On nationalism

Is the Nazi holocaust & colonization of Europe an expression of a reactionary political strategy?

Bougois nationalism often consolidates power within one nationality - Germany stripped the Jewish nation of their right to life, without contradicting class intrests

Nazis stoked the racist bougois nationalism in Germany. Nationalism has historically been used to suppress the class contradiction below one of national opression.

Ex: (Parenti) Nazi propaganda described themselves as a classless nation, and the opressed jews as the enemy.

Ex: (Nokhem Shtif - "the pogroms in Ukrain") in Ukraine, during the Civil War of 1918-1919, the white army propagated the Jeudo-Bolshevik conspiracy, and called for the Ukrainian nation to fight the red army and the Jewish people - leading to brutal pogroms & a swollen white army

Ex: (J. Sakai - Settlers) in America, a privelaged, white settler nationality was produced and cultivated as a loyal garrison army, which could dominate the indigenous and African nationalities, at the benefit of the European bourgeois state.

Ex: (Ibrahim Kaypakkaya - "on the national question") in the 1970s, (oppressed) Kurdish and (oppressor) Turkish nationalism entailed the proletariat of each nation fighting for the benefit of their national bourgeoisie, instead of their liberation.

1/ Wow, what an essay, trying to distill thoughts from this masterpiece: https://t.co/bxR3cnNJrM

Hat tip: @NSKinsella

The essay is about inflation's effect on culture, through the analysis of a short story set in Weimar Germany. I've selected some quotes and will comment.

2/ "With all points of reference gone, the only law...appears to be perpetual change."

When money changes, everything else anchored on money starts to change as well. Prices being the most obvious one, but crucially, not the only one.

3/ "...if we seek an explanation for the dissolution of authority in the world he is portraying, we should look to the monetary madness of the Weimar Republic."

The insanity and disorder of society, in other words, can be traced back to monetary policy.

4/ "Everything threatens to become unreal once money ceases to be real."

Unreal, in this sense is counterfeit or fake. Societal attitudes become as fake as the money we use because it no longer just represents value provided, but also value fraudulently obtained.

5/ "By making money worthless, inflation threatens to undermine and dissolve all sense of value in a society."

Money helps us to know where we can expend our labor to best provide value. If our sense of value is skewed, we will no longer properly value our labor, time or energy.

1. UN Human Rights Office Handed Names of Dissidents to Chinese Regime putting lives in direct danger.

2. UN Rights Council Attacks Western Sanctions, Backs Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba.

3. UN Elects Turkey to Head General Assembly in 2020-2021.

4. UN’s WHO Names China Booster Helen Clark to Head COVID-19 Inquiry.

5. UN Condemns Israel 17 Times, Rest of the World 6.

What are the concerns of young Russians? And how will they shape the future of their country & its relationship with Europe? The Levada Centre has done a fascinating study. Buckle up for a long thread. But be aware, it might shatter your Illusions.

First, young Russians are proud of their country and support the forceful restoration of Moscow's role in the international system under Putin. Around 69% agree with the statement “I am proud to be a citizen of Russia”. 2/X

Half of the respondents are sure that Russia’s prestige and international clout will keep growing and many lament that Moscow’s interests are not sufficiently emphasized on the international stage. 3/X

Young Russians are less religious than the overall population and the church is highly polarizing. At the same time, a vast majority considers itself to be Orthodox Christian. No signs of a demographic “Islamisation” of Russia. 4/X

To put it mildly: young Russians are not woke. Many do not want to live in the same neighborhood with Roma (75%), homosexual (61%), refugees (49%), Jews (27%), or people from the Caucasus (34%). 5/X

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "Good afternoon, thank you for joining us. I'll give you some warning in advance - my update is going to be slightly longer than normal today because I've got a few updates I'm going to cover."

NS: "I'm also going to touch a little bit on Christmas, which I know is of huge interest to everyone. But firstly, as usual, I will cover today's statistics."

NS: "There were 689 positive cases reported yesterday, which is 5.9% of the total number of tests and means that the total tally of confirmed cases now is 108,438."

NS: "140 of today's new cases were in Lothian, 109 in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, 92 in Lanarkshire and 91 in Ayrshire & Arran, and the remaining cases are spread across 8 other health board areas."

NS: "1,031 people are currently in hospital which is an increase of 35 from yesterday. 49 people are in intensive care, which is 4 more than yesterday."

OPERATION BRASSTACKS
A Thread
Type: Major Indian Combined Arms Military Exercise
Target: Southern/Central #Pakistan
Goal: Military provocation leading to armed conflict
Result: Pakistani Counter Deployment; Exercises halted; Standing down of Indian Forces.
Date: 1986-1987
#India

Operation Brasstacks was the brainchild of then Indian Army Chief General Krishnaswamy Sundarji who wished to provoke a Pakistani response to a massive planned Indian army mobilisation in the guise of military exercises near Pakistan’s border. General Sunderji's strategy was

to provoke Pakistan to respond and this would provide India with an excuse to implement existing contingency plans to go on to the offensive against Pakistan and take out its atomic bomb projects in a series of preventive strikes.
It was the major and largest mobilization of

Indian forces on the Indian Subcontinent, involving the combined deployed strength of two Army Commands (Western and Southern)- almost 500,000 troops , plus 200,00-300,000 more reservists amounting to over 2/3rds of the Indian Army. The exercises would also involve a series of

amphibious assault exercises by the Indian Navy near to a Pakistan naval base in Korangi Creek. All these exercises were meant to be done within 100 miles of the Pakistani border.

The Indians knew that the military strategists of the Pakistan Armed Forces would regarded this

In the Middle East, such as Syria, the CIA assets operate under splinter cells with different names.

We are seeing the same MO with Antifa, who were trained by CIA terrorist cells in Syria.

First we learned of John Sullivan's Insurgence USA

Now the Boogaloo Boys.

[thread]

Pakistan starts production of advanced JF-17 Thunder Block III aircraft
@Jonthoughts01

#PakArmyVirtueOfExcellence

PAC develops capacity to produce advance 4.5 generation JF-17B Thunder Block-III jets
@Jonthoughts01
#PakArmyVirtueOfExcellence

Aircraft to be equipped with long-range superior radar system and advanced precise firing weapon
@Jonthoughts01

#PakArmyVirtueOfExcellence

PAC Kamra hands over 14 dual seater JF-17B Thunder Block-II fighter jets to PAF
@Jonthoughts01

#PakArmyVirtueOfExcellence

Indian Air Force’s Rafale jets will no longer be as lethal as it hoped them to be as
@Jonthoughts01
#PakArmyVirtueOfExcellence

#Indonesia #Jakarta #NaturalDisaster #STATISTICS

In the first three weeks of 2021 alone, the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management Agency (@BNPB_Indonesia or just BNPB) said there had been a shocking 171 natural disasters in Indonesia.

"Most are in the form of floods, hurricanes and landslides," Professor Wiku Adisasmito from BNPB, who is also the national COVID-19 task force spokesperson, said in a press conference this week.

Indonesia reported 297 disasters in the month of January last year, including floods in the metropolitan area of Jakarta and landslides in West Java. But the disasters this year have been more deadly, with 160 individuals dying so far in January 2021,

compared to 91 individuals who lost their lives in natural disasters in January 2020. Environmental disasters are not uncommon for Indonesia, with a total of 2,291 disasters in 2020 reported by the government.

On the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates meet, the archipelago still lies, triggering regular volcanic activity as well as earthquakes. Ecologists, however, warn that the loss of forests and climate change are influencing the severity of disasters.

Why should SJP’s recent shift in fake news attacks / propaganda to attack large corporates in SL should worry us? I explain my thoughts below after observed fake news that originated from the SJP camp that targeted SL’s largest apparel exporter, State Banks and listed telco - SLT

SJP is the latest avatar of UNP that built his political legacy around free markets, property rights, and pro corporate / capital market policies since independence, often paying a huge political price for its unwavering commitment to them - in 1956, 1970, and even in 2005

These principals we staunchly demonstrated all the way till 2014, when the party suddenly developed a penchant for populist policies in their desperation to oust the Rajapaksa administration. Perhaps, it was also frustration towards the corporate sector’s support for pro inv

Policies of Rajapaksa administration seen during the massive post war infrastructure investment wave. The combination of populism and the misguided zeal to teach a lesson to corporates ended up in the disastrous retrospective super gain tax of 2015 targeting the largest corporate

Suspension of the Port City project, which at the time was the largest committed FDI source and also a massive spending spree on state employee salaries as a vote buying exercise- and predictably, investments crashed , stock marked tanked , bud deficit in 2015 rose &rupee crashed

Interestingly, if you replace #SovietUnion with #USA and #Communism with #Capitalism, you have a very exact display of our current, turbocharged #LateCapitalism that is willing to sacrifice peoples' lives across the globe for

So no matter if your facism pays in Mark, Ruble or Dollar: At the end of the day, it's #ModiOperandi are similar if not identical.

It's just Germany that industrialized human slaughter for profit during WW2.

Similarly, people lie to themselves that they either enjoy #capitalism or are "better off with this system than X" when it's not

I mean, almost everyone [with very, very few exceptions based of partially and mostly privilegue] is forced to work some sort of job to be able to pay the bills with no actual alternative

...regardless of the fact that people would most likely be far more productive, creative and useful if they're given the economic freedom to spend their time with something that doesn't essentially pay well, but is serving others if not the entire society.

1) Awful story from Sweden. In September, journalists at public broadcaster Swedish Radio (SR) signed statement demanding better coverage of racism/discrimination & called out racism/discrimination within SR itself.

SR responded by banning a number of them from covering racism.

2) In September of 2020, a group of journalists – most with immigrant backgrounds – at public service broadcaster Swedish Radio signed a statement: ”Whose SR? A Call for Representation and Against Racism at Swedish Radio.” The statement was widely discussed and debated.

3) The statement laid bare problems at Swedish Radio with coverage of race, racism and discrimination in Sweden and abroad. It also outlined examples of racism/discrimination at Swedish Radio itself, and problems with the recruitment and promotion of minority journalists at SR.

4) The conclusion to the statement included a list of demands intended to improve the situation at Swedish Radio. Leadership at Swedish Radio largely dismissed the claims, and a number of journalists in the Swedish press were highly critical of those who signed the statement.

5) In a story just been published in @Journalistense, it is revealed that a number of those who signed the petition were removed from coverage of Black Lives Matter, and issues related to BLM. Why? Because of one reference to BLM at the start of the 2,200-word statement.

Treasury Targets Billion Dollar Foundations Controlled by Iran’s Supreme Leader https://t.co/JCoE8NKD19 The Execution of Khomeini’s Order ‘EIKO’, is the richest and highest revenue-generating enterprise controlled by Khamenei. The other is The Astan-e Qods-e Razavi Foundation.

"EIKO and AQR control large swaths of the Iranian economy, including assets expropriated from political dissidents and religious minorities, to the benefit of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and senior Iranian government officials." EIKO was also designated in 2013 under E.O. 13599.

EIKO, also known as SETAD, has been able to take possession of some of the most profitable and largest commercial and financial firms, thanks to the direct and daily backing of Khamenei himself. The most conservative estimate of SETAD wealth is $95 billion.

EIKO board members, handpicked by Khamenei, include mullah Hossein-Ali Nayyeri, a judge during the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners; Hossein Shariatmadari, an interrogator and torturer and now Khamenei’s rep & Mohammadi Golpayegani, Khamenei’s chief of staff.

Tadbir Economic Development Group, one of EIKO’s main holding companies, and its subsidiaries own dozens of enterprises in oil, gas, refineries, petrochemicals, electronics, telecommunications, construction, mining, auto industry, and financial sectors.

POLICE ARREST 5 FOR MULTIPLE ABDUCTION, CAR THEFT AND ABUSE OF WOMEN, 2 OTHERS FOR INT’L CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

• A total of 2,792 others arrested for SGBV offences in 2020

The Inspector General of Police, IGP M.A Adamu, NPM, mni has said that the action plan being implemented by the Force to curb Sexual and Gender Based Violence, particularly all forms of abuse on women and children in the country, is yielding positive results.

The IGP made the affirmation on the heels of the arrest of five (5) members of a kidnap for ransom gang which specializes in the abduction of women and the girl child, sexually abusing them and obtaining ransom from their families before their release.

The five (5) suspects were arrested by operatives of the Intelligence Response Team following massive manhunt by the Force for the perpetrators of the recent trend of abduction of women in some States in the South-South part of the country, especially Port Harcourt

and its environs. The victims are subjected to series of sexual abuses and ransom demanded from their families before their release. The suspects are Osinachi Ngwakwe 'm' 22yrs from Ubaka Community in Umahia South LGA, Abia State,

Mr. Governor LIVE on “Politics Today” on Channels TV TONIGHT ... Tune in

@jidesanwoolu @gbenga_omo @gboyegaakosile

[COVID19]: “We will continue to encourage our frontline Heath Workers” - @jidesanwoolu

“2020 is behind us now, For me it’s to continue to serve Lagosians” - @jidesanwoolu

“I am looking futuristically and looking forward to a prosperous 2021” - @jidesanwoolu

“For me personally, It’s not really to dwell so much about the past, you need to learn from the past” - @jidesanwoolu

So, MAGA want to succeed from the union? Fine. Let 'em go. We'll take our Blue states & as many progressives as we can out of Red states and form our own country. That includes Hawaii, Oregon, California, New Mexico, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and (1)

all the Northeast.

We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and Washington D.C. We also get Costco and Boeing. (2)

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma, and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Branson, Missouri. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. (3)

We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share. Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get (4)

a bunch of happy families.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. (5)

The latest focal S:N501 build is now up! It includes data from 4 Jan 2021.

We have new sequences in 501Y.V1/B.1.1.7 from Denmark, Singapore, Australia, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Pakistan & the USA.

1/12

https://t.co/FTjvV7T7wL

Denmark has 43 new sequences (in orange). These indicate additional introductions, as well as further expansion of the existing large local transmission cluster we saw previously (shown in zoomed divergence view).

2/12

10 new sequences from Portugal (orange) indicate additional, separate introductions.

3/12

Singapore has 5 new sequences (yellow). These indicate at least 5 separate introductions for the total of 6 sequences, with two identical sequences likely being 1 introduction.

4/12

5 new sequences from the US, from Florida & California (older sequences crossed through).

Zooming in (divergence view) on the California cluster, the relationship between these samples is difficult to infer from phylogenies alone.

5/12