smokeppb [he/him]

  • 12 Posts
  • 146 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 18th, 2023

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  • Following Senator Marco Rubio’s trip to Panama, some “concessions” were extracted:

    • Panama will not be renewing its agreement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative when it expires.
    • Rebidding will take place after a 25 year no-bid extension of a contract to run the Panama Canal was given to the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Ports Company.
    • Pressed the President on curbing illegal immigration. Thanked him for taking the migrants earlier.
    • Pressed the President on fighting war on drugs which Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela “have wreaked havoc”.

    These aren’t even really concessions, I think. The BRI coming to Panama came partly on the condition of recognition of China as owner of Taiwan, and that is still the case of course. “A rebidding process” will take place meaning at best the US will get to run the canal after paying for the ability to do so.

    Although gun boat diplomacy is a very real thing in this region so they aren’t out of the woods until Trump is gone IMO.








  • isntrael The Cradle - Netanyahu signals Israel will remain in south Lebanon after withdrawal deadline

    The deadline for Israel to exit Lebanese borders is today, and they are instead making plans to extend their occupation.

    “The IDF withdrawal process is conditional on the deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon and its full and effective implementation of the agreement, while Hezbollah withdraws beyond the Litani. Since the ceasefire agreement has not yet been fully implemented by the Lebanese state, the gradual withdrawal process will continue in full coordination with the United States,”

    Mind you Israel violated this agreement 1000 separate times.

    In particular they’re looking for permission from Donald Trump to hold five military strong points.

    The Lebanese Military tasked with actually replacing Hezbollah south of the Litani River seems clueless about the situation, stating they weren’t told anything about a delay. Hezbollah gave a statement the other day:

    “As we continue to monitor the developments of the situation, which are supposed to culminate in a full withdrawal in the coming days, we affirm that any breach of the agreement or attempt to evade commitments under weak pretexts will not be tolerated. We call for strict adherence to the agreement, without concessions.”







  • Marketings a shit word for it, I agree. There’s alternatives like “propaganda” but that also sounds nefarious.

    The hills thing is referring to the land Israel stole in that same conflict as the 1967 one: whatever population was polled went from 71% agree with the Palestinian position to 78% agree with The Entity position, because they changed the wording. They understood the underlying motivations of the population: peace at any cost, reasonable sounding compromises.

    It’s important to not get stuck softening the language though, ie “tone policing”. People have a right to be mad and frankly should use slogans that piss people off. Zios should feel uncomfortable. Palestinian Genocide is great to keep saying because it tells the truth on the ground and keeps Zios not in Israel on the defensive genocide denial stance that never looks good. No need to wait around for amnesty international or the UN or whatever because when Zios come to defend, it leaves an opening to introduce whatever horrors you normally couldn’t bring up in conversation.


  • Probably the Left’s biggest weakness is it’s lack of willingness to market it’s ideas to its audience. “Dictatorship of the Proletariat” comes to mind.

    This is a particularly telling demonstration of the power of marketing. A complete dominance shift depending on how the 1967 border question is posed. People are predisposed to being on the side of whatever sounds like peace in the region, “Israel being able to keep the hills around its own airport” sounds like peace to the average person.

    Not even Hasbara can educate everyone, it’s actually getting worse at it. Why does the Left think it can educate everyone?




  • Ironic how “not splitting up the working class” is their reasoning for allowing bigots into their org, and now they clearly just split the working class by letting these bigots in at the expense of minority group members. Best move for any functioning organization is to always keep bigots out, just game theory proves it. 1 bigot in the group - potentially many minority groups leave. Net loss in members. Too risky, even capitalist companies figured this out and some of these companies are going to shoot themselves in the foot by letting them in now that anti woke is vogue.