Desert Tortoise comments

Never understood why Yoon was so liked by outsiders over Moon. His hardline North Korea stance I suppose.

He appealed to male resentment of woman's rights in South Korea and an additional level of resentment that women are not subject to the draft like men are. Last there is the"4 B's movement" in South Korea that is seen as an organized campaign against men by women in South Korea.

The four core tenets to the 4B movement are:

no sex with men (Korean: 비섹스; RR: bisekseu),

no giving birth (비출산; bichulsan),

no dating men (비연애; biyeonae), and

no marriage with men (비혼; bihon).

Mr. Yoon sought the vote of males who oppose woman's rights. There are a lot of men in ROK that share that opposition.

Analysis thus far seems to be 'shoot first and ask questions later'. We still have no idea what triggered this incident/martial law = nature of these anti-state activities.

The DPK has been attempting to unilaterally push through a downsized budget proposal in the National Assembly. The proposed budget cuts target the entire allocation for special activity expenses of the presidential office’s secretariat and the National Security Office, as well as funds for the prosecution, the state audit agency and the police.

In addition, the DPK filed an impeachment motion against the head of the state audit agency for failing to audit the presidential residence relocation and against three prosecutors for not prosecuting Yoon's wife. The impeachment motion was scheduled for a plenary vote on Wednesday, but was postponed due to the martial law declaration and subsequent crisis.

again

they are NOT REBELS

they are TERRORISTS

stop your false narratives here.

There are some of both. What you have are a mixture of local tribal militias many of whom have been fighting the Baathists and Assad's Alawyte clan since 1940, and you have international jihadists who are Sunni Muslim looking for any excuse to kill Shiites like Assad, the Alawytes and his Iranian and Hezbollah allies.

Please learn the history of this region. It was originally the Sunni aligned Muslim Brotherhood that was opposed to the secular, nationalist and socialist Baath Party. Hama and Aleppo have been long time strongholds of conservative Sunni power in Syria, led until the 1980s primarily by the Muslim Brotherhood. When Assad came to power in a coup he removed all Sunni Muslims from the military and government. Later in his rule he began to harshly discriminate against Sunni Muslims at all levels of society. From 1963 on there were increasing violence and riots centered around Hama and Aleppo culminating in early 1982 when the Syrian Army laid siege to Hama, bombed it flat before the Army entered. Some 45,000 civilians were killed and another 15,000 - 17,000 disappeared. The Sunnis have never forgotten or forgiven.

When the Arab Spring uprisings swept the Arab World in 2011 the same old Sunni factions mobilized to sweep the Alawytes from power. Unfortunately it also attracted international jihadists from Al Qaida and IS who co-opted some of the local tribal militias and even attacked some of them. Assad brought in Iranian and Hezbollah fighters who in turn attracted even more Sunni jihadists to the fight. For a time Turkey was a major staging point for these jihadist until the chaos at their border became too much for them. That is when the Turks stood up their own proxy force in Northern Syria, the Syrian National Army SNA. The SNA is a confederation of local tribal militias that feud among themselves and often trade allegiances with A second group called HTS. HTS is a mash up of former Al Qaida aligned Nusra Front jihadists and tribal militias who allied themselves with them, unless their internal feuding leads one of more of the tribal militias to change sides to the SNA. Of the two HTS seems to be the most organized and effective. Turkey officially supports the SNA and tolerates HTS, but many say HTS could not have moved on Aleppo without significant Turkish help. The Turks for their part look to HTS and SNA to drive the Kurds out of northern Syria.

The Kurds too have their own little autonomous area up in the far northeast working with US forces. They may become significant soon if Iran tries to move troops across Iraq into Syria as the Kurds and US forces sit right on the route they would have to use.

Mr. Yoon is done. He can no longer govern. His cabinet has resigned and his party opposed his martial law declaration. It's over for him and his Defense Minister probably faces criminal charges too.

What bugs me most is that their professional military didn't refuse to be part of martial law. The South Korean Army should know better considering their sad history of past massacres. I feel bad for the conscript soldiers sent into their Parliament. I'm sure they were scared to death and confused. Their leaders however have no such excuses and must be held accountable for their part in this. Good military officers are supposed to know what a legal order and an illegal order is and refuse to obey an illegal order. Their top leadership should never have put their mid grade and junior leaders in such a position. Some of those top leaders now must face discipline. I fear the people of South Korea will now greatly distrust their military and that has all kinds of ramifications for the future.

Japan will also now likely have a hostile leader in South Korea to deal no matter what Japan does or does not do. Just a turd sandwich all around.

I was disappointed that the leadership of the South Korean military did not step up and say, Mr. President your order is illegal and we will not order troops to take over Parliament or any other illegal act. I have a much lower opinion of the Korean military now and am not sure the US should support them any more.

Yoon will be long gone by January.

Russia can't handle the obvious truth that it is a war criming country.

Neither apparently can the US and Israel.

Their warnings gained strength this year with the surprise discovery that oxygen was being released on the ocean floor not just by living organisms, but by polymetallic nodules -- a finding rejected by the TMC, though it had helped fund the research.

That recent discovery is what causes me the greatest concern. Research on the effects of nodule removal from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean shows that post removal, life does not fully return to the zone. Subsequently it is discovered that the nodules themselves emit oxygen that life needs to return. I don't think we know enough to safely remove large volumes of these nodules from the world's oceans.

At the time these cities were liberated from their pockets of control (events marked by celebrations amongst the civilians) nobody was willing to cross the red lines of the unprovoked, illegal invasion and occupation forces of the US government.

What on Earth are you talking about? The US never had forces in Aleppo or anywhere in Idlib. The only US forces in Syria are in a small corner in the northeast keeping IS from re-taking oil fields east of the Euphrates River. Those oil fields were a major source of revenue funding IS. The oil field are now operated by the Kurds and the revenue goes to the Kurdish run Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. I

Yes, they are US-funded and US-armed terrorists, mainly consisting of foreign combatants.

That is completely false. The US does not fund HTS or the Syrian National Army, the two groups that are currently fighting to take Aleppo. HTS is designated a terrorist organization by the US. HTS gets its money from taxes smuggling and oil. The Syrian National Army (SNA) is funded primarily by the Turks as a counter to the Kurds in northern Syria. The US works with the Kurds "Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and their military arm, the YPG or People's Defense Units. Both are considered enemies of HTS and SNA, and the Turks use both HTS and SNA to attack the Kurds YPG units hoping to prevent the Kurds from establishing an autonomous entity in northeast Syria.

But claiming the US somehow supports its enemies is silly and patently false.

they are not insurgents-they are terrorists.a pure terrorists.

They are a mixed bag of local tribal militias and international jihadists / terrorists. The are often at odds with each other and swap loyalties among the several coalitions trying to oust the Syrian government. Not infrequently they fight among themselves. Their one common denominator is they are all Sunni Muslims and the hate the Shiites. Assad and his Alawyte clan who rule Syria are Shiites. When Hafez Assad came to power he ran all of the Sunnis out of the Syrian military and government.

This is an old fight. Throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood led an uprisings and rioits against the Assad regime that culminated with the infamous February 1982 Hama massacre. The Brotherhood had been at odds with the Baathists (Arab nationalist and socialist) since 1940. Hama was a conservative stronghold opposed to the Baathist and a center for the Muslim Brotherhood. Several well respected Sunni religious scholars in Aleppo sided with the Brotherhood and supported resistance to the Assad regime. Clashes broke out in 1963 throughout that region continuing into the early 1980s, with fighting accelerating from 1976-82 culminating in the bombing of Hama by the Syrian Air Force and a ground invasion by Syrian troops. Upwards of 45,000 civilians were killed and another 15,000-17,000 disappeared in Hama in February 1982

This long term clash between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Syria is the setting for the current civil war. It is really a continuation of the fight that has been going on since 1940 in Syria.

One wonders if Bashar Assad ever regrets giving up his ophthalmology practice in London to take over the Presidency of Syria after his old man died?

Oh look ! The gig economy comes to organized crime and the old line established, um, businesses feel threatened.

https://www.turkishminute.com/2024/11/30/analysis-rebels-capture-strategic-ground-in-aleppo-with-turkeys-green-light/

Long ago these fighters were armed by Turkey, the US, Israel, and most of the Anti Iran block.

The US never armed HTS. They have been on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations since 2014.

Turkey backs a different rebel group called Syrian National Army (SNA) with arms and funding. SNA is a hodge podge of different tribal militias. Last month the divisions within the SNA broke out into open warfare. HTS intervened to support one group of factions against the other group.

https://www.mei.edu/publications/hts-turkey-and-future-syrias-north

Most victims of fires die of smoke inhalation, rather than being burned to death.

"Smoke inhalation" is a polite way to say the victims lungs were burned, blistered by scalding hot gases then filled with liquid from the burns. it is a dreadful way to die.

https://bianet.org/haber/tensions-rise-between-turkish-backed-factions-kurdish-forces-in-northern-syria-302177

Amazing how the media is sanitizing this act and this group. There is no mention of who they are, who is the leader, their history etc. They are merely "insurgents" and assumably 'good ones'. Even merely labelled as "opposition fighters" in the photos. It'd be great to know which organization they are part of

No mystery. They are mostly HTS fighters. All you have to do is read a little bit. It's not hard to do.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/syria-deadly-strikes-aleppo-rebels-seize-airport-push-towards-hama

As someone wrote:

CIA NED Moslem Brotherhood Al Qaida ISIS

Where does this nonsense come from? IS and its many affiliates and Al Qaida are all designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the US and US forces conduct military operations against them frequently. Keeping IS out of the Syrian oil fields east of the Euphrates River is the sole reason the US has any forces in Syria. Fighting IS in Somalia and North Africa is why the us has a big base in Dijbouti.

As for Al Qaida, the US never supported them. The US supported the Mujahideen in Afghanistan against the Soviets. Al Qaida showed up later and fought with the Mujahideen for supremacy in Afghanistan after the Soviets left. There were several tribal armies fighting for supremacy in Afghanistan when the Pakistani supported Taliban swept them all aside and took control. The Taliban would later provide Al Qaida with safe haven to operate against the US including the tragedy on 9-11. The US went to war in Afghanistan to defeat Al Qaida and the Taliban but to some in their fervid minds the US supports Al Qaida. This is fact free nonsense.

The US has debated adding the Muslim Brotherhood to the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations but so far has not, mainly because they have not been involved in terrorism (offshoots of the M-B have become terrorist organizations and are so designated, such as Hamas). The Muslim Brotherhood is a political and social welfare organization with members serving in the governments of several nations. They operate freely in 92 nations and have members in the governments of US allies Jordan and Bahrain. Declaring them a terrorist organization would greatly complicate US foreign policy and so far nobody has wanted to go there.

So senate Democrats will supposedly spend 2 years obstructing everything the American people just voted for?

thats not gonna end well for the next election cycle.

It seems to work for the Republicans .....................

Regulations turned California, the richest state into one of the socially poorest, spare me with the lib logic.

California's GDP is larger than that of any other state in the US and all but four nations in the world.

This will pop a few BRICS bubbles.

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/programs/geoeconomics-center/dollar-dominance-monitor/

Interesting tidbit, the proportion of global trade conducted in Renminbi has dropped.

The US/ Turkey helping ISIS style militants again. When will they ever learn?

Turkey perhaps but Nusra/HTS are on the US list of terrorist entities and has been there since 2014.

Also kind of strange that you claim the US somehow supports IS when US forces attack IS elements regularly. For the life of me I don't know where such nonsense comes from but IS is a US enemy and US forces attack IS at every opportunity, in Syria, in Somalia and elsewhere in Africa and Philippines.

That is the idea, sooner or later it will have to stop and they will want to negotiate

It never occurs to some that many nations will be offended and retaliate. Jupiter is widely reviled abroad and there are lots of people who see America's problems as home made and not the fault of any other nation. Some of us Americans see it that way too.

Want to end the perennial trade deficit? Balance the budget. Stop selling bonds to finance deficit spending and you remove the tool nations use to soak up excess US Dollars from their respective trade surpluses with the US that keeps the value of the US Dollar artificially high and the value of their currencies artificially low. The US has it within their own power to solve this problem. Blaming it on the US trade partners is dishonest to say the least and many nations fully realize this dishonesty. They resent being blamed for America's mistakes and bad habits.

Want to fight domestic inflation but rising tariffs everywhere? Is that smart move?

Because of the way he tries to tie tariffs to specific problems he perceives the US has with targeted nations he seems to think the threat of tariffs will change other aspects of the relationship with the US. He seems to think he won't have to actually impose them in order to get the behavior he desires. That may or may not work. A few nations may cave in but many will be offended and retaliate. In the end I think the US will get the economic and diplomatic equivalent of a nice hard wedgie.

China is its own worst enemy.

No, just the CCP. Xi Jinping's fixation on absolute central control of all aspects of everything that happens in China will be the CCPs downfall. The country is just too big and diverse for that to work. A federal system is what China needs but Xi Jinping is a Maoist true believer. He will have to be deposed or die before things will improve in China.

HTS aka Al Queda aka ISIS aka US supported moderate rebels.

Sigh. HTS and IS are mortal enemies. If you are going to comment at least have your facts straight. HTS has some support from the Turkish military but not the US. The US supports the Kurdish Regional Government in northeast Syria and is fighting IS there. HTS is a fragmented hodge podge of feuding local tribal militias and a former branch of Al Qaeda called Al Nusra. Three weeks ago local militias that operate under the umbrella of HTS were at war with each other.

The Turks were actually telling HTS not to attack Syrian forces but HTS ignored them sensing a power vacuum due to the damage done to Hezbollah, IRGC and Russian forces in Syria.

Al Nusra/HTS has been on the US list of terrorist entities since 14 May 2014

https://www.state.gov/executive-order-13224/#state

How does it connect to 2016???

Anti Syrian government Sunni rebels controlled Aleppo until they were run out by Russian and IRGC forces in 2016.

My experience in China is that everyone drinks bottled water. Boiling might kill bacteria but does nothing to remove the industrial chemicals, fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides in the water.

Would like to hear exactly how these “forever chemicals” are getting into Japan’s drinking water, particularly in places like Hokkaido.

They were at least a common chemical found in firefighting foam. Every car crash / fire, every airport fire, every industrial fire that was doused with foam is a possible source of PFAS in drinking water. Airport firefighters practice foaming a burning wreck sometimes as often as once a month for training. This has been happening for decades.