#campaign-to-prison pipeline

[kittyit]

"The suffragettes are instructive. Their tactic of choice was property destruction. Decades of patient pressure on the Parliament to give women the vote had yielded nothing, and so in 1903, under the slogan 'Deeds not words, the Women's Social and Political Union was founded. Five years later, two WSPU members undertook the first militant action: breaking windowpanes in the prime minister's residence. One of them told the police she would bring a bomb the next time. Fed up with their own fruitless deputations to Parliament, the suffragettes soon specialised in 'the argument of the broken pane', sending hundreds of well-dressed women down streets to smash every window they passed. In the most concentrated volley, in March 1912, Emmeline Pankhurst and her crews brought much of central London to a standstill by shattering the fronts of jewellers, silversmiths, Hamleys toy shop and dozens of other businesses. They also torched letterboxes around the capital. Shocked Londoners saw pillars filled with paperthrowing up flames, the work of some activist having thrown in a parcel soaked in kerosene and a lit match.

Militancy was at the core of suffragette identity: 'To be militant in some form, or other, is a moral obligation, Pankhurst lectured. 'It is a duty which every woman will owe her own conscience and self-respect, to women who are less fortunate than she is herself, and to all who are to come after her.' The latest full-body portrait of the movement, Diane Atkinson's Rise Up, Women!, gives an encyclopedic listing of militant actions: suffragettes forcing the prime minister out of his car and dousing him with pepper, hurling a stone at the fanlight above Winston Churchill's door, setting upon statues and paintings with hammers and axes, planting bombs on sites along the routes of royal visits, fighting policemen with staves, charging against hostile politicians with dogwhips, breaking the windows in prison cells. Such deeds went hand in hand with mass mobilisation. The suffragettes put up mammoth rallies, ran their own presses, went on hunger strikes: deploying the gamut of non-violent and militant action.

After the hope of attaining the vote by constitutional means was dashed once more in early 1913, the movement switched gears. In a systematic campaign of arson, the suffragettes set fire to or blew up villas, tea pavilions, boathouses, hotels, haystacks, churches, post offices, aque-ducts, theatres and a liberal range of other targets aroundthe country. Over the course of a year and a half, the WSPU claimed responsibility for 337 such attacks. Few culprits were apprehended. Not a single life was lost; only empty buildings were set ablaze. The suffragettes took great pains to avoid injuring people. But they considered the situation urgent enough to justify incendiarism - votes for women, Pankhurst explained, were of such pressing importance that we had to discredit the Government and Parliament in the eyes of the world; we had to spoil English sports, hurt businesses, destroy valuable property, demor-alise the world of society, shame the churches, upset the whole orderly conduct of life. Some attacks probably went unclaimed. One historian suspects that the suffragettes were behind one of the most spectacular blazes of the period: a fire in a Tyneside coal wharf, in which the facilities for loading coal were completely gutted. They did, however, claim responsibility for the burning of motor cars and a steam yacht."

- How to Blow Up a Pipeline, pg 40-42

[mylionheart2]

And the hits keep coming. (Updated 6/7/24)

Meet Donald Trump's Criminal Enterprise.

Donald Trump: Former so-called President & Convicted Felon: Found Guilty On All 34 counts Of Business Document Fraud. Found Liable For Se*ual Assault of E. Jean Carroll 

Rep. Chris Collins: Trump's Former Mouthpiece in Congress - Convicted

Rick Gates: Trump's Former Deputy Campaign Manager - Convicted

Paul Manafort: Trump’s Former Campaign Chair - Convicted

George Papadopoulos: Trump's Former Foreign Policy Advisory - Convicted

Mike Flynn: Trump’s Former National Security Adviser - Convicted

Michael Cohen: Trump's Former Attorney and Fixer - Convicted

Roger Stone: Former Political Consultant for the Trump Campaign - Convicted

Steve Bannon: Former Trump White House Chief Strategists and Senior Counselor To Trump - Convicted

Allen Weisselberg:  Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization - Convicted

Jenna Ellis: Former Trump Lawyer – Convicted

Sidney Powell: Former Trump Attorney – Convicted

Peter Navarro: Former Trump Advisor – Convicted

Mark Meadows: Former White House Chief Of Staff - Indicted

Rudy Giuliani: Trump's Former Attorney -  Indicted

John Eastman: Former Trump Attorney – Indicted

Christina Bobb - Former Trump Attorney – Indicted

Boris Epshteyn: Former Trump Attorney – Indicted

Walt Nauta: Trump Aide - Indicted

Kenneth Cheseboro: Right-wing Attorney – Indicted

Michael Roman: Former Trump Campaign Official – Indicted

Jeffrey Clark: Former Trump Administration Official - Indicted

The Trump To Prison Pipeline:

18 People Indicted In Fulton County, GA

18 People Indicted For Election Interference In AZ

15 People Indicted For Election Forgery In MI

3 People Indicted For Fake Electors Scheme In WI

2 People Indicted For Obstruction Of Justice And Mishandling Of Classified Documents In Florida

1,400 people Arrested For January 6th, 2021 Insurrection At the U.S. Capitol

[psychologicalwarclaire]

10 for Rise. Gimme warcrimes duo >:]

Donnie didn't realize just how much Witchtown hated him until he wound up in front of the majority of the town at Hidden City court.

Witches of all kinds shouted over each other, listing crimes that Donnie most definitely had NOT committed.

"--trampled my mushrooms!"

"--released the kraken into our town fountain!"

"--totally demolished my self esteem!"

"--ATE MY CAT!!!"

"-- and destroyed the statue of our great founder!"

Okay that one he actually had done. In his defense, he hadn't meant to blast it with his tech bo. Defense, however, was something he was missing.

He glanced over at the judge. "I don't know how Hidden City trials work but isn't there supposed to be someone on my side? I mean, ahem, with my superb knowledge of everything I could absolutely provide my own defense but, uhm..." I don't really want to do this all on my own, he finished in his head.

All of Donnie's knowledge of courtroom proceedings came from a show he and Raph used to watch together. Raph loved watching the good guys solve crimes and fight bad guys. Donnie loved the mysteries and collection of evidence. Neither of them found the legal stuff super interesting, so they'd discussed the real life logistics of the crime (whether Donnie could commit it, whether Raph could catch him, and how they'd avoid getting caught) during those scenes. Donnie wished he'd payed more attention.

The doors flew open with a BANG.

"PURPLE TURTLE!" Casey Jones yelled. "I AM HERE TO PROVE YOUR INNOCENCE!"

Donnie blinked.

The jury all looked at each other like she'd made a brilliant point, muttering and nodding along.

The judge stroked his beard. "Good entrance. One point to the defense."

There were very few times that Donnie didn't have at least SOME idea of what was happening. Now was, unfortunately, one of those times.

Casey seemed to appear right next to him. "SO! Got yourself in trouble with Witchtown, eh?"

Flustered, Donnie could only think to say, "I didn't do it! Their accusations are entirely--"

"HEY! That's MY job!" She cleared her throat. "As I was saying, Witchtown is tough, but I'm tougher! You're lucky I took this case, otherwise you would already be rotting in Hidden City prison."

"I-- Casey why are you a lawyer in the Hidden City?" Things were spiraling entirely out of control.

Casey grinned her insane grin. "I love yelling, fighting, arguing, squabbling, debating, etc. Passing the exam was super easy, too! The laws here aren't any more complicated than the Foot Clan laws. You know, normally I'm on the offensive. But I am Hamato Clan now! I WILL NOT BETRAY MY CLAN!"

Donnie couldn't help but be impressed. "Huh. What a strangely fitting career choice for you."

"INDEED! And the lawyer to politician pipeline is extremely fast. I shall build my way up to becoming a mayor, senator, and eventually I shall be the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! Junior has already signed on to be my vice president. Our slogan is either going to be: 'Jones and Jones: we'll feast on your bones' OR 'Vote Jones squared and your lives will be spared'. Catchy right?"

Donnie's mind was already buzzing with how his Genius Built brand could be expanded by personally knowing the president. "Casey," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder, "I will personally help fund your presidential campaign."

"Excellent! Now, we are in the middle of court so we can discuss that later."

"Oh yeah." Donnie had actually forgotten that he was literally on trial. Casey has the effect of being extremely distracting. "I need to tell you my alibi and--"

"Pffft, no need. What kind of court do you think this is?" Casey cracked her neck, and stretched her arms above her head.

The judge banged his gavel, which sent a shockwave across the room. The ground rumbled and the seats all slid back to open up a wide space in front of the stand. "We are now in session. Let prosecutor Gilby Gilbert of Witchtown and defendant Casey Jones of the Hamato Clan enter the ring."

The what?!

Gilby Gilbert, whom Donnie vaguely recognized from the Witchtown episode leapt into the ring. "That turtle is GUILTY!"

With a running leap, Casey Jones flipped into the ring and kicked him squarely in the chest. "Mr Hamato is more innocent than you and your corrupted, black market, embezzling town will ever be!"

The jury gasped.

"Flair, solid hit, AND a plot twist! Three more points to the defense!" the judge ruled.

Donnie was now very glad he had not been the one to plead (punch?) his own case.

"Turtle boy is against everything we stand for!" Gilby choked from inside a headlock.

"Since your treasury records show illegal trade with criminals AND many Witchtown officials who have been pocketing those funds, I'd say it's a good thing that Mr Hamato stands against you, you LOWLIFE!" Casey released the headlock, only to kick her opponent to the ground and curb stomp him.

Donnie was no longer worried.

In fact, as he watched Casey continue to kick Gilby (who had curled into a ball), he actually smiled. Perhaps the answer to science vs magic was brute force.

He had decided that when this trial was over and he and Casey had officially won, he was going to make her a fashionable Genius Built lawyer suit. He'd make it easily torn away to give her more points in style.

It was the least he could do.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Matt Gertz at MMFA:

In a Sunday rant on his Truth Social platform, Donald Trump lifted up a bogus claim of widespread election fraud during the 2020 presidential election, which he sourced to a guest of Tucker Carlson, the right-wing media star and sometime Trump adviser.  “An interview by Tucker Carlson of an election expert indicates that 20% of the Mail-In Ballots in Pennsylvania are fraudulent,” Trump wrote. “Here we go again! Where is the U.S. Attorney General and FBI to INVESTIGATE? Where is the Pennsylvania Republican Party? We will WIN Pennsylvania by a lot, unless the Dems are allowed to CHEAT. THE RNC MUST ACTIVATE, NOW!!!” Throughout his campaign, Trump has lied about election fraud costing him the 2020 race and baselessly warned that any defeat in 2024 could only be attributed to cheating by Democrats. On Saturday, he pledged that “WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences.”

The former president’s social media screeds illustrate the state of the right-wing media bullshit pipeline Trump used to try to steal the 2020 presidential election, which he will use again to delegitimize the 2024 election if he loses it.

Trump’s claim originates with a bogus poll from a right-wing think tank’s “Socialism Research Center”

Trump appeared to be referencing an April interview Carlson conducted with Justin Haskins, a think-tanker at the right-wing Heartland Institute, as Mediaite noted.  Carlson introduced Haskins by falsely claiming that Trump faced federal criminal prosecution simply because he suggested “the 2020 presidential campaign was not on the level,” asserting that “it’s worth denying the legitimacy of that election,” and alleging that a poll Heartland conducted demonstrated that widespread voter fraud did take place.  Haskins went on to detail the poll, in which respondents who said they voted absentee or with mail-in ballots in the 2020 election were asked if they engaged in various illegal actions, like voting in a state in which they were not a legal resident or forging the signature of someone else on their ballot.  “All told, it’s at least — and I say at least — 1 in 5 mail-in ballots involved some kind of fraudulent activity,” he concluded.

[...] Trump’s Sunday social media post demonstrates that the pipeline that brought election fraud lies to the former president in 2020 is still online as the 2024 election approaches. But the right-wing ecosystem is more fractured and competitive than it was, as former Foxers like Carlson have left the network and attracted their own audiences. Given this ecosystem, we are likely to see the varied outlets and personalities — competing for Trump’s attention and favor — push each other to endorse ever-less-credible claims to support the GOP nominee’s contention that he can lose only if the election is stolen.   With the 2024 election shaping up to be a close one, the Republican Party and its propagandists turning election denial into a core value, and the right-wing ecosystem primed to rerun the demagoguery that helped bring about an insurrection, the next few months are looking grim.

Donald Trump’s election fraud lies that he parroted on TRUTH Social Sunday came from Justin Haskins, a member of the right-wing climate denialist think tank Heartland Institute. Haskins appeared on Tucker Carlson Network’s Tucker Carlson Uncensored this April.

See Also:

Daily Kos: Trump gets a head start on Big Lie 2.0 with focus on mail-in voting

[swiftiesforharris]

Kamala Fact of the Day!

Kamala Harris has a lifetime approval rating of 100% for the Children's Defense Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to children's advocacy and research.

CDF has notably lobbied for campaigns focused on public education, ending childhood poverty, as well as ending the school to prison pipeline.

[starstuffandalotofcoffee]

look on the one hand the guy complaining about the amount of money raised by the Harris campaign does work for a genuine nonprofit in DC helping homeless people so he's not just a Brooklyn podcaster type but on the other, it's like. while there will I believe under almost any system in a large enough society there will always be people who need additional assistance, putting a big crack in the school to prison pipeline by decriminalizing marijuana, providing resources for people leaving domestic abuse, and tax cuts for the lowest brackets will all make it so that fewer people need your services. Like, your goal as a place serving a population that is underserved should be to live in a world where they are no longer underserved. I donate to charity very regularly (including local food banks and homeless shelters) and I must admit I've never been moved to do so by someone whining that money that went to one cause I believe in didn't go to them instead, especially when that other cause will absolutely improve outcomes for theirs.

[cosmicsponge2004]

LISTEN...

For any US Viewers here, we all know Joe Biden hasn't been a good president at all. With both his contributions to Isreal's Terrorism in Palestine along with his incompetence when it comes to doing ANY for the United States of America

We also know the republican party is just as evil as last time. With the options there being either Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis. You can just search them here or on any news site to see why they would be even worse.

HOWEVER, We might not have to settle for Biden.

Now, I am under 18. So I am not allowed to vote. The US Government says my opinion dosen't matter. However, I can influence YOU! The 18+ Year Old US Citizens who DO matter in the eyes of the law

I found an independent candidate from a comment section on a tumblr post here (I forgot which one) and he seems great

He's very ambitious (I don't see him reaching most of his goals but surely he could get SOME change done)

Enter: Cornell West

More information on his website (more of his campaign's site but I think he runs it...?)

What does he plan to do? Here's a highlight reel of my favorites. Click "keep reading"

(the full list is on the site)

Abolish poverty 

Abolish homelessness (big statements right there, dude)

Wealth tax on all billionaire holdings and transactions

National $27 minimum wage with special considerations for specific geographies where $27/hour would not be a family-sustaining wage

Mandatory minimum of six months of fully paid parental leave

National free pre-K childcare

Habeas Corpus Healthcare, free healthcare for any and all residents of the United States

Codify abortion rights as a Constitutional mandate (THIS ONE!!! THIS ONE RIGHT HERE!!!!)

Remove Transgender exclusions/limitations from all healthcare policies

Nationalize the healthcare industry, including the pharmaceutical industry

End medical apartheid and protect/increase rights for people with disabilities

End the war on drugs and associated collateral damage on families and communities (Reagan would shit his pants)

End mass incarceration and codify voting rights for all incarcerated people and immediately reinstate voting rights for all returning citizens

Address the disproportionate mortality rate for Black pregnancies

Establish a Land Back Commission to explore and address brutal land theft from, attempted genocide of, and broken treaties with Indigenous peoples

Protect free speech, enforce whistleblower protections, and stop the prosecution of those who expose government corruption

Shut down Cop City and plans for similar facilities across the nation 

Redistribute police funding to unarmed community-led forces

Eliminate crowded prison facilities by developing alternatives to incarceration 

Prisoner Bill of Rights that includes a right to humane treatment and humane living conditions for all correctional facilities

Investigate and end sentencing discrepancies based on race, ethnicity, and class

Ban the death penalty, life without the possibility of parole, three-strikes laws, mandatory minimums, and sentence enhancement politics

Restore voting rights for people with criminal records, including those who are currently incarcerated

Confiscate all military equipment from civilian police forces

Free tuition for all state and community colleges

Dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline by removing police and so-called School Resource Officers from all public schools

Cancel all student loan debt

End the unwarranted, unnecessary, and dangerous assaults on transgender people

Gender-affirming standards of care for trans people in public life and institutions

Codify an Equal Rights Amendment for LGBTQIA+ U.S. residents

National ban on any and all so-called "Don’t Say Gay" laws and all other anti-LGBTQIA+ laws

End crimes against humanity for migrants and their families - no separation of families, no children in cages

Slash the bloated U.S. military budget

Expeditious and responsible closure of global U.S. military bases - AFRICOM, etc.

Cease military funding to the State of Israel

End Israeli apartheid of Palestinian people and press the UN to establish a program for Palestinian dignity and liberation

Cease all military support to nations committing war crimes

(16-24 feel SUPER IMPORTANT to me as a Texan)

If he ain't all talk, I can see this going decently! Have a little hope. Vote for this guy. Or don't, I'm not your dead mom. But I am a concerned US Citizen with a tiny bit of hope. Emphasis on tiny

We can do it!!!

[parcival2]

Bannon set to enter Trump campaign-to-prison pipeline, crossing paths wi...

[obstinaterixatrix]

(semi?) local politics, sexual assault ment

so the state introduced a thing that’s really popular about banning people in the process of being charged for sexual assault or who are already on the sex offender registry from schools, and it’s been getting a lot of support because it *sounds* good but in actuality will one hundred percent be used to reinforce the school to prison pipeline, and a human rights org is sending email campaigns with stuff like ‘care not cages! keep kids in school!’ without actually explaining the whole concept and it’s kind of pissing me off because the dinky little email campaign/petition doesn’t ACTUALLY clarify that this has to do with sexual assault, which *I* think is absolutely necessary context because if you lead with ‘we’re protecting kids!’ people would mindlessly support that, and if they follow up and find out the context ‘this is about sexual assault’ they might mindlessly support that, but if you give the FULL CONTEXT of ‘this proposition looks good on the surface because it presents as protecting past and potential victims of sexual assault by preventing fellow students with sexual assault investigations from attending school, but 1) these laws practically always disproportionately affect people of color, 2) the sex offender registry is a flawed system which, last I checked, still includes people from when being gay was a crime, 3) if a student is an offender, this actually locks them into the school to prison pipeline by practically ensuring they won’t be able to finish school, thus removing opportunities and adding barriers, thus increasing the likelihood of trapping the student in the prison industrial complex at an early age, 4) I’d have to dig it up but I’m pretty sure BYSTANDER INTERVENTION TRAINING and having COMPREHENSIVE SEX ED, including relational health and consent, does a better job of reducing rates of rape/assault, 5) I think there are better ways of protecting the victims of sexual assault that doesn’t perpetuate violent state institution, like it doesn’t seem very restorative justice and it doesn’t have any room for the victim’s input (which makes sense since it’s about state law) but I’d imagine requiring the transfer to a different school, while disruptive, would be a better alternative to banning a student who is an offender from school altogether (although I’d imagine it depends on severity of offense) (BUT LIKE, AGAIN, in cases of sexual assault it is most common that the victim and offender have a prior relationship, so there isn’t really protection to future victims by removing the student from schools, and I didn’t see any avenue for rehabilitation) anyway all this to say I know the campaign is trying to avoid the bad faith framing of ‘we are advocating for rapists to be in school’ but I think they need to be able to equip(/educate) on the legitimate arguments for why police/prison based intervention is overall detrimental (especially since the advocates have an extremely easy argument of ‘we’re keeping rapists out of schools’) (we need to BRING the nuance, not try to gloss over it)

[catdotjpeg]

ILPS US resolutely stands in solidarity with the people of Atlanta as they fight to prevent the construction of the so called Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (aka Cop City)–an ecocidal racist, and anti-people project spearheaded by corporate interests under the aegis of the Atlanta Police Foundation–meant to develop the counterinsurgency capabilities of police departments in Atlanta and beyond as they crackdown on popular movements worldwide. Our unwavering support lies with the black working class community of south Atlanta that will disproportionately be affected by the flooding, deforestation and pollution construction will cause. Moreover we specifically condemn the numerous acts of violence and terror the Atlanta Police Department has enacted against activists, community members, and land defenders, from the execution of Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, to the arrest of 40 protesters and concert goers on Sunday March 5th (23 of whom are facing domestic terrorism charges). The APD and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s actions are an affront to the dignity of all who wish to live free of police terror in homes fit for human habitation and in communities of love and care. 

As of today, 22 of these arrestees (excluding the SPLC legal observer, Thomas Jurgens) are being held without bond and all 23, if convicted, will face prison sentences as long as 35 years. These charges are one part of a vast campaign of political repression taking place on the state and federal level that justifies itself through the specter of “terrorism”. Thanks to the Biden administration’s Countering Domestic Terrorism (CDT) initiative, domestic terrorism prosecutions are  500% higher than they were five years ago, while convictions have risen 300%. This initiative, developed in the aftermath of the white supremacist and pro-fascist January 6th riots to falsely appear progressive and anti-racist on the surface, specifically targets “anarchist violent extremists, who violently oppose all forms of capitalism, corporate globalization, and governing institutions.” In the wake of indigenous land struggles such as No Dakota Access Pipeline, the 2020 George Floyd Uprisings, militant anti-fascist organizing, and the reawakening of the labor movement, the US government has recognized the need to maintain a tradition of surveillance, harassment, false arrests, and assassination that dates back to the COINTELPRO program of 70s and perhaps farther.

Stop Cop City is a crucial moment in a broader struggle against the militarization of police, the surveillance state, racialized violence, and environmental degradation–and because of this, the APD, Atlanta’s ruling coalition, and corporate interests in Georgia and beyond will stop at nothing to destroy the movement. The Black community of South Atlanta’s heroic defense of their life, land, and dignity is not a local struggle. The architects of the project have made clear their intention to have Cop City serve as a place where security forces throughout the world may come and perfect anti-riot tactics and urban warfare for the purpose of political repression. Moreover, many of the project’s corporate donors are multinational corporations with offices, plants, and warehouses in all of our communities. This much is clear: we are all human rights and forest defenders and it is imperative that we not only fight to have the trumped up domestic terrorism charges against the 23 dropped, but uplift the work of the movement in our own cities in whatever way we can and identify targets in every city we can. CDT and every initiative and entity targeting activists under the pretense of anti-terrorism and public safety must be called out, opposed and defeated. It is our responsibility to assert and defend the rights of all oppressed people who struggle for liberation.

No to Cop City! Drop the charges! Justice for Tortuguita! Defend People’s Struggle! 

-- “Drop the Charges! Activism is Not a Crime! ILPS US Stands in Solidarity with Stop Cop City,” from International League of Peoples’ Struggle US, 10 Apr 2023

[mariacallous]

For decades, Azerbaijan has been positioned as a Western bulwark against Iran and Russia, often at the expense of Armenia. The result has been the abandonment of one of the region’s only democracies to the whim of one of the most belligerent authoritarian regimes on Earth—forcing Armenia to become more dependent on Russia.

Despite Robert Cutler’s assessment in his recent Foreign Policy piece “Putin Is Turning Armenia Into a Russian Outpost,” the greatest threat to Armenia’s “liberal project” isn’t its alliance of necessity with Russia—it’s an expansionist Azerbaijan, which continues to use military force to consolidate territorial gains and circumvent multilateral diplomacy.

Since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia has faced a constant threat to its security. The Nagorno-Karabakh war in the early 1990s left the fledgling state locked in an intractable conflict for decades while Azerbaijan and its patron Turkey imposed a blockade against 80 percent of Armenia’s land borders. Over the course of the next decade, Azerbaijan—with considerable economic support from the United States and Europe—would begin consolidating regional pipeline networks that deliberately sought to bypass and isolate Armenia.

Facing unilateral economic blockades, a volatile security environment, and an ambivalent West, Armenia was forced into a position of dependence on Russia. This deepening reliance on Russia, however, was something of a self-fulfilling prophecy due to U.S. foreign policy toward the region. Extensive energy investments by the West in Azerbaijan and Turkey accentuated Armenia’s economic isolation as well as the security threats it faced by emboldening Baku. This, in turn, forced Armenia deeper into the orbit of Russia’s regional security architecture—as Russia is the only force capable of projecting military power in the region. In short, Armenia has been treated as collateral damage in the West’s attempted containment of Russia and Iran.

But with Russia preoccupied with its invasion of Ukraine and its considerable military losses, Azerbaijan has grown even more emboldened and has shown it is willing to test the red line of Russia’s peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh (known as Artsakh by its indigenous Armenian population) as well as that of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, of which Armenia is a member. Although Russia’s largely symbolic peacekeeping presence in Nagorno-Karabakh undoubtedly prevented the wholesale ethnic cleansing of the region at the conclusion of the 2020 war, Baku’s brazen assault on sovereign Armenian territory from Sept. 12-14, in the southern regions of Vayots Dzor and Syunik, has exposed the limits of Russia’s capacity to fulfill the role of Armenia’s security guarantor.

Azerbaijan’s unprovoked attack on civilian populations well within the undisputed borders of Armenia—including the town of Martuni, just 42 miles  from the capital, Yerevan—is in many ways a direct byproduct of the impunity Baku has enjoyed in the West, reflecting both an inability and unwillingness on the part of the U.S. government to hold its despotic partners in check. To this day, Azerbaijan has yet to be held responsible for the perpetration of major human rights abuses and war crimes—including the deliberate targeting of civilian populations with prohibited weapons, the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage sites, and the prolonged detention and torture of Armenian prisoners of war.

In fact, not only has Azerbaijan not faced any material consequences for its aggression, but it has been rewarded by the international community. Between fiscal year 2018 and 2019, the United States allocated over more than $100 million in military aid to Azerbaijan. Despite condemning this allocation on the campaign trail, U.S. President Joe Biden has since twice waived restrictions on military aid to Azerbaijan as stipulated under Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act. And in early 2022, the European Union provided Baku with a $1.96 billion investment geared toward energy security and later vowing to increase its gas imports from Azerbaijan amid concerns that Russia would cut off Europe’s gas supply. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen even went so far as to describe Azerbaijan as a “trustworthy” partner.

Yet if the purpose of the West’s containment strategy is to push back against the type of authoritarian expansionism Russia is undertaking against Ukraine, it’s hard to imagine how investing in a state like Azerbaijan—a corrupt, authoritarian regime that outcompetes Russia and Iran in the race to the bottom on human rights—projects a message of democratic solidarity, particularly when it comes at the expense of a fledgling democracy like Armenia.

Cutler’s argument also conveniently eschews the deep political and economic ties that exist between Azerbaijan and Russia. On the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, signed an allied partnership agreement, which vowed to increase cooperation between the two countries, particularly in the sphere of energy.

In fact, the agreement came just days after Russia’s state-owned oil company Lukoil spent $1.5 billion to increase its stake in Azerbaijan’s largest gas field, bringing its ownership to 20 percent. Lukoil also holds a 10 percent stake in the South Caucasus Pipeline—as does the National Iranian Oil Company—which is a central node in the European Commission’s Southern Gas Corridor project designed to bypass Europe’s reliance on Russian energy. Azerbaijan has also used its extensive international money laundering networks to funnel millions of dollars into Russian government-linked arms exporters as well as U.S.-sanctioned Iranian companies.

Despite the claim that Armenia’s dependence on Russia makes it vulnerable to Moscow’s influence, Armenia has consistently demonstrated its capacity to maintain an independent domestic and foreign policy, even in the face of considerable pressure. Despite the observable pattern of Russia’s authoritarian diffusion in the post-Soviet world, Armenia has been able to develop and consolidate democratic institutions. Despite its security reliance on Russia, Armenia has participated in NATO-led peacekeeping efforts in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. And in spite of its economic dependence on Russia, Armenia has pursued deepening ties with the European Union—ratifying a Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement in 2017 and expanding economic ties that have made the EU one of Armenia’s primary trade partners.

On the diplomatic front, Armenia has also recently sought to draw a clear line between itself and Russia in the context of the invasion of Ukraine. Yerevan sent a clear message to Moscow by refusing to fall in line on United Nations General Assembly votes condemning Russia’s unprovoked assault on Ukraine, choosing to abstain. Azerbaijan, which has considerably less to lose and has routinely sought to position itself in the pro-Western camp, has consistently chosen to be absent on those votes.

This comes as no surprise. Azerbaijan’s recent invasion of Armenia’s sovereign territory is indistinguishable in form and substance from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As of this week, Azerbaijan now occupies around 3.9 square miles of Armenia’s internationally recognized territory, where it controls strategic road networks and transport corridors, inhibiting freedom of movement throughout the country. Armenia’s Human Rights Defender reported that during the assault, Azerbaijan deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure and forcibly displaced thousands of civilians. Over a dozen prisoners of war have been taken captive by Azerbaijan, with horrific videos surfacing of the abuse, torture, and summary execution of Armenian captives.

Azerbaijan’s actions demonstrate a flagrant disregard for the fundamental precepts of international law and a commitment to undermining international conflict mediation efforts. While paying lip service to peace talks, Azerbaijan has continued to use military force to pressure Armenia into additional concessions. Immediately before its assault on Armenia’s sovereign territory, it took control of the Lachin corridor—the main artery linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh. In doing so, it displaced hundreds of families and placed at risk vital humanitarian supply lines by leaving Armenia with little more than a dirt road to access Nagorno-Karabakh’s increasingly at-risk Armenian population.

The continued use of military force against the indigenous Armenian inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia itself does not reflect a sincere commitment to peace on the part of Azerbaijan. Having seen force as an effective means of extracting concessions, the regime in Baku is determined to continue using acts of aggression to enforce its maximalist objectives.

This has primarily come in the form of Azerbaijan’s pursuit of the so-called Zangezur passage, referenced by Cutler. Under the Russia-brokered deal that ended the 2020 war, Armenia agreed to open economic links between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan—an Azerbaijani exclave bordering Turkey and southwest Armenia. For Azerbaijan, however, this corridor has taken on an explicitly expansionist dimension, with the government now making further territorial claims over Armenia’s southern province of Syunik. Azerbaijan’s apparent attempt to establish a sovereign corridor through Armenian territory by force stands diametrically opposed to both the 2020 cease-fire agreement and mediation efforts.

The only material difference between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Azerbaijan’s invasion of Armenia has been the response of the international community. But with the recent visit to Armenia by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—along with Reps. Anna Eshoo, Jackie Speier, and Frank Pallone—it appears there has been a shift in the West’s assessment of Azerbaijan’s role as a belligerent actor, reflected in the framing of the conflict as a struggle for the existence of an independent, democratic Armenian state.

Prior to Azerbaijan’s brazen assault on Armenia’s sovereign territory, the international community appeared willing to ignore Azerbaijan’s aggression in Nagorno-Karabakh to secure its assistance in the containment of Russia by way of energy supply. But since Azerbaijan’s incursion into Armenia, it has been increasingly difficult for the international community to hide behind the ambiguous line between the right to self-determination of the Armenian people and the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

By violating Armenia’s sovereignty, Baku has demonstrated that this conflict was never truly about the principle of territorial integrity for Azerbaijan. After all, if Azerbaijan’s objectives were limited to territorial control, there would not have been systematic destruction of Armenian cultural heritage sites, the deliberate targeting of civilians, and exceedingly inflammatory rhetoric from the regime in Baku seeking to erase the very existence of the Armenian people.

This becomes even more pertinent in the context of the unified global response to Russia’s authoritarian expansionism. What message does it send if the international community stands united behind Ukraine amid a corrupt, despotic regime’s barbaric assault on its territorial integrity but then ignores when Azerbaijan uses aggression against Armenia. By signaling that its response to authoritarianism is conditional, the West risks emboldening other expansionist regimes—particularly those like Turkey, which, in addition to its overt material support for Azerbaijan’s aggression against Armenia, continues to operate with impunity against Kurdish populations in Iraq and Syria and positions itself aggressively against Greece in the East Mediterranean.

With separate resolutions now introduced by Speier and Rep. Adam Schiff as well as Sens. Bob Menendez and Marco Rubio calling for the immediate cessation of U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan and an investigation into Azerbaijani human rights abuses—and talks currently underway about the provision of U.S. military assistance to Armenia—momentum is building toward positive U.S. reengagement in a region where Washington has hemorrhaged influence for decades by granting Baku carte blanche and allowing Moscow and Ankara to consolidate their positions at the West’s expense.

If Washington wants to demonstrate consistency in its response to authoritarian expansionism, that must begin with an immediate halt to all military assistance to Azerbaijan, robust support for Armenia, and a commitment to multilateral diplomacy in finding a long-term solution to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh that respects the Armenian people’s right to self-determination. Anything less would not only signal to Azerbaijan that its actions are permissible but demonstrate the limits of the West’s ability to rein in its so-called partners—something that is sure to reverberate beyond the South Caucasus.

[the-feminist-philosopher]

Kimberelé Crenshaw literally disagrees with you.

“Intersectionality is an analytic sensibility, a way of thinking about identity and its relationship to power. Originally articulated on behalf of black women, the term brought to light the invisibility of many constituents within groups that claim them as members, but often fail to represent them.  Intersectional erasures are not exclusive to black women. People of color within LGBTQ movements; girls of color in the fight against the school-to-prison pipeline; women within immigration movements; trans women within feminist movements; and people with disabilities fighting police abuse — all face vulnerabilities that reflect the intersections of racism, sexism, class oppression, transphobia, able-ism and more. Intersectionality has given many advocates a way to frame their circumstances and to fight for their visibility and inclusion.” -Kimberlé Crenshaw

Transphobia 🎶 🎵

Feminism is a movement to uplift and empower and liberate women, That includes trans women. It's not a costume. They're quite literally women. They go about life being women, treated like women, experiencing the same oppressive forces of sexualization and fetishization and a lack of bodily autonomy and the demonization of femininity and womanhood and assault and harassment as most cis women. In fact, trans women are at a higher risk of violence, harassment, and assault than cis women. They understand the nuances perfectly well, you've just never spoken to a real life trans woman before. The only trans woman that exists is the caricature in your mind.

Never mind that trans women are literally out there fighting for bodily autonomy and the right to love and the dismantling patriarchy's tendency to arbitrarily gender things and assign them to a specific sex and writing about and speaking about how to empower and liberate women and championing legislation and movements for exactly this. You just refuse to listen to them because you hate that their existence makes you anxious; makes you question the foundations of your ideology and the social structure upon which you were raised.

You can say you're a communist all you want dear, the only allies you have and people who agree with you are Christo-fascists and religious fundamentalists. Those are who are championing your ideology. Those are the people Radical Feminists have gone and allied with.

You're literally already aligned with fascists.

(Also, for a supposed communist, you really do not understand the meaning of class.)

I think you like to think you're on the "left" because it allows you to feel more comfortable about your hate. Admitting that you are not working with any actual communists would means admitting you are not working on the side of history that will be remembered fondly.

It's likely a sunk-cost fallacy for you. You have gone so far down this road that you feel there is no incentive to turn back. You dedicated all this time to hate, so you feel the need to make that time worthy by convincing yourself you're fighting for women and against the patriarchy. The cost of admitting that you're surrounded on all sides by snakes in your mind is much greater than hate you can continue to spew if you continue ahead.

Meanwhile, Incels are lauding your efforts. They need you. They cannot destroy feminism without women and they have found the perfect wedge to drive you from it and inspire you to take a sledge hammer to a liberation movement. They cannot get feminism to fail without people like you.

You aren't "turn[ing] in[]to a fascist," you already are working with them, already uplifting them, already campaigning for them.

As for your insistence upon "definitions":

[M]ale dominant society has long striven to define "woman" as a discrete biological category: female, with the purpose of stripping certain people of personhood can really challenge so much of the pro-gender/sex binary bull we are all fed from childhood.

We can no longer ignore how biology, biological discourse, and the terms and words we use to refer to our material reality are structured by historic and current social and political views. A biological reality becomes cognitively significant through this discourse and these terms we use and concepts we engage with. So, defining 'women' as 'females' -- and thus emphasizing a label that is ascribed to all at birth along patriarchal standards of 'correct' genitalia and 'best' fertility -- is itself a political choice influenced by one’s socialization rather than one that can claim to neutrally reflect what the world is 'really' and 'materially' like.

The fact society already defines 'women' as ova producers and child bearers (i.e. the very definition of human female; the sex that has the ability or potential to bear offspring or produce eggs) or even as vagina havers and uterus havers (i.e. the insistence that, 'only someone with a uterus or vagina is a woman') is a result of socialization in a male dominant society that has striven to define 'woman' as a discrete biological class, female.

Even radical feminist Catharine MacKinnon (an actual radical feminist, and she supports trans women) understood that to be defined as female is to be an object. You do not get to consent to yourself; to your femaleness. It has been defined and ascribed to you and for you. Because male dominant society must see to it that female is a woman and "clearly" a woman, opposite that of "man." It must see to it that women are women and men are men and that the two ought be separate because this allows said society to prescribe certain bounds to each group.

Certain bounds of behavior. Certain bounds of public life. Certain bounds of private life. Certain bounds of presentation.

And this all helps foster the reification of gendered associations that decrease the perception of women as empowered agents and even human. These bounds of behavior assign to men the role of Aggressor and to women the role of passive Recipient, helping to reproduce sexual violence against women by decreasing their agency. These social prescriptions encourage men to act on behalf of women from making financial or relationship decisions, to deciding when and where and how a woman has sex, to the definition and social prescription of 'female,' and to the reproductive alienation of those assigned female.

Thus, 'female' is far from a neutral scientific observation and 'woman' is far from a scientific category. It was defined by the patriarchy and the white supremacist power structure and it was designed to strip certain people of their agency and humanity. It is a classification that popped up during the period of post-enlightenment rationality as the European colonial system controlled the world. Enlightenment rationality brought to Europeans a renewed fascination with analyzing and categorizing the world, most especially its people. The enlightenment fascination with categorization was the justification for the colonization of and dominance over non-white, non-European people.

But from the enlightenment also emerged the idea that a 'natural law' governed all people; that we were subject to a natural hierarchy; that there were some individuals more human than others. The modern definitions of "male" and "female" evolved alongside our creation of the definitions for "black" and "white" and alongside our definitions of and prescriptions of personhood.

'In the United States, the man known as the father of gynecology, J. Marion Sims, built the field in the antebellum South, operating on enslaved women in his backyard, often without anesthesia—or, of course, consent. As C. Riley Snorton has recently documented, the distinction between biological females and women as a social category, far from a neutral scientific observation, developed precisely in order for the captive black woman to be recognized as female—making Sims’s research applicable to his women patients in polite white society—without being granted the status of social and legal personhood. Sex was produced, in other words, precisely at the juncture where gender was denied. In this sense, a female has always been less than a person.'

The insistence upon one standard definition for the female-experience, is laughable, at best. And not just because definitions are inherently imprecise and inadequately encompass the entirety of our lived experienced and the material world. But also because the definitions of words are literally socially constructed. They were created and have since been defined and influenced by oppressive structures like the patriarchy and white supremacy and colonialism. This defining of human experiences is influenced by cissexism, intersexism, heterosexism, and sexism.

There isn't a single property that makes 'femaleness.' And that's pretty widely accepted. There's no single thing that single-handedly makes for 'womanhood' or 'female.' It's not like after a certain number or configuration of properties converging at a particular time, you get 'female.' There should never be some one standard against which all bodies are compared or measured for the correct amount of 'femaleness.'

So, when people want to create a standard measure for 'femaleness,' we need to ask WHO gets to set these standards or properties of 'femaleness' and WHY they're the authority. In any claim about which measures or properties are adequately 'female-enough' are assumptions about power and authority. Who has the power and authority in our society to decide who is 'female-enough?'" X

First, "Transgenderism" does not exist. Trans people exist. But there is no trans ideology. It's just trans people living and letting live.

Second, intersectional feminism- which you're actually critiquing as it is the one ideology or paradigm which consistently advocates for trans inclusion and liberation of *all* women- is notoriously not a white movement. It was literally coined by a black woman and seeks to decolonize sex relations.

The issue with modern feminism you have is simply it's inclusion of trans women. Because you cannot stand their existence, that much is clear. You clearly find them disgusting and reprehensible and abominations of the gender binary.

Well, that's... wildly incorrect. Although, black and brown trans people do face more violence than white trans people. Most trans people and all intersectional feminists agree with that.

And what sort of wild conspiracy are you spewing here? You know the majority of trans people work low wage jobs, right? They're not working in the Tech industry. They face staggering rates of poverty.

I do believe trans women are women. They are completely and totally women. I accept them in my feminism because I am an intersectional feminist and I understand the intersection of sex and cisgendered status and how they play off each other.

I treat no one with misogyny. Because I have a deep understanding of the benevolent sexism they brain wash people into accepting, something which you have yet to address in yourself. Unlike you, I also do not demonize or shit on anything people associate with women. There is no such thing as "inferior" or "superior."

I also understand that the patriarchy has a stake in maintaining gender differentiation and the gender-sex binary.

A trans woman made you your coffee the other day. She handed it to you. You are none the wiser that her trans hand touched that same coup you drank out of. A trans woman packaged your latest Amazon shipment. She's not allowed to use the bathroom; has to use bottles to pee in. A trans woman answered the phone when you called customer service, and you were none the wiser. A trans woman sorted and packaged the food you eat-- from those chips you enjoy to that drink you really like to the cereal you eat, and the tea you buy.

She helped make the chips for the computer or smart phone you're using to harass me and hate her.

Me: "Many of those pussy hats and pins and t-shirts with catchy slogans you all love are made in sweatshops. The women making them make cents on the dollar and get raped by the foreman, daily. Because the patriarchy is trying to sell you your empowerment; convince you that buying from these billionaires is "liberating" because the billionaires happen to be women."

You: "This is oppression!"

Die mad about how you're supporting sweatshops in the global south every time you buy one of those shirts.

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

East Coast Storm (1440) An intense storm system battered the northeast coast of the US Monday with high winds, heavy rain, and flooding, leaving 59 million people from Virginia to Maine under flood watches and knocking out power for more than 700,000 people. At least four people were killed in the storm. More than 500 flights were canceled across the region, particularly to and from airports in New York City and Boston, with Boston Logan International Airport seeing winds as high as 68 mph. The storm also dumped between 2 to 5 inches of rain across the Northeast.

US homicide rate falls (The Atlantic) According to data gathered from cities across America, the murder rate dropped by about 13% this year. Yes, we’re killing each other less. And it’s not just murder. FBI data for the third quarter show that every category of crime except for motor-vehicle theft is down, some of them sharply, year over year from 2022. (As for the car thefts, they seem—in one of the weirdest data flukes you’ll ever see—to have been driven almost entirely by TikTok videos showing the ease of breaking into certain Kias and Hyundais.)

Passport wait times fully recovered from pandemic, State Dept. says (Washington Post) Passport processing times have returned to pre-pandemic standards, the State Department announced Monday, with routine services taking between six and eight weeks, and expedited services two to three weeks for a $60 fee. That’s about a month faster than the estimated wait times from this March. But don’t call it a Christmas miracle. The State Department had a goal of getting back to 2020 levels by the end of this year, and processing times have been on the mend for months. The State Department credits the milestone to increased staffing levels. Since last December, the agency told The Washington Post, it has grown its workforce by 12 percent and added hundreds of additional staff in the hiring pipeline. The agency also authorized more overtime hours, even getting retirees to pitch in.

Kyiv forced to cut military operations as foreign aid dries up (BBC) Ukraine has warned it is already being forced to downsize some military operations because of a drop-off in foreign aid. Top general Oleksandr Tarnavskyi said troops faced ammunition shortages along the "entire front line", creating a "big problem" for Kyiv. It comes as billions of dollars of US and EU aid have been held up amid political wrangles. Ukraine said it hoped to boost its own ammunition industry with western help. But it relies heavily on western supplies, particularly on deliveries of long-range missiles and air defence systems, to fight occupying Russian forces.

Pakistan’s former leader Imran Khan uses AI to campaign from behind bars (Washington Post) Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan campaigned from behind bars over the weekend, using artificial intelligence in an online rally to circumvent a broad state-backed crackdown on events held by his party. The social media team from the Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, opposition party used AI to generate audio of Khan’s voice for a four-minute video clip, accompanied by graphics and previously filmed footage, that ran online Sunday night local time. In the video, Khan—who was jailed in August on corruption charges—greets his supporters and likens his time in prison to a fight for the freedom of Pakistan.

Survivors Face Subzero Temperatures After Quake Kills Over 100 in China (NYT) An earthquake killed at least 116 people in a mountainous area of northwestern China, officials and state media said on Tuesday, crumpling buildings while residents slept inside and sending people rushing into a frigid night. Rescuers were searching for survivors in rural Jishishan County in Gansu Province, the epicenter of the quake, officials from Gansu said at a news conference on Tuesday. They said the quake, which struck at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, had killed 105 people in the province and injured nearly 400 others. The quake had a magnitude of 5.9, according to the United States Geological Survey. Photos and videos shared by state media showed brick village houses that had caved in, and bedrooms buried in rubble. Hours later, rescuers were still digging people out, according to CCTV, the state broadcaster.

America Had ‘Quiet Quitting.’ In China, Young People Are ‘Letting It Rot.’ (WSJ) China’s ruling Communist Party wants the country’s young people to be ambitious, work hard and prepare for adversity. Many young Chinese aren't having it. Demoralized by a weak economy, unfulfilling jobs and a paternalistic state, they are looking for pathways out of the carefully scripted lives their elders want for them, putting themselves at odds with the country’s priorities. Catchphrases describing the mood have worked their way into everyday discourse. Last year, the phrase “let it rot” spread to describe young people who have completely given up. Companies, meanwhile, are setting their sights on a hot new growth market in China: the elderly. The country is aging much more quickly than other developing nations and has the world’s largest elderly population with more than 280 million people above the age of 60. Businesses that used to focus on babies are now targeting Chinese seniors.

New cyber warfare (Foreign Policy) Iranian fuel pumps returned to operationality on Tuesday following a cyberattack on Monday that shuttered nearly 70 percent of Tehran’s petrol services. An alleged Israeli-linked hacking group named Gonjeshke Darande, or Predatory Sparrow, claimed responsibility for the attack in a post on X, formerly Twitter, saying it was done “in response to the aggression of the Islamic Republic and its proxies in the region.” The group said it had the ability to cut off all fuel operations but chose not to out of concern for civilian safety.

Unwashed and underfed, babies born into Gaza war face hardship in tents (Reuters) The grandmother has a simple wish for her twin baby granddaughters, Alma and Salma: they should be in a clean, safe room where they can be bathed. Instead, the infants are living in a tent in a camp for displaced people in Rafah, southern Gaza. Their mother cannot breastfeed them because she is not getting enough nutrition for her body to produce milk. And they have never been bathed. Alma and Salma are part of a generation of Gaza babies born into homeless, destitute families struggling to survive Israel’s ferocious military assault on their crowded strip of land, which has caused a humanitarian catastrophe. Their grandmother, Um Mohammed al-Jadba, struggles every day to find water to make them bottles of formula milk. She boils the water in a thermos flask on a fire outside the tent. Elsewhere in the tent camp where Alma and Salma were living, other families with babies were facing similar hardships.

Shrugging Off Egypt’s Crises, El-Sisi Gets Set for 6 More Years (NYT) Over a decade at the helm of the Arab world’s most populous country, there have been times when President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt looked like a man dangling from a ledge by the tips of his fingers. Yet, a decade later, he is still president—and back for six more years, as the results of this month’s presidential election confirm. The authorities said Monday that Mr. el-Sisi had won a third term with 89.6 percent of the vote. (Leading opposition candidate Ahmed Tantawy had pulled out months ago, claiming intimidation and violence against his campaign.) No one doubted the outcome, given all the advantages of his authoritarian grip on the country. An extra edge came from the war in next-door Gaza, which has allowed Mr. el-Sisi to cast himself as a strong leader at home and abroad, just as he did after conflicts in Libya, Sudan, Syria and beyond. This is the turbulent map that is Middle East geopolitics, a multifront five-alarm fire that has made Mr. el-Sisi, in his obstinate way, look like a rock of stability.

Choppy Waters (Foreign Policy) In the past few weeks, Yemen’s Houthi militants have conducted ballistic missile and drone strikes against at least 10 merchant vessels and a U.S. Navy ship, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. To counter such actions, Washington—along with Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles, Spain, and the United Kingdom—established a joint maritime task force on Tuesday to ensure “freedom of navigation for all countries” and bolster “regional security and prosperity.” The initiative will be aided by Task Force 153, a Bahrain-based unit formed last year and led by the U.S. Navy to help safeguard the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. As countries work to combat Houthi assaults, private companies are suspending their operations in the area. BP halted oil and gas shipments through the Red Sea indefinitely on Monday after two more Houthi strikes hit the Panama-flagged MSC Clara and the Norwegian-owned Swan Atlantic. Five major shipping companies from Hong Kong, Denmark, France, Germany, and Taiwan, as well as the Italian-Swiss-owned Mediterranean Shipping Company, all halted their operations in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, diverting many of their vessels to instead go around the Cape of Good Hope off South Africa’s coast. The need to reroute shipping is fueling global trade disruptions. Delaying access to this vital thoroughfare will cause mass delays, putting supply chains at risk of collapse. Some of the world’s most convenient shipping lanes are in geopolitically choppy Middle Eastern waters.

At least 13 dead, 178 injured after a massive fuel depot explosion in Guinea’s capital (AP) An explosion and inferno at Guinea’s main fuel depot in the capital of Conakry left at least 13 people dead and 178 injured, authorities said Monday, as the West African country was assisted by other nations in managing the disaster. The massive explosion sparked the fire at the Guinean Petroleum Company depot after midnight Sunday, Guinea’s presidency said. It caused significant damage in the heart of the Kaloum administrative district, home to most government offices.

There’s No Shame in Feeling Lonely (NYT) This Christmas, Renate Bello, 56, will spend the holiday taking care of her neighbor’s dogs in Easthampton, Mass. Without any family or close friends nearby, holidays can be an especially lonely time, she said, and she longs to build deeper connections with humans. “I know a number of people,” she said. “But they are not necessarily people I would call up to say, ‘Let’s go hang out.’” Loneliness can carry a stigma in our society. People who experience unwanted solitude may assume that they are unlikable or unlovable—that they are to blame for not having more friends, community connections or a romantic partner. “This can cause profound shame, which can erode self esteem,” said Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the surgeon general and author of “Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World.” “It can also worsen feelings of loneliness, as it often pushes us to distance ourselves from others at a time when we need support most.” But the truth is, he added, loneliness is a universal human experience. “We all feel lonely at times just like we all feel hunger or thirst,” Dr. Murthy said. “There is no reason to be ashamed of being human.”

[dertaglichedan]

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu proudly shares photo from her no whites holiday party: Guests included Squad member Ayanna Pressley's drug trafficker ex-con husband

The Democrat has continued to downplay the scandal surrounding the event

The guests included three people fined for breaking ethics laws 

Wu has stood by the party, saying it's tradition and not out of the norm in politics

Boston mayor Michelle Wu has proudly shown off a photo from her no-whites holiday party.

The Democrat continued to downplay the scandal that has erupted over the segregated party, as she shared the group photo on her Instagram a day after Wednesday's event.

The 'Electeds of color' event included Rep. Ayanna Pressley's husband Conan Harris, who served 10 years in prison for drug-trafficking and now works as a consultant focused on 'diversifying the pipeline of workforce leadership and personnel.'

Also present was outgoing City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, who earlier this year was fined for violating the state's Conflict of Interest Law by representing his brother in lawsuit.

Incoming councilor Enrique Pepen, who has been fined for violating campaign finance law, was also a guest, along with Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins, fined for creating a paid position for his niece. Those at the party were first identified by veteran journalist and conservative talk show host Howie Carr. 

Did anyone else hear MLK rolling over in his grave?

[gayestpiano]

it's like some people hate staff so much they can't even fathom something that doesn't directly implicate them in doing something heinous or stupid? or maybe they don't want to believe they fell for propaganda? why is it so hard for you to believe that Russia would intentionally sow discord among populations of people that were more likely to vote for Democrats? why is it so hard for you to believe that Russia successfully infiltrates American spaces? are you under the impression that only Republicans can fall for Russian misinformation?

I specifically remember a post from lagonegirl about a quote from Hillary Clinton saying she doesn't believe in free college for everyone and a comment that was like "yeah of course you don't because it doesn't help the school to prison pipeline" and someone very helpfully added the important context that she said she doesn't believe in free college for people like Donald Trump's kids. you can agree or disagree with the sentiment but that post was probably taken from a real person and reposted elsewhere in order to capitalize on leftist/black people's (rightful!) disdain for the school to prison pipeline and dissuade people from supporting Hillary.

I swear some people on here just Need to be the smartest person in the room so their knee jerk reaction to anything is "oh you fell for that? cringe. I am very intelligent." it seriously reminds me of kids in elementary school who would brag about watching horror movies and not being scared. please get over yourself and read some reporting on the widely acknowledged and accepted Russian campaign to influence the 2016 election and get Donald Trump elected.