Image is from Wikipedia’s article on the war..
I’ve wanted to cover Myanmar for a while now but haven’t had the needed knowledge to write much more than “This situation really sucks.” After doing a little reading on the situation, I feel even more confused. A decent analogy is the Syrian Civil War, at least while Assad was in power (though it’s still pretty true today) - many different opposition groups, some co-operating with the United States, others not. The main government supported partially by an anti-American superpower, but who could live with that government collapsing if there are deals to be made with the group coming into power. A conflict kept going and exploited at least partially by the United States and other imperial core powers, though with plenty of genuine domestic animosity and desires for political independence.
Recently, the Myanmar government - the mainstream media uses “junta”, which is probably accurate despite the connotations - has promised elections at the end of 2025. This doesn’t seem likely to happen, and even if it did, how this would work in a country as war-torn as Myanmar is unclear. The government is losing territory and soldiers at a quick pace; they now hold only 21% of the country, though that 21% does at least comprise many of the cities. It’s difficult to get a handle on the number of people affected because civil wars and insurgencies have been ongoing in some shape or form for decades, but we’re talking at least millions displaced and thousands of civilians killed.
Here’s a comment by @TheGenderWitch@hexbear.net from fairly recently that covers the situation in Myanmar:
comment
The military government of Myanmar is losing to the Rebel Groups, and badly. https://www.voanews.com/a/myanmar-s-rebels-closing-in-around-junta-into-fifth-year-of-civil-war-/7958145.html
somethings really afoot though, news about myanmar from western outlets and channels have suddenly all remembered myanmar exists and written quite a lot about them in the last few days. Its suspicious, it could be capitalists trying to signal their want for US involvement in the civil war. It could also be a targeted propaganda campaign already pre planned in order to make sure people are clued into the conflict.
I think this seems to be another Assad situation. The Military government is pretty unpopular domestically and is losing quite a bit of ground. I would be surprised if they lasted to 2027. Supplied by both Russia and China, theyve been able to keep some flow of weapons, but are suffering a lot from manpower issues. Conscription has been enacted, but conscripts are a poor replacement for trained soldiers. According to reports, they only hold about 21% of the land and are losing lots of territory. They also have extended their emergency rule for another 6 months, throwing doubt on the ability to follow through with their 2025 election. They’ve lost large amounts of territory, thousands of soldiers, and 2 regional commands. They’re not dead yet though, as they have some ability to retake some territory and win some battles, but again 21%. Rebels currently are making steady progress towards the second largest city in the country.
while I don’t like the rebels, they are western aligned, they have popular support and are allied to many of Myanmar’s ethnic minority defence groups. Im wondering who really has the power in this situation though, since many of the gains seem to be made by the Ethnic armies, not the NUG. This revolutionary energy could be fueled to establish a socialist federation, but won’t, and the popular revolutionary energy is fueled toward the NUG. It’ll probably be another pro-west bourgeoisie democracy. It will probably then turn against the ethnic rebels and we’ll end up basically where myanmar was pre coup. Probably will have a strong military influence on politics as well, since the rebel forces seem to be made up of officers and very little political groups. By then, people will be extremely tired of war and more likely to accept any conflict resolution than another civil war. In the midst of “It Happened” stands a stronger, unmovable “nothing ever happens”. Would be neat if the Communist Party of Burma could somehow come out on top, but they have only around 1000 soldiers and don’t control a large amount of territory.
China’s interests in the region are still secure, but siding with the Junta is a bad idea, one I understand though. China doesn’t want a western aligned power to take over a china aligned state, and is trying to make sure their economic investments in the area are protected and their mineral income is continued. They have deep ties with many Ethnic Minority states, especially on their border, and the NUG forces, mostly again to protect infrastructure investments and keep the minerals flowing. They might flip back to the NUG as the Junta starts collapsing over the next year or so, especially since the new US administration seems to be really cutting back on foreign aid. The General in charge of the rebel government forces complained quite a bit about how much aid ukraine got and how much he wanted that aid. He was basically begging for anti aircraft systems “like in ukraine” lol. China could definitely swoop in and back the rebels, which while hurting their reputation, is probably the best move long term. China’s only interest is to keep Myanmar from being pro-west, keep control of Myanmar’s mineral flow, and protect other investments in the area.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
After years of cracking down on “barbaric growth of capital" in the private sector, China is wooing entrepreneurs again. Is it too little too late? Former SCMP editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei weighs in.
HONG KONG: At the start of 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping convened senior officials in Beijing for a workshop to discuss and prepare for “black swan” and “grey rhino” events amid a slowing economy and rising international uncertainties.
This meeting followed then US President Donald Trump’s initiation of a trade war against China in July 2018, which sent bilateral ties into a downward spiral.
Mr Xi urged officials to remain vigilant and address “major risks” across various fields, including politics, ideology, economy, society, technology and the external environment.
A black swan refers to an unpredictable market event with extreme financial consequences, while a grey rhino is a highly probable and impactful threat that is often ignored.
Since then, China’s leadership has taken decisive steps to tackle perceived grey rhinos, such as ballooning local government debts, struggling city and community banks, and the “irrational and barbaric growth of capital” in the private sector, particularly targeting big tech firms like Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post.
However, Beijing’s harsh campaign against the private sector has inadvertently unleashed another grey rhino: A lack of confidence among private entrepreneurs.
STIFLING INNOVATION
This lack of confidence, known in China as “lying flat” or "tang ping”, initially caught on among the country’s overworked youth who sought to do the minimum and take a break from relentless work.
During the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, this malaise spread nationwide, affecting not only bureaucrats but also entrepreneurs.
It was also partially fed by fear that success in private business could come with political risks: In 2020, Beijing abruptly halted the US$34 billion IPO of fintech giant Ant Group, controlled by Jack Ma, after he reportedly criticised regulators for stifling innovation.
What ensued was a multi-year crackdown on the so-called “excesses” and “barbaric growth of capital” in the private sector, which has since driven entrepreneurs’ confidence to historic lows.
Mr Ma largely disappeared from the public eye following those events, reinforcing concerns that China’s business climate had become too unpredictable.
Within this context, Mr Xi’s high-profile meeting with selected private entrepreneurs, including Mr Ma, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Feb 17 is significant - his first such meeting in nearly seven years.
ARE XI’S ASSURANCES ENOUGH?
According to Xinhua, Mr Xi reportedly told entrepreneurs, also including Mr Ma, Ren Zhengfei of Huawei and Wang Chuanfu of BYD, that it was "prime time for private enterprises and entrepreneurs to give full play to their capabilities”.
He assured them that the current difficulties and challenges facing the private sector could be overcome and called for renewed confidence in the future.
Mr Xi also vowed to create equal treatment for the private sector and pledged to ensure access to bank loans while addressing widespread illicit law enforcement and administrative actions, including arbitrary fees, fines, inspections and asset seizures.
Mr Xi’s remarks represent the strongest signal of support for private enterprises at a time when China’s economy is in a deflationary cycle, weighed down by falling property prices and low consumer confidence. Meanwhile, Mr Trump in his second term has threatened additional tariffs on Chinese products, and China’s exports, one of its traditional growth engines, remain bleak.
Beijing recently announced an economic growth target of “around 5 per cent” for this year, but revitalising the private sector is crucial to achieving this goal, especially since the private sector contributes about 60 per cent to China’s gross domestic product and over 80 per cent of employment.
Will Mr Xi’s words be enough? After all, China had already been unwinding its crackdown on the private sector starting in 2023, with officials increasing pro-business rhetoric and referring to private entrepreneurs as "one of us”.
Yet in many cash-strapped localities, illicit actions against the private sector, including arbitrary fees, fines, and asset seizures, have continued unabated.
Mr Xi’s remarks are expected to curb these illicit actions, but whether they will spark optimism among private businessmen remains to be seen.
the rest of the article
A REAL TURNING POINT?
Sensing scepticism, official media has ramped up efforts to reassure the private sector.
Notably, the People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s newspaper of record, recently published a long article titled I Have Always Supported Private Enterprises, highlighting Mr Xi’s support for the private sector and countering scepticism that he favours the state sector.
China’s latest efforts to reassure the private sector are a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done to restore confidence. The global success of DeepSeek’s AI language model and the popular animated film Ne Zha 2, both funded and developed by private entrepreneurs, offers significant insights.
More than anything, the rise of DeepSeek demonstrates that the private sector has elevated itself to drive China’s innovation and cutting-edge technologies, moving beyond its traditional role of job creation and playing second fiddle to the state sector.
The fact that the Hangzhou-based company was under the official radar until its sudden rise to fame suggests that if the government allows the private sector to operate without political, ideological and regulatory straitjackets, it can produce global winners.
This is likely the best way to restore confidence and tame the charging grey rhino.
For those paying attention to the “two sessions” in China, it shouldn’t surprise you that private capital has indeed made a come back with Jack Ma’s reappearance a few weeks earlier.
I am increasingly losing faith in Xi’s ability to curb private capital. Since Li Qiang (Shanghai lib) became the Premier in early 2023, from abandoning Zero Covid policy to opening up China’s capital markets, all indications are pointing to what I have suspecting all these while, that the liberals have indeed succeeded in their coup and have been having the upper hand since 2023.
Yemen has BANNED the import of BURGERS. We salute the People of Yemen and Ansar Allah in their brave campaign against treatlerism.
even imagining a burger can lead to ruin, many such cases
*comprador treatlerism, specifically.
import substitution time
This is a human rights violation and I support US efforts to airdrop happy meals into the afflicted territories
🍔
Unlimited Genocide on international burgerism
This seems to be more of a ban on imported pastries and bread than anything else for self sufficiency.
Good. Fuck im
People already clowning on his corpse lmao
what a piece of shit
Yeah the fact that there are just random people who would do that in the street says a lot about this piece of shit.
Them dems have done it and your average lib is more ready to radicalize than ever - they’re actually actively radicalizing, we just need to direct it to revolutionary organizing.
Duterte got arrested I believe. ICC warrant for arrest for human rights abuses on his war on drugs that left thousands dead
Oh now we’re enforcing warrants
This is bad. I am not going to venerate Duterte like a liberal does with any world leader but it’s telling that Duterte out of many, many leaders out in this forsaken Earth they chose him, when he had the most China-friendly (ie. Independent) foreign and internal policies unlike the US sycophant running the Philippines now.
I wonder if there is any connection to the fact that his daughter, and until five weeks ago Vice President, was impeached on February 5. Maybe the Marcos administration is just ripping the whole bandaid.
Forst
Secind
The Liberal Party of Canada has selected their new leader, Mark Carney by a landslide. there were no real heterodox candidates in this one, it was just a choice between boring Mr Neoliberal (Carney) and Ukrainian Nationalist Neoliberal (Freeland). Carney is correctly (imo) seen as the continuation of Trudeau and all the normal ‘Canada’s Natural Governing Party’ type policies. 3 months ago the LPC didn’t have a prayer, but the annex Canada shitshow from Trump has really galvanized Canadians as a whole, particularly the LPC base and now Carney has a real shot of being PM. I expect an election to be called shortly, so probably Canada will have a new government one way or the other by the start of the summer.
cringe incoming:
spoiler
I expect the meme slogan of the campaign to be ‘send a Carney to deal with a clown’
I’d be surprised if they don’t call an election right away, there’s no reason to delay and the libs are in a much better place than they were before trump got inaugurated and started talking annexation
I heard that this guy has an asset management firm that he moved from Toronto to New York. Can anyone verify this?
I just find it funny seeing libs on social media cheer him on for making a big patriotic “Canada never, ever will be part of America” half-assed speech when this guy already has a conflict of interest by doing business in the US.
https://financialpost.com/news/carney-propose-scrapping-canada-capital-gains-tax
sturmer sturmer rules the waves yeah nobody in the LPC was actually going to do that, not after the shitkicking they’ve gotten in the polls over the last 6 months. that idea seemed to be some kind of sop to the NDP or ‘progressive voters’
A villager stands outside his home in Kyauk Ka Char, Shan State, Myanmar, where Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the Drug Alternative Development Project” being implemented in the area. The project is co-sponsored by Myanmar’s Government and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
©UN Photo/Mark Garten, 2012-04-30
Is anyone else hearing “Russiagate 2.0” in their lib circles? I’m consistently hearing people say that Trump is a Russian plant that’s been ‘activated’ by the Russians after 30 years of being dormant. They’re talking Cold War 2.0 type shit.
To me it’s wild that people actually believe that narrative, rather than “US Oligarchs do a fine job of destroying the US themselves, thank you very much.” Where the hell are people hearing this?
Yeah I’ve definitely seen an uptick in memes and whatnot of Trump with the hammer and sickle/generally portraying him a communist. And the use of AI for that this time around is making it 300% more cringe. I can’t imagine telling on yourself so publicly about how stupid you are
God damn it I hate all of these people
Every bourgie party decries their opposition as communist
Same as it ever was
I am constantly telling libs that Putin isn’t a communist and hear how Trumps handling of Ukraine proves he is just taking orders directly from Putin. Libs really do live in their own imagined world.
Trumps handling of Ukraine proves he is just taking orders directly from Putin
what no material analysis does to a mfer. seriously though, Trump’s approach to Ukraine isn’t materially different than the Biden admin’s. US state department never had any interest in ‘saving’ ukraine. they wanted to exhaust Russia as much as they could. Now that they’ve reached the limits of that strategy, they’ve decided it’s time to ‘negotiate’
Did Russiagate 1.0 ever go away?
The other day a family member asserted that Putin is ackshully the richest man on earth, not Elon Musk. When I said there would need to be some kind of documentation of this wealth, it can’t just be assumed, he explained oh you just add up all the Russian oligarchs’ wealth to get his total wealth, because they do anything he tells them to do.
hey, what does the ‘-arch’ in oligarch mean again?
Arch linux
oligarch btw
Then by his dalubhusang bobo measurement, Trump’s wealth is more so, but due to ‘brainpan’ differences, they’re not gonna apply the same methodology.
nuh uh, Trump is owned by Putler so you have to add all his wealth to Putler tooOk, then before, with Biden.
I thought about and then decided against asking if this means Xi Jinping is the wealthiest man on the planet because there are more Chinese billionaires and they’re far more under the government’s thumb than any western or russian ones. The last thing he needs is more reasons to dislike China.
Aye, that’s a funny bit.
They say that about every socialist leader too
Just want to respond to @MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net’s post from here: https://hexbear.net/comment/5967697
You’re not quite correct about the F16s being grounded without American intelligence. The British are capable of programming these ECM pods and performing the reconnaissance for them too, I would not be surprised if they have stepped in to do exactly that.
perfect timing
“An agreement has been signed between interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander Mazlum Abdi to integrate into the institutions of the Syrian Arab Republic.”
https://t.me/thecradlemedia/31390
This agreement includes a ceasefire that has allegedly already been violated.
https://t.me/nayaforiraq/23210 https://t.me/nayaforiraq/23211
Agreement terms
spoiler
❗️Syrian Presidency:
○ The agreement with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stipulates guaranteeing the rights of all Syrians to representation and participation in the political process and all state institutions.
○ The agreement stipulates the integration of all civil and military institutions in northeastern Syria within the state administration, including border crossings, the airport, and oil and gas fields.
○ The agreement emphasizes ensuring the return of all displaced Syrians to their towns and villages and ensuring their protection from the Syrian state.
○ The agreement with the SDF stipulates supporting the Syrian state in its fight against the remnants of Assad and all threats that threaten its security and unity. (Emphasis mine)
○ The agreement with the SDF stipulates the rejection of calls for division, hate speech, and attempts to sow discord among all components of Syrian society.
They are both us puppets so it does not surprise me.
The agreement with the SDF stipulates supporting the Syrian state in its fight against the remnants of Assad and all threats that threaten its security and unity.
SDF military coalition with the HTS. That’s really bad…
This comes a few days after the SDF met the US CENTCOM general on the 6-7 March.
In Syria, Gen. Kurilla met with U.S. military commanders and servicemembers, as well as our Defeat-ISIS partners, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Gen. Kurilla received an update on the evolving situation in Syria and an assessment of the ongoing Defeat-ISIS campaign and efforts to prevent the resurgence of the terrorist group in the region.
Defeat ISIS by joining them!
The SDF commander was sent to sign this deal onboard a US Military Chinook helicopter. So it gets worse. Apparently the entire deal was facilitated by the US on February 20th, and the CENTCOM commander delivered the message. And today the US military transported their now discarded proxy leader to sign the surrender documents. I see this as facilitating the US withdrawal from Syria. The whole point of the US using the Kurds as a proxy was to occupy the oil fields and fertile lands by the Euphrates, to starve the Assad government so it would collapse. Now that Assad is gone, the proxy has no more usefulness, the mission in toppling Assad has been accomplished. So the USA will leave.
First the “anarchists” in Ukraine go full social fascist to align themselves with NATO and Nazis, now these “anarchists” are joining Al Qaeda after destroying a key part of the resistance against Israel
If I speak I am in big trouble
That portion stuck out to me as well. Anti-Iran coalition?
It comes only days after the SDF met with the US CENTCOM general. Some are reporting that HTS will take over the “ISIS prisoner camps” currently managed by the SDF. Israel would love a corridor to the Euphrates, and a lot of the land through the desert along the Jordan-Iraq border to the Euphrates is fairly uncontested, aside from the Al Tanf US military outpost. Also a big military buildup in Jordan over the past week, supported by the UK. The big challenge for Israel from a pure military perspective would be to get through Daraa and the western part of As- Suwayda governorate, after that it’s just open land.
I have had people on the old sub all the way to this community constantly argue to the bitter end about how the poor SDF couldnt possibly have made a deal with Assad at any point, an impossible situation and decision between a rock and a hard place blah blah, they werent american compradors , they had no other choice etc etc…Dozens of times that struggle session happened up till last year even
Turns out you can just do things and it only took them a couple of months to start folding into Jolenski’s Turkish backed woke Isis regime (he is an institutionalist now!). During the massacres of thousands of civilians no less. Surely pushed and facilitated by the US as well
I dont hold too much contempt for their project and there was genuine struggle and progressivism there but history wont be kind to the choices they made in their geopolitical and regional alignments
Say the line Bart
The tankies are always right
Completely shameless.
The agreement with the SDF stipulates supporting the Syrian state in its fight against the remnants of Assad and all threats that threaten its security and unity.
Bruh. We’re gonna get Horizontally Aligned Alawite massacres.
welp, that’s middle east firmly in usa/isntreal hands.
deleted by creator
Repost:
The Syrian terror regime has started a cleanup operation in advance of any international visitors, specifically the UN delegation. From planting weapons and stripping bodies to put on military gear to straight-up dumping bodies in the ocean, maximum effort is being put in to obscure what really has occurred. They haven’t stopped the killing (despite the announcement of the “military operation’s” end), they’re simply trying to minimize what has already happened.
https://t.me/CoastSyrian24/902
“Pro Palestine” hacker group dark storm is taking credit for taking down Twitter multiple times today. Cool if true but it made me do work today.
https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1899157996036673857
Edit: added quotes to pro Palestine since I don’t know the nature of the group or their motives beyond taking down Twitter. It’s weird to target Twitter itself and not thousands of other things too.
So, from what I understand about Myanmar/Burma, the two main factions are the Junta/Tatmadaw and the National Unity Government/People’s Defense Force. Besides them, there are some ethnic armies that are supported by the US and China. And it seems that both the US and China have also tried a peace deal between the Junta and the NUG, but it doesn’t seem to have worked. The junta doesn’t want the military and its friends to lose their privileges and doesn’t seem to have any real ideology beyond the fact that they want to rule Myanmar.
Somewhere in the mix with this is also that Myanmar is once again the #1 opium producing country, a trend that started during the war/right after the US pulled out of Afghanistan.
Also apparently a big human trafficking location where people are being forced to work in scam factories
idk, maybe things have changed but the “some ethnic armies” seem much more developed and militarily powerful. With coalitions like the Three Brotherhood Alliance playing a decisive role in the tide turning against the military government. Some of these national liberation armies have been i. armed struggle for self determination for decades, with only a brief respite in fighting during Myanmars brief period of liberal democracy, while NUG is a coalition that was sort of hastily put together with the liberals who fled and went into hiding after the coup in 2021.
I think what has been missing from some of the analysis I have read is just how we are supposed to understand the class-politics of the conflict and relationship to imperialism in the conflict. I disagree that the conflict is entirely a US proxy war, although the US has played an important and malign role. The military government was looking at political defeat in 2021, in part because they had nearly identical politics with the NLD but no mass base or celebrity leader. I think the military government saw the rising conflict with China and the US and felt that seizing power would avoid the same level of isolation and sanction that they had had before liberalizing. They believed they could get away with it, because both China and the US would want to continue a positive relationship with whoever was left in power (for different reasons)— But this has led to a strange position for China, who seems to only want a stable neighbor without conflict on their border. As the military government falters, China is less likely to put all of its eggs in one basket. On top of that the military government has also done things to upset China (one of Myanmar’s generals was implicated in a fraudulent call-center ring across the border in Yunnan). So even though I am sympathetic to the argument that the US is flooding the region with arms to destabilize China’s neighbor, I am not certain that China is committed to upholding the current government. They just want to conflict to resolve (but preferably with a government that isn’t hostile)… I am not sure that there hasn’t been historic support for the national liberation factions from China in the last, particularly in the 60s and 70s… If relations are relatively good between China and the major nations in Myanmar, given their outsized influence in fighting the government I could see China coming out of the conflict without a major loss if either side wins. The loss already occurred for them when the coup happened (and Myanmar was embroiled with armed struggle)
Originally restricted only to products from “red states”, British Columbia is now taking all Yank liquor off the shelves of the state-owned enterprise BC Liquor.
Death to America.
“Today, we are ordering the removal of all American beer, wine, spirits and refreshment beverages from the shelves at BCLIQUOR stores. The stores carry hundreds of types of U.S. alcohol that the BC Liquor Distribution Branch will also no longer be purchasing.
Removed by mod
Gotta pay for our health care somehow ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Removed by mod
I’ll never understand people who regularly drink not just making their own alcohol tbh
if you think about it the postal service already delivers a heck of alot of drugs
It’s easy to make alcohol but it’s hard to make it to near the same quality and it’s also pretty easy to poison yourself with botulism or methanol. Plus running a brew or still stinks.
You can make lots of types of alcohol at home and get decent results but it takes some equipment, planning and labour to do. It is a fun hobby or social activity but there’s a reason why booze production has become industrialised, just like most people don’t churn their own butter anymore.
There’s also the thing of ingredients becoming less available due to urbanisation. Making your own rakia is not really feasible if you have to buy fruit in a supermarket, you need access to your own fruit trees to get all the bruised and ugly fruit.
In Sweden the state alcohol monopoly Systembolaget keeps the price of cheap liquor high, presumably curbing alcoholism and teen drinking but they are also Europe’s largest buyer of alcohol, enabling them to get really good deals from producers, making higher quality wine, beer and liquor surprisingly reasonably priced there.
The existence of an alcohol monopoly has promoted a moonshine culture in Sweden as well as significant smuggling and cross-border trade, made easy by the very mild border regime on the border to Denmark. There’s also a culture of alcohol tourism where Swedes go to Denmark to drink cheap booze, leading to “the drunk Swede who can’t hold his liquor” being a stereotype in Denmark.
As someone who used to live in Sweden, I really miss Systembolaget. They have tens of thousands of products and free delivery so the amount of choices are amazing. The hard liquor is really expensive but the beer and wine is pretty reasonably priced. There’s a sort of price floor when it comes to the wine, though, they don’t sell any super cheap wines like they do in every grocery store in Southern Europe.
It’s interesting how this is a result of prohibition days and at least in Finland the working class struggle that saw alcohol as one of the things keeping the proles disengaged. The bourge was and is very much for free markets for alcohol and the debate and boundary drawing goes on to this day. One of thr first things our right wing goverment did was allow stronger alcohol in the grocery stores that you could previously only get from ALKO (Finnish systembolaget).
Afaik there has also always been a strong boozemaker and brewer lobby that opposes the state run alcohol monopoly.
What reading about this history and what Parenti had to say about all this made me think about it more. I’d very much been in the freedom of choice gang in the past. But it’s more complicated.
Funnily the Finns get the cheaper booze from Tallin and the cruise boats between Finland and Sweden, making the drunk “uncivilized” Finns a stereotype in Sweden, or at least re-enforces it.
The right-wingers in Iceland keep trying to abolish the monopoly or get beer in grocery stores, because market freedom and the state shouldn’t do things. But of course it’s really because it’s incredibly lucrative for the grocery stores and the breweries here, same as Finland.
Since we don’t have a neighbour for cheaper alcohol we make stereotypes about Danes having alcohol at kids birthday parties.
some states in the US have those also, Pennsylvania for example
