"What happens when suffering is only recognized and legitimized as a means of extracting more?"
I wrote about U.S Empire, the importance of borders within capitalism, and the ways we withhold and weaponize personhood to justify unthinkable violence.
https://t.co/q0CiGgD9ao
How the US, Israel, and HTS Syria are using āhumanitarian aidā to Venezuela as a Trojan Horse to further entrench their military, intelligence, and political interests in the country:
Nearly 70,000 people in Venezuela remain missing under the rubble after two massive earthquakes last week, as the death toll already reaches nearly 2,000.
While Venezuelans dug through rubble themselves, the Trump administration sent warships, transport planes, troops, and took over airport operations, creating a āhumanitarianā excuse to deploy assets enabling a long-term foothold and effective occupation, with Marco Rubio claiming "we'll have to rely on the Department of War to deploy assets" for relief efforts because "the airport there is badly damaged."
The Syrian White Helmets, now embedded in the HTS regime, quickly flew to Venezuela, marking their first-ever overseas deployment. Established in 2013, the White Helmets portrayed themselves as a humanitarian group, but in reality were established by Western intelligence, embedded in Western-backed terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, and staged atrocity propaganda to build support for the US-led war on Syria and eventual regime change.
The Israeli Occupation Forces are also sending also sent a rescue team, despite having no formal diplomatic relations with Venezuela since 2009, and many question their ulterior motives like ārescue-washingā their international public image as they continue committing genocide, and entrenching their influence in Latin America.
The āTrojan Horseā method of using a crisis as a pretext for military intervention and occupation is nothing new in the US playbook. They did the same after Haitiās 2010 earthquake.
Then-Venezuelan President Hugo ChÔvez, who sent over $1 billion in aid to Haiti while asking for nothing in return, observed, "I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war⦠Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals, that's what the United States should send. They are occupying Haiti undercover⦠On top of that, you don't see them in the streets. Are they picking up bodies?... Are they looking for the injured? You don't see them. I haven't seen them. Where are they?"
Status of the end-of-war MoU ā Day 13
⢠Iranās oil sanction relief has been implemented, and part of the money from oil sales has been transferred to Iranās central banks.
⢠Iranian ships are passing through the naval blockade.
⢠None of Iranās frozen funds have been released so far. (Violation of clause 11)
⢠The Omani-US corridor in the Strait of Hormoz is active. (Violation of clause 5)
⢠US forces & equipment in the region are increasing, and the USS Boxer has also been sent toward West Asia. (Violation of clauses 2 and 9)
⢠US officials continue to threaten Iran. (Violation of clauses 1 and 2)
⢠War & occupation in Lebanon are continuing intensely. (Violation of clauses 1 and 13)
⢠The US Vice President (JD Vance) described the goal of the MoU not as ending the war, but as preparing for what will happen next (war). (Violation of clauses 1, 2, 13, and 14)
⢠The Persian Gulf Cooperation Council denied any investment for Iranās reconstruction. (Violation of clause 6)
We've been quiet recently because Mark Goodwin and I have been working to write the most comprehensive investigation into Polymarket's origins and ambitions to date.
We found that Polymarket's "official" origin story, that Shayne Coplan founded the company alone in 2020 and then built "the company in his bathroom", is a lie. Polymarket really started years earlier as another company called TokenBnk that was deeply tied to Israeli interests, specifically a crypto company founded by Benjamin Netanyahu's niece and nephew. Coplan has actively tried to obfuscate this company from his story and it's not the only thing either.
In Part 1 of this two-part series, we unravel the real history of Polymarket, directly connecting the company to Peter Thiel's efforts to resurrect controversial DARPA programs from its now defunct Information Awareness Office. Polymarket appears to have been chosen by Thiel and his associates to succeed in resurrecting DARPA's Policy Analysis Market where another Thiel-linked company, Augur, had previously failed.
Stay tuned for Part 2, where we explore the current influence of prediction markets and Polymarket, including how an insidious effort to have prediction markets replace representative democracy as a governance model is already being slowly implemented by the White House.
Read Part 1 here: https://t.co/xTmU5RzoZz
Notably, the report finds that sexualized violence has frequently targeted Palestinian men, particularly their sexual and reproductive organs. These findings challenge conventional understandings of patriarchal violence, revealing gendered violence as a core featureānot a byproductāof the Zionist regimeās settler-colonial project. https://t.co/43ed4XHyc8
A new Palestinian Feminist Collective report concludes that sexualized violence, including rape and sexual enslavement, has been used by Zionist militias and later the Israeli state as a deliberate tool of displacement, domination, torture, and controlāfrom the Nakba to the present. The report demonstrates that the sexual humiliation, torture, rape, blackmail, and targeting of Palestinians since October 2023 are not aberrations but the continuation of a longstanding, institutionalized architecture of settler colonial violence.
Haven't finished re-naming and branding for my Substack, but I thought it was important to get this write-up done. People should get familiar with the stakes that Burkina Faso and the AES face in the region, before turning on an entire country over a routine photo op
Link below:
"... this is why you see this weird rhetorical & grammatical structure of, 'blast in refugee cap kills 15'.. where the agent is not Israel but is a mysterious blast"
@adamjohnsonCHI on one way western media has sold Israels genocide. (The subject of his new book)
šStrait of Hormuz
Maritime traffic has mostly moved to the Iran-designated route, as predicted.
Only 1 UAE cargo ship passed via Omani waters with AIS switched off.
Sounds of several explosions were also heard in the cities of Bandar Lengeh and Bandar Kong.
Additionally, locals from village on Qeshm Island also reported attacks.
While the scope of the attacks is bigger than yesterdayās attacks, the attacks are relatively small and symbolic for now. But this doesnāt really matter because this can evolve into normalising attacks on Iran which is far more dangerous.
No statement by the Iranian armed forces yet.
CENTCOM announces it has attacked Iran at Trump's direction, in complete violation of the agreement, in another attempt to try exert control on the Strait of Hormuz.
The US is carrying out attacks on a telecommunications tower in the Taheruyi village area of Sirik, Southern Iran.
This is the 2nd attack since the signing of the āMoUā. Nice going ā¦
āļø66 members (out of +-88) of Iranās Assembly of Experts warned officials not to go against the Leaderās position in any negotiations or implementation of the reported IranāUS MoU.
The assembly of Expert is one of the most important council bodies of Iran.
In a 10-point report, they emphasise that officials must respect Ayatollah Khameneiās red lines, not negotiate away Iranās nuclear rights, respond immediately to any violations of the agreement, and avoid reopening the Strait of Hormoz while āIsraelā is still occupying & killing in Lebanon.
They also demand compensation, return of frozen assets, sanctions relief, and US withdrawal from the region.
They say the US & Israel are continuing with their aggression and call for accountability and revenge for the martyred Leader.
They explicitely warned officials not to present Iran as weak, and say the public must stay present and united until the Leader decides otherwise.
The IRGC issued a statement after US attacked Sirik, southern Iran:
Following the Zionist regimeās violation of the ceasefire in southern Lebanon, a few hours ago the treaty-breaking American regime also, as always, violated its commitments.
Under various pretexts related to the movement of a violating ship through an unauthorized route in the Strait of Hormoz, it launched an air attack on the coasts of Iran.
In response to this aggression, the IRGC-Navy struck the US Army positions in the region.
According to Clause 5 of the Islamabad MoU, the arrangements for controlling passage and traffic in the Strait of Hormuz are under the authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
However, America, by provoking various sides, sought to violate this commitment, and the necessary response was given. From now on, it will be the same. If the aggression is repeated, our response will be broader than this.
Around 10,000 people have been killed in the fight against Zionists since 2023, the overwhelming majority of which were Shia from southern Lebanon.
Today, the Lebanese authorities, led by President Aoun and PM Salam, have effectively told Zionists that they have the legitimacy to ethnically cleanse southern Lebanon, and that the Lebanese Army will act as a proxy force to execute US-Zionist plans.
The Iranian-American memorandum of understanding obligates Israel to withdraw completely from southern Lebanon; otherwise, it will have no path toward any comprehensive agreement.
Yet today, there are attempts to "legitimize" the Israeli presence in Lebanon, as long as resistance continuesāeven though the memorandum offers far more, with no Lebanese concessions in return. So why did the Lebanese authorities settle for such an agreement instead of holding fast to the no-cost gains of the memorandum? Israel's prime minister himself declared that the agreement reached with Lebanon today is a major achievement for Israel, and a blow to Iran, which is trying to force our withdrawal from southern Lebanon by force.
But Iran and the resistance will force Israel to withdrawāNetanyahu's joy will not last. As for the "legitimization" of killing Lebanese and prolonging the occupation of the south, history shows that such actions backfire on those who commit themānot only in Lebanon. History shows no mercy to those who side with their enemy against their own people and resistance. The examples of Vichy France and Saigonās regime stand as enduring lessons.
āThe Lebanese authorities are so bad that they agreed to sit down and sign an agreement with Israel to prevent Iran from forcing an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.ā