This morning, a Ukrainian kindergarten was struck with a projectile. Here is how this attack is being distorted in real time. 🧵
The school is located in a town called Stanytsia Luhanska. This town lies just outside the territory controlled by the LPD, one of two breakaway regions in Donbas.
Early afternoon local time today, a projectile hit the southeast facing wall of the school at approximately head height above grade. Video of the classroom interior shows an exit point through the opposite interior wall.
Within hours, western journalists had arrived on the scene. Almost immediately, UK PM Boris Johnson announced that this attack was a “false flag” by Russia designed to discredit Ukrainian forces.
There are a few problems with this claim.
Firstly, the location of the building. The school is within Ukraine controlled territory. While both sides have been shelling back and forth for years now, it would make no sense for Russia to deliberately shell a school on the Ukrainian side to discredit the Ukrainian army.
Secondly, the path of the projectile. The very flat entry angle as determined from the entry and exit holes suggests direct fire (eg. a tank turret) rather than an indirect fire (eg. a mortar round).
Thirdly the heading of the projectile. The entry and exit holes indicate that the projectile was traveling along a heading of ~290°. There is no feasible way to fire a flat trajectory projectile from LPR controlled territory along this heading. This must have originated in 🇺🇦
So not only is this attack being blamed on Russian / LDP forces, something which is only possible with magical curving projectiles, it is being spun as being a deliberate Russian “false flag”.
This is how (very lazy) atrocity propaganda is manufactured in real time.
If you were orchestrating an attack for maximum outrage, a kindergarten is a perfect choice.
But if you want to minimize the potential for unintended casualties, you would choose a target at the edge of town with nothing behind it.
A number of people claiming that the windows not being broken is a sign this was staged. Windows intact means there was no air pressure wave, which indicates the projectile was non-explosive. Both direct fire projectiles and dud shells fired from a mortar are non-explosive.
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US-backed attempts at foreign destabilization always try to leverage *real* grievances, not to bring any resolution to the aggrieved. Quite the opposite, they attempt to intensify.
The only correct position for the western left to take is to oppose *ALL* forms of intervention.
Yellen is once again traveling to Beijing, this time to try to get China to curb “overproduction”.
What's the real goal? 🧵
The goal of this pressure campaign is to somehow convince China to self-sabotage the foundation of their budding prosperity—their means of production—thereby eliminating the competition.
Why don't the capitalist countries try to out-compete China on commodity prices instead?
They've tried!
But due to decades of offshoring productive capacity and hoovering up their best and brightest minds into the financial and "tech" sectors, regaining a competitive edge will require a lot more effort than simply throwing money at the problem.
On Monday, Israeli fighter jets bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus killing over a dozen people in an outrageous act of provocation against both Iran and Syria.
It is clear that Israel is intent on instigating a direct confrontation with Iran.
What’s the goal? 🧵
While this attack represents a blatant provocation, it is not without precedent by western powers. Those old enough might recall a similarly atrocious act by the US in the 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
Iran's increasingly close alignment with Russia and China over the past few years is something Israeli and American foreign policy experts have feared since Brzezinski's warning in 1997.
In America, a "FICO Credit Score™ " is a blacklist administered by an unelected private oligopoly.
Americans are inducted into this capitalist credit initiative from birth, which controls everything from where they can live and which employer they are allowed to work for.
In order to be allowed to live in a house when they're older, Americans must begin taking out loans starting from an early age—even if they don't need a loan.
Americans call this ritual to appease private banks and landlords "building credit".
Before being hired, many employers require Americans to divulge their FICO credit history to assess their trustworthiness.
If deemed insufficiently trustworthy, an applicant will not be hired.
It has become clear Israel has no plan beyond trying to force millions of Palestinians into the Sinai desert by starving and bombing all that remain in Gaza. Israel is acting as if any Egyptian objection to this plan is a bluff.
This is utter insanity. 🧵
Despite being led by a US puppet, Egypt is facing a dramatic economic crisis of their own that worsens each day of Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.
Both Suez transit fees and tourism—key buttresses of govt revenue—have fallen off a cliff since Oct 7.
Egypt's recent decision to increase transit fees betrays a level of desperation, since higher fees only make the shipping via the alternate route around Africa more attractive when new insurance risk premiums are factored in, and thus risk additional rerouting.