott (and sometimes Cassie) when he ran errands. New York was just a little bit better than Knowhere with the hustle and bustle, and Quill definitely did not have a small meltdown at the grocery store.

Oranges were called oranges for a reason.

He and Scott even fought together well during missions or invasions. In fact, they were rarely seen apart. If one saw Quill, it wouldn't take much looking to find Scott nearby, and vice versa.

The shit had to hit the fan for him eventually though, and his first warning he had shrugged off. Quill and Scott decided to have a movie night and were sitting on the couch, finishing their first movie, when Scott stood up.

"Cassie said she was going upstairs to make cookies with Dia. I'm gonna go see if they're done and if there's any left."

"Oh. Sure. I'll look for the next movie." Quill says as he picks up the remote.

Scott was halfway to the elevator when he suddenly turned to face Quill and ask him a question but the space pirate was too distracted by the new view he got. Specifically the way the rays of the setting sun hit the other man's eyes and made them look gold. That was when he knew he was in trouble. Because the first thought that came to his mind when he saw that?

Holy shit he looks beautiful.

Not 'oh cool', or anything a friend might think of that scene, but beautiful.

"Quill?" Scott's voice filters through his fog of confusion and Quill shakes his head.

"What?"

"I asked if you wanted anything while I'm up there."

"I could really go for a beer right now." Quill says with a groan as he stretches out and kicks his feet up onto the coffee table.

Scott's answering grin would be his downfall. As soon as the younger male disappeared onto the elevator, Quill felt a tickle in his throat and coughed to clear it, only for a single flower petal to escape past his lips. What the fuck? Did he maybe swallow it when they were out running errands today? It had been windy so it was possible. Quill was still staring at the petal in his hand when Scott came back about five minutes later, and the thief drops back onto the couch beside him and holds out Quill's requested beer.

"What are you looking at Spaceman?" Scott nudges the bottle of beer into Quill's other hand as he looks down at the flower petal. "Oh. Looks like that came from a gardenia. Those are my favorite."

Quill sniggers. "You can tell from one petal?"

"Shut up. There's nothing wrong with having a favorite flower!"

"I didn't say there was!"

The petal was then all but forgotten and Quill shrugged it off. He was too occupied with keeping his feelings to himself anyway. He thought that maybe it was just a spur of the moment infatuation, but it wasn't. The more he watched Scott, the more he started to notice the little things, and the more he fell. Scott's smile gave him life now. Seeing him get hurt affected him even more.

Seeing Scott flirt with Stephen had him coughing again, and this time it was more than one petal. That was when Quill started to worry. He hadn't been outside at all that day when it happened, and it was still white gardenia petals. Quill just threw them away and acted as if nothing happened when Scott turned to him and asked him to run errands with him again. Of course he went without a second thought. He loved spending time with his fellow thief. Even Cassie. She was sassy but also incredibly sweet and seemed to like Quill. Once, she jumped onto his back and used him as a shield when Harley was threatening her with a potato gun, and the boy fled as soon as he found out she was using the celestial as protection.

Powers that had been dormant until Scott got hurt on a mission but no one knew that Scott was the trigger of course. Now Cassie used him as a human (god) shield on a regular basis. Quill didn't mind. He thought it was actually pretty funny.

Stephen noticed the third time Quill coughed up some petals and it had been a small handful, and just when they finished a mission. All he did was look at Scott grinning over their victory and it threw Quill into a coughing fit. He tried to hide the petals by covering his mouth, but a couple had slipped through and Stephen was dragging him through a portal and into a medbay before Quill could process it.

"When did this start?" The sorcerer asks calmly but with obvious concern in his eyes.

"What? The petals? It's nothing-" Quill waves his hand at Stephen but the doctor grabs his wrist.

"It is a very big deal. When did it start?"

"I don't know...a couple of months ago? How is it a big deal?" Quill asks dubiously.

Then Stephen told him what was wrong with him. Hanahaki disease. When a victim suffered from unrequited love, flowers took root in their lungs and grew. They would cough up petals over time, and if they didn't admit their feelings to the person they loved, and then have those feelings returned, the flowers would grow to the point where they would suffocate the victim and they would die.  It was extremely rare and Stephen didn't even know it existed in this universe until he saw Quill coughing up flower petals.

"It supposedly only affects those that are truly in love with someone. There are other universes where it could affect anyone in love...but here? It may sound cliche, but true love." Stephen sighs.

"How do I get rid of it then?" Quill asks quietly.

"You have two options. Surgery...but that could also take away the feelings and the memories of the person of interest..."

Quill winces at that option. "The second?"

"You tell Scott." Quill sputters at the mention of his floormate and Stephen rolls his eyes. "Oh please, you'd have to be as blind as Scott to not see that you love him."

Quill coughs again and Stephen frowns when the pirate pulls his hand away to find a small handful of white petals covered in specks of blood. He didn't have much time now. Maybe another month at most, but he couldn't do either of the choices that Stephen presented him with. The time he spent with Scott was too special to him to risk losing. He loved every moment. Every song they listened to together, the comfortable silences while Scott worked and Quill watched tv, movie nights...all of it. He couldn't tell Scott either though. He didn't want to ruin this friendship he had. Scott was his best friend and he never had one of those before. What if he told Scott his feelings for him and he rejected him? That would ruin what they had and he would be stuck with these damn flowers in his throat anyway. Maybe then he would have the surgery and forget all of this. Scott would reject him, Quill would have the flowers surgically removed, and he would go back into space like nothing had ever happened.

Scott would know though. He would keep those memories. He would probably find out about the hanahaki disease and feel responsible and Quill couldn't do that to him. This all sucked. No matter what he did, Scott would be the real victim, because Quill had a third choice.

Enjoy the time he had left with Scott.

Maybe before the flowers took his life, the least he could do is write a note and try to reassure Scott that none of it was his fault. That it was Quill's choice.

He must have had an obvious look on his face because Stephen actually glared at him. "I will not step back and watch you kill yourself like a fool. You have the two options I have given you and nothing else!"

Quill returns the glare with one of his own. "I don't remember asking you what decision I should make! I only asked you for ways I might get rid if this! If I choose neither that's on me!"

Then he stormed off and back up to the floor he shared with Scott and Cassie. He barely noticed that Cassie was trying to keep Diana occupied in the living room when he went up to his room, and kept to himself for the rest of the night. He needed some time to cool down and come to terms with his inevitable doom. Scott had knocked on the door to check up on Quill, and after managing to tell the younger that he was just tired and was turning in early, he had coughed up a larger handful of gardenia petals. These covered in a little more blood as he threw them away. A month was pushing it.

He was back to spending time with Scott the next morning, but as time passed, the coughing got worse. Breathing started to become difficult. The time he had left to spend with Scott was being spent in his room because the petals came too often. He had to hide his illness from Scott because he didn't want to worry him anymore than he already was. At the moment, Scott just thought he was catching a cold with how much he was coughing, and Quill was thankful that none of the petals had escaped around the younger man.

One day, about three weeks after Stephen confronted him, Quill had to bow out of a mission. Breathing had become too difficult and he could barely walk down to the kitchen without wheezing, let alone fight. He was an immortal god, and a disease that supposedly originated from folk lore would be what killed him. He could still die, but it would be incredibly hard to kill him (unless it was death by a broken heart/lovesickness obviously). Maybe that was what was best. Even if Scott miraculously returned his feelings, Quill wouldn't be able to grow old with him and he wasn't sure if he could share that immortality.

Just the thought of Scott had Quill vomiting petals and blood, and he actually had to use the wall for support so he wouldn't fall over. Breathing was now a distant memory as he lowered himself to the ground and leaned against the wall, wheezing being his new way of getting oxygen into his body. He was alone in his room, everyone else out on a mission that he couldn't help with, and for one second he wished Scott was with him. Just one. That one second he wished he wasn't alone while he suffocated to death, but then the second had passed and he was glad Scott didn't have to watch him suffer. Or Cassie. Or anyone really.

Black spots slowly filled his vision as he gasped for breath until all he could see were outlines, and that was when his brain tried to comfort him in his last moments. An outline of someone enters his field of vision, and Quill relaxes when he smells the strange combination of mint and oranges. His brain was comforting him with details of the one person that was the reason for his doom, but he didn't care. He would take it. Even if the hands on his face was just an illusion. The sounds that followed were too muffled to decipher if they were words, but it had been Scott's voice he heard somewhere in that mess he heard.

Then his brain supplied him with the kiss that Quill had been (literally) dying to experience. Scott tasted exactly as he expected which was just like he smelled, and the kiss was surprisingly soft.

Some part of Quill's brain that was still getting oxygen screamed at him though. Screamed that this was real, and for a split second he believed it. For a split second, Quill believed that Scott loved him back and that he was really being kissed and that split second was enough. He pulled away and breathed. His vision cleared with each gulp of air he took in and he could feel the flowers in his throat shriveling away until it was like he never suffered from hanahaki. As soon as he looked up with the hopes that this wasn't a dream (or that he had died), he gaze met Scott's misty hazel and he stared. It had been real. Those muffled sounds he heard was Scott talking to him, and when Quill didn't respond, he took to a more physical approach.

"Victor alerted Stephen to your condition. So Stephen told me what was going on and opened a portal for me." Quill says nothing as he brain continues to recover from the lack of oxygen and the extra information that Scott is rambling about. "Why didn't you say something?!"

"You...you're my first best friend, and I didn't want to ruin that. I didn't want to risk forgetting you either." Quill manages to say after he gets his mouth to cooperate. "I thought I loved Gamora...but you're a whole different level."

"You suffered for nothing you moron! I'm pretty sure I loved you the moment I met you and--mmph!"

Quill interrupts Scott's rant and pulls him into another kiss. It was all real. He was alive, and Scott loved him back. Kissing Scott was now the only reason Quill would keep himself from breathing. Something he definitely wouldn't take for granted anymore. Air was a luxury now.

When Scott pulled away, he looked down at the blood-stained petals scattered on the ground next to Quill and looked at them with open disdain. "I officially hate gardenias now."

Quill's chuckle rumbles in his chest. "How about tulips?"

Scott smiles. "Tulips are pretty."

Quill reaches up and brushes his thumb along Scott's jaw. "I love you Scotty. I'm sorry I didn't say something before."

"I love you too Spaceman. Dumbassery and all."

"Hey!"

[loudlylovingreview]

Michael Simms: US involvement in Yemen Civil War Continues to Grow under Trump

Michael Simms: US involvement in Yemen Civil War Continues to Grow under Trump

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