NC on staggering sums to the pentagon https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/12/the-pentagon-fails-its-audit-again-and-again-and-again-and-again-and-again-and-again.html

In its most recent audit, the Pentagon was able to account for just half of its $3.8 trillion in assets (including equipment, facilities, etc). That means $1.9 trillion is unaccounted for — more than the entire budget Congress agreed to for the current fiscal year.

holy shit it's real!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/11/29/henry-kissinger-dead-obituary/

Amazing how in every "i care about both palestinian and israel victims" post, the replies is full of the most racist people ever who wants to nuke Gaza

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger look to form a federation (africanews, 2/12/2023)

I made the mistake of reading an article linked by naked capitalism labeled "pure cope". It is indeed. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/containment-strategy-ukraine

The most pressing is the containment of Russian forces—not only to protect all that Ukraine has already accomplished but also to render Russia’s presence on Ukrainian territory as insecure as possible. Russian positions must be continuously pressured in a forward-leaning approach.

Self-confidence requires the patient and steady pursuit of containment, never letting up on pressure applied on the Russian presence in Ukraine.

Just ideological dog shit utterly divorced from any material reality. I really want this person to explain what continuous pressure and containment mean against an opponent who has the stated objective of attriting forces as they arrive at the front.

Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out.

NYT

Wayback

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/inmate-charged-with-attempted-murder-after-george-floyd-killer-chauvin-stabbed-2023-12-01/

WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A federal inmate was charged on Friday with attempted murder and other offenses for allegedly stabbing Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted in the death of George Floyd, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement. The complaint alleges that while incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution Tucson, John Turscak, 52, stabbed Chauvin about 22 times "with an improvised knife," prosecutors said.

MSF: Nowhere is safe in Gaza

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is calling on the Israeli army to revoke evacuation orders it gave citizens of Gaza earlier today.

“Civilians are being ordered to move south, but nowhere in Gaza is safe due to the indiscriminate bombing and continued fighting,” the organisation wrote on its X account. “We need a sustained ceasefire now,” it added.

Argentina’s Javier Milei backs away from dollarisation as central bank pick rejects role

Libertarian president-elect signals approach in keeping with ‘market situation’

The man named to lead Argentina’s central bank by libertarian president-elect Javier Milei has turned down the job over policy differences, amid signs that the South American nation’s maverick next leader is backing away from his flagship policy of dollarising the sickly economy.

Emilio Ocampo, an economic history professor and former investment banker, was the leading advocate within Milei’s team of dumping the Argentine peso in favour of the US dollar. The author of a recent paper advocating dollarisation, he had been working on a blueprint to implement the plan after the new government takes office on December 10.

Milei, an admirer of former US president Donald Trump, had said during the election campaign that Ocampo would head the central bank with a mission to close it down, adding as recently as September that dollarising the economy and shutting the bank were “not negotiable”.

But a person close to Ocampo confirmed on Thursday night local news reports that he would no longer accept the post.

“The only reason for Ocampo to be at the [central bank] was to dollarise,” the person said. “He was never going to the central bank to implement someone else’s plan, which he doesn’t agree with.”

Ocampo and Milei’s team declined to comment.

Scrapping the peso, which Milei said in an October interview was worth “less than excrement”, and “blowing up” the central bank were central to the bold plan he pitched during his campaign as a way to revitalise Argentina’s economy, slash triple-digit annual inflation and repair the public finances.

The TV economist has vowed to “take a chainsaw to the state” to balance the budget and has also promised widespread privatisation.

But Milei said in an interview on Wednesday night that while he liked Ocampo’s plan, “we need to see whether the market situation allows a solution like the one Emilio proposes, and whether he is prepared to implement a plan which is not the one he had originally planned”.

Milei’s office said on social media site X on Friday that the closure of the central bank was a “non-negotiable matter” despite “false rumours that have been spread”, without mentioning dollarisation.

Milei has not yet confirmed an alternative pick for central bank chief but local media reports have said Demian Reidel, who served as a vice-president at the institution under then-president Mauricio Macri, is being considered.

The key role of economy minister is another position not yet filled. When discussing possible appointments to the post in his Wednesday interview, Milei praised Luis Caputo, a former head of trading for Latin America at JPMorgan in the 1990s who later worked at Deutsche Bank.

Caputo was finance minister from 2017 to 2018 under the centre-right administration of Macri, who used to describe him as a “Messi of finance”, in reference to Argentina’s star footballer.

While at the ministry Caputo oversaw the issue of a 100-year sovereign bond at the peak of investor enthusiasm for Argentina, an instrument scrapped by the current Peronist government after it defaulted.

He ran the central bank for a few months in 2018 before resigning amid differences with the IMF over the conditions it set for its record-breaking $57bn bailout of the country that year.

Caputo is “a person who is able to do the job, without any doubt”, Milei said. “He has the necessary expertise to sort out the monetary problem and give it a financial market solution.”

Milei stopped short of naming Caputo to the post and local news reports say the former minister has yet to make a final decision on whether to take the job.

Local financial markets are showing increasing signs of stress as Milei works to finalise the key economy portfolios ahead of his inauguration on December 10.

The central bank is struggling to find buyers for short-term peso-denominated debt that it issues to suck local currency out of the system, signalling that its efforts to contain inflation are flagging in the face of market uncertainty.

The dollar was trading at about 1,020 pesos on the black market on Thursday, almost triple the officially fixed rate of 364 to the dollar.

Milei’s biggest challenge is to dismantle an elaborate web of price and currency controls spun by the outgoing Peronist administration without triggering hyperinflation and economic collapse.

paper asserts that satellite imaging during rollout of household responsibility system/rural decollectivization during deng does not find graphical evidence of higher agricultural yields despite official yields claiming a 43% increase over the six years from 78-84

pls president xi, lin yifu yearns for the wall

So who's the next massive piece of shit that we want to die right now? Bush? Joenocide Biden? Any "Cold War" era ghoul still alive?

UNRWA reports that 80% of the population in Gaza has been displaced, with over 1.7 million people forced to leave their homes in the besieged coastal enclave since October 7th.

Nitter

What is an anagram for this situation based on nice clean things?

nice ethnic slang works but I don't think that's it.

Shoutout to all ASS lovers out there

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/11/30/7431023/

Looks like Ukraine blew up a tunnel between Russia/China. Redditors are ecstatic.

Of course there is a history that explains why that is the case, but the fact that it is Russia and China bringing Pakistan into BRICS feels like more than a foreign policy failure on India's part. It feels like a raison d'etre failure overall. It's like if Brazil and Argentina still pretended to be rivals anywhere outside of a football stadium. That is not to say that Pakistan is an easy neighbor to have, but by God these indian nationalist channels online are so hysterical about muslims. It feels like a dead end for India, which is an 'union of states'.

The only positive thing about Bob 2 is that he’s vaguely legitimized third parties enough for major polling firms to offer choices between five candidates lol

The whole 3rd ship hijacking is so weirdly reported. So many allegedly, supposedly, sources say, about them being Somali. If you have them in custody it should be quite obvious. Are these soldiers in a military or are these just some guys. Yeman has uniforms. I suppose it's just to leave ambiguity in everyone's minds. Claim a win in public that never happened.

Today's NC on palestine is also (not) good https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/11/gaza-conflict-end-game-not-in-sight.html

I think Yves point about the destruction of hospitals are very important. Regardless of Israel's failure to militarily best Hamas, the destruction of hospitals means more death from the mass displacement and infrastructure destruction. Even a complete military defeat and withdrawal from Gaza at this point has still baked in the short term deaths of another few tens of thousands of people via degradation of infrastructure and social murder. Not to mention the ongoing Israeli terror campaign in the west bank.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/2/us-gives-bunker-buster-bombs-to-israel-for-war-on-gaza-report

Bunker Bombs - used to level apartment buildings.

In Bad State, school boards restrict teachers' right to free expression.

“The District is aware that some educators want to teach their students about the situation in Gaza and Israel with a very specific view of who is at fault and why. This is not what teachers should be teaching, and the District made this clear to all principals and teachers,” according to a district statement. “It is the job of educators to teach students how to think critically, not to teach them what to think. We are reminding all educators of their responsibility to adhere to principles of education, and to keep their personal beliefs out of the classroom.”

It's Oakland, California, and the teachers union is organizing a teach-in. Naturally, the article has scare quotes around "the Palestinian struggle." Death to America.

Mr Liu's visit has been overshadowed by controversy over the November 14 incident, when the Chinese destroyer Ningbo approached the Australian frigate HMAS Toowoomba and deployed its sonar while two Australian divers were in the water, leaving them with "minor" injuries.

Yesterday afternoon, Mr Liu defended the Chinese destroyer's conduct, declaring that Australian vessels have to show "great prudence" near China – even though HMAS Toowoomba was in international waters and enforcing United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-29/wong-and-dutton-press-top-chinese-official-over-warship-conduct/103168668

lol

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees: "Gaza's population will soon begin dying from diseases as well as Israeli bombardment."

Over 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in📍#Gaza - including over 6,000 children and 4,000 women - since the war began.

People have lost everything and they need everything.

Gaza's population will soon begin dying from diseases as well as Israeli bombardment.

Nitter

Crowd at a pro-Palestine rally upon hearing the news

Al Jazeera: Latest casualty figures

PW: The Palestinian struggle within Israel: Interview with the Communist Party of Israel

In the wake of the Hamas attacks of October 7th, the Communists and Hadash—as well as the broader Palestinian minority in Israel—have suffered a wave of repression and intimidation.

The CPI’s lone Jewish Member of the Knesset, Ofer Cassif, was suspended for 45 days in mid-October for criticizing the war on Gaza. In early November, leading CPI member and former lawmaker Mohammad Barakah was detained in Nazareth for announcing an anti-war demonstration, on the grounds that it could lead to “incitement.” Most recently, another CPI parliamentarian, Aida Touma-Suleiman, was sanctioned for two months for daring to decry the slaughter of innocents by the Israeli military.

As the first protests demanding a ceasefire and the return of hostages have started taking shape in Israel, People’s World met with the Communist Party’s International Secretary, Reem Hazzan, to ask her about the outlook for the coming period. Through it all, Hazzan maintains that she is still optimistic about a future of peace and equality.

...

"As a party, we say that this did not start on October 7th. If you take everything out of context, then nothing has any meaning. We cannot say that things suddenly erupted on one peaceful morning as if violence and oppression had not been the constant reality of Palestinians for decades.

Even if we don’t start with the Nakba of 1948, and begin with the occupation of the West Bank that’s been the reality since 1967, the problem is clear. We don’t have a Palestinian state. Gaza has been under siege for the last 16 years. The West Bank is being ethnically cleansed in a very methodical way. Nowadays, nobody’s paying attention to the increased violence against Palestinians in the West Bank because people’s eyes are fixed on Gaza. Settler violence has intensified, backed by the Israeli military forces.

If you ask me how Israel should have reacted, let me say that any peace-seeking country would not be engaged in an occupation to begin with. It wouldn’t take decades to solve, or we can say in this case to not solve. A normal government would not be in this situation in the first place. I think that Israel should have understood at that point that a political solution is desperately needed. But with such a far-right government, this means that the perceptions that should have changed on October 7th, did not. If you believe that military force is your only resort to begin with, then the only solution will always be military—more force, more violence."

...

"Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has been dreaming for the past two years about how to have armed mobs do his dirty work. They would call themselves a “civilian support force” for the police. This war gave him the perfect opportunity to actually make this happen. Now, you have over 600 groups of armed people, some of them civilians, some of them ex-military or ex-police. They go on patrol in our cities and towns. I live in Haifa, which is a mixed city of Arabs and Jews. These people go around carrying M-16s, saying that they are keeping the order or supporting the police force, but their main aim is to intimidate Arabs."

Brownshirts shit.

Hot take: that concluded the pact with the Devil. He lives to age 100 but the Devil will take down the empire.

Western-backed separatists fail to capture town of Djibo: https://nitter.cz/african_stream/status/1729801305349144788

Burkina Faso’s Armed Forces have released a video of a huge contingent of motorbike-riding terrorists descending on the northern town of Djibo. For hours, the local garrison, with air support, mounted a stiff resistance against the onslaught from more than 3,000 assailants. Thankfully the army was victorious, and Djibo remains in government hands.

More context:

The last time the Malian army set foot in Kidal town was in 2012, 11 years ago. It was in 2012 that the French prohibited them from entering Kidal, after they liberated Gao and Timbuktu, and were chasing the remaining terrorists who fled there. If France didn’t forbid them back them, terrorism would never have reached Burkina Faso 🇧🇫. Therefore, France 🇫🇷 intention was never to end terrorism, but rather to keep it alive so that they can justify their presence in the Sahel and remain in the region, and to keep the looting ongoing.

Four attacks on three separate ships in Red Sea on Sunday, US military says

An update on attacks against ships in the Red Sea, where the US military has said in its latest statement that there were four attacks against three separate commercial ships on Sunday.

The ships were connected to 14 different countries and the US destroyer USS Carney responded to distress calls from the ships, US Central Command said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

The Unity Explorer was targeted by a ballistic missile launched from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen which landed “in the vicinity of the vessel” at around 9.15 am, the US said. Three hours later it was targeted again and this time was struck. The statement continued:

CARNEY responded to the distress call. While assisting with the damage assessment, CARNEY detected another inbound UAV, destroying the drone with no damage or injuries on the CARNEY or UNITY EXPLORER. UNITY EXPLORER reports minor damage from the missile strike.

Hours after that attack, at around 3.30pm, another ship, the Number 9, was also struck by a missile launched from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen. The bulk carrier reported damage but no casualties.

An hour later, a third ship, the Sophie II, sent a distress call saying they had been struck by a missile, Central Command said.

CARNEY again responded to the distress call and reported no significant damage. While en route to render support, CARNEY shot down a UAV headed in its direction.

The Carney had also shot down a drone at around midday, the US military said, adding: “The drone was headed toward CARNEY although its specific target is not clear.”

- The Guardian

More deliberately targeting, harming, harassing journalists

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says Israeli soldiers have been firing tear gas and rubber bullets at journalists gathered to report the release of Palestinian prisoners outside Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.

Raed Helou, a Sky News Arabia photographer, was injured in the hand while he was wearing his “press” vest, he told Al Jazeera.

“I was standing with a group of journalists. Suddenly, the Israeli army fired tear gas at us. After that, foot soldiers attacked us. While I was hiding behind a car, I noticed a green laser light on my hand. At this moment, something hit me there,” Helou said.

Another journalist, Fadi al-Assa, an Alaraby TV correspondent, said: “We were standing on the rooftop of a house, our ‘press’ vests clearly showing, but soldiers kept firing tear gas and rubber bullets at us.”

Israeli forces, he added, confiscated his team’s camera memory cards and forced them to leave the rooftop of the building where they were working. They also prevented them from taking their equipment, he said.