Interests: Authoritarian regimes and their victims. Principles that should never be for sale.
Latin adage “Si vis pacem, para bellum” (updated 2023)
“If you want peace, try disempowering dictators; when others *empower* them nevertheless, prepare for war”
ℹ️ The account icon is an ambigram which, when flipped, means either "police" or "violence". Ever since the 2019 protests when the previously respected police helped the 🇨🇳☭ CCP crush Hongkong's pro-democracy civil society those things are synonymous.
@noelreports 😑 russia's been a murderous criminal enterprise (well, nominally a 'collective' between 1917 and 1991) and serial colonialist genocider ever since it spawned but for some reason the hindus have an incurable crush for it.
I've previously noted the "socialist / non-aligned & anti-British" background for it but FFS someone make it make actual sense.
Last note before a much-needed sanity vacation.
[Ignorable long post so... TL;DR: Boycott *all* dictators and their enablers like morality-free corporations]
I've tried living by the "Be the change you want to see in the world" advice since my teens. For all my civil and human rights advocacy and e.g. campaigning for Tibetans' freedom from colonial repression virtually everyone around me has been flippantly funding their oppressors, the Chinese Party-state regime'. Oh, and they're also funding the repression of the 1.3 billion Chinese subjects (who are not Party members) and all the other global objectives of the CCP, including their support of russia, Iran, North Korea and virtually all existing and aspiring despots around the world. 🤷🏻♂️
That's been going on for *decades* now. Think about it.
I witnessed the CCP crushing Hong Kong's civil society in and after 2019 first hand despite the CCP having 'signed' a treaty (UK-PRC Joint Declaration) guaranteeing Hongkongers continued civil- and political rights and self-determination.
And then Muricans went and *elected* donald fucking trump *again* in Nov last year to do similar fascist takeover in the USA.
Note that in the last partially free elections in Hong Kong (Nov 2019) in *all* 18 districts popular vote supported pro-democrats. The USA and all other democracies did squat to pressure the CCP. It was just business as usual!
Who has stood with the Tibetans? With Hongkongers? With the Burmese? etc. etc.
Mandela said: "Your freedom and mine cannot be separated."
Memorize that quote. It carries countless insights.
I've tried to avoid funding anyone's oppressor since the last century, but equally importantly, and here's a wee request, we should *all* strive to avoid funding all dictators *but also their enablers*.
Not just the trumptards or the techbros the chinese or russian expansionist dictatorships et al but *also their enablers everywhere*.
(If we had done this, as I hoped, when the soviet empire fell and the CCP was on the ropes we would not be in this *global* pickle now. Reversing this sociopathic disaster will be far more difficult, but maybe if enough people — esp. in democracies but also in dictatorships — start "thinking globally, acting locally" we might have a long shot at honouring the founding principles of the original UN. They were never meant to be mere idealistic words to be sacrificed for easy profit and convenience.)
NB. The rise of Murican fascism hasn't only threatened to destroy American civil society, but it has removed the USA as a force for good globally since the 1990s, first as a more voluntary "hands off neo-libertarian approach" and since the turn of the century's even more hedonistic turn inwards while fighting imaginary 'culture wars' with the proto white supremacist MAGA...
How do you come back from deranged grifter-supremacist culture? How??
Ref. My first post after the last US presidential election results in Nov 2024 were confirmed:
https://infosec.exchange/@demi7en/113436649810433000
@w7voa The 'Network State' MAGA is going after media hard.
That 'Skydance' joint is financed by Oracle founder Larry Ellison — once Steve Jobs' (look up his background...) best mate and lately one of the key insurrectionists.
After slimmer years Oracle has recently hit gold and fever-pitch favour among rich sociopaths by getting into crypto...
These people want to control *American culture*.
India has sent 65 troops to join the Russia‑Belarus “Zapad 2025” military exercises amid rising tension with Washington. Analysts warn this move crosses a “red line,” showing where New Delhi’s strategic priorities lie, balancing historic alliances with present geopolitical pressure.
Russia is reviving barter trade to bypass Western sanctions, swapping goods like wheat for Chinese cars and flax seeds for building materials. Reuters reports at least eight such transactions. A 14-page guide issued by Russia’s economy ministry now instructs companies on how to conduct foreign barter deals. While the Kremlin claims economic resilience, analysts see the rise of barter as a symptom of sanctions pressure and liquidity issues.
He did the meme.
This is who Kirk was. We can have an honest discussion about his extremism, even while condemning political violence and murder.
Somehow I missed this Wired story on the leak from Sept 8
https://www.wired.com/story/geedge-networks-mass-censorship-leak/
Trump regime's disgusting treatment of the Korean workers in Georgia seems designed to torpedo all foreign investment in the U.S.
Reminder: They were almost certainly treated better than most of the people ICE is kidnapping and disappearing.
For years I've consistently used quotation marks to more clearly characterize the Murdoch family's right-wing propaganda operation, otherwise known as Fox "News".
Sadly, it's time to do the same with CBS "News" -- where integrity is being systematically destroyed, by design:
https://www.npr.org/2025/09/12/nx-s1-5537152/cbs-news-ellison-steps-appease-trump
All corruption, all the time in Trump world -- billions and billions of dollars of crytpocurrency "value" flowing into family wallets.
Latest newsletter from the brilliant Molly White:
@thejapantimes Arab spring → crushed. 💩
Ukrainian Maidan, squeezed over the line and going strong despite 2014+2022 invasions by russia 🥳
Hong Kong anti-dictatorship mass protests → crushed by the CCP 💩
Burma/Myanmar protests → civil war, struggling military dictatorship backed by CCP and russia 💥
Now Nepal youth/social media takeover (!) → ??
In the 1990s Nepal dumped the (Hindu) royalty, elected pro-CCP communists, became a vassal of the CCP while depending on India...
Now they're between the aggressive CCP and the hindu-nationalist India with both vying for influence/control. 💥??
(+ many more anti-regime uprisings which haven't changed the status quo)
#Ukraine #ArabSpring #Hongkong #ccp #burma #myanmar #Nepal #India
@EugeneMcParland Fun issue to bring up over tea between the four of them: trump and 'epsteen' were apparently in friendly competition over who'd be the first to 'bang' princess Diana... 😂
@EugeneMcParland A well-intentioned piece based on a dangerously misguided premise. Putin is not at war with Murica; he has bet on (and heavily invested in) Murica becoming a weak and fractured *ally* ruled by ideological allies: white (pseudo-christo-)nazis.
Besides that *pseudo-christo*nazism they're really united by their hatred towards liberalism, i.e. modern Europe (also representing NATO majority).
The EU's Executive Vice President expressed a desire to boost cooperation with Japan on Friday, prior to his first visit to Japan since taking office. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/09/14/japan/politics/eu-boost-economic-security-japan/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #politics #eujapanrelations #eu
V guardian:
Elon Musk addressed the crowd attending the march via video link. He said a “dissolution of parliament” and a “change of government” is needed in the UK, and also railed against the “woke mind virus”. Other speakers included Katie Hopkins and French far-right politician Éric Zemmour.
@thejapantimes And while the aussies are preparing for WWIV, how many billions are they sending to the PRC that funds the CCP's *present* massive military buildup readying for the #3? 🤔
If you use Mastodon through your server's website, you might have noticed an eye icon 👁️ in the top right corner of post threads. Have you ever wondered what this does?
This icon is really useful if you are viewing a thread with lots of posts hidden by Content Warnings (CWs). Clicking the eye toggles all the CWs for the entire thread open or closed, which saves a lot of time if there are many CWed posts in that thread.
More info in this guide:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/what-does-the-eye-icon-%f0%9f%91%81%ef%b8%8f-mean-on-mastodon
At some point I (a European here) plugged the #MSNBC network as one of the remaining ones in Murica offering critical coverage of the MAGA takeover. Obviously I feel that most of their staff still deserves the 'honest journalist' tag, but apparently in the aftermath of the MAGA agitator school shooting the network sacked some former *GOP neocon strategist* commentator for honestly describing that agitator as a malignant force merely by reciting some of his public claims.
What the actual fuck. A neocon functionary is willing to point out the misanthropic hate speech that agitator was openly dishing out as far and wide as possible and he gets kicked out??
Wasn't that kind of self-critical commentary from the "conservative" side exactly what Murica was lacking on its way to the current state?? 🤦♂️️
