Interesting commentary by a Vietnamese communist:
https://xcancel.com/darrion_nguyen/status/1865962973455634668

What happened in Syria vindicated Ho Chi Minh famous teaching “A nation who does not want to fight for its independence does not deserve it”. That’s why even though we got support from our allies (materials, technical), it was the Vietnamese to decide our struggle.

We got “negotiated” by big nation (incl. so called allies like the USSR / China) during Geneva and we learned our lesson. Le Duan famously said if we want unification, we must not fear the US, and also not fear the USSR and China, which means if our allies don't agree to our course of action (let’s say fully liberate the south), be prepared to get supply cut off and fought on our own term if we want unification.

Reality shows that was correct decision, culminating in Paris 1972 where we negotiate directly with the US. In the last days of south Vietnam, the West called the USSR and China to talk to Hanoi to halt our operation, but it was all in vain.

Reminds me how Iran didn't want Ansarallah to seize Sanaa, but Ansarallah did it anyways.

i actually don’t care if people not ideologically aligned with the left are putting CEOs in body bags

Btw turns out that decades and weeks Lenin quote is actually George Galloway's version of this paragraph of Lenin:

In the space of a few days we destroyed one of the oldest, most powerful, barbarous and brutal of monarchies. In the space of a few months we passed through a number of stages of collaboration with the bourgeoisie and of shaking off petty-bourgeois illusions, for which other countries have required decades.

The entire left has been quoting Galloway for years.

In core news:

apparently lady returned from vacations for this

I just can't get over the difference between "killing ceo in well executed premeditated assasination and fleeing the scene successfully" and "got caught in a mcdonalds with the gun STILL ON YOU and also with a hasily written manifesto ON HIM"

Like what? If it is the same guy, how the fuck did he pull the assassination off so effortlessly if he's this incompetent. If he's not incometent and he wanted to get caught, THIS is the way he wanted to do that? There were so many other ways!

So... wtf?! Genuinely I cannot comprehend it lmao

cuck n chad ranking: 14 years of Syrian meltdown

Note: temporary removal of the first RUS vs UKR row, this edition is fully dedicated to Syria and related conflicts

Some pretty wild footage. The prison Luigi is being held at has the inmates in uproar, and they basically do a live television interview about Luigi's prison conditions. The news anchor is able to interview inmates live because they're just shouting across the fence; lots of chants of "Free Luigi." Luigi is probably already 50% of the way there to leading a prison riot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCml-w9MQ7Y

Israel not even waiting a single day to invade Syria to grab more land is really something.

International Rules Based Order!!

The woman arrested for "threatening" her insurance company has been released and all charges have been dropped

Israel is currently undertaking one of the largest offensive air operations in it's entire history in Syria, bombing basically any piece of SAA/ex SAA military equipment, research facilities (both civilian and military), military bases and installations, weapons caches and ammunition caches, air defence systems, tanks, fighter jets, naval assets, ports, factories, etc. All that equipment that the HTS captured from the SAA is turning to ashes at this moment, all across the country. Israel is striking as far east as Hasaka, launching over 300 airstrikes in the past few hours. 150 airstrikes were reported yesterday. The United States is, as expected, providing assistance, flying MQ-4C ISR recon drones over the coast of Syria and Lebanon. Israeli ground forces are also in the Damascus countryside and 20km/12.5mi away from Damascus city itself. It's a disastrous situation, one that's was entirely predictable should the government of Syria fall.

I made a comment a few months ago about how the SAAs air defence systems, including S-300 PMU-1's supplied by Russia, S-200s, Tor and Pantsir point air defence systems, were the only things in Syria preventing a large scale air attacks from Israel, and the skies of Syria turning into the skies of Lebanon and Gaza. Yes Israel could conduct air strikes into Syria, but those required extensive effort and planning, and were only done on a small scale, nothing like what is happening now. Some were dismissive of my comment given that Israel could conduct these limited strikes. But it unfortunately seems that I was right, now that those air defence systems no longer exist or have operators, Israel has free reign over the skies of Syria and are conducting some of the largest air operations in their history... The Syrian state infrastructure is being completely dismantled.

The amount of gloating and rebranding ISIS and Al Quedea as "rebels" from even Arab media is making me sick watching the coverage of this. Do people not understsnd who these bastard are? Have they forgotten already every single Arab country the west stuck their corrupted fingers in? What the fuck is going on?

WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Republican and Democratic U.S. senators say it is too soon to consider lifting sanctions on Syria following the removal of President Bashar al-Assad, an indication that Washington is unlikely to change its policy any time soon.

hahaha

Yemen upholds allegiance to Gaza: 'Peace or long war, world must choose' | The Cradle

Oop another Syrian scientist murdered, 3 now.

“ Syrian scientist Shadia Habbal, an internationally renowned doctor of physics, was killed along with her husband in Damascus. Earlier, nuclear microbiologist Zahra al-Homsi was killed with two bullets to the head.”

Man, imagine telling someone that this year, there'd be two attempted or successful assassinations in the United States, one against a president, but the OTHER one caused more of a ripple

NYU has banned dozens of students and three (Jewish) professors from campus and declared them personae non grata for participating in a pro-Palestine protest. One of the professors is Rebecca Karl, author of Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World, which I think I've seen recommended on here.

https://nyunews.com/news/2024/12/12/bobst-protest-arrests/

Unidentified Iranian drones, reportedly the size of small cars, have been flying over American airspace to monitor U.S. military installations and critical infrastructure, including 'Picatinny Arsenal', an army base which houses the Headquarters of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center (CCDCAC) – the drones are said to be 'technology that the U.S. does not possess' – Newsweek

'The drones are not Iranian, but they are also not part of the U.S. military or any foreign government'

'The drones seem to have some sort of advanced stealth capability' – Congressman Van Drew (R-NJ2)

'One month ago, Iran launched a mothership near the U.S. East Coast, from where Iranian military drones have been entering U.S. airspace, including New Jersey, to monitor residences of the President & American military movements. These drones should be SHOT DOWN. The U.S. military is on full alert regarding this.' – Congressman Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ-2), citing high-ranking intelligence sources

The Pentagon has denied that Iranian drones are operating in U.S. airspace, and states there is 'no official explanation' for the unidentified drones. However, Congressman Van Drew & other high-ranking government officials within the sub-commitee of Aviation of the U.S. House of Representatives insist that their information is truthful.

They say the Pentagon is denying the news in order to prevent mass panic among the U.S. population. 'These are not American drones, we don't even have anything like this. I have it from extremely reliable sources that these are Iranian drones, launched from a mothership near the East Coast', Van Drew said.

Gotta give myself and @MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net a big pat on the back for correctly dooming from the start, we were the only megaheads that got the Afghanistan-scenario prediction correctly.

Hexbear a couple of days ago: "Yeah, I don't think that guy's him. The hoodie is the wrong color, it just looks like any white guy with a hoodie."

Hexbear today: "Noo! They caught the guy! And he's a fascist!"

funny how the US launched F35s against a Chinese balloon after days of non stop press about it, but the oh so mysterious drones off New Jersey are at once nothing to worry about but also ominous and spooky. they know what the fuck they are, this is the Americans we're talking about they'd shoot it just for laughs let alone perceived threat. they're absolutely American tech

I'm still in a state of shock, it feels weird that the Assads are gone when they've been such a constant in every Syrian's life for decades. I teared up today imagining that God might bless us one day with sights of Arab fighters storming Israeli prisons and freeing prisoners like we saw in Syria today.

With the fall of Syria, Nasrallah's assassination, and the death of Raisi, I've figured out how the Resistance media operates.

1. If imperialist media is reporting something and there is no reporting on it at all by Resistance media, it is probably false.
2. If imperialist media is reporting something and Resistance media is explicitly denying it, it is very possibly true.
3. If imperialist media is reporting something and Resistance media is explicitly denying it and there's rumors from channels in the know that it's true, then it's almost certainly true and they are figuring out the best moment to report it.

To sum it up: If it's all clear, there's nothing to fear; if they deny, get ready to cry.

Wait so the guy they caught had a similar gun and a fake ID and a printed copy of a manifesto and he was just chilling in Pennsylvania after coming all the way from Atlanta? He's totally a stooge, right?

Although...

Twitter is filling with massacre videos carried out by HTS and associates

Three days is all it took before they reverted

All the predictable news coverage of Assad coming out now. USA libs and cons going for a victory lap. They're even going after Assad's kids like they did for Saddam Hussein's and Gaddafi's kids. Oh my fckn god look at the mansion they lived in!!! (tiny compared to Mitch McConnell's and Nancy Pelosi's house). They had prisons!! People were held in prisons!!!!

Can't wait till the USA is liberated. They gonna find lots of unmarked graves on prison grounds. Prisoners with burnt legs and arms. Marks from torture and solitary confinement. Rat poop and bugs in the food. No heat in the winter.

HTS fighter gives 'brotherly advice', asking me to wear headscarf - BBC

Some interesting tidbits from Arab social media since the fall of the Syrian state:

• The euphoria is pretty much over, the discussion is slowly shifting to "what's next?".

• Revanchism towards Shias or whatever on social media is also shifting towards a more reconciliatory tone. HTS behaving well towards the Shia shrines has been the main catalyst for that shift imo.

• Lots of criticism towards how freeing the prisoners turned into some type of social media clout treasure hunt, many felt that it was dehumanising and distasteful.

• Girls are thirsting for Jolani

• Lots of Egyptians and Bahrainis are basically saying "God I wish that was us", they're dreaming about changing their shitty regimes and opening the prisons

Lastly, I spoke with my aunt who lives in Aleppo and my cousin who has a farm outside of Damascus. They're both kinda content with the current situation. They mostly feel happy that the pressure of living under Assad is gone and that they can freely insult him now. Services and stuff like that haven't been interrupted and shops are functioning normally. Currency confusion remains mostly in Aleppo though, where people alternate between Syrian Liras, Turkish Liras and USD.

The Adjusters twitter has been found

He's an anti woke AI will save humanity guy

biden commuted the sentence of a judge who went to jail for getting money to give kids lengthy sentences in for-profit juvenile prisons

Russia is close to reaching an agreement with the new Syrian leadership to keep two bases in the country, two sources tell Bloomberg

Israel couldn't help it. All they had to do was play ball with a NATO backed goverment. HTS had been going out of its way to say they had no problems with Israel and were anti Hezbollah/Iran. But no, the Israelis just had to do a shameless landgrab and bomb the shit out of Syria instead.

No future government of Syria can exist without military infrastructure. And now Russia is back into play as the only actor that can make that a reality. I'm sure nobody in Washington will blame Israel for this though.

Now I'm convinced that NATO also did this Syria thing to expel Syrian immigrants. I'm seeing way too much of this "Syria is good now so go back" propaganda.

Some mintpress news.

Congress has just passed a new bill that will see the U.S. spend huge sums of money redesigning much of the public school system around the ideology of anti-communism.

What I found most absurd in the article is this new update on the famous 100 million victims of communism list:

"The principal organization promoting the 100 million figure today is the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which has shown a similar level of both anti-communist devotion and methodological rigor. The group, set up by the U.S. government in 1993, added all worldwide COVID-19 deaths to the victims of communism list, arguing that the coronavirus was a communist disease because it originated in China."

This is just so deeply unserious. I have a really hard time understanding how people fall for this so easily.

troubling stuff from lebanon:

truly feel those shitheads will rather start shia/sunni conflict than notice entity across the border

There's a psychological operation going on on TikTok and probably other social media where people are portraying Syria as some time of heaven now

I haven't seen anything this coordinated since the attempted color revolution on China via HK

David Ignatius in the Washington Post: "Ukrainian intelligence sent about 20 experienced drone operators and about 150 first-person-view drones to the rebel headquarters in Idlib, Syria, four to five weeks ago to help Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)."

Harden your heart, oh Putin. Increase your attacks.

it's not even a question anymore (if it ever was), this was a US/Israeli coup.

lol

Syrian territorial integirty said "Assad must go" and now syrian territorial integrity is getting bum fucked by israel and turkey.

The curse still holds, people, be careful with what you say

https://xcancel.com/marcus_herve/status/1867493161397830069

🛑🇳🇪- Niger suspends BBC News!

Niger has suspended BBC for 3 months for falsely reporting that over 130 people died in the recent attack, a claim that they couldn’t prove. So, the State decided to suspend them.

I think one thing we can learn from this is that it is impossible to prop up a legitimately unpopular government forever, no matter which country is doing it.

PSA: How white people in your life react to the Daniel Penny verdict is a good barometer for how actually racist they may be but aren’t telling you.

Saying he was a hero and/or innocent almost certainly means they are way more racist than they are letting on.

This is one way in which racism works in 2024 in the US. Racist white folks will generally avoid being openly racist but will latch on to any chance they can get to flex that racism in ways that superficially are socially acceptable.

Daniel Penny murdered a black man who wasn’t harming anyone. The fact that he was acquitted is ridiculous but sadly predictable, as is the reaction from many white people. In a way I can’t describe, the support Penny is getting feels more overtly racist than Rittenhouse.

Rybar: "'Woke Terrorists' Take Over Syria: How It Happened and What’s Next"

Yeah, that's what's wrong with them. You got it.

Nancy Pelosi tripped on the stairs (NYT)

Ms. Pelosi tripped going down marble stairs at the Grand Ducal Palace and took a hard fall, according to a person familiar with the incident who was not authorized to comment and spoke on condition of anonymity.

...

It was the second time this week that an octogenarian congressional leader sustained an injury while carrying out their official duties.

On Tuesday, Senator Mitch McConnell, 82, Republican of Kentucky, tripped and fell in the Capitol following the weekly G.O.P. luncheon, spraining his wrist and sustaining a small cut to his face.