Corduroy Academy

( Mostly) radical thoughts, ideas, and links from late stage colonial capitalism.

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    Aidan
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    Netanyahu thanks US for weapons sales, vows Hamas war will continue

    Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel’s war against Hamas will continue for “many more months,” amid mounting civilian deaths, hunger and mass displacement in Gaza.

    Israel’s prime minister thanked the Biden administration for its continued backing, including approval of emergency weapons sales – the second this month.

    He also praised Washington’s veto of a UN Security Council resolution seeking an immediate ceasefire.

    What an absolutely fucked way to end the year. A genocidal fascist empowered by genocidal fascists, backed by a genocide-loving global media empire. Rot in hell Netanyahu and Biden – and the empires you rode in on.

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    Biden administration approves “emergency” sale of howitzer shells to Israel amid intensification of ethnic cleansing in Gaza Strip

    A further warning from the World Health Organisation illustrates how Israel is also using disease to implement its genocidal policy. WHO president Tedros Ghibreyesus stated that records show almost 180,000 cases of upper respiratory infections, 136,400 cases of diarrhea, half of which are in children under the age of 5, and 55,400 cases of lice and scabies. There were also 5,530 cases of chickenpox, 42,700 cases of skin rash, 4,683 cases of acute jaundice syndrome, and 126 cases of meningitis. 

    As the onslaught on Gaza continues unabated, the Israel Defence Force has also expanded its attacks in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah. Underscoring the remark by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant that Israel is in a “multi-front war,” the IDF carried out air strikes and fired shells at targets across southern Lebanon, including locations some 10 miles from the border. Speaking later at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Israel’s UN envoy Gilad Erdan denounced “Iranian-backed attacks from Lebanon” and vowed to wage a “full scale war” if Hezbollah continues firing at Israel. IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari told the media that the military conducted “widespread strikes by fighter jets, tanks, and artillery” and vowed that Hezbollah in southern Lebanon “will never be the same again.”

    There is no democracy in supporting the new nazi regime. Only unlimited supplies of western weapons for genocidal maniacs — as long as they’re white, I guess.

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    Majority of Israeli Jews ‘support the removal of Palestinians from Gaza’

    “Israeli-Jewish society has been radicalised,” Loewenstein said. “There was a poll just this week that found 70-80 percent of Israeli Jews support the idea of finding somewhere else for Palestinians in Gaza to be removed. Israel claims that this is somehow voluntary, which is nonsense.

    “Gaza is being made uninhabitable deliberately and therefore there are many other countries that are potentially being forced or strong-armed or offered other deals … to take in Palestinians.”

    Bribing other countries to take in Palestinians has been a decades-old policy of Israel, the author said.

    The rampant success of global genocide-backing media hegemony can’t be unseen in this. Imagine if the Nazi regime started today… oh wait the media ignores that too.

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    China cracks down on negativity over economy in bid to boost confidence

    China is cracking down on negative commentary about the financial market and other sectors as the authorities seek to boost public confidence despite challenging economic headwinds.

    China’s ministry of state security published an article on 12 December saying there was a need to “sing the bright theory of China’s economy”.

    Topics that are considered increasingly sensitive in China’s economy include record high youth unemployment figures (the government stopped publishing this data in August), deflation, the struggling property sector and capital flight.

    Interestingly an, as usual, dehumanising approach to actually solving a problem seems to be winning out here. Don’t worry that it’s “communism” and should be supporting workers it’s all about the economy, almost like capitalism is just as vicious everywhere.

    At least china is actually taking some (propagandist) action on climate change as much of the world slides backwards under populist fascists.

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    Berlin’s plan for driverless magnetic trains derided by climate groups

    A 5-7km pilot stretch of magnetic levitated railway (maglev) at an estimated cost of €80m-€85m (£70m-£74m) could be in use within two years, Dirk Stettner, the parliamentary faction leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU) has said, citing the advantages of a magnetic train above the existing, extensive underground and overground networks.

    At a time when Berlin’s transport company, the BVG, is so short of drivers that it has reduced its timetable by about 7%, Stettner said the fact that the train was self-driving as well as cheaper and easier to construct than an underground line was a further advantage.

    But environmentalists have condemned the plans, countering CDU claims that the trains were futuristic and calling them expensive, energy-hogging and vain instead.

    Monorail, monorail, MONORAIL! At least one train is still better than a thousand cars, in almost every situation.

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    Toyota-owned automaker halts Japan production after admitting it tampered with safety tests for 30 years

    Daihatsu, the Japanese automaker owned by Toyota, has halted domestic production after admitting it forged the results of safety tests for its vehicles for more than 30 years.

    The brand, best known for manufacturing small passenger cars, has stopped output at all four of its Japanese factories as of Tuesday, including one at its headquarters in Osaka, a spokesperson told CNN.

    Last week, Daihatsu announced an independent third-party committee had found evidence of tampering with safety tests on as many as 64 vehicle models, including those sold under the Toyota brand.

    Of course this will get brushed under the rug. Capitalism’s gotta capitalism. Human life is basically the lowest rung on the ladder (well, right below animal and ecology). Even the reporting (unsurprisingly for CNN) is “woe is the shareholder, and the thousands of employees”.

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    AI-created “virtual influencers” are stealing business from humans

    Pink-haired Aitana Lopez is followed by more than 200,000 people on social media. She posts selfies from concerts and her bedroom, while tagging brands such as hair care line Olaplex and lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret.

    Brands have paid about $1,000 a post for her to promote their products on social media—despite the fact that she is entirely fictional.

    Aitana is a “virtual influencer” created using artificial intelligence tools, one of the hundreds of digital avatars that have broken into the growing $21 billion content creator economy.

    Their emergence has led to worry from human influencers their income is being cannibalized and under threat from digital rivals. That concern is shared by people in more established professions that their livelihoods are under threat from generative AI—technology that can spew out humanlike text, images and code in seconds.

    In the next circle of AI hell, companies fabricate people tailored to take your attention and currency. Worse? They inject right wing individualist pro-capitalist rhetoric at the same time.

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    The ‘wealth transfer’ from boomers won’t save gen X and millennials

    The “generational wealth transfer” has become a media fascination, both for its eye-popping size and because it might help younger generations as they face doubts about their financial security.

    That shift is already in the works, and will continue for a couple of decades. According to wealth management firm Cerulli Associates, some $53 trillion will be passed down from boomers to their Gen X, millennial and Gen Z heirs, as well as to charities. That includes both gifts during their lifetimes and inheritances afterward.

    But the overwhelming cost of health care for older people means most people in those later generations won’t inherit much, even if their elders seem well-off today.

    The white borgeois boomers collectively raped the environment, amassed debt (fake money for their egotistical pleasure!) they entiteldly expect their children to pay back, and intensified capitalism’s inherent inequality more than any previous generation. Now they’ll spend all they do have clinging for life, and expect us to be grateful and not to protest (and in fact outlaw protest). The ending? We allow them to live fat wealthy lives while we literally burn in the manufactured hell they made for us.

    Sound cool? Go learn about socialism.