– links & resources
Full Transcript:
The Real Meaning of Trump’s Venezuela Attack
By Vlad Vexler, 4 Jan 2026 Continue reading “Vlad Vexler: The Real Meaning of Trump’s Venezuela Attack – transcript”
Israel Is Preparing for a Permanent Presence in Gaza, Satellite Images Reveal
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/gaza-israel-building-military-outposts-roads-permanent-presence-yellow-line
‘…Since the so-called ceasefire came into effect in Gaza on October 10, Israel has been consolidating its control of over 50% of Gaza and—according to new research by Forensic Architecture—physically altering the geography of the land. Through a combination of the construction of military infrastructure alongside the destruction of existing buildings, Israel appears to be laying the groundwork to establish a permanent presence in the majority of the Gaza Strip…’
Russel Brand at Turning Point USA – you all know he’s a rapist, right? Just like your president.
‘…At the end of September 2025, the Hungarian government officially labelled the antifascism movement – ‘Antifa’ – a terrorist organisation. The move clearly follows Donald Trump’s earlier attempt in the United States. Just days later, 12 years of Roma-related human rights reports disappeared from the website of the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights (AJBH). These actions show a growing, deliberate effort to increase state control over dissent, remove accountability, weaken checks and balances, limit human rights, and erode the mechanisms designed to hold power to account…’
European Roma Rights Centre
https://www.errc.org/news/hungary-proscribes-antifa-as-a-terrorist-organisation-and-removes-12-years-of-roma-rights-reports
PHOTO ESSAY: Invisible infrared surveillance technology and those caught in its digital cage
‘…By law, anyone registering new SIM cards in China must show themselves to a face scanning camera, the images stored in telecom databases…’
https://apnews.com/photo-essay/chinese-surveillance-silicon-valley-tech-photo-essay-2da6d9ae5c29d973955e761fa42f7798
‘…If there only was a word for a governing system in which one set of laws applied to people of a specific race, and a completely different and much harsher set of laws applied to those of another race..’
https://x.com/tparsi/status/2002580224723337306
Tad Stoermer: ‘…In December 1904, he announced the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine: “Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation.” “Chronic wrongdoing” meant failing to pay debts. “Civilized society” meant the international banking system. “International police power” meant the United States military. The Monroe Doctrine said Europeans stay out; the Roosevelt Corollary said the United States goes in…’
Russia and Israel dismantle UN-based order
“The norm [strictly prohibiting annexations] is now being explicitly eroded. […] Now we’re seeing open green-lighting: for Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian land, for Israel’s annexation of Palestinian territory and soon, possibly, of Lebanese or Syrian land as well. Gaza too. All of this represents an explicit dismantling of the UN-based order, and that’s dangerous, especially for smaller nations.”
— Dirk Moses
genocide scholar, historian
meme: https://www.facebook.com/EuropeUkraineSolidarity
Palestinian artist in Gaza… Maisara Baroud
https://www.facebook.com/maisarart
For very old Web users, they may remember the obscure but fantastic poetry/art blog ‘Wood S Lot‘ – here are the archives:
https://web.ncf.ca/ek867/wood_s_lot.html
LOOK PEOPLE, THE POLICE with COLUMBIA UNIV LIED!! it was all a pro-Israel LIE to make you think the protestors were violent. See how this works? read this part…
– ‘…31 cases were dismissed due to a lack of evidence. The DA’s office said surveillance cameras inside the building had been covered and that no police officers were injured during the arrests.’
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/columbia-university-protest-arrests-charges-dropped/?linkId=476732867
Capitalism and education
Interesting, within a year of Armenia breaking away from Russia’s orbit they recognise Palestine as a state – this doesn’t quite fit the Tankie/Campist propaganda narrative, does it?🤔
Armenia recognizes Palestine as a state, foreign ministry announces
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-807156
“The Republic of Armenia has joined the resolutions of the UN General Assembly, which call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza,” it said.
“Moreover, the Republic of Armenia is sincerely interested in the establishment of peace and stability in the Middle East, the establishment of lasting reconciliation between the Jewish and Palestinian peoples.
blah blah blah blah blah blah
this is a wiki entry about eating donuts
Watch video for details
Briahna Joy Gray FIRED from The Hill’s ‘Rising’ TV Show After Criticising Israel
https://youtu.be/RQSA4aqXNSY
tweet: https://x.com/briebriejoy/status/1800655575635677307
More than 400 Ukrainian women are currently being held in Russian captivity, according to Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Those who’ve been released recount inhumane conditions, sexual assault, and torture during their detention. In the new film Captivity, the independent television channel Dozhd (TV Rain) interviews some of these women about their experiences and speaks with the daughter of a woman who is still imprisoned. Meduza shares excerpts from their stories.
video: How Ukrainian women are tortured and raped in Russian captivity. The story of the survivors – by RAIN TV [50min documentary]
[adjust your YouTube settings for auto-generated English language subtitles]
Car filled with explosives barrels into crowd leaving Rochester rock concert, killing two in possible domestic terrorism: police
https://nypost.com/2024/01/02/news/two-dead-five-injured-in-fiery-crash-outside-rochester-concert/
Miracle in Tokyo: Hundreds Escape As Jetliner Bursts Into Flames After Collision on Runway
https://themessenger.com/news/airplane-in-flames-tokyo-airport
Japan Airlines: Footage from inside the plane shows the moment it caught fire
9 hospitalized after BART train derails and catches fire in East Bay, officials say
https://abc7news.com/bart-derail-train-car-fire-orinda-fd-antioch-line-delays/14255385/
Over 6,000 Hawaiians still homeless five months after Maui wildfires
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/maui-wildfires-lahaina-homeless-hawaii-b2471930.html
Donald Trump 2020.07.04
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1279551434585931777
Mutual Aid Networks: Toward a Constructive Critique
by Thomas Hummel
‘…The issue at hand bears some similarity to a debate going back to the mid-19th century between Marx and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Proudhon was a utopian socialist and the father of modern anarchism. Proudhon believed that a new, post-capitalist society could be created alongside capitalism and slowly grow to the point where it became dominant. This process, he believed, could happen in a decentralized way. Marx, by contrast, judged that the capitalist state would never allow this to happen, and would attempt to destroy and undermine these forms of collective care. He argued that the state must be challenged with a fighting organization of the working class. This organized resistance can put pressure on the state and the wealthy, forcing them to provide resources that ordinary people need. But, for Marx, a better society could only come when our forms of organization were strong enough to directly confront the state and replace it with something better.
What’s at stake today is something similar. While acts of solidarity and mutual aid organizations are extremely important, there are limits to what they can achieve inside capitalist society…’
https://marx21us.org/2020/06/29/mutual-aid-networks-toward-a-constructive-critique
Discussion here: https://www.facebook.com/kali.akuno/posts/10158704644248738
The Creator of Mount Rushmore’s Racist Past
‘…Borglum was born the son of Danish Mormon polygamists in 1867 in Idaho. A talented artist, he spent his childhood on the Western frontier and plains, in Utah and Kansas until leaving for Europe in the early 1880s to study sculpture. There, Borglum became fascinated with art on a grand scale with nationalistic subjects, which suited what many described as his bombastic, egotistical personality. [….]
Then, in 1915, Helen Plane, the founder of the Atlanta chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, approached Borglum about a possible project.
[….] Right away, Borglum was interested in sculpting on such a grand scale. After visiting the site, he saw the potential to build a colossus of his own, a tribute to what he considered great men. He immediately accepted and drew up a proposal featuring Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis and J.E.B. Stewart riding in a cavalry carved in deep relief across a 1,200-foot-span of the mountain’s eastern face. The fathers of the confederacy would be 50-feet-tall, surrounded by stampeding horses and cavalrymen.
[….] He attended Klan rallies, served on Klan committees and tried to play peacemaker in several Klan leadership disputes, Taliaferro writes…’
Ok, this is dumb. I don't think anyone ever demanded from the photography business that this be changed, but hey!, Canon corporation can get a little bit of positive press during this economic depression.
‘…Canon began ending use of “master” and “slave” in 2017 and has officially discontinued their use moving forward across its product lines.
“Canon started to phase these [terms] out since the end of 2017,” a Canon Europe spokesperson tells Fstoppers. “[In] all new products and materials, these terms are no longer used.”
The change will only be found on new Canon gear, as the terms are permanently baked into existing gear…’
https://petapixel.com/2020/07/04/canon-has-officially-stopped-using-the-terms-master-and-slave
2020 painting with Trump: https://twitter.com/McNaughtonArt/status/1279608693005271041
The Spanish Civil War
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/hl1bsw/the_spanish_civil_war_oc/
‘…Germany called on Israel not to annex the West Bank on Wednesday, saying the plans were “in contradiction with international law.”…’
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-rejects-israels-west-bank-annexation-plans-as-illegal/a-54019730
This is a special 4th of July #Murica edition of Text Dump. Enjoy.
Trump’s Nazi Speech at Mt Rushmore
“This attack on our liberty, our magnificent liberty, must be stopped, and it will be stopped very quickly.”
He added darkly: “In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished.”
Gesturing to the overwhelmingly white crowd, he said: “Not going to happen to us.”
Trump added: “Make no mistake, this leftwing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American revolution.”
and then…
‘…The Democratic National Committee tweeted at one point that Trump had disrespected Native Americans and that his South Dakota trip was “glorifying white supremacy”. It subsequently deleted the tweet…‘
https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1279168956339798018
Watch the Mt Rushmore Trump speech if you can stomach it.
This video is basically the same as the Trump speech (above) but in the 1972 film Cabaret...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabaret_(1972_film)
What year is it, America??
‘A California bill that would require companies like Amazon to guarantee restroom breaks is moving through the state’s legislature.
The bill, AB-3056, was introduced earlier this year and passed the state’s house in June and is currently being reviewed by the state Senate. The bill aims to ensure that workers are not penalized for spending time using the restroom or washing their hands.
The bill would apply to warehouse workers of large retailers across California like Amazon, Target and Walmart. California – the country’s most populous state — has more warehouses than any other state in the U.S., according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The bill would also require these employers to pay employees overtime if they have to work beyond the time they were scheduled to complete a quota set by the company.
meanwhile in the ‘socialist’ European Union ????????????????????????…
‘Working time and rest
As an employer, you must ensure that your staff does not work more than 48 hours per week on average (including overtime), over a reference period of up to 4 months. Your employees must be given at least 11 consecutive hours of daily rest and at least 24 hours of uninterrupted weekly rest every 7 days, over a reference period of 2 weeks.
Breaks
If your employees work more than 6 hours a day, you must ensure that they are given a break, the duration of which is specified in the collective agreements or by national law….’
‘Every man with a red dot on their face who signed the Declaration of Independence OWNED and enslaved Africans. Over 75% of them.’
–– Shaun King
Declaration of Independence
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
Watch this Video:
Geographies of Racial Capitalism with Ruth Wilson Gilmore
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Wilson_Gilmore
• https://www.gc.cuny.edu/Faculty/Core-Bios/Ruth-Wilson-Gilmore
• Also listen to Ruth Wilson Gilmore Makes The Case For Abolition – podcast by The Intercept
https://youtu.be/aZQ1F45j8Vc
Crap journalism is a plague during the times of a plague.
No, Alabama frat boys aren’t doing snot shots and betting on who can get sick first. Why does the media keep suggesting otherwise?
‘…It is, of course, technically impossible to rule out the existence of Covid parties. Maybe somewhere in this vast and complex nation there are some foolish people getting infected on purpose. It’s also possible that the miasma of media coverage will coalesce into a vector of its own, inspiring Covid parties that otherwise would not have happened. But so far there’s no hard evidence that even a single one has taken place—just a recurring cycle of breathless, unsubstantiated media coverage.’
Fascinating how British imperialism trumps xenophobia, racism and isolationism.
‘…Up to three million Hong Kong residents are to be offered the chance to settle in the UK and ultimately apply for citizenship, Boris Johnson has said. [….] About 350,000 UK passport holders, and 2.6 million others eligible, will be able to come to the UK for five years. And after a further year, they will be able to apply for citizenship…’
France to rename streets after African WW2 heroes
‘…France’s armed forces ministry has provided local authorities with a guide to 100 Africans who fought for France in World War Two, so that streets and squares may be named after them.
France’s reappraisal of its colonial past is fuelled by the global anti-racism protests and Black Lives Matter.
There are many Senegalese and North African soldiers on the list, but none from what was French Indo-China.
Africans played a big role in the liberation of France in 1944.
More than 400,000 Africans in the Free French Forces took part in the Allies’ landings in the south of France in August 1944, codenamed Operation Dragoon. They were involved in heavy fighting to liberate Toulon and Marseille…’
Jeff Bezos’s Wealth
‘…[Jeff Bezos’s] gains — $56.7 billion this year alone — underscore a widening wealth gap in the U.S. during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Initial public offerings and buoyant equity markets have bolstered mega-fortunes, even as tens of millions of people have lost their jobs. This week, after receiving complaints about ending pandemic hazard pay, Amazon said it would spend about $500 million to give one-time $500 bonuses to most front-line workers…’
Nearly half the USA population is jobless
‘…The employment-population ratio — the number of employed people as a percentage of the U.S. adult population — plunged to 52.8% in May, meaning 47.2% of Americans are jobless, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. As the coronavirus-induced shutdowns tore through the labor market, the share of population employed dropped sharply from a recent high of 61.2% in January, farther away from a post-war record of 64.7% in 2000…’
Colt reverses controversial decision, decides to sell to civilian market again
‘…Colt is once again selling civilian AR15 variants of its M4 and M16 series of rifles, a mere nine months after the once-prominent military arms manufacturer stated they would discontinue the semi-automatic civilian line…’
https://warisboring.com/colt-reverses-controversial-decision-decides-to-sell-to-civilian-market-again
Curry Before Columbus
‘…Soon after Columbus’ first expedition, the treaties of Tordesillas and Saragossa divided the oceans of the newly-known world. The Portuguese effectively took the Atlantic and Indian oceans, while the Spanish took the Pacific. With that, the Portuguese established forts and trading posts along India’s Malabar coast. In time, aloo (potato), tamātar (tomato), and mirchī (chilies) were available on the western coast of the Indian subcontinent. Later, the English set up their first trading posts in India in the eastern Gangetic plain, bringing these same staples into North India.2
So what was curry like before Columbus? Well, curry didn’t exist.
In these cases, I find it useful to consult my Hobson-Jobson, the nineteenth-century dictionary of Anglo-Indian loan words. According to that source, curry comes from the Portuguese word karil (caril) via the Tamil word kari (sauce, relish for rice). In the sixteenth century, this was transliterated into English as caril, but by the 1680s entered English as carrees, perhaps from caris, an Anglicized plural form of the Portuguese.3 It’s a circle: I’m back to Tordesillas and Saragossa…’
https://contingentmagazine.org/2020/06/25/curry-before-columbus
Worth watching. There are many examples in this video I hadn't heard of before. And I don't understand why some youtubers have been excluded. Seems like a stricter definition of 'Left' than what I have? But it is true there is an amazing resurgence of Left media. Sadly almost all of the media is online. Whatever happened to the old radical zine or cheaply printed alternative newspaper?
Why have US deaths stayed steady while Covid-19 infections are spiking
‘…Which means that a crucial issue affecting mortality is whether the raging epidemic in Southern states will result in the virus further spreading into nursing homes.
Because there is no mandatory reporting of cases by nursing homes, as well as the suggestion that some states have not been forthcoming about their nursing home cases, the only way to estimate what’s ahead is to examine cases and rates among persons 65 years old and older. Of course, most of the approximately 50 million people in the US in this age group are not in chronic care facilities, which provide care to about 1.3 million Americans, but most who are in chronic care facilities are in this age group.
Overall, looking at the 65+-year-old group is extremely important when examining Covid-19 mortality: Though they make up only 16% of the US population, more than 80% of the US Covid-19 deaths have occurred in this group…’
Los Angeles is racist, by design – and with Federal money
‘…Los Angeles was never a paradise of racial acceptance, but in 1910 some 36% of L.A.’s African Americans were homeowners (compared with 2.4% in New York City) — tops in the nation. L.A.’s comprehensive Red Car transit system, which offered easy, unsegregated access to the region’s growing economic opportunities, was fundamental to this success. Integrated, racially diverse neighborhoods like Watts and Boyle Heights emerged and thrived along these transit corridors.
[….] When the 1944 Federal-Aid Highway Act allocated funds for 1,938 miles of freeways in California, planners used the opportunity, with full federal support, to obliterate as much as possible the casual mingling of the races.
[….] Officials justified these actions as “slum clearance”— intended to upgrade the city’s supposedly crumbling housing stock. But their racially malign intent was obvious, laid bare when officials moved the Santa Monica Freeway so that it ran directly through the stately African American middle class neighborhood of Sugar Hill — anything but a slum — wiping it off the map…’
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-06-24/bulldoze-la-freeways-racism-monument
The Netherlands will not apologise, for now.
‘…The government will not apologize for the Netherlands’ history of slavery, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a parliamentary debate on institutional racism on Wednesday. While he understands the calls for a apology, this is not the time, he said. “Apologies form a risk that society will further polarize” he said. [….]
“I understand the requests and I know what apologies can mean,” Rutte said. But the government carefully considered the matter and came to the conclusion that this is not the time. He called the considerations “a struggle”, adding that the decision not to apologize had nothing to do with fears of financial claims or repatriations. But that the question of how far back in time apologies can reach was a consideration. The concern that an apology now would only increase polarization in society was also an important factor, he said. [….]
“It is 2020 and this is the harsh reality for many of our fellow countrymen. The fact that all those Black Lives Matter demonstrations are waking up more and more people is good, but it also deserves follow up in our systems, our institutions and in our policies,” Jetten said. “To experience racism is to experience inequality and the generations of the future have the right to a world without racism. That will not happen after one debate or overnight. D66 therefore wants a coherent and long-term approach.”…’
https://nltimes.nl/2020/07/02/dutch-govt-wont-apologize-slavery-cause-polarization-pm-rutte
2020.07.02 US coronavirus deaths estimated to be 28 percent higher than reported
‘…Coronavirus-related deaths tallied from March through May were 95,232, or 28 percent less than the excess number of deaths. The undercount may be due to early nursing home deaths or deaths attributed to pneumonia rather than COVID-19, Reuters reports …’
