#crumbling russian infrastructure

[tomorrowusa]

Russia, a fossil fuel superpower, is experiencing significant heating issues this winter.

Thousands of Russians have been affected by heating systems failing across the country, including Moscow and its outskirts, the Moscow Oblast, as they face one of the harshest winters in decades. The wave of breakdowns started in December and shows no sign of stopping. This week, at least 16 people suffered burns in the city of Nizhny Novgorod when a large-bore heating pipe exploded, spouting boiling water into the street. The pipe failure also left more than 3,000 people without heat, according to a local news channel on Telegram. [ ... ] The most severe breakdown occurred in Klimovsk, a district of the city of Podolsk in Moscow Oblast, just 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the capital. On January 4, the temperature dropped to -34 Celsius (-29.2 Fahrenheit) — the coldest spell for the area in at least 40 years. On the same day, a Klimovsk heating plant failed. Some 20,000 people were left without heat in the district of 50,000 people. Thousands of them remained cut off from the heating grid for several days. Other cities and towns in the region also experienced multi-day heating failures during the extremely cold weather, with residents of the city of Elektrostal lighting bonfires in front of their apartment buildings as a sign of protest.

Putin has his priorities. The Brezhnev-era infrastructure in Russia is falling apart but he is still diverting resources to his 3-day 696-day "special operation" in Ukraine.

Experts warned that the heating network in Russia is poorly maintained and outdated — especially in the areas that have massively increased their population density since the Soviet times. Even now, some parts of the country still use decades-old steel pipes, well past their projected 25-year lifetime, according to Russia's The Bell outlet. Official figures cited by The Bell indicate that some 3% of the heating, water and sanitation network is labeled as being in a state of "emergency" every year. Still, only 1%-2% are being modernized, leading to thousands of breakdowns.

Putin gambled about who would "suffer" – and he lost.

Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, state propagandists issued dire warnings over EU sanctions on gas imports, claiming Europe would "freeze" without access to Russian gas for its heat. Nearly two years into the war, however, heating in Europe appears stable while Russian officials scramble to respond to the heating crisis. This contrast is pointed out with glee by Putin critics and Russian-speaking users from war-torn Ukraine. "They decided to freeze out Europe, but that didn't work. Then they decided to freeze their own to intimidate others," a YouTube user commented under a video reporting on the breakdowns.

Europe had already been increasing the amount of energy it gets from renewable sources. And after Putin's illegal invasion began, many European countries greatly decreased the amount of natural gas they import from Russia. Being less reliant on Russian energy has made Europe more independent. It's never a good idea to become dependent on neighboring dictators.

This report on people freezing in Russia is from UATV in Ukraine. You'd never get anything this candid about the Russian heating crisis on Russian state media.

Dictator Putin's invasion of Ukraine has only spotlighted Russia's shoddy army, its decaying infrastructure, its endless corruption, and its police state repression. If Putin was trying to demonstrate what a great world power Russia is, his invasion has only proven the opposite.

[magnetothemagnificent]

Man the 2020s have just been speedrunning the entire 20th century, huh?

-Global pandemic

-Economic crisis

-Russian imperialism

-UFOs

-Cold War with multiple countries

-McCarthyism

-Fascism rising

-Union busting

-Crumbling infrastructure

-Criminalizing LGBTQ people

-Presidential scandals

-Antisemitism skyrocketing

-Government sanctioned racism

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

It's been really illuminating watching the language of the Western War Machine work in real time. I think the thing that's been impressed on me the most is that "terrorism" is never a crime that you commit, it's a crime that you experience.

Even during wars where the explicit strategy was the targeting of civilian infrastructure with the intent of causing fear and societal unrest (which never worked btw), America were never terrorists. We never frame it in the fashion that America did wrong in WW2, or the Korean War, or the Vietnam War, or any of the wars in the Middle East. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were unique, evil tragedies but this was not so for the cities we firebombed, for the nukes we dropped, for the forests we drenched in napalm and carcinogens, for the countries we ravaged and left to their own devices.

The American public in this rhetoric is a truly bizarre group of people. They are simultaneously never at fault for the crimes of their government, which is understood to move and act without their consent, because we are not uniquely evil, and yet also we are scared by comparatively mundane acts of violence. The American public is easily terrified, weak, and able to be goaded into war, and only years later do we finally realize something is wrong with what we're doing.

And yet even then, the system that dehumanizes our enemies, that turned Japan into a nation without any free thought, that turned Vietnam into a nest of vipers, that turned the Middle East into a loosely formed conglomerate of terrorists, dehumanized the victims too. No victim of 9/11 has a name or a face anymore, their own beliefs do not matter, one could sardonically say that they valiantly gave their lives so we could go to war. What does remembering 9/11 even mean anymore? Remembering the faceless victims hanging from the ceiling of the White House, cocooned in the American flag, preserved ever patriotic and supportive of our war efforts?

Part of the reason I think that the reaction to Palestine has been so angry is that a lot of people are finally seeing the war machine behind the curtain. They want us to believe that Palestinians are just like every group labeled an enemy before them: that they are inhuman, that they carry the blame uniquely, that we are justified in bombing their homes and destroying their lives. Destroying Palestinian neighborhoods and towns should be received the same as torching a Vietnamese village: with cheers and applause. They want us to believe that Isreal, a nation that is constantly supported by Western powers, a nation that is significantly more well-armed than any other in the vicinity, will collapse and crumble if you do not personally stand behind it. Maybe it will in the vein of South Vietnam when it stops being politically expedient for the people in the power to continue to support them, but I doubt it. It's an important piece in the neocolonial puzzle of the Middle East.

Maybe it was Ukraine that gave them the confidence to keep going for it. After all, tons of liberals fully backed the idea that Russian citizens were uniquely evil and should suffer and starve, that Russians were completely and totally to blame for everything their government did, while they cheered fascist military factions for being their own personal Avengers. But maybe this conflict has gone on for simply too long for that curtain to be pulled over people's eyes again.

Justice and liberation for Palestine.

[megatronus-the-second]

The State of Western Politic (or why I woke up pissed at 7 am on my day off)

I tend to get overtly pissy about CPUSA’s statement to “Vote out fascism” like that’s what antifascists have done in the past. You think the polls got Mussolini hung? You think ballots put that bullet in Hitler’s fucking head?

Like we are in between two stages of fascism according to George Jackson (I use his analysis because it isn’t as rigid a study as most academics would cling onto): ‘in power, but not secure’ and ‘in power and secure’. The rise of fascism in the mainstream has helped to vote in people who go beyond the alt right. And yes their statements are almost radical and anti-capitalist, but note that their critiques are aimed at changing liberal bourgeois democracy and limiting those freedoms to a specific sect of the capitalist class. They aren’t against capitalism but rather against the way capital operates. 

Many in the global north have unfortunately fallen for their rhetoric because there isn’t any other alternative to the failures of neoliberal democracy both domestically and internationally. The deepening of the wage gap, the crumbling of health and living infrastructure, inflation and the like aren’t necessarily the best confidence builders. These decaying conditions, combined with the failure of  international expansionism under the guise of ‘democracy’ to make for good nationalist propaganda, create a sense of loss in identity and desperation for mental and material stability. And in desperation people search for something else to make sense of the havoc (or coming havoc for those who have been spared from the last few years, I have a feeling this winter is going to be cruel and unforgiving). Some distract, which is unfortunately is an easy path into alt right pipelines thanks to  useless mass media shoving brands and specific narratives depending on which sect of capital controls what. Tiktok’s algorithms go from kittens to  why trans kids deserve to die in minutes (sometimes just to get you interacting and riled up, even if you are a transphobic piece of shit) and YouTube and Tumblr do not care about  what is platformed as long as their stock numbers go up.

And this is where organizations like CPUSA and CPCanada fail to offer up a true revolutionary alternative. A word used in socialist spaces is ‘revisionist’, I would prefer to use cowardly. They tail the familiarity of liberal democracy, as if people aren’t moderately aware of the failures of the current system and are tired of being told to maintain it for the fear of the fascists coming in. The current material conditions created the fascist revival! Why the hell would you want to maintain the decay that brought this in the first place?!

We need to think *beyond* the current system and build up something better while we figure out how to tear the old. Lenin rightly criticized the social democrats in the Russian Tsarist government from going into reformist government and falling into the bureaucratic trap of the status quo, all to ‘preserve the state’. (There are more specific critique’s but this is getting long and I need lunch so here is State and Revolution Chapter 3)

We have a big job to do. The coming years are going to change things significantly. We don’t have time to waste on empty platitudes of maintaining status quo. We need to be revolutionary.

[leeenuu]

Serhiy Novosad, 26, carried the body of his father, Serhiy Novosad, 49, on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 to place him in a body bag while the body of his grandmother, Lyubov Novosad, 78, lay nearby. The Ukrainian police are investigating their deaths after they were killed by Russian soldiers and left inside a bunker in their yard, likely on November 10, in Lvivsky Otrubi village in the Kherson region. (Lynsey Addario/The New York Times)

A view shows the city without electricity after critical civil infrastructure was hit by Russian missile attacks, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, November 23, 2022. (REUTERS/Vladyslav Sodel)

A Ukrainian paramedic helps an injured resident moments after a Russian strike in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Thursday, November 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Ukrainian firefighters work at a damaged hospital maternity ward in Vilniansk, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Wednesday, November 23, 2022. A Russian rocket struck the maternity wing of a hospital in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, killing a newborn boy and critically injuring a doctor. The overnight explosion left the small-town hospital a crumbled mess of bricks, scattering medical supplies across the small compound. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Ukrainian military's Grad multiple rocket launcher fires rockets at Russian positions in the frontline near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Thursday, November 24, 2022. (AP Photo/LIBKOS)

A firefighter walks in front of destroyed cars after Russian rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, November 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ukrainians board the Kherson-Kyiv train at the Kherson railway station, southern Ukraine, Monday, November 21, 2022. Ukrainian authorities are evacuating civilians from recently liberated sections of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, fearing that a lack of heat, power and water due to Russian shelling will make conditions too unlivable this winter. The move came as rolling blackouts on Monday plagued most of the country. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

People wait in line to collect water, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, November 24, 2022. Residents of Ukraine's bombed but undaunted capital clutched empty bottles in search of water and crowded into cafés for power and warmth Thursday, switching defiantly into survival mode after new Russian missile strikes a day earlier plunged the city and much of the country into the dark. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Doctors operate on 13-year-old Artur Voblikov inside a hospital in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Tuesday, November 22, 2022. Arthur Voblikov was injured after a Russian strike, and doctors had to amputate his left arm. As attacks increase in the recently liberated city of Kherson, doctors are struggling to cope amid little water, electricity and a lack of equipment. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A woman walks at the city center which lost electrical power after yesterday's Russian rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, November 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The idea that public investment in infrastructure serves democratic goals fell out of favor in the U.S. in the 1980s. Leaders insisted that private investment reacted more efficiently to market forces whereas government investment both distorted markets and tied up money that private investment could use more effectively. In fact, the dramatic scaling back of public investment since then has not led to more efficient development so much as it has led to crumbling infrastructure and its exploitation by private individuals. 

In late July the New York Times noted that since 2019, billionaire businessman Elon Musk has steadily taken over the field of satellite internet, infrastructure that is hugely important for national security. In just four years Musk has launched into space more than 4,500 satellites—more than 50% of all active satellites. This means that Musk’s Starlink is often the only way for people in places hit by disasters or in war zones to communicate. 

On Thursday, excerpts from a forthcoming biography of Elon Musk by historian Walter Isaacson revealed that Musk “secretly told his engineers to turn off [Starlink] coverage within 100 kilometers of the Crimean coast” after learning that the Ukrainian military was sending six small drone submarines packed with explosives at the Russian naval fleet based in Crimea. After talking to Russian leaders, who said they would respond with nuclear weapons—later events suggest this was a bluff—Musk shut off Starlink, the drone submarines lost the connectivity they needed to find their targets, and the weapons simply washed ashore.

According to Isaacson, Ukrainian officials begged Musk to turn the coverage back on, but he refused, saying that Ukraine “is now going too far and inviting strategic defeat.” He told U.S. and Russian officials that he wanted Starlink to be used only for defense. Then he offered a “peace plan” that required Ukraine to give up territory to Russia and reject plans to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Later, he again disabled Starlink coverage in the midst of a Ukrainian advance.

Isaacson portrays Musk as frustrated by being dragged into a war. “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars,” Musk told Isaacson. “It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.” Since the story broke, Musk has defended his unwillingness to be in the middle of a war. 

But Mykhailo Podolyak, a top advisor to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, pointed out on Musk’s own social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that the same Russian fleet Musk protected went on to fire missiles at Ukrainian cities, killing civilians, including children. Russia is also attacking Ukraine’s infrastructure for exporting grain, which threatens the price and availability of food in Africa.

The privatization of the functions of government in the U.S. has given a single man the power to affect global affairs, working, in this case, against the stated objectives of our own government. Republican leaders eager to push that privatization have made their case by turning voters against taxes, although the tax cuts put in place since 1981 overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and corporations, permitting a few individuals to amass fortunes: Forbes, for example, estimates Musk’s net worth at $251.3 billion.

On Friday the Internal Revenue Service announced that increased federal funding under the Inflation Reduction Act and the help of artificial intelligence will enable a new push to go after 1,600 millionaires who owe at least $250,000 and 75 large businesses with assets of about $10 billion apiece that owe hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. 

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said the plan “goes to the heart of Democrats’ effort to ensure the wealthiest are paying their fair share.” It also goes to the heart of the idea that billionaires must not be able to impose their will on the rest of us by virtue of their monopolization of key aspects of our infrastructure. Still, Republicans continue to argue for private investment according to market forces. Opposing taxes and the government programs they fund, they have clawed back as much of the new funding for the IRS as they have been able, and they continue to call for more cuts. 

This week, as a fight over funding the government by the end of the month looms, the implications of the parties’ different visions of government could not be clearer. 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

Sept 10, 2023

+

[ref :: Musk Shut Down Ukrainian Attack After Chat with Russian Official] ::

Elon Musk got caught with his hand in the national security cookie jar, sabotaging or blocking a major Ukrainian military operation after conversations with a Russian government official.

Now let’s unpack this.

Last month I wrote about the rise of the global oligarchs and I made particular mention of Elon Musk. Even if you set aside the various things you may not like about Musk he has amassed a degree of economic power that is novel and dangerous in itself even if he had the most benign of intentions and the most stable personality. More than half the operating satellites in the sky are owned and controlled by him. Overnight we finally got confirmation of something that has long been suspected or hinted at but which none of the players had an interest in confirming. Last September Musk either cut off or refused to activate his Starlink satellite service near the Crimean coast during a surprise Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian Navy at anchor at its Sevastopol naval port.

Ukraine has made extensive use of naval drones. But it at least sounds like this was supposed to be a massed attack that would have done extensive damage to the Russian Navy and the naval port itself and thus seriously degraded Russia’s ability to launch missile attacks against Ukraine. In other words, it doesn’t sound like this was just any attack, though the details are sketchy.

On its face you might say, they’re Musk’s satellites and he’s in charge of who gets to use them and how. But of course it’s not that simple. It’s a good illustration of how Musk’s economic power has crept into domains that are more like the power of a state.

Starlink is a network of satellites providing robust internet connectivity without reliance on any ground infrastructure. This is critical in Ukraine since the ground infrastructure has all been degraded or destroyed. Starlink is owned by and made possible by the launch capacity of SpaceX, Musk’s space launch company, which is currently the sole means the U.S. has to launch satellites into space.

Musk made business and financial decisions that, under our economic system, entitles him to the vast profits of SpaceX. But he didn’t create it on his own. The company was built on the back of U.S. government contracts. In essence the U.S. government fronted the money to build SpaceX by awarding it contracts that made its business viable. Musk and SpaceX are also U.S. military contractors. That comes with a big set of responsibilities and restrictions.

Raytheon isn’t at liberty to sell its high tech weaponry to Russia or China if the price is right. These contractors are legally and financially bound into the U.S. national security apparatus. So is Musk and SpaceX. Or at least they’re supposed to be. A critical part of this story is that Musk took this action after conversations with an unnamed Russian government official which, Musk claimed, led him to worry the attack could escalate into a nuclear conflict.

Of course the threat of escalation has hung over the Ukraine war from the beginning. Countless civilian and military officials in the U.S., Europe and across the globe have been analyzing and trying to manage that risk for 18 months. We should take Musk’s claim about fears of nuclear escalation with a huge, huge grain of salt. There are many other threats and inducements that could have come up in these conversations. But let’s assume for the moment that’s what the Russian official told him. It’s simply not Musk’s judgment to make. That’s not only the case as a matter of basic democratic accountability and national security law. Musk is the last person you’d want making such a decision. He’s a mercurial weirdo whose views visibly change by the day in reaction to whoever is giving him the most comments love on Twitter. His national security thinking is at best juvenile and fatuous. The idea that such a call was Musk’s to make is as absurd as it is terrifying.

Let’s imagine a more generous to Musk scenario.

Maybe that Russian official said to Musk: Turn off your satellites over our naval base or we will start shooting down your satellites. In technical terms that is not an idle threat. You might say, well, war’s hell, Elon. But he might reply, was the U.S. government prepared to reimburse me for the satellites and disrupted service contract fees that I incurred not for any sane business reason but to advance U.S. national security interests?

That’s a good question and I’m not sure I know what the answer is. In fact, I suspect there is no answer. The whole situation is one that mixes and matches private sector and national security in very scrambled ways. And Musk who is someone who pushes every envelope and is more than happy to use his money, domestic celebrity and control of a critical communications hub to wreak havoc with any U.S. government that calls him to account. Let’s not forget that it was just after these events that Musk suddenly started advocating his personal ‘peace plan’ on Twitter — which surprisingly seem to match all of Russia’s demands.

Let me be clear that I don’t think that last scenario is what happened. But we don’t know that it didn’t. My point in discussing that possibility is to illustrate the fact that it’s not just that Elon Musk sucks, which he does. The whole situation sucks. You simply can’t have critical national security infrastructure in the hands of a Twitter troll who’s a soft touch for whichever foreign autocrat blows some smoke up his behind. But that’s what we have here.

As I said above, we’ve known or suspected for a long time that stuff like this had happened. Musk revealed at the time that he’d been talking with Russian officials. Indeed, at one point he said he had spoken to Putin himself on more than one occasion during this period. But we shouldn’t take anything he says at face value. The U.S. hasn’t wanted to get into this publicly because they don’t want a public spat with Musk. (This is the subject of Ronan Farrow’s recent piece in The New Yorker.) This applies even more to Ukraine which still relies on as much Starlink access as it can get. In response to these latest revelations the Ukrainians’ gloves seem to have come off. One of President Zelensky’s top advisors went off on Musk on Twitter last night essentially arguing that Musk personally has blood on his hand for all the subsequent attacks launched from those ships and facilities into Ukraine.

We need to learn more details about just what happened here. A congressional investigation wouldn’t be a bad idea. But we know enough to see that a guy in charge of a lot of critical technology the U.S. relies on is happy to cut deals with the other team.

[mariacallous]

Russia’s infrastructure and services are crumbling. (In Russian.) Max translates Zwerda, the local newspaper in Perm:

Rates for utilities in the housing and utilities sector have increased since December 1. At the same time, the cold weather has exacerbated the state of our communal infrastructure.¹ Despite the regular increase in the cost of services, the number of accidents on networks is not decreasing.

Where do our payments go? Not a day goes by without news of an accident in the housing and utilities sector from one region or another in Russia. Novosibirsk—emergency disconnection of heat supply at a temperature of minus 15 degrees. Chelyabinsk, Kostroma—people are left without heating. In Volgograd and Voronezh—without light, in Kursk—without gas, in Saratov— without cold water. Over the past heating season, there were more than 7,300 accidents in the housing and utilities sector in the country, and, judging by the start of winter in 2022, there is no expectation of a decrease in statistics.

[darkmaga-retard]

He also wants Putin replaced

Stephen Bryen

Sep 25, 2024

A friend of mine "translated" Zelensky's UN speech as follows: Force Russia to the Negotiating Table, Return all territory taken by Russia to Ukraine; have a war crimes trial of Putin and his cronies; send more weapons and money to Ukraine.Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at U.N. General Assembly (YouTube)

I think his summary is fair enough.  But it is not the real text. Zelensky really thinks he can get NATO (led by the United States) to commit air power and troops to fight in Ukraine.  That is why he is campaigning for Kamala Harris in swing states, including Pennsylvania, because he knows that the American troops cannot be dispatched until after Harris wins the election.Democrats Host Zelensky in Pennsylvania | National Review

How do you force Russia to the negotiating table, you ask?  You give Ukraine lots of long range missiles to pummel Russian territory, destroying infrastructure and causing immense civilian casualties.  Here, again, there is a subtext. Putin is weak and unpopular, the Russian state is crumbling, and if things get worse he will be ousted from power, opening the way for a more reasonable and chastised Russia.

Zelensky and others in Ukraine, such as Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence, and their friends in the UK, perhaps some at the NSC, promote the idea of an overthrow of Putin supporting the thesis by citing the case of former Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a jet plane explosion in August, 2023 and who led a "revolt" against Putin.  Prigozhin, a visible leader of the Wagner group, an illicit billionaire, and a "friend" of Putin led a squad of malcontent Wagnerians into an invasion of Russian territory, after Prigozhin claimed that in the battle for Bakhmut the regular army shortchanged him and allowed hundreds of his men to be sacrificed, lacking air cover and artillery support.  His forces were welcomed, it seems, in Rostov-on-Don, although coming off a victory in Bakhmut made them national heroes, not exactly revolutionaries.  Starting a military drive to Moscow, Putin was prepared to destroy Prigozhin and his forces, but Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, brokered a deal.  Prigozhin did not stick to the deal and on one of his forays in Moscow, boarded his airplane that apparently exploded in flight, not far from Russia's capital.

[mindsandpens]

🌍 Weekly World Brief: Global Tensions Heating Up 🌍

Welcome to this week's Geopolitics Gazette World Brief, where we dive into the latest global conflicts and power struggles. From Israel's aggressive new offensive in the West Bank to Ukraine's faltering defense against Russian advances, and U.S.-China diplomatic tensions—here's what you need to know.

🇮🇱 Middle East: Israel's West Bank Offensive Escalates

On August 28, 2024, Israeli forces launched a major raid in the West Bank, targeting cities like Jenin and Tulkaram with tanks, drones, and bulldozers. This operation, the largest since the second intifada in 2002, has already resulted in at least 24 Palestinian deaths and widespread destruction of infrastructure, including homes and electric grids.

Israel claims it's targeting militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but the scale of the destruction suggests a broader agenda. As violence escalates, the international community grows increasingly concerned about Israel’s actions, while Palestinian leaders condemn the raids.

🔗 Read More: The devastating impact of Israel’s West Bank raids.

🇺🇦 Russia-Ukraine War: Kursk Incursion Fails to Halt Russian Advance

Ukraine's bold incursion into Russia's Kursk region has not stopped the Russian military's push toward the critical city of Prokrovsk in the Donbas. Despite early successes, Ukraine's offensive has lost momentum, allowing Russia to reclaim territory and advance dangerously close to Prokrovsk—only 8 kilometers away.

As criticism mounts over Ukraine’s decision to divert forces to Kursk, the situation on the eastern front becomes increasingly precarious. If Prokrovsk falls, the entire defense line could crumble, posing a severe threat to Ukraine’s war efforts.

🔗 Read More: Ukraine’s strategic missteps and their consequences.

🇺🇸🇨🇳 US-China Relations: Sullivan's Beijing Visit Sets the Stage

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan concluded a crucial three-day visit to Beijing, meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on August 29, 2024. This visit aimed to ease U.S.-China tensions, particularly over issues like Taiwan, the South China Sea, and economic security. While no major agreements were reached, progress was made in military communication—a step toward preventing conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.

This diplomatic effort lays the groundwork for a potential meeting between President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping before Biden leaves office, signaling a pivotal moment in U.S.-China relations.

🔗 Read More: The high-stakes diplomacy between the U.S. and China.

In Summary

Israel’s raids in the West Bank continue to wreak havoc as ceasefire talks in Gaza stall.

Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk hasn’t stopped Russia’s advance, putting the eastern front at risk.

U.S.-China talks may pave the way for a crucial Biden-Xi meeting as global tensions simmer.

Stay informed, stay engaged. Don’t forget to follow Geopolitics Gazette for your weekly global briefings! 🌍✨

Tags: #Geopolitics #MiddleEastConflict #UkraineWar #USChinaRelations #GlobalTensions #InternationalNews #WorldBrief

[pashterlengkap]

This election offers a clear choice between the Party of Freedom and the Party of No

Since the Democrats took over the Oval Office in the 2020 elections, national unemployment rates have fallen considerably to pre-pandemic levels, the stock market has reached record highs, and wages have risen while inflation rates have drastically dropped. And yes, still more needs to be done. Congress, with the help of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, passed landmark legislation, including comprehensive COVID relief for free vaccines, masks, and home testing kits, and payments to struggling businesses and individual households. Related How Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter, Ella Emhoff, uses art to support trans people of color She’s using her art for good. For the first time since the Eisenhower administration, Congress passed a wide-ranging bipartisan infrastructure bill to repair outdated and crumbling highways, bridges, sewage and water systems, airports, improve mass transit and install electric charging stations, and extend internet access. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today They passed substantial funding to deal with the climate crisis, to produce computer chips in the United States, to pay for the healthcare of servicemembers exposed to toxic “burn pits,” to extend the “cancer moon project” for the purpose of finally curing this deadly disease, and also, they delivered a firearms reform package. In addition, President Biden and Vice President Harris have shown true leadership in bringing back the Western alliance of nations to counter the unwarranted and brutal invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign nation, by the Russian Federation’s totalitarian regime under its President Vladimir Putin, and they’re working to limit China’s aggression against Taiwan too. And yes, still more work needs to be done, but at no other time in the history of the United States have we seen a clearer and starker choice than in the 2024 presidential sweepstakes. The Democrats truly represent the Party of Freedom and are forward-thinking, while the Republicans continue to be the Party of No in retrograde. Though I generally refrain from writing in terms of binaries, I perceive many unambiguous differences: Democrats actively support reproductive freedom of choice and continued federal funding of reproductive healthcare clinics, IVF procedures, and contraceptives; Republicans don’t support reproductive choice but, instead, in many areas of the GOP, support a total or partial ban on reproductive healthcare and no funding of reproductive healthcare clinics, a ban on IVF procedures, and limiting of contraceptives. Democrats have substantial support for a single-payer national healthcare plan; Republicans only support fully privatizing healthcare insurance. Democrats have demonstrated an appropriate and quick response to public health emergencies and a trust in science; Republicans have demonstrated a slow and deadly response to public health emergencies with little or no trust in science but, rather, promotion of dangerous conspiracy theories. Democrats support paid parental leave, child tax credits, subsidized day care of children and seniors, implementation of a truly equitable and fair tax plan, and commitment to substantially narrowing the wage/wealth gaps; Republicans have offered no substantial support for paid parental leave, child tax credits, and subsidized national childcare plan and no elder care plan — but they do support massive tax breaks for the already-super rich and for corporations. Democrats don’t support banning books, and they encourage the age=appropriate teaching of race, gender, and sexual and gender identities, as well as the teaching of the “hard” history in public schools, plus additional national and state funding of our public schools; Republicans instituted book bans and the banning of much other curricular content in public schools, want to provide a voucher system of public… http://dlvr.it/TCgDjc

[kneedeepincynade]

They don't even hide it anymore, they are proud of it, but if I was in them I would be very silent, at this point, what is stopping the Russians or the Chinese from blowing up the Texas power grid or some other strategical but crumbling infrastructure in the US?

The post is machine translated

The translation is at the bottom

The collective is on telegram

🇨🇳 Hua Chunying, Direttrice del Dipartimento d'Informazione del Ministero degli Affari Esteri della Repubblica Popolare Cinese, ha pubblicato un Tweet piuttosto emblematico sul suo account, postando una frase di Henry Kissinger, uno dei peggiori imperialisti americani:

🤔 La frase di Kissinger, tuttavia, è piuttosto significativa: "Essere un nemico dell'America può essere pericoloso, ma esserle amico è fatale", ed ecco il commento di Hua Chunying:

💬 "Washington e quei media statunitensi ed europei «liberi e professionali» sono stati misteriosamente zitti sulla rivelazione di Hersh sul Nord-Stream. È perché lo hanno sempre saputo o semplicemente non si preoccupano della verità finché le persone credono alla loro versione della storia?" 🤔

🐦 Dopodiché, in due Tweet successivi, Hua Chunying scrive:

💬 "Non è la prima volta che lo fanno [rimanere in silenzio, mentire] - hanno fatto la stessa cosa sul tracciamento delle origini del COVID-19, sullo Xinjiang e sulla Cyber Security. L'elenco potrebbe continuare. Questo è solo un altro esempio degli Stati Uniti che cercano di nascondere la verità e vendere disinformazione se questo aiuta gli USA a "competere" con gli altri" ❕

🔎 Per chi volesse approfondire, può rifarsi a questi post del Collettivo Shaoshan:

🔺Mao Ning: "Se il Rapporto di Seymour Hersh dovesse essere corretto, gli USA dovrebbero essere ritenuti responsabili e dovrebbero rendere conto del sabotaggio del Nord-Stream davanti al Mondo" 💥

🔺Articolo di 牛弹琴, su 乌有之乡, riguardante il sabotaggio del Nord-Stream, "chi trarrà profitto da questo evento?" 🤔

🌸 Iscriviti 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

🇨🇳 Hua Chunying, Director of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, published a rather emblematic Tweet on her account, posting a sentence by Henry Kissinger, one of the worst American imperialists:

🤔 Kissinger's sentence, however, is quite significant: "Being an enemy of America may be dangerous, but being a friend is fatal", and here is Hua Chunying's comment:

💬 "Washington and those «free and professional» US and European media have been mysteriously silent about Hersh's Nord-Stream revelation. Is it because they have known all along or do they just not care about the truth as long as people believe their side of the story? " 🤔

🐦 After that, in two successive Tweets, Hua Chunying writes:

💬 “It's not the first time they've done this [remain silent, lie] - they've done the same thing on tracing the origins of COVID-19, Xinjiang and Cyber ​​Security. The list goes on. This is just one more example of the US trying to hide the truth and sell disinformation if it helps the US "compete" with others" ❕

🔎 For those who want to learn more, you can refer to these posts from the Shaoshan Collective:

🔺Mao Ning: "If Seymour Hersh's Report is correct, the US should be held accountable and accountable for the sabotage of Nord-Stream to the World" 💥

🔺Article by 牛弹琴, on 乌有之乡, regarding the sabotage of Nord-Stream, "who will profit from this event?" 🤔

🌸 Subscribe 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

[jasonguo501]

What is happening in Ukraine?

Over 5,200 civilians have been reported killed in the Russian attacks. Approximately 6.5 million people have reportedly been displaced within the country with an additional 7.6 forced to flee into neighboring Moldova, Poland and other European states. Most of those who have left the country are women and children.

Public infrastructure has also been destroyed, meaning millions of people are without adequate water, heat and electricity, or are unable to reach stores to buy basic necessities because roads and bridges are unpassable. With Ukraine’s wars cold winter months approaching, families are seeking shelter in damaged buildings not suited to deal with sudden drops of temperature or heavy snowfall.

The country’s health system is crumbling as hospitals begin to run out of medicine and electricity is cut. Health facilities, including a maternity and children's hospital, have also been damaged during the invasion—anothergrave breach of international humanitarian law.

Ukraine was shaken by conflict even before the recent invasion: In 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula and began backing pro-Russian separatists in parts of eastern Ukraine. Fighting has been raging in these areas over the past eight years, killing over 3,000 people, displacing more than 850,000 from their homes, and leaving almost 3 million in need of humanitarian aid.

[ultraviolet-techno-ecology]

I keep running into phrases such as, "the USA is falling apart from the inside" or "the USA is crumbling due to capitalism" but, while I do agree that life has become increasingly difficult for American citizens, I do not see the USA actually crumbling. The people in charge are doing fine, things are going well for them, the USA is functioning as intended, so why do some people assume the USA is falling apart? What do they mean by that?

TLDR: Unless the Federal Government is able to unify the white demographic against a new Enemy, the white supremacy that holds the colonial state together begins to dissolve.

The stability of the USA as a colonial government* owes itself to the undercurrent of white supremacy which binds it together. This is why for example “The Land Of Opportunity” means something very different for white people than any other demographic. 

White people expect that opportunity to manifest as independent material comfort. Non-white people are promised (falsely) material safety and tolerance in exchange for subservience at best. 

The historical force keeping whiteness a dominant force across the entire USA has been the economic prosperity of white ethnic-cultural groups across the federal dominion. (As opposed to individual states.) Colonial projects are only able to spread when supported by an existing powerful entity. Without the USA the Lincoln era westward expansion would have been far more difficult. The western pioneers were only a scouting force for the arrival of the Railroads in a poetic sense.. 

The first major challenge to this national adhesive was NOT the Civil War which began with conflict between white people and ended with concessions between white people. Rather I believe it was the interwar period during which the solutions could no longer be found domestically. 

Here we see the creation of The Enemy. There were culturally established enemies of American white supremacy before this time - but they were seen as inherently nonthreatening. Native Americans were not seen as a genuine threat to the residents of New York City for example despite their cultural prosecution. The Enemy has a different material and psychological character.

First was the Nazis. The Nazi-As-Enemy lost popularity as the Baby Boomer generation matured and effectively became an ally. This has many reasons including Operation Paperclip - but also the fascist fetishization of strength creates a logical preference for the USA as the “White Nation Project” as opposed to the weaker defeated Germany. 

The Communists were the second major example of The Enemy. Obviously this would stick around much longer in the American political psyche due to the Cold War. Unlike the Fascists - the Soviets preached an ideology of racial equality. The combination of economic and social equality (as well as being a superpower) made the USSR the perfect Enemy to unify the white population against since it opposed their interests across the board. 

Then 1991 & 1993 happened.** (Official end of USSR, and then violent dissolution of the Supreme Soviet via tanks.) Suddenly the USA lost the stability provided by The Enemy. Suddenly the wars became ignoble again. 

It wasn’t until the Twin Tower Incident that Islam became The Enemy. However even then the focus was fractured between individuals (Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussain) or their groups (Al’Qaeda) with widespread Anti-Muslim sentiment growing out of the increasingly numerous opponents.***  

Anti-Islamic sentiments were only partially successful. The frenzy that grew from the Twin Towers Incident died down as people collectively got burned out from the Terror-Risk Color Charts given along with the daily weather. After operation desert storm the USA became increasingly unceremonious with the conflicts in the Middle East to the point most Americans have no idea who we are fighting. These conflicts are no longer news, they don’t stick with common people.

Inequality continues to rise - infrastructure falls apart - small businesses are vanishing and communities become dependent on wal-mart. As a result the promise of prosperity (The American Dream) dissolves before the white population. The promise of support across the federal dominion erodes as politicians stop pretending to care. 

Our current attempts to create The Enemy are failing. (China, etc) Largely due to increasing social tolerance and political polarization. (Fueled by the conflict of international vs domestic bourgeoise) These attempts at regaining control do not have enough weight behind them to unify whiteness. 

So as the economic network of whiteness crumbles, and the people cannot be successfully united against a foreign Enemy - what happens? The answer is the same I gave much earlier: Whiteness as a dominant force is upheld through overt methods. (The rise of the Alt-Right.)

The material security of whiteness itself is faltering, and with it comes an increasing desperation to exert power. Meanwhile the left rapidly grows as the contradictions of capitalism (especially during COVID****) are magnified. As the state turns violence inward, the anti-government sentiments of both groups solidifies into a form which cannot easily be diplomatically resolved. 

The federal government is left with two options. Either it goes through a period of dramatic reform to stall an uprising - or it suppresses an uprising with extreme violence. This uprising will be from both the Left and Right and is already boiling under the surface. 

Yes - the USA is continuing it’s mission of capitalism and jingoism. However the people are going hungry, and a huge amount of the population is about to be evicted unless immediate and substantial assistance is awarded. Assistance which will absolutely not happen if the Republicans control the Senate - a purposeful attempt to kick off the uprising before the right-wing fractures in the post-trump era. 

Additional Notes Below

*The American War of Independence was a declaration they would do their own colonizing, and not a rejection of colonial ideology or method.

**See also: russian constitutional crisis

***Obviously there was anti-islamic bigotry before this point, but I’m specifically describing the creation of Islam as The Enemy here.

****Approximately 6% of the total population has or had COVID-19. It is currently estimated 30% will have long term heart complications. Unless COVID is stopped decisively, social services are going to be completely overwhelmed particularly since Social Security is already running at a deficit. 

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Minneapolis Braces for Verdict in Floyd’s Death (NYT) MINNEAPOLIS—Around midday last Monday, Samir Patel received a phone call from his friend, a dentist: Gunshots had rung out, his friend told him, and the contractors who were rebuilding the office he lost in last year’s unrest had fled. He was boarding up, and he told Mr. Patel he should move quickly to protect his own business, a dry cleaning shop. Elite Cleaners, Mr. Patel’s shop, is on a side street, not far from the shell of the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct station house, which burned last year in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. The surrounding community of Lake Street, a corridor of immigrant-owned businesses—taquerias, furniture shops, liquor stores and cafes—was devastated by looting in the days of protests and the riots that followed. The city has said that the unrest led to $350 million in losses, with more than a thousand buildings either destroyed or damaged. As the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white former police officer charged with murder in the death of Mr. Floyd, a Black man, draws to a close, the city is on edge, fearing that a not-guilty verdict would bring anger, chaos and destruction once again.

New migrant facilities crop up to ease crowding, again (AP) For the third time in seven years, U.S. officials are scrambling to handle a dramatic spike in children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border alone, leading to a massive expansion in emergency facilities to house them as more kids arrive than are being released to close relatives in the United States. More than 22,000 migrant children were in government custody as of Thursday, with 10,500 sleeping on cots at convention centers, military bases and other large venues likened to hurricane evacuation shelters with little space to play and no privacy. More than 2,500 are being held by border authorities in substandard facilities. So many children are coming that there’s little room in long-term care facilities, where capacity shrank significantly during the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, minors are packed into Border Patrol facilities not meant to hold them longer than three days or they’re staying for weeks in the mass housing sites that often lack the services they need. Lawyers say some have not seen social workers who can reunite them with family in the U.S. Both Donald Trump and Barack Obama faced similar upticks in Central American children crossing the border alone in 2019 and 2014. The numbers have now reached historic highs amid economic fallout from the pandemic, storms in Central America and the feeling among migrants that Biden is more welcoming than his predecessor.

Students’ struggles pushed Peru teacher to run for president (AP) As schools across Peru closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Pedro Castillo tried to find a way to keep classes going for his 20 fifth- and sixth-grade students. But in his impoverished rural community deep in the Andes, his efforts were futile. Seventeen of the students didn’t even have access to a cellphone. Tablets promised by the government never arrived. “Where is the state?” Castillo, 51, told The Associated Press after a day of planting sweet potatoes on his own land. It was the last straw for Castillo, who over 25 years had seen his students struggle in crumbling schools where teachers also cook, sweep floors and file paperwork. He’d already dabbled in activism with the local teachers’ union and helped lead a national strike in 2017. But now he went further, tossing his name into a crowd of 18 candidates in Peru’s presidential election. Defying the polls, the elementary school teacher came first in the April 11 voting, albeit with less than 20% of the overall vote. The stunning result gave him a place in June’s presidential runoff against Keiko Fujimori, one of Peru’s most established political figures and the daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori. It is her third attempt to become president. Castillo’s unlikely campaign comes at a turbulent time for the South American nation that has suffered like few others from the COVID-19 pandemic. It recently ran through three presidents in a week after one was removed by congress over corruption allegations. Every president of the past 36 years has been ensnared in corruption allegations, some imprisoned. One died by suicide before police could arrest him.

New direction needed: EU launches website for citizens to discuss its future (Reuters) The European Union launched on Monday a website for citizens to debate the future of the 27-nation bloc as the exit of Britain, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of nationalism force the EU to reflect on how it wants to develop. The website, available for contributions in the EU’s 24 official languages, is part of what EU institutions call the Conference on the Future of Europe—a forum for debate to help identify issues the EU needs to address in the changing global context. “The conclusions of the conference could be the backbone for reforms in the Union in the future,” one of the leaders of the initiative, member of European Parliament and former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt told a news conference. The website prompts debates on subjects including climate change, the environment, health, the economy, social justice and jobs, the role of the EU in the world, values and rights, the rule of law, security, digital transformation, democracy and migration. Citizens can also launch their own topics.

Cheating at Greek universities (Foreign Policy) Greek universities are experiencing a crisis of confidence in their students as remote learning takes the place of traditional education. Professors have noted surprisingly high marks from previously poor students, raising suspicions that the students may be using underhanded tactics. “Result averages are up, and people we haven’t seen in years are showing up for exams because the system makes it easy to cheat,” Kostas Kosmatos, an assistant professor of criminology at Thrace’s Democritus University told AFP. Sofia, a psychology student, admitted to have taken two exams “on behalf of two of my friends and nobody realized.” Resourceful students have created technological workarounds to boost their chances during exams, crowdsourcing answers in live chats with students at the University of Crete even enlisting a linguistic expert to help them during exams. “But even he got a verse wrong,” Angela Kastrinaki, dean of the University of Crete’s literature department, told AFP. “So I got 50 papers with the same mistake. It was funny.”

Russia Expels 20 Czech Diplomats as Tensions Escalate (NYT) A day after the government of the Czech Republic blamed operatives from Russia’s military intelligence agency for a series of mysterious explosions at an ammunition depot in 2014 and expelled 18 Russian diplomats, the Russian government announced on Sunday that 20 Czech diplomats would be ejected in response. The expulsions signal further escalation of tensions between the Kremlin and western governments, reaching an intensity not seen since the Cold War. The spat between the Czech Republic and Russia comes just days after the United States imposed heavy sanctions on Russian government officials and businesses in response to a large-scale hacking of American government computer systems. In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the Czech accusations “absurd” and accused the government of being an American puppet. “In an effort to please the U.S.A. following recent American sanctions against Russia, the Czech government in this instance even exceeded its overseas masters,” the Russian Foreign Ministry statement said.

Montenegro’s billion-dollar dilemma (NYT) Few Europeans thought it was a good idea for Montenegro to take a mammoth loan from China to build a highway. Now the tiny, mountainous country is asking the European Union for help to repay the debt—and the answer, so far, has been no. The situation in Montenegro is the latest skirmish in an escalating global push for influence by China, which has made inroads in economically weak countries by offering loans that demand loyalty to Beijing but otherwise have few strings attached. Montenegro’s first debt payments are due this summer. The $1 billion loan is nearly a fifth the size of the country’s entire economy. Montenegrin leaders say they won’t miss their loan payment this summer even if no E.U. aid is forthcoming. European officials said they wanted to help Montenegro but were searching for a palatable way to do so. Linking the aid to the loan too directly could be politically difficult, since many E.U. officials do not want to be in the position of effectively paying down a Chinese loan that E.U. leaders warned against in the first place. “China has been filling any opening it felt it could,” said Vuk Vuksanovic, a researcher at the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, a Serbian think tank. “Local capitals were hungry for cash, particularly on big development issues like infrastructure. And the Chinese were willing to go places where Western institutions were not.”

Afghan Women Fear the Worst, Whether War or Peace Lies Ahead (NYT) Farzana Ahmadi watched as a neighbor in her village in northern Afghanistan was flogged by Taliban fighters last month. The crime: Her face was uncovered. People silently watched as the beating dragged on. Fear—even more potent than in years past—is gripping Afghans now that U.S. and NATO forces will depart the country in the coming months. They will leave behind a publicly triumphant Taliban, who many expect will seize more territory and reinstitute many of the same oppressive rules they enforced under their regime in the 1990s. The New York Times spoke to many Afghan women about what comes next in their country, and they all said the same thing: Whatever happens will not bode well for them. Whether the Taliban take back power by force or through a political agreement with the Afghan government, their influence will almost inevitably grow. In a country in which an end to nearly 40 years of conflict is nowhere in sight, many Afghans talk of an approaching civil war. “All the time, women are the victims of men’s wars,” said Raihana Azad, a member of Afghanistan’s Parliament. “But they will be the victims of their peace, too.”

Hard-line Islamists take 6 Pakistani security personnel hostage amid deadly clashes (Washington Post) A hard-line Islamist group on Sunday took six Pakistani security personnel hostage after days of deadly clashes in the northeastern city of Lahore over a French satirical newspaper’s publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad and the arrest of the group’s leader by Pakistani authorities. A senior police officer and two paramilitary fighters were among those taken after protesters surrounded a police station and stormed the compound, according to Lahore police spokesman Arif Rana. A week of violence across the country has left at least four dead, according to the protesters. Police officials say thousands have been arrested. The tensions driving the protests, led by the Islamist party Tehrik-e-Labbaik Pakistan, have been simmering for months after French President Emmanuel Macron honored a teacher who was beheaded last year in France after he showed a class the cartoons depicting Muhammad. For many Muslims, depictions of the prophet are blasphemous and deeply insulting. Macron’s comments sparked protests across the Muslim world last year.

India’s capital to lock down as nation’s virus cases top 15M (AP) New Delhi was being put under a weeklong lockdown Monday night as an explosive surge in coronavirus cases pushed the India’s capital’s health system to its limit. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a news conference the national capital was facing shortages of oxygen and some medicine. “I do not say that the system has collapsed, but it has reached its limits,” Kejriwal said, adding that harsh measures were necessary to “prevent a collapse of the health system.” Similar virus curbs already have been imposed in the worst-hit state of Maharashtra, home to India’s financial capital, Mumbai. The closure of most industries, businesses and public places Wednesday night is to last 15 days.

Pacific Ocean storm intensifies into year’s first super typhoon (Reuters) Strong winds and high waves lashed the eastern Philippines on Monday as the strongest typhoon ever recorded in April barrelled past in the Pacific Ocean, killing one man and triggering flooding in lower-lying communities, disaster officials said. More than 100,000 people were evacuated from coastal areas, according to provincial disaster agencies. The core of Surigae, or Bising as the storm is known locally, is not expected to hit land. But with a diameter of 500 km and winds reaching 195 km per hour, parts of the eastern islands of Samar experienced flooding, while several communities lost power. The first super typhoon of 2021 foreshadows a busy storm season for the region in the year ahead, experts say.

Lebanon’s crumbling capital (AFP) Beirut’s roads are riddled with potholes, many walls are covered in anti-government graffiti and countless street lamps have long since gone dark. At night, car drivers creep cautiously past broken traffic lights and strain their eyes for missing manhole covers, stolen for the value of their metal. Many parking metres have been disabled in protest over an alleged corruption scandal, while cars are parked randomly on sidewalks. To many, the dysfunctional capital has become emblematic of a country mired in its worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war after decades of mismanagement and corruption. Much of Beirut’s infrastructure started falling apart long before last August’s massive portside explosion killed more than 200 people, levelled the waterfront and damaged countless buildings. Amid the crisis, the Lebanese currency has collapsed and continues its downward slide at a sickening rate that in itself is deepening the problem. As the currency has dived by more than 85 percent on the black market, wary contractors are steering clear of any municipal repairs that are paid for in Lebanese pounds.

Eleven dead, 98 injured after train derails in Egypt (Reuters) Eleven people were killed and 98 injured on Sunday in a train accident in Egypt’s Qalioubia province north of Cairo, the health ministry said in a statement. The train was heading from Cairo to the Nile Delta city of Mansoura when four carriages derailed at 1:54 p.m. (1154 GMT), about 40 kms (25 miles) north of Cairo. More than 50 ambulances took the injured to three hospitals in the province, the health ministry said. The derailing is the latest of several recent railway crashes in Egypt. At least 20 people were killed and nearly 200 were injured in March when two trains collided near Tahta, about 440 kms (275 miles) south of Cairo.

South Africa wildfire (Washington Post) Cape Town ordered precautionary evacuations of communities living along the edges of city landmark Table Mountain on Monday as firefighters struggled to contain a fire that gutted historical landmarks, including the oldest working windmill in South Africa and a library housing African antiquities at the University of Cape Town. The fire started Sunday morning near the memorial to colonial leader Cecil Rhodes and quickly spread uncontrolled beneath Devil’s Peak in Table Mountain National Park in an area popular with weekend hikers and cyclists. By Monday morning, strong southeasterly winds, which were expected to reach more than 30 miles per hour (50 km/h) later in the day, had pushed the fire toward densely-populated areas above Cape Town city. Well-known tourist sites, such as the Table Mountain aerial cableway, were temporarily closed. Heavy smoke engulfed the city forcing the closure of a major highway and other nearby roads. Hikers, park visitors, visitors to the nearby Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden and hundreds of students from the university campus were evacuated on Sunday.

NASA’s Ingenuity Makes First Powered Flight On Mars (NPR) “Orville and Wilbur would be proud. NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has made the first-ever powered flight on another planet, 117 years after the Wright Brothers’ historic flight on this planet. The flight itself was modest. The 4-pound helicopter rose 10 feet in the air, hovered briefly, and returned to the Martian surface.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 22, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

The Biden administration has been quite open about its belief that we are in a global war to reestablish the security of democracy in the face of rising authoritarianism. On February 4, President Biden said in a speech at the State Department that American diplomacy must be “rooted in America’s most cherished democratic values: defending freedom, championing opportunity, upholding universal rights, respecting the rule of law, and treating every person with dignity.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken followed up a month later by emphasizing that America would rebuild alliances to “renew democracy, because it’s under threat.” Blinken noted that authoritarianism and nationalism are rising around the world, including in the United States, and that the U.S. would work with allies to counter it. “We will stand firm behind our commitments to human rights, democracy, the rule of law,” he said.

To that end, the Biden administration has joined our partners to take a strong stand for human rights and democracy.

In his confirmation hearings, Blinken promised to repudiate the previous administration’s attack on LGBTQ individuals and to champion LBGTQ rights around the world.

On March 8, Blinken and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden hosted the 15th annual International Women of Courage Awards in a virtual ceremony honoring women nominated by U.S. embassies around the world for making a difference in their communities, their countries, or the world. They emphasized that the U.S. will stand with women and girls everywhere.

Today, the Treasury Department joined the European Union, Canada, and Britain in announcing sanctions against six Chinese officials because of the continuing human rights abuses against the minority Uyghur population of that country. The administration has accused China of committing genocide and crimes against humanity against the 12 million Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang province, who are mostly Muslim and who have been herded into “re-education camps,” used as forced labor, and forcibly sterilized.

These sanctions come after last week’s sanctions on 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials because of their suppression of political freedoms in Hong Kong. Just days after administration officials imposed those sanctions, Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan began a discussion with Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska, by taking a provocative stand and insisting that Beijing needs to return to the rules-based system that democratic allies built after World War II. Sullivan said: ”We do not see conflict but we welcome stiff competition, and we will always stand up for principles, for our people, and for our friends.”

China responded by suggesting that it considers the U.S. a waning power that it no longer has to appease with gestures toward human rights. In a 16-minute lecture, China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, accused Blinken and Sullivan of hypocrisy and arrogance, calling attention to police brutality, the Black Lives Matter movement, and America’s own human rights challenges. He later suggested that the U.S. no longer can claim to represent the views of the world, and said that “China’s development and growing strength are unstoppable.”

The Treasury Department also announced sanctions against two members of the Myanmar military, which staged a coup against that country’s civilian government, a coup that is still roiling the nation. In those sanctions, the U.S. joined the E.U., Canada, and the United Kingdom, while two of Myanmar’s neighboring countries, Indonesia and Malaysia, issued strong statements condemning the violence.

It is also preparing sanctions against Russia for its attempt to swing the 2020 election and for its massive hack of U.S. businesses and governmental agencies last year. Unlike his predecessor, Biden has refused to cozy up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, agreeing with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos that Putin was a killer. In this stance against Russia, too, the U.S. has partners: British special forces have been ordered to counter the activities of Russian military intelligence.

Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hinted to India that its planned purchase of a Russian missile system could bring U.S. sanctions, saying “[w]e certainly urge all our allies and partners to move away from Russian equipment… and really avoid any kind of acquisitions that would trigger sanctions on our behalf….”

China has invited Russia’s top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, to meet with Chinese officials in Beijing.

The Biden administration is not just trying to defend democracy overseas. It is also trying to reclaim democracy here at home. Since 1981, Republicans have focused on cutting taxes and turning over our public infrastructure to private individuals, and as their agenda became less and less popular, they have relied on voter suppression and gerrymandering to stay in power. With Republicans in charge of the Senate, they could kill even enormously popular bills that passed the House of Representatives, and now that Democrats are in charge, the filibuster enables them to do the same.

The Biden administration has used its success with the coronavirus vaccine rollout to illustrate that government can actually be a dramatic force for good. This weekend, the number of coronavirus vaccines delivered was over 3 million a day, and President Biden beat his own goal of reaching 100 million vaccines in arms within his first hundred days by a month.

The passage of the American Rescue Plan, which 77% of the American people wanted and which promptly put desperately needed money into people’s pockets, has encouraged the White House to turn to a $3 trillion infrastructure and jobs package. The details of the plan are still fluid, but it appears that this plan will have two parts: one focused on infrastructure, including hundreds of billions of dollars to fix the country’s crumbling roads and bridges, and one focused on the societal issues that Biden calls the “caregiving economy,” including universal prekindergarten and free tuition for community colleges, as well as funding for childcare. This plan will likely be funded, at least in part, by tax increases on those who make more than $400,000 a year.

They are reclaiming the government for the American people.

But Republicans, who generally cling to the idea that, as President Ronald Reagan said in his first inaugural address, “government is not the solution to our problem, government IS the problem,” are determined to stop Democrats from enacting their agenda. Legislators in 43 states have proposed more than 250 bills to suppress voting. Getting rid of Democratic votes would put Republicans back into power even if they could not command a real majority.

To combat this rigging of the system, Democrats in the House passed HR 1, a sweeping bill to protect voting, end gerrymandering, and limit the power of dark money in our elections. The “For the People Act” has now gone on to the Senate, where Republicans recognize that it would “be absolutely devastating for Republicans in this country.”

The bill will die so long as Republican senators can block it with the filibuster, and if it does, the Republican voter suppression laws that cut Democrats out of the vote will stand, making it likely that Democrats will not be able to win future elections. That reality has put reforming the filibuster back on the table. While President Biden, as well as Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) have all expressed a wish to preserve at least some version of the filibuster, they are now all saying they might be willing to reform it. This might mean making election bills exempt from the filibuster the way financial bills are, or going back to the system in which stopping a measure actually required talking, rather than simply threatening to talk.

Both parties recognize that their future hangs on whether HR 1 passes, and that hangs on the filibuster.

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[thatbassistbitch]

Who is petra? I need to know now.

HNGNDHSJF OK SO petra prozrachny is my BNHA oc from like 2018, over a year before i joined tumblr. petra is russian with shoulder-length blonde hair (she has sidebangs and always keeps her hair pulled back in a ponytail during her first year at UA) and pale blue eyes. petra’s quirk is crystalline. she creates varied and intricate crystalline structures at the blink of an eye, which can be used for long ranged combat, to manipulate the battlefield, to reinforce crumbling infrastructure, or to create weapons to be used in close range combat. petra’s fighting style is heavily influenced by the dance lessons she took from a young age as well as various martial arts classes her father enrolled her in before pulling her out to train her himself because they weren’t rigorous enough for his liking. petra’s quirk exhaustion manifests in intense migraines, sometimes leading to ruptured blood vessels in her eyes and sinuses. petra has no regard for her own safety and is easily thrown off when using her quirk. if she loses track of where her crystals are going to form, she can potentially be impaled by her own quirk. this happens quite frequently, and much to her classmates’ horror, she simply patches herself up with a chunk of crystal and keeps moving like her father taught her because she literally will not stop in a fight until either she wins or she passes out. it’s quite common for petra to just be horribly injured and not bat an eye because she’s just used to it. it’s the norm for her, and she tries to refrain from seeing recovery girl often because she will pass the fuck out when healed because of all the other damage from the past few days and nights from training with her father. she and her father moved to japan because her father is a villain looking to join the league. he was specifically contacted by AFO bc of his connections and powerful quirk. petra’s role in all this is to enroll at UA and gain intel about the layout, the teachers, the students, and any of all might’s possible routines/weaknesses. little does the league know, she’s a double agent working against them, or more specifically, her father. dominik prozrachny is an abusive piece of shit and also happens to be in charge of a large branch of the russian mob. he’s basically spent the past 15 years trying to turn petra into the perfect weapon and she wants him to burn for it. at first petra manages to hide the signs of the abuse but it very quickly becomes apparent that there’s something seriously wrong with her, especially in the sports festival arc, where she goes completely apeshit during a match against bakugo (get fucked, todoroki) and gets impaled after bakugo accidentally tosses her into the path of her own crystals, where she proceeds to snap off the pieces, seal the wounds, and hurl herself at him with a vicious snarl trying to choke him into unconsciousness. he literally has to flip it around on her and choke her until she passes out because she will not fucking stop and she’s going to cause even more damage to herself, so he wants to end the fight quickly. everyone is understandably shocked by this gruesome fight, but bakugo is the winner, time to move on. at first, petra’s only friend is her penpal of 4 years, ayaka from general studies. soft lesbian, both hands are for petra to hold, but petra is oblivious to romance and just wants to be fucking held. however, surprisingly enough, her first friend in 1-A is bakugo. this happens after she gets sick of his bullshit and calls him out, which results in a screaming match where she calls him pisshole dandruff in russian and bakugo just yells “I DONT FUCKING KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS.” so she explains and he’s shocked that that insult exists, petra gives a few more as examples, and bakugo is like “...hm. alright, if im going to insult you, i wanna do it right. teach me russian.” basically their friendship is built off the back of insults, education, and sparring, and essentially turns into best friends just ragging on each other but jumping to each others’ defense at a moment’s notice. also petra and todoroki got that Abusive Dad Solidarity so theyre pretty tight (todorachny todorachny todorachny-) petra is quiet at first, most of her talking is just mumbling insults under her breath but as bakugo learns russian she finds she cant do that anymore because he fucking knows what she’s saying- however. as time goes on and she comes out of her shell, petra quickly becomes the cryptid of class 1-a. slav squatting on desks, crouching in odd places, nicknaming everyone, eventually just flopping into her friends’ laps for that sweet sweet affection. petra is a fantastic cook and often brings food to her friends. she and bakugo often cook together in the dorms, trying out new recipes way past curfew but the teachers look the other way as long as they get some of that food. also she totally kills her dad during the forest training arc, it’s traumatic but she never felt better in her whole life, and she’s later officially adopted by aizawa and present mic.