news

https://archive.is/HBCM2

Federal culture minister Roth commissioned an opinion from a constitutional expert, Christoph Möllers from Humboldt-University Berlin, about the legality of having recipients of art grants sign antisemitism provisions (like propsed in the state of Berlin for example). Yes, Claudio Roth is the one that clapped at the Berlinale during the anti-apartheid speech and then was hounded by the Springer press. In her defense she put out a statement about how she was clapping for the Israeli Jew, forgetting to mention there was a Palestinian on stage as well. That one.

So he looked at the legality of having artists and institutions declare their commitment to diversity, and against racism and antisemitism (in general and also according to something like the IHRA definition, which conflates antisemitism with criticism of Israel), if they want to receive government grants.

Findings:

• Since basically everyone receives these grants in Germany, this is pretty delicate, because it de-facto impacts artistic freedom. The vast majority artists and cultural institutions cannot realistically get out of these pledges, even if they can in theory.
• A commitment to diversity is too vague and would leave the signees unsure about what they can and cannot do.
• A commitment against racism and antisemitism is more concrete, but the IHRA definition is subject to scientific debate, and the state weighing in on this violates academic freedom.
• In order to enforce this, a new control mechanism would have to be implemented, which would be rife for abuse and might narrow the space for artistic expression.

So basically he thinks this would be unconstitutional and a bad idea.

is back on the menu

https://www.readthemaple.com/already-approved-military-exports-to-israel-will-continue/

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly won’t revoke existing permits for exports of military goods to Israel despite this week’s motion in Parliament calling on the government to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel.”

Joly will only take the non-binding motion’s language to apply to future applications for permits to export military goods to Israel, which was effectively the government’s position before the motion passed.

Polling isn't looking so hot for Brandon:

Israel’s attacks on Gaza’s healthcare facilities | Al Jazeera

The Israeli army’s raid on al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is now in its fourth day. According to the army, the raid has killed more than 140 and led to 600 arrests. But this attack isn’t Israel’s first on a medical centre in the Gaza Strip. Our team put together this graphic showing the scale of Israel’s assault on the strip’s healthcare sector:

AOC decries ‘unfolding genocide’ in Gaza, urges halting weapons to Israel

Too little too late, but at least it's something.

Kate also has cancer lol

Denmark's succdem-led right-wing regime has lost it's majority in parliament for domestic policies. A liberal MP has switched to the fascist "Denmark Democrats" party, as he wants to be more racist.

The regime is still able to stay in power as MP's from Greenland and the Faroe Islands are protecting them against a vote of no confidence but they are no longer able to pass legislation on domestic issues on their own and will have to seek support from other parties, either from the centre-left opposition or, more likely, from their ideological siblings among hard right and fascist parties.

Today an MP from the defunct "New Right" fascist party has also switched to the "Denmark Democrats", making the fascist paarty the third-largest in parliament.

ISIS telegram released bodycam footage of the attack that was previously not available or known. Seems like ISIS definitely is involved in some capacity, although the attackers were paid for their “work” so it still seems like we’re missing the final piece of the puzzle of who funded the operation

The ruling hindutva party of india now has arrested the head of one of the biggest opposition parties in India for bogus reasons. He is the current chief minister of Delhi which is the capital region of India.

US reportedly considering plea deal offer for Julian Assange

The US government is reported to be considering a plea deal offer to Julian Assange, allowing him to admit to a misdemeanor, but his lawyers say they have been “given no indication” Washington intends to change its approach.

...

The report said a plan under consideration would be to drop the current 18 charges under the Espionage Act, if Assange pleaded guilty to mishandling classified documents, a misdemeanor offence. Assange would be able to enter the plea remotely from London and would likely be free soon after the deal was agreed to, as he has already spent five years in custody in the UK.

However, Assange’s legal team said they were not aware of any change in the prosecution strategy.

One of Assange’s defence attorneys, Barry Pollack, said in a statement: “It is inappropriate for Mr Assange’s lawyers to comment while his case is before the UK high court other than to say we have been given no indication that the Department of Justice intends to resolve the case and the United States is continuing with as much determination as ever to seek his extradition on all 18 charges, exposing him to 175 years in prison.”

They make this all public in the news cycle before even telling Assange's laywers.

taiwan donates US$500,000 to israel

Stumbled across a piece of research being performed by the London School of Economics for the benefit of the banking sector

https://lsecentralbanking.medium.com/understanding-the-escalating-frequency-and-duration-of-strikes-across-the-uk-5c9d42be6b2f

They're looking into the rise in strikes in the UK, and the research aims to answer the question of what causes it so that they can then consider how to manage it I presume.

The Analysis and Conclusion are well worth a read. Too long for me to post them both here though. The Conclusion is:

Conclusion

In conclusion, the recent surge in strikes within the UK economy, spanning various sectors such as healthcare, education, and rail, can be analysed using the Ashenfelter and Johnson model. The model provides valuable insights into the dynamics between unions and firms, shedding light on the factors influencing the frequency and duration of strikes.

Overall, in the current economic climate, factors such as the cost of living crisis, decoupling of wages from productivity, and government spending cuts have led to a significant decline in real wages for public sector workers and resulted in a dramatic increase in Y0. Coupled with a substantial budget deficit and austerity, the government’s ideal wage increase (Yt) has decreased and remained low. This increasing gap between the two wages has contributed to the increasing length and frequency of strikes.

Ideally I think unions and organisers should be getting educated on this kind of research, in particular models like this Ashenfelter shit. Not because I think it's correct but because it is what their opponents are using, if they are using them as models then they are building strategy around them as being correctly capable of guessing union behaviour/outcomes. Understanding them is a means of being unpredictable and being able to predict employer behaviour will allow strategies to be undertaken that abuse it.

Organisers can be more agile than employers.

So apparently the moscow attackers are Tajiks.

Some sources say two of them were caught on the road towards Ukraine. There's a pretty gnarly photo out there with one of the alleged attackers with his left eyelid cut off/eye gouged.

Here's my thoughts about what preceded the Moscow attack. It's obviously very fishy, but I think this is another moment of disunity between Kyiv and Washington, of their policies not playing well with each other

The perpetrators more or less admitting they mostly did it for money and didn't want to die is EXTREMELY out of character for Jihadists, and them trying to make a break for Ukraine is a weird red flag. It hints at some kind of Western connection to the attack, but then you've got America strangely pre-empting it with a warning about a terror attack in Moscow weeks before. Not something you typically do if you're trying to make sure the attack happens in the first place.

I feel that Ukraine tried covertly arming and coordinating with Islamist groups like ISIS in an attempt to foment chaos/ignite a war with Chechnya or disorder is other Islamic regions of the Federations. The Ukrainian government is in a do-or-die position where they might feel pressured to do something underhanded and unethical like this. But then at some point, they either ran the idea by the Americans and got a "Hell No" response, or they were trying to keep it under wraps but the Americans found out anyways.

Accepting that the attack was going to happen whether they liked it or not, the Yanks are stuck with a dilemma. If they keep their lips sealed and let a catastrophic terror attack happen in a geopolitically convenient place, they risk it being discovered that they knew in advance but didn't stop it, humiliating the US diplomatically for being hypocrites and tanking Biden's reelection chances.

The harm reduction option is to adhere to Duty to Warn, maybe try to limit civilian deaths by discouraging public gatherings (if that's even a concern for US leadership), all while having the plausible deniability of being able to say "Well we knew something was going to happen, but we didn't know our friends in Ukraine were involved!". Or even to just outright say "That's propaganda, we didn't know Ukraine would do this/Ukraine wouldn't do this! Look, we even warned you that we knew something was going to happen? Why would we do that if we knew/collaborated?"

A proxy state's interests aren't always totally aligned with their overlord's, and there have been plenty of times in the past where US Military leadership has seemed openly aggravated with Ukrainian strategies. As the situation grows more desperate, Ukraine will become more and more willing to resort to questionable/Machiavellian plays to somehow turn the tides, even if it actively harms US interests. At the end of the day, it's the Ukrainian officers and politicians who will end up at best unemployed and at worst on trial if Russia wins, not any members of the Biden administration.

Inger Støjberg, convicted criminal, darling for Denmark's far right and leader of one of the American puppet state's fascist parties, has proposed that applicants for Danish citizenship has to sign a loyalty oath to the illegal zionist entity. The succdem minister of integration (ie. racism) has chosen not to run with the ball though, declining to give interviews. Denmark's foreign minister is talking about the need for a ceasefire, although he still refuses to connect the dot between the actions of the zionist ocvupiers and the man-made famine in Gaza.

Even my lead-poisoned boomer dad who will believe any conspiracy theory about Muslims and the woke has lost his taste for the illegal zionist entity and their atrocities.

Zionism is slowly becoming a weird fringe position in the west and being an outspoken zionist is becoming an embarrassment.

Fortune - Intel wins $19.5 billion in CHIPS Act funding as ‘historic’ semiconductor spending spree heats up

If Intel meets performance targets in the deal, it’ll be eligible for $8.5 billion in federal grants, an additional $11 billion in CHIPS Act loans and a 25% Treasury tax credit. A senior administration official said that the Intel grant was expected to be the largest single grant administered through the CHIPS Act, and once the Commerce Department and Intel agree on final terms, the government expects to start delivering funds by the end of the year.

So, three years after Congress passed the CHIPS act, they're finally thinking about possibly doing the first major disbursement by the end of the year.

Oh boy, America is really showing China what they can do when they eventually get off their asses because the graft checks finally cleared the bank.

This is the real reason Brandon went to Arizona, nothing to actually do with the primaries.

Libs on Twitter are celebrating the 25th anniversary of NATO bombing Yugoslavia.

US urged Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries

The US has urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, warning that the drone strikes risk driving up global oil prices and provoking retaliation, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

Russia remains one of the world’s most important energy exporters despite western sanctions on its oil and gas sector. Oil prices have risen about 15 per cent this year, to $85 a barrel, pushing up fuel costs just as US President Joe Biden begins his campaign for re-election.

Washington is also concerned that if Ukraine keeps hitting Russian facilities, including many that are hundreds of miles from the border, Russia could retaliate by lashing out at energy infrastructure relied on by the west.

“We do not encourage or enable attacks inside of Russia,” an NSC spokesperson said. The CIA declined to comment. In Kyiv, a spokesperson for the SBU declined to comment. Officials at GUR and Zelenskyy’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

The US objections come as Biden faces a tough re-election battle this year with petrol prices on the rise, increasing almost 15 per cent this year to around $3.50 a gallon.

“Nothing terrifies a sitting American president more than a surge in pump prices during an election year,” said Bob McNally, president of consultancy Rapidan Energy and a former White House energy adviser.

Yanks having a good time with their proxies recently

In honor of the mega's image this week, I dug through my account to find this edit:

Russia and China veto US "ceasefire" resolution at UN

Found this rabid comment on r/thedeprogram quoting an r/israel user: https://www.reddit.com/r/Israel/comments/1biqqy1/netanyahu_i_made_it_clear_to_biden_we_must_enter/kvm7kgo/?context=3

tfw your Western handlers can no longer ship you weapons:
https://twitter.com/marcus_herve/status/1769371930606325983

Now, it looks like the terrorists are having a hard time getting their usual supplies of weapons. After all, how can their sponsors supply them when the AES is now controlling the land and airspace?

has Ukraine issued a commemorative postage stamp for the Crocus City Hall attack yet?

The scotland Hate Crime bill is simply magical. It purports that anything published online and read in Scotland, is considered posted from Scotland. This means you could commit a crime in Scotland without ever leaving your home or having set a foot in the country. Furthermore, every single thing published before the bill passed is now retroactively subjected to the new law, meaning ten year old content read in Scotland and reported as a Hate Crime will then be eligible for prosecution.

This is possibly the most fantastical piece of legislation ive ever read, I burst out laughing numerous times, sent it to friends studying law and several replied with variants of "what the fuck." Given the tenuous nature of the bill and how fucking vague it is, theres zero doubt this will be weaponized to persecute palestine activists and leftists of all stripes.

It seems that the US has chosen some politicians to elect Haiti's interim prime minister, while right-wing paramilitaries, gangs and left-wing groups continue to clash with the police and advance on the capital.

These right-wing gangs and paramilitaries are the remnants of the old Haitian army and the death squads of right-wing dictator François Duvalier and his son. When Haiti's first democratically elected president was elected in 1991, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Catholic socdem, he tried to destroy these groups after being temporarily removed in a coup by the Haitian elite.

Then, some of Aristide's supporters created a left-wing paramilitary group called Chimères to help the government. These groups ended up engaging in a low-intensity guerrilla war against the US, France, the UN and pro-coup groups in the 2000s, after they illegally removed Aristide from power.

Now, these groups are fighting for control of the country after the US and French puppets failed to do anything but line their pockets with public money and foreign aid.

Getting reports now that the attack was committed by three guys in a boat

US House Speaker ‘may’ invite Israeli PM to address Congress | Al Jazeera

US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson says he’s considering inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress.

“It’s one of the things that we have in mind, and we may try to arrange for that,” Johnson told reporters. He said it’s “very important” for the United States to show solidarity and support for Israel “right now in their time of great struggle”.

Johnson said he held a “lengthy conversation this morning” with Netanyahu and reiterated House Republicans’ “strong support for Israel”.

Last week by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for new elections in Israel and criticised Netanyahu’s leadership. Johnson said, “We think it is not only foolhardy, it’s dangerous for him to be trying to suggest how Israel should run its domestic affairs in the midst of their conflict.”

What's going on with ukraine rn? Something about huge missile attack?

Compilation of the IOF getting owned:
https://twitter.com/revolutionaryem/status/1770893496662032866

It's old footage, but it's cool to see them in one compilation.

Independent US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has said he does not support a temporary ceasefire in Gaza. | The Guardian

Speaking to Reuters, he told it Israel was a "moral nation" that was justly responding to Hamas provocations with its attacks on Gaza. Asked if he supported a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, Kennedy told Reuters: "I don't even know what that means right now." Kennedy said that each previous ceasefire "has been used by Hamas to rearm, to rebuild and then launch another surprise attack. So what would be different this time?" he said.

Recent polling has suggested Kennedy is backed by 15% of registered voters in the US, nowhere near enough to attain the presidency, but in a position where he could take votes from incumbent Joe Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Earlier this week Trump said that Jewish people who voted for the Democratic party "hated Israel" and "hated their religion".

Fuck the dems for real, but I'm pretty sure the dems are intentionally trying to lose this one in hopes that the recession will happen on Trump's second turn and have the GOP be blamed for it. Then run on the recession in 2028.

Fuck this society, literally no incentive to run things well, it's all about finding people to hold the bag. It's not incompetence, they just want you to suffer.