Everyone should read this post on how finance, bonds and the power of the US dollar actually works by @xiaohongshu@hexbear.net. This is a highly readable and clear description of arcane and opaque mechanisms that are critical to appreciate to have a good understanding of modern imperialism.

Please respond in that subthread, not here.

FIFA and UEFA to uphold ban on Russia from participating in international competitions at least until the 2026 FIFA World Cup

Meanwhile, FIFA and UEFA member “israel” killed a fuckton of FIFA-registered palestinian players in Gaza, dismantling a FIFA-regulated tournament in the process as well. You can sit comfortably waiting for them to take action against the zionist entity.

death to “israel”

More than one-third of American-Jewish teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18 agree with the statement, “I sympathise with Hamas”

vs

A majority, 66 percent, said that they sympathise with the Palestinian people as a whole.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/one-third-american-jewish-teens-say-they-sympathise-hamas-israeli-government-poll-shows

Young american jews support the resistance in great numbers.

https://xcancel.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1858019192370507904

Wow, looks like Xi was extremely straightforward during his meeting with Biden, probably the most he’s ever officially been in a meeting with a US president.

According to the Chinese readout (https://www.guancha.cn/internation/2024_11_17_755645.shtml) here’s what he told Biden were the 7 “lessons of the past 4 years that need to be remembered”:

1. "There must be correct strategic understanding. The ‘Thucydides Trap’ is not historical destiny, a ‘new Cold War’ cannot and should not be fought, containment of China is unwise, undesirable, and will not succeed."

2. "Words must be trustworthy and actions must be fruitful. A person cannot stand without credibility. China always follows through on its words, but if the U.S. side always says one thing and does another, it is very detrimental to America’s image and damages mutual trust."

3. "Treat each other as equals. In exchanges between two major countries like China and the United States, neither side can reshape the other according to their own wishes, nor can they suppress the other based on so-called ‘position of strength,’ let alone deprive the other of legitimate development rights to maintain their own leading position."

4. “Red lines and bottom lines cannot be challenged. As two major countries, China and the United States inevitably have some contradictions and differences, but they cannot harm each other’s core interests, let alone engage in conflict and confrontation. The One China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués are the political foundation of bilateral relations and must be strictly observed. Taiwan issue, democracy and human rights, development path, and development rights are China’s four red lines, which cannot be challenged. These are the most important guardrails and safety nets for China-US relations.”

5. “There should be more dialogue and cooperation. Under current circumstances, the common interests between China and the United States have not decreased but increased. Whether in areas of economy and trade, agriculture, drug control, law enforcement, public health, or in facing global challenges such as climate change and artificial intelligence, as well as international hotspot issues, China-US cooperation is needed. Both sides should extend the list of cooperation, make the cooperation cake bigger, and achieve win-win cooperation.”

6. “Respond to people’s expectations. The development of China-US relations should always focus on the wellbeing of both peoples and gather the strength of both peoples. Both sides should build bridges for personnel exchanges and cultural communication, and also remove interference and obstacles, not artificially create a ‘chilling effect.’”

7. “Demonstrate great power responsibility. China and the United States should always consider the future and destiny of humanity, take responsibility for world peace, provide public goods for the world, and play a positive role in world unity, including engaging in positive interaction, avoiding mutual consumption, and not coercing other countries to take sides.”

Funnily, all this is summarized in the official US readout (https://china.usembassy-china.org.cn/readout-of-president-joe-bidens-meeting-with-president-xi-jinping-of-the-peoples-republic-of-china-3/) with this short sentence: “The two leaders reviewed the bilateral relationship over the past four years”. Talk about an understatement 😅. The language compared to the readout of the last Xi-Biden meeting in San Francisco one year ago is noticeably more forthright, especially on the U.S.'s lack of trustworthiness (“if the U.S. side always says one thing and does another…”). Looks like he’s getting very frustrated with U.S. duplicity… The 4 red lines he enumerates are also new (not new individually as they’ve each been mentioned before, but packaging them together as “four red lines” and explicitly labeling them as such in a president-level diplomatic readout is new)

…

With the red lines on “Democracy and human rights” and “Development path/system”, it looks like China is effectively telling the U.S. it will not humor them anymore in discussions about its internal system and so-called “human rights”, and that it will consider any U.S. initiative aimed at interfering with China’s internal affairs or otherwise shape China as hostile actions on the same level as Taiwan. This is also clear with Xi telling Biden that “neither side can reshape the other according to their own wishes”.

On development rights Xi states that “the Chinese people’s right to development cannot be deprived or ignored” and criticizes how “while all countries have national security needs, the concept shouldn’t be overgeneralized or used as an excuse for malicious restrictions and suppression”. He also said that “great power competition should not be the theme of the era; unity and cooperation are needed to overcome difficulties together. 'Decoupling and breaking chains” is not the solution; mutually beneficial cooperation is the path to common development. ‘Small yards with high fences’ is not befitting of great powers."

In other words, he’s telling Biden that he believes the U.S. is attempting to curtail China’s development in the guise of national security, but that this is “an excuse for malicious restrictions and suppression” and a red line as China has a fundamental right to develop as any other country. This is all, of course, also signaling to the upcoming Trump administration. The fact these are “red lines” means they’re non-negotiable regardless of who leads the US: he’s telling Trump too that attempts to “reshape” China or restrict its development will be viewed as hostile actions. And the emphasis on US “saying one thing and doing another” also puts the future administration on notice that China will judge the US by its actions rather than its diplomatic statements.

Conclusion: by framing these positions as “lessons learned” from the past four years, Xi is effectively closing the book on one approach to US-China relations - which he’s obviously very critical about - and very clearly signaling to Trump a change is badly needed, particularly around the “4 red lines” and matching words with actions. The language is very confident, telling the U.S. they need to “treat each other as equals” and that they have no “position of strength” anymore. The US readout on this, as usual for the Biden administration, is very illustrative of exactly what Xi is complaining about: a complete disregard for China’s stance on these issues and a refusal to engage with them, or even mention them at all. Not sure that “America first” Trump and the team of China hawks he put together will be much better…

Gangs looting Gaza aid operate in areas under Israeli control, aid groups say

A U.N. memo obtained by The Post concluded that gangs “may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence” or “protection” from Israel’s military.

One gang leader, the memo said, established a “military like compound” in an area “restricted, controlled and patrolled by the IDF.”

Israel is stealing what little aid they “let through”.

And they could have just made a fucking deal a month into the war.

How it started: I WILL NOT MAKE DEALS WITH COMMUNISTS

How it ended:

Israel levelled multiple multi storey apartment buildings in Beirut, Lebanon last night/early this morning, and the scenes are apocalyptic. No evacuation order was given for this bombing, many were sleeping in the early hours of the morning when the buildings that they were sleeping in were destroyed. Hundreds of probable casualties.

Daytime footage twitter and xcancel mirror

Night search footage twitter and xcancel mirror

Ground view of night search footage, to put the scale of destruction into perspective twitter and xcancel mirror

Handala, an Iranian hacker group, in revenge for the killing of Yahya Sinwar, hacked the infamous ‘Israeli’ 8200 intelligence unit and released the info of over 35,000 Mossad, Shin Bet and other security establishment employees.

PDF of the leak: https://files.catbox.moe/3l1lkm.pdf

Educational post: here we will debunk the myth of China’s dollar-denominated bonds in Saudi Arabia for those who are interested in learning about how the system actually works, and those who need a little help with connecting the dots.

A few months ago, some multipolar bloggers were jumping up and down about Saudi Arabia “ending its 50-year petrodollar contract” and how that is going to “end dollar hegemony” (I already wrote a whole post debunking that). Today we see the same people saying that China issuing dollar-denominated bonds in Saudi Arabia is actually genius and how that’s going to “end dollar hegemony”. So which one is it?

The answer is neither, and far simpler than you think. But to even be able to answer this question, we need to learn a bit about the fundamentals of the financial system, and especially to debunk the many misconceptions about the role of US treasury.

Don’t worry, I have deliberately stripped all technical jargons from this post, so anyone will be able to understand even if you know nothing about banking and finance. This post is meant to be educational - I firmly believe that learning about how the economy and the financial system operate can shield us from falling for right wing propaganda, and that is my goal of spending many hours writing this post here.

First, let’s lay out the main misconceptions that have been perpetuated on social media about the China’s dollar bond in Saudi Arabia, and what questions do we need to answer:

1. The misconception that the US government is financed by its treasury bonds (China is issuing dollar bonds at nearly the same rates, so investors will buy China bonds instead of US treasury bonds, so the US government can no longer finance its spending)
   • Question: What is the role of US treasuries?
2. A wild extrapolation that a $2 billion bond issuance somehow serves as a prelude to China issuing a $100 billion dollar bond which will then subvert the entire US treasury market.
   • Question: What can a $100 billion dollar bond do if China issues that?
3. The mental gymnastics involved to craft a narrative about why China issuing its bond in dollar in Saudi Arabia is actually good and that somehow is going to help the BRI countries pay back their dollar debt.
   • Questions: What is the intent behind China issuing dollar-denominated bond in Saudi Arabia? Can it really help Belt and Road countries pay back their dollar debt?

Let’s go through this point by point.

What is the role of US treasuries?

around a dozen inmates have set themselves on fire over the last year or so to try to get transferred out of virginia’s supermax Red Onion prison after facing horrific racism and violence. three men interviewed intentionally set their legs or feet on fire knowing that there aren’t any burn centers in that part of the state and they would have to be sent to Richmond for treatment

The NYT has leaked a story by accidentally CC’ing Electronic Intifada.

Apparently, they killed a “visual investigation” into the recent Israeli hooligans in the Netherlands, presumably because it would go against their narrative of anti-Semitism at the event. Keep in mind that it was the Times that recently claimed a video of Israeli fans attacking a Dutch citizen was the opposite.

Corbyn’s take yesterday:

I happened to notice a Reddit article about Bird Flu and all the libs are just blaming Trump. He isn’t even president and Biden has been ignoring the bird flu for over a year now, with articles coming out every month about how Biden is doing NOTHING.

BlueMAGA is already getting incredibly powerful, I am now becoming hopeful that there will be a liberal Jan 6th.