SeventyTwoTrillion

there are gonna be so many stubbed toes, concussions, weirdly coincidental heart attacks, and American soldiers missing after conducting an entirely different operation as a result of this

Possibility of something important - perhaps the US consulate - being hit by big explosions in Erbil, Iraq, by Resistance forces. Possibly even by Iran.

An Al Mayadeen correspondent has heard 7 explosions.

I will delete this if nothing comes of it or if it's fake, which I am currently on the fence about. ~~I very much doubt it's Iran.~~

Literally nothing of consequence would occur if every event on the newsmega was discussed a week after it happened.

that would be a pretty funny bit actually. the Not Quite News Megathread

when I want to sink a ship, I definitely only fire a single missile at it. that makes a ton of sense

The propaganda this time around is different and worse than what we've experienced in the Ukraine War, so we haven't really built up the antibodies for it as a site yet. Ukrainian propaganda was characterized by being overbearing and bombastic - the "Go fuck yourself" incident with the Russian ships; the Ghost of Kiev; the promises of a counteroffensive that would take Crimea; missiles and drones hitting the Kerch bridge and even Moscow; etc. Whereas Zionist propaganda is much more insidious and calculated; almost soothing. "Oh, of course we knew about October 7th in advance. Do you think our surveillance networks and AI didn't catch it? Obviously we know where Hamas' tunnels are, and we're dealing with them as we speak. We're not only getting the hostages back, but we're going to eradicate Hamas while we do so. Of course we aren't feeling any effects from Yemen's blockade; don't you see the trucks from the UAE bringing us goods? We're winning - in fact, we've already won, and the Palestinians have already lost."

It's "~~AMERICA~~ UKRAINE, FUCK YEAH!" in the first instance, and a siren song of hopelessness in the second. I refuse to look at Zionist propaganda and accounts as much as possible because of it, and stick to material reality rather than discussing narratives as much as is feasible. Because, again, once you put the earplugs in and block out the narratives, you can see with your very eyes that the tunnel network is still intact and hasn't been collapsed by bunker busters or flooded by seawater; no hostages have been freed by Israeli soldiers; Hezbollah is indeed dealing major damage to northern settlements and military installations and keeping settlers internally displaced; Yemen is indeed keeping the blockade in place regardless of western rhetoric; and in general, the Resistance continues to attrit the Zionist entity to its logical conclusion of defeat.

The Hamas missile strikes on Sderot and Tel Aviv at the Ninth Hour of Glory are like a daily heartbeat, while the Zionist surgeon tells you that the patient is dead.

They keep trying to assassinate/coup Traore in Burkina Faso, for one thing

You can really feel the shortcomings in the classifications when you get people who are like:

"See, I'm weird! Because I'm an introvert normally, but on occasion I'm extremely extroverted!"

"Does anybody else feel introverted except when they're around friends in a social situation, which then turns you into a major extrovert?"

"I dislike people, but I love spending time in nature despite being an introvert!"

"I would actually describe myself as an introverted extrovert / extroverted introvert, because..."

It's partially just not understanding what the terms mean and merely boiling them down into "Introvert = wants to stay inside literally 24/7; extrovert = wants to stay outside literally 24/7," and partially just because the terms suck even if everybody did understand the actual intended definitions of the terms. It's not just not a binary, it's a very fluid situation that varies based on the time of day, time of year, whether you have friends, how many friends you have, your current working/education situation, and dozens and dozens of other things.

I'm not entirely sure why people think it's a useful classification system to have, beyond it merely being another in-group identifier like being an INTJ or ENTP or PPB or whatever in that ridiculous personality classification system.

~~god damn, that really is fucked. Yemen's probably gonna get bombed again tonight. Godspeed to them and death to America~~

1. What do all the people who used to be in favour of apartheid do now? Do their children dislike them for their prior (or even current) views? I'm interested in how Israeli society might be shifted by a Palestinian victory, given that the vast majority of Israelis still seem to be very much in favour of genocide. As I understand it, most (white) South Africans were also in favour of apartheid until it ended under all that pressure, so South Africa proves it can be done, but I wonder about the specifics of getting from A to B on a more societal level.

2. How long do you predict the current party to remain in power, riding on the coattails of Mandela? Is there a sense of exhaustion building, or does it still have a good decade or more left?

3. What the hell is going on with the electricity blackouts? What is causing it? It seemed like they solved it but then went right back into load-shedding.

4. Any up-and-coming exciting political figures or parties?

5. What are the opinions or views on Lesotho and Eswatini? The latter is the last absolute monarchy in Africa, which I thought was pretty curious.

Yemen fired a missile at, and seems to have hit, the M/V Gibraltar Eagle, a Marshall Islands-flagged, US-owned and operated container ship.

Meanwhile, another division is forced to retreat from Gaza after being defeated by the Gazan Resistance. Three divisions are left to be destroyed.

edit: the video going around of the ship fire is not of the Gibraltar Eagle; however, the missile strike on the Gibraltar Eagle is real and did occur

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. Weekly update is here (really, covering both last week and the week before).

The Country of the Week is South Africa!

As mentioned in the preamble, feel free to post or recommend any material related to South Africa, whether from a thousand years ago or yesterday. You can post it anywhere in the thread, but you can also reply to this comment if you wish.

If you're feeling particularly ambitious and want homework, you could take on any or all of these questions (no reward, but I'll be very proud of you):

• Who are the main political actors? Are they compradors, nationalists, international socialists, something else?
• What are the most salient domestic political issues; those issues that repeatedly shape elections over the last 10, 20 years. Every country has its quirks that complicate analysis - for example, Brexit in the UK.
• What is the country's history? You don't have to go back a thousand years if that's not relevant, and I'm counting "history" as basically anything that has happened over a year ago.
• What factions exist, historically and currently? If there is an electoral system, what are the major parties and their demographic bases? Are there any minor parties with large amounts of influence? Independence movements? Religious groups?
• How socially progressive or conservative are they? Is there equality for different ethnic groups, or are some persecuted? Do they have LGBTQIA+ rights? Have they improved over time, or gotten worse?
• What role do foreign powers play in the country’s politics and economy? Is there a particular country nearby or far away that is nearly inseparable from them, for good or bad reasons? Is their trade dominated by exports/imports to one place? Are they exploited, exploiters, or something in between?
• If applicable, what is the influence of former colonial relationships on the modern economy and politics?
• Is the country generally stable? Do you think there will be a coup at some point in the future, and if so, what faction might replace them?

The previous country was Ethiopia.

This is our Geopolitics Reading List so far! Please chime in with suggestions!

General Theory:

• Super Imperialism, by Michael Hudson.
• Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Super-Exploitation, and Capitalism’s Final Crisis, by John Smith.
• Superexploitation and the Imperialist Drive of Capitalism: How Marini's 'Dialectics of Dependency' Goes beyond Marx's 'Capital', by Andy Higginbottom.
• Capital Volume 3 Lecture Series, 32 videos, 10-15 minutes each, by Andy Higginbottom.
• World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction, by Immanuel Wallerstein.
• Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire, by Radhika Desai.
• Capitalism, Coronavirus and War: A Geopolitical Economy, by Radhika Desai.

Canada:

• Canada in the World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination, by Tyler Shipley.

Chile:

• 1000 Days of Revolution: Chilean Communists on the Lessons of Popular Unity (I cannot personally find an online version).
• Santiago Boys Podcast, analyzing Allende's government and Cybersyn.

Lebanon:

• A History of Modern Lebanon, by Fawwaz Traboulsi.

United States:

• Drug Cartels Do Not Exist: Narcotrafficking in US and Mexican Culture, by Oswaldo Zavala.

Venezuela:

• Objective Conditions in Venezuela: Maduro’s Defensive Strategy and Contradictions Among the People, a longform article by Steve Ellner.

Next thread here.

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