Young Master Smeet
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Pinch of salt/war propaganda time, so lets see how far this story travels, according to this article Israel used an AI system to identify targets, i.e. Hamas operatives, and positively targeted them at their family homes.
They stayed within the rules of war because they were targeting military operatives (or reasonably believed them to be so) and allowed a margin of civilian casualties (rather than directly targeting civilians intentionally, this is a legalistic hair splitting argument, and it may be that international jurisprudence may not like it – my rough opinion is Israel has worked out what it wants to do, and constructed enough legal cover to enable it).
“In an unprecedented move, according to two of the sources, the army also decided during the first weeks of the war that, for every junior Hamas operative that Lavender marked, it was permissible to kill up to 15 or 20 civilians; in the past, the military did not authorize any “collateral damage” during assassinations of low-ranking militants. The sources added that, in the event that the target was a senior Hamas official with the rank of battalion or brigade commander, the army on several occasions authorized the killing of more than 100 civilians in the assassination of a single commander.”
Note the IDF’s official formulation “The IDF does not carry out attacks when the collateral damage expected from the attack is excessive in relation to the military advantage.” The wiggle room is: what is excessive (especially as they are claiming the threat from Hamas is existential for Israel).
About 160 leaflets delivered door to door in Finchley Central, I’ve got some more spots lined up. A small start… I suspect, on average, only 1 of those leaflets will get read, let’s see if the QR lights up.
There are 142 posts he’s created, I mean, it is possible to edit them one by one to blank them, (and I could in theory go through and delete them one by one, but that would take far too much time).
It’s starting to get a bit disturbing, people are beginning to imply that the Labour Party is under the thumb of Israel (or Labour Friends of Israel), or that “agents of a foreign power” are directing policy.
Of course, there is an Israel lobby, and rightly so, there will be lobbies for every country on Earth: and, just as Winston Churchill lobbied for the UK in the US, Israel pitches for its interest in the UK and US. It may well be more successful than others, but largely because it aligns with UK/US interests in the region.
But, the implication that “foreign agents” are directing British policy has some ugly forbears, and could lead to some very dark places. The egregious Galloway is feeding on that, with his patriotic party, and, seemingly, the SWP are becoming more extreme.
EU cannot sanction Russian foodstuffs, but can impose tariffs (given the strife over tariffs for Ukraine, these may be substantial).
“In a call between Von der Leyen and the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, on March 15 – where the possibility of trade restrictions against Russia was raised – the stated concern was “how to support agriculture in Poland and Europe”. Or put another way, how to address Polish farmers’ protests about EU imports of Ukraine grains, which are hurting the internal EU market. The call was not about how to punish Russia, although it could be argued the two are inextricably linked.”
Let’s remember our case that Tariffs are a fundamental cause of strife between capitalist factions.
Pointedly, the EU will not prevent transit of Russian foodstuffs.
I’m afraid we have no means to delete all a users posts, the only effective tool is to close your account, which will change your posts to Anonymous and thus delink you from any connexion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_London_Assembly_election
I don’t know if folks missed the Saga of Laurence Fox being rejected as a Mayoral candidate because of ineligible signatures on the nomination form (handed in at the last minute, so not meant to be accepted?).
Lack of mention would be partly because there’s not a lot to say from a Marxist perspective: Islamic finance is still imposing a price of money, the same as interest, and it is just a division of surplus value.
“Since interest is merely a part of profit paid, according to our earlier assumption, by the industrial capitalist to the money-capitalist, the maximum limit of interest is the profit itself, in which case the portion pocketed by the productive capitalist would = 0. Aside from exceptional cases, in which interest might actually be larger than profit, but then could not be paid out of the profit, one might consider as the maximum limit of interest the total profit minus the portion (to be subsequently analysed) which resolves itself into wages of superintendence. The minimum limit of interest is altogether indeterminable. It may fall to any low. Yet in that case there will always be counteracting influences to raise it again above this relative minimum.”
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch22.htm
There are some very old and traditional forms of Islamic lending at profit which get round the no interest principle, but in practice, they are still a price of borrowing.
Forums › General discussion › Podcasts and propaganda
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https://www.intellinews.com/bofit-russian-population-in-decline-316095/
The Russian state is concerned by demographic decline (current article in RT, which I won’t be able to link to here): there’s been plenty on the demographic issues of Ukraine, which does lack men in their 20’s, which is hindering call up to fight. This is part of the background radiation of this fight (certainly, it will take decades for Ukraine to recover from its losses as it is).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_2728
“The Security Council,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,
Recalling all of its relevant resolutions on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question,
Reiterating its demand that all parties comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and in this regard deploring all attacks against civilians and civilian objects, as well as all violence and hostilities against civilians, and all acts of terrorism, and recalling that the taking of hostages is prohibited under international law,
Expressing deep concern about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,
Acknowledging the ongoing diplomatic efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, aimed at reaching a cessation of hostilities, releasing the hostages and increasing the provision and distribution of humanitarian aid,
1. Demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire, and also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs, and further demands that the parties comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain;
2. Emphasizes the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to and reinforce the protection of civilians in the entire Gaza Strip and reiterates its demand for the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale, in line with international humanitarian law as well as resolutions 2712 (2023) and 2720 (2023);
3. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter.”
This is a call on both parties to stop it, but section 2 really falls on Israel to allow aid into Gaza. Belatedly the organs of the world are calling for peace, but the interests on the ground will not allow it.
I got along to the wee rally in Camden Town, at the Cobden Statue, today. I got there ahead of the march, and there were pro-Israeli demonstrators there, I leafletted them, they weren’t very receptive, one said ‘I am a capitalist, darling’ as she refused the leaflet, one guy read it and politely returned it.
Their main chant was ‘rape is not resistance’ which is very true, and they were for peace via Hamas surrendering (which would be welcome, but seems to be unlikely).
The march itself was small, but outnumbered the counter demo by three to one.
I cleared about 20 leaflets, which was about all the crowd I cold reach (the pro-Palestine crowd were more receptive to taking leaflets.
Admittedly, they’re Armenian nationalists, but:
Packs a punch. (This was one of two songs they brought out during the last Nagorno-Karabakh conflict).
Forums › General discussion › Cost of living crisis
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Sandra Laville. (May 24, 2001, Thursday). “We want to be noticed, says far-Left leader Dave Nellist has modest plans for his Socialist Alliance” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
“Others are less convinced. The Socialist Party of Great Britain, formed in 1904 and older than the Labour Party, is having none of it.
“They didn’t even approach us. They knew we would tell them to **** off,” said Bill Martin of the SPGB. “We don’t consider ourselves to be part of the Left. As the saying goes: Left-wing, Right-wing, they are all part of the same bird.”
