Zarah Sultana: Lammy claim he did not know about Palestine Action hunger strikers is a ‘lie’
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/40113504
Published date: 9 Dec 2025 16:18 GMT
In footage posted on Instagram, Lammy is seen telling campaigners and the strikers’ families that he did “not know anything” about the prisoners’ cases.“I’ve written to David Lammy, so the fact he’s saying he doesn’t know about this is a lie,” Sultana told Middle East Eye.
In the video, Shahmina Alam, the sister of one of the strikers, confronted Lammy, saying that he and the Ministry of Justice had failed to respond to a letter alerting them of the planned strike and outlining the participants' demands.
Zarah Sultana: Lammy claim he did not know about Palestine Action hunger strikers is a ‘lie’
Published date: 9 Dec 2025 16:18 GMTIn footage posted on Instagram, Lammy is seen telling campaigners and the strikers’ families that he did “not know anything” about the prisoners’ cases.“I’ve written to David Lammy, so the fact he’s saying he doesn’t know about this is a lie,” Sultana told Middle East Eye.
In the video, Shahmina Alam, the sister of one of the strikers, confronted Lammy, saying that he and the Ministry of Justice had failed to respond to a letter alerting them of the planned strike and outlining the participants' demands.
Zarah Sultana: Lammy claim he did not know about Palestine Action hunger strikers is a ‘lie’
British MP Zarah Sultana has said that Justice Secretary David Lammy “lied” when he claimed he did not know about the eight Palestine Action-linked prisoners currently on hunger strike.Katherine Hearst (Middle East Eye)
Zarah Sultana: Lammy claim he did not know about Palestine Action hunger strikers is a ‘lie’
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/40113504
Published date: 9 Dec 2025 16:18 GMT
In footage posted on Instagram, Lammy is seen telling campaigners and the strikers’ families that he did “not know anything” about the prisoners’ cases.“I’ve written to David Lammy, so the fact he’s saying he doesn’t know about this is a lie,” Sultana told Middle East Eye.
In the video, Shahmina Alam, the sister of one of the strikers, confronted Lammy, saying that he and the Ministry of Justice had failed to respond to a letter alerting them of the planned strike and outlining the participants' demands.
Zarah Sultana: Lammy claim he did not know about Palestine Action hunger strikers is a ‘lie’
Published date: 9 Dec 2025 16:18 GMTIn footage posted on Instagram, Lammy is seen telling campaigners and the strikers’ families that he did “not know anything” about the prisoners’ cases.“I’ve written to David Lammy, so the fact he’s saying he doesn’t know about this is a lie,” Sultana told Middle East Eye.
In the video, Shahmina Alam, the sister of one of the strikers, confronted Lammy, saying that he and the Ministry of Justice had failed to respond to a letter alerting them of the planned strike and outlining the participants' demands.
Zarah Sultana: Lammy claim he did not know about Palestine Action hunger strikers is a ‘lie’
British MP Zarah Sultana has said that Justice Secretary David Lammy “lied” when he claimed he did not know about the eight Palestine Action-linked prisoners currently on hunger strike.Katherine Hearst (Middle East Eye)
Zarah Sultana: Lammy claim he did not know about Palestine Action hunger strikers is a ‘lie’
Published date: 9 Dec 2025 16:18 GMT
In footage posted on Instagram, Lammy is seen telling campaigners and the strikers’ families that he did “not know anything” about the prisoners’ cases.“I’ve written to David Lammy, so the fact he’s saying he doesn’t know about this is a lie,” Sultana told Middle East Eye.
In the video, Shahmina Alam, the sister of one of the strikers, confronted Lammy, saying that he and the Ministry of Justice had failed to respond to a letter alerting them of the planned strike and outlining the participants' demands.
Zarah Sultana: Lammy claim he did not know about Palestine Action hunger strikers is a ‘lie’
British MP Zarah Sultana has said that Justice Secretary David Lammy “lied” when he claimed he did not know about the eight Palestine Action-linked prisoners currently on hunger strike.Katherine Hearst (Middle East Eye)
Two US fighter jets circle Gulf of Venezuela in escalation of hostilities
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/40113212
Roque Planas
Tue 9 Dec 2025 21.37 EST
Two US fighter jets circled the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday, in what appeared to be an escalation of the Trump administration’s ongoing hostilities toward the South American country and its leftist leader, Nicolás Maduro.Venezuelans and South American media followed the flights in real time using websites like FlightRadar24, which showed a pair of F/A-18 Super Hornets flying together into the narrow Gulf of Venezuela for about 40 minutes. The jets flew just north of Maracaibo, Venezuela’s most populous city.
Two US fighter jets circle Gulf of Venezuela in escalation of hostilities
Roque Planas
Tue 9 Dec 2025 21.37 ESTTwo US fighter jets circled the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday, in what appeared to be an escalation of the Trump administration’s ongoing hostilities toward the South American country and its leftist leader, Nicolás Maduro.Venezuelans and South American media followed the flights in real time using websites like FlightRadar24, which showed a pair of F/A-18 Super Hornets flying together into the narrow Gulf of Venezuela for about 40 minutes. The jets flew just north of Maracaibo, Venezuela’s most populous city.
Two US fighter jets circle Gulf of Venezuela in escalation of hostilities
Trump had further said Nicolás Maduro’s ‘days are numbered’ as military has targeted alleged drug boatsRoque Planas (The Guardian)
Two US fighter jets circle Gulf of Venezuela in escalation of hostilities
Roque Planas
Tue 9 Dec 2025 21.37 EST
Two US fighter jets circled the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday, in what appeared to be an escalation of the Trump administration’s ongoing hostilities toward the South American country and its leftist leader, Nicolás Maduro.Venezuelans and South American media followed the flights in real time using websites like FlightRadar24, which showed a pair of F/A-18 Super Hornets flying together into the narrow Gulf of Venezuela for about 40 minutes. The jets flew just north of Maracaibo, Venezuela’s most populous city.
Two US fighter jets circle Gulf of Venezuela in escalation of hostilities
Trump had further said Nicolás Maduro’s ‘days are numbered’ as military has targeted alleged drug boatsRoque Planas (The Guardian)
In other news, ”Yeah, this is probably not a good thing”.
[Pluribus Spoilers] A distressing thought about Koumba and the hive...
The hive exist, or desire to please the survivors. However they want. Koumba has used this more than anyone else to his own advantage to live the life of a decadent, hedonistic and shallow playboy - roleplaying as James Bond and surrounding himself and having sex with women. Now, to me - this is very much - at the minimum - taking advantage of them. The women he's having sexual relations with are not who they were, and it is unlikely - even if the hive came to him and suggested it (as I suspect they did) - that the women before the joining would be remotely interested in doing this. They are not them. Who they were has been lobotomised, malformed and disappeared into the hive - segmented up into billions of bodies.
I've seen some people (not here, but elsewhere) suggest that this behaviour is okay because the hive is consenting. The women he's picking show enthusiastic and active consent. This to me is disgraceful, not just in the context of that - but also what could be the case if Koumba had different, darker interests.
Now the show will not address this (and rightfully so) - but it still seems true to me regardless of that. If Koumba was a pedophile, they would provide him with children he requested - and the children would provide active consent. Just like the women he picks now, they wouldn't be who they were. There is no concept of childhood or child innocence anymore. The hive literally can't say no unless it contradicts their survival or asks them to hurt others.
So to anyone who thinks the hive is a good thing (and some people actually do), or that Koumba is doing no wrong with what he's doing. This should be a point to consider.
In theory they aren't individuals anymore, they are appendages. So there would be no issue with consent the same way you decide consent for your hand or mouth. In a sense your mouth consents because it is part of the you making that decision.
Except... If there were any chance your hand could separate from you and become an individual in the future it'd be immoral to use it for sex now. And Carol is already very confident that it's possible to reverse the Joining. But even if she wasn't it was always a possibility. So having sex with any of them is incredibly wrong, which should be obvious to anybody on a gut level.
How Corporate Democrats Made Trump Possible: A 10-Year Timeline
How Corporate Democrats Made Trump Possible: A 10-Year Timeline
Saving the country from autocracy requires recognizing—and then overcoming—the chokehold that Democratic leaders have on the party.norman-solomon (Common Dreams)
Konsole now prompts for passwords and other questions in pop-ups??
I mean, who thought of this as a good idea? I find it rather distracting. I'm trying to SSH into a computer and blam...a massive pop-up blocks me from reading what was before or anything else...just the pop-up in front, blocking text. It has the hidden password text field thing, but this one is to type yes/no to whether accept the server's cert. Y hit enter after typing yes...and blam, another pop-up, this one is for the actual password.
How can I disable these pop-up prompts? I want to be prompted as text, on the konsole main screen, as it always was. I haven't changed anything, because well, this is a brand new install. It started happening on a different computer and found it equally irritating.
Any idea how can I disable this? Thanks so much!
ssh-askpass utility to prompt you for passwords. You can configure it to always prompt over the TTY of the parent process that executed the ssh-askpass command.
Linux Foundation aims to become the Switzerland of AI agents
An attempt to provide vendor-neutral oversight as the agent train barrels on
Linux Foundation aims to become the Switzerland of AI agents
: An attempt to provide vendor-neutral oversight as the agent train barrels onThomas Claburn (The Register)
Rivian is building its own AI assistant
The EV maker will likely share more details on its upcoming AI & Autonomy Day scheduled for December 11.
Rivian is building its own AI assistant | TechCrunch
The EV maker will likely share more details on its upcoming AI & Autonomy Day scheduled for December 11.Kirsten Korosec (TechCrunch)
Wake Up Dead Man digs deep for a darker, more powerful Knives Out
Benoit Blanc shows his range.
Wake Up Dead Man digs deep for a darker, more powerful Knives Out
Wake Up Dead Man, the latest in the Knives Out murder mystery series, starts streaming on Netflix on December 12th.Andrew Webster (The Verge)
Congress quietly strips right-to-repair provisions from US military spending bill
A win for the contractors
like this
Google is powering a new US military AI platform
“The future of American warfare is here, and it’s spelled A-I.”
Google is powering a new US military AI platform
The Department of Defense is announcing its own “bespoke” AI platform, GenAI.mil, and Google Cloud’s Gemini will be the first to be available on the platform.Jay Peters (The Verge)
Microsoft unveils massive 2026 expansions for Age of Empires and Mythology series
The Age of Empires franchise has been back in a big way for years now, both thanks to Definitive Edition remasters as well as new games like Age of Empires IV. With 2025 now coming to a close, Microsoft is looking towards where the franchise will go in 2026. Today, the development team shared a roadmap that details these plans, and there are plenty of good news for fans.
copymyjalopy likes this.
UK spending half an hour longer online than in pandemic, says Ofcom
The survey found people in the UK spent on average four hours and 30 minutes online every day in 2025
Call of Duty won’t release Modern Warfare or Black Ops back to back anymore
“We will drive innovation that is meaningful, not incremental.”
Call of Duty won’t release Modern Warfare or Black Ops back to back anymore
Activision’s future Call of Duty releases will no longer include back-to-back launches of Modern Warfare or Black Ops games.Jay Peters (The Verge)
Canada’s Big Banks are a ‘culprit’ driving housing prices out of control
Canada’s political and media class has spent years chasing convenient villains to blame for the housing crisis, pointing the finger at foreign buyers, immigrants, supply shortages, zoning rules, or an overheated market.
https://breachmedia.ca/canadas-big-banks-are-a-culprit-driving-housing-prices-out-of-control/
[Announcement] Path of Exile 2: The Last of the Druids Item Filter Information
Early Access Announcements - Path of Exile 2: The Last of the Druids Item Filter Information - Forum - Path of Exile
Path of Exile is a free online-only action RPG under development by Grinding Gear Games in New Zealand.Path of Exile
Jimmy Kimmel Inks ABC Contract Extension After Trump-FCC Culture War
The one-year deal will take ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ through the 2026-27 season.
Linux audio stuttering when opening separate application, how to prioritise audio when using Linux?
AI Surveillance Startup Caught Using Sweatshop Workers to Monitor US Residents
Bombshell new reporting from 404 Media found that Flock, which has its cameras in thousands of US communities, has been outsourcing its AI to gig workers located in the Philippines.
After accessing a cache of exposed data, 404 found documents related to annotating Flock footage, a process sometimes called “AI training.” Workers were tasked with jobs include categorizing vehicles by color, make, and model, transcribing license plates, and labeling various audio clips from car wrecks.
In US towns and cities, Flock cameras maintained by local businesses and municipal agencies form centralized surveillance networks for local police. They constantly scan for car license plates, as well as pedestrians, who are categorized based on their clothing, and possibly by factors like gender and race.
In a growing number of cases, local police are using Flock to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents surveil minority communities.
It isn’t clear where all the Flock annotation footage came from, but screenshots included in the documents for data annotators showed license plates from New York, Florida, New Jersey, Michigan, and California.
Flock joins the ranks of other fast-moving AI companies that have resorted to low-paid international labor to bring their product to market. Amazon’s cashier-free “just walk out” stores, for example, were really just gig workers watching American shoppers from India. The AI startup Engineer.ai, which purported to make developing code for apps “as easy as ordering a pizza,” was found out to be selling passing human-written code as AI generated.
The difference with those examples is that those services were voluntary — powered by the exploitation of workers in the global south, yes, but with a choice to opt out on the front-end. That isn’t the case with Flock, as you don’t have to consent to end up in the panopticon. In other words, for a growing number of Americans, a for-profit company is deciding who gets watched, and who does the watching — a system built on exploitation at either end.
AI Surveillance Startup Caught Using Sweatshop Workers to Monitor US Residents
The powerful surveillance startup Flock was caught using workers in the Philippines to collate data on US residents.Joe Wilkins (Futurism)
like this
reshared this
I mean, there is actual "AI" tech that exists, and isn't just people working in sweatshops, like this:
deeplabcut.github.io/DeepLabCu…
It's just kind of difficult to get consistency between trials, and reliability seems to boil down to completely eliminating variability. So kind of useless outside of a lab setting (as is).
I tend to feel like it's more trouble than it's worth and too unreliable (as is) to usually bother with it, but I know people who are just fellow lab rats (not broligarchs) and are super devoted to getting AI to work for their projects. Like most sectors in this country, even science is being forced to embrace AI. Regardless of if it actually makes sense for your line of work or not, the expectation is get it working or face the chopping block, and there are definitely people who are trying their hardest to really get this shit off the ground (because the alternative is be prepared to be out of a job for being obsolete).
This is also why it's kind of surprising to learn that even "AI" that's simply comparing license plates from one camera to the next, is actually just due to human slave labor.
So, do any of the broligarchs receiving these huge contracts actually believe that eventually they'll get AI to work once enough data and money is dumped into it and the little people at the bottom figure out all the kinks for them?
Or is it just that everybody at the top acknowledges this is a dead end, but once you're in the secret club at the top of the food chain, and you're making ridiculous amounts of money, your incentive is just to keep your mouth shut, keep making money, and fuck the consequences because once society collapses you'll get to be kings of your own little monarchs anyway?
If it is the second, and nobody at the top really believes AI is going anywhere, then what are all the giant, energy sucking data centers that are being built across the country actually for?
Still have to think to coordinates actions but the coding is mostly done by IA.
But if the broligarchs don't actually expect to ever get any of this "AI" shit actually working, then what is the end game?
Obviously the majority of people are only in it to make quick money, but what about the psychos at the very top who are directing policy and building these giant nuclear powered "AI" data centers?
If Thiel/Musk/Zuckerberg don't actually have the expectation that "AI" will eventually work itself out, then it won't matter how money the rich (but not broligarch rich) Wall Street bros and bankers dumped into the "AI" boom.
It won't be like the .com boom and the Internet, because it doesn't actually exist. If the economy completely collapses, and dollar becomes worthless currency, the "money" the average rich asshole hoards away after investing in the 2025 "AI" boom, will have about as much value as monopoly money.
Meanwhile the fucking Bond villain billionaires like Thiel (who have been dreaming of this exact scenario for over 20 years) hold all resources (including a recently purchased uranium mine).
So, "hypothetically," if that was Thiel's endgame, and the "AI" jig is up, then they no longer have to pretend they're trying to develop artificial intelligence or AGI. But they do already hold control of most resources, have mass surveillance capabilities, and each broligarch owns one or more of these giant supercomputers/data centers that have been built in cities all over the ~~U.S.~~ world and soon in outer space.
In this totally fictional scenario, once the dollar collapses (likely followed by all of society collapsing along with it), what do the broligarchs actually use their giant nuclear powered "AI" data centers for?
AI or no AI, they're currently being built all over the country, so what is their actual purpose?
Had an issue with an update and had no networl access after reboot. How many kernals can be available in grub?
Still pretty new to Linux, I'm on Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS and had some issues with updates through the updater with errors and so I did sudo apt update/upgrade instead. Something went wrong and had errors, and after a reboot I had no internet access, Ethernet or WiFi, and no options to connect to anything. Running sudo lshw -c network showed unclaimed networks.
In case anyone has a similar issue, I fixed it by:
1. Reboot, spam shift to get into grub
2. Advanced options
3. Recovery mode for the lower number kernel
4. Enable networking
5. Fix broken packages
My question is about number 3. There were 4 kernel options, 2 normal with a recovery for each (I can't remember the specifics but one had 37 and the other 36). I selected recovery 36 as it was the older kernel. Is that amount of options (2 for each kernel) normal or can I create more? Like 37, 36, 35, 34, etc.
I was in panic mode since this PC is for work, and thought it might be nice to have more older kernel options if possible. I've also learned my lesson and am currently running Timeshift.
It's been a long time since I used Ubuntu, but at the time I did I recall running into issues keeping too many old kernels. They were stored in a fixed space folder (or maybe partition?) that was like 100MB and sometimes wouldn't clear out automatically, so I remember this. May not be relevant now, but if it is, space in the storage folder is the limiting factor so you would need to change that. If it IS a partition, then you would need to deal with all that is involved with that.
edited to add that my current OS only stores three or four as well. I have never really dived into it.
The Quest for Reasonably Secure Operating Systems
The Quest for Reasonably Secure Operating Systems
I never worried on Windows about security as much as I should have, it just so happens I've been lucky to have never been hit with ransomware. By the time...yazomie > tech
like this
Another step up is the confidential computing project. Requires hardware that supports it though, which sucks, but takes the virtual hardware concept and adds multi key memory encryption on top.
Remember though security without a threat model is just paranoia, so what level of hoops and investment you need really depends on what your threats actually look like.
I personally love containers and Macsec. It limits most of my concerns. I want to mess with confidential containers next, which is to say lightweight VMs in containers with memory encryption set, but thats all future to me. The irony is that I then I have to figure out attestation better for those machines since from the host they are black boxes.
iOS 26 doesn't offer privacy settings at all for "Home" app
It appears that even if you don't have the app installed, it is in Settings > Apps. But there's no option at all, to customise its privacy settings.
Downloading the app also doesn't let you customise its privacy settings. In fact, the app then disappears altogether from the privacy settings! It doesn't even appear anymore in the "Hidden Apps". Removing it again however, shows the app popping up again in the settings.
What's more, it's deliberately erroneously labelled as "Start Screen" when you don't have downloaded it.
Ridiculous. One more reason to go to a Fairphone or something like it.
However, you can edit it... but very cumbersomely, only by going to Settings > Siri > App Access ... and then suddenly, you see the app!
This seems like it's straight up illegal.
If by “privacy settings” you mean controlling what system permissions the Home app has, you’re out of luck. It’s a semi-default app and may be more deeply embedded into iOS than is apparent.
If you’re trying to control what other apps have access to HomeKit data, you can find that in Privacy & Security.
Man Charged for Wiping Phone Before CBP Could Search It
adhocfungus likes this.
don't like this
key trick is that it uses edge detection to make a smooth pixel art image
here's an example without edge detection
and here's with it enabled
edit: I spent way too much time on this, but figured out how to make the edge detection method produce sharp images
[2024-10-27] OpenZFS new deduplication mechanism and why you still may not want to use it
OpenZFS deduplication is good now and you shouldn't use it
OpenZFS 2.3.0 will be released any day now, and it includes the new “Fast Dedup” feature. My team at Klara spent many months in 2023 and 2024 working on it, and we reckon it’s pretty good, a huge step up from the old dedup as well as being a solid ba…despair labs
Linux kernel version numbers (Greg Kroah-Hartman's blog)
Linux kernel version numbers
Despite having a stable release model and cadence since December 2003, Linux kernel version numbers seem to baffle and confuse those that run across them, causing numerous groups to mistakenly make versioning statements that are flat out false.Greg K-H (http://www.kroah.com/log/)
The blog post is confusing, but the image is very clear.
5.2.0 was released.
Then 5.2.1, 5.2.2, 5.2.3, 5.2.4, 5.2.5, and 5.2.6 were released as stable updates. Pretty straightforward.
After 5.2.0 came out, normal development continued toward the upcoming 5.3.0 in Linus’s mainline tree. As bugfixes for real problems (crashes, data corruption, build breaks, security issues, etc.) were written and merged into mainline, a subset of those fixes was then backported to the 5.2.y stable branch and released as 5.2.1, 5.2.2, and so on.
In other words, there is a separate 5.2.y branch, but most of its changes are not developed there first. They are developed in mainline (the code that will eventually become 5.3.0 and beyond) and then cherry-picked back into 5.2.y as “stable” bugfixes. There is no “merge 5.2.x back into 5.3.0”; instead, stable only takes fixes that are already in mainline.
This means that any fix you see in a 5.2.y release should already be present in the mainline code that leads to 5.3.0 (or replaced by an equivalent fix there). So when you move from 5.2.6 to 5.3.0, you should not lose any of the bugfixes you were getting from the 5.2.y stable series.
If semantic versioning is:
MAJOR version when you make incompatible API changes
MINOR version when you add functionality in a backward compatible manner
PATCH version when you make backward compatible bug fixes
then I think that would be on like 3.77.0 or something right now. Not terrible, but honestly prefer it to be like the major upped in the new year every year. It is about 43 years old,so 43.x in 2026. Would be easier to know how old a kernel release is without looking it up.
Would be easier to know how old a kernel release is without looking it up.
I concur, but it would be much easier to make the major version the current year (as many projects do, and Linux should imo) rather than the whole project's age at the time of a release.
Linux is only 34 years old, btw.
(Mexico) Continuing Neoliberal Policies Over Farmers’ Demands
cross-posted from: hexbear.net/post/6980341
cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1231…
This article by Arturo Huerta González originally appeared in the December 2, 2025 edition of La Jornada de Oriente*, the Puebla edition of Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of* Mexico Solidarity Media*, or the Mexico Solidarity Project.*On November 26, 2025, the country’s President stated that “there is no money to pay what the farmers are demanding ” and that “you can’t promise what you can’t deliver.” The government has indicated that “the producers’ request to set a price far above the current market value for all national corn exceeds the government ‘s financial capacity ” and that the farmers ‘ demands “must be adjusted to budgetary availability, as public finances have limits.”
This rhetoric is the same as that of the neoliberal presidents who have governed us since the 1980s. By limiting public spending relative to revenue, the government seeks to curry favor with international rating agencies , the International Monetary Fund, and the national and international financial sector. This has led to a reduction in the size and participation of the government in the economy and a neglect of growth objectives for the productive sector, such as job creation, which the population demands. It is a crime to cut public spending in a context where the economy is not growing and the demands of large segments of the population are not being met.
It should be noted that a sovereign government has no financial limits. Financial resources are available. It’s simply a matter of amending the Organic Law of the Bank of Mexico so that it can purchase government debt directly at a low interest rate. This would allow the government to expand its spending and investment to meet the demands of farmers, promote the substitution of agricultural and manufactured imports, and generate employment. This would not be inflationary, as it would increase production, reduce the foreign trade deficit, and generate revenue to cover debt payments. The government could also reduce funding for failed projects such as the Maya Train, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec train , and the Dos Bocas refinery, and allocate those funds to support basic grain producers, a strategic sector essential for ensuring food self-sufficiency in these areas.
Upon learning of the demands from Mexican farmers, US congressmen sent a letter to the US chargé d’affaires stating that he must defend US agricultural exports to Mexico, as it is their primary market. If the Mexican government agrees to continue importing these products, it will continue to favor US producers at the expense of domestic producers, further jeopardizing self-sufficiency and increasing Mexican dependence on foreign imports.
The government says that the requested guaranteed price of 7,200 pesos per ton for corn is far above the market price and that absorbing the difference is very costly for the government. The problem is that the national price should not be set based on the open market, determined by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, as this has led to cheap imports displacing domestic production and jeopardizing food self-sufficiency in basic grains. This not only affects agricultural producers but also increases the foreign trade deficit and makes the economy more dependent on capital inflows, which requires setting high interest rates to stimulate them. This, in turn, increases the cost of servicing debt for the government, businesses, and households, and restricts investment, spending, and economic activity.
Farmers are not mobilizing to defend any privileges, as the government claims ; they are demanding the implementation of policies to boost Mexican agriculture and advance food self-sufficiency. Therefore, they are demanding an end to importing basic grains, the provision of affordable credit, and the establishment of fair prices for these products.
The government refuses to do so for fear of inflation and devaluation, which would affect the financial sector, which requires low inflation and currency stability to safeguard its capital. Since the economy lacks the conditions to lower inflation, given low productivity and production lags, it has resorted to stimulating capital inflows to lower the dollar’s value and thus imports in order to reduce inflation. All of this benefits the financial sector and producers from the US and other countries who flood the domestic market with their products at the expense of displacing national producers and without implementing policies that promote economic growth.
The government must work for the benefit of the country, not against it. Domestic production and employment must be incentivized , even if this seems more expensive in the short term, because it would boost economic growth and employment, reduce the foreign trade deficit, and provide workers with income to cope with higher prices. This would prevent the current practice of lowering inflation to benefit the financial sector and US producers of imported goods, which has led to a decline in our industry and production of basic grains. This, in turn, has stifled economic growth, increased unemployment and underemployment, and lowered the population’s standard of living.
The government opposes the farmers’ request to remove staple grains from the USMCA trade agreement because it fears the US will impose further restrictions on Mexican exports to that country. Upon learning of the demands from Mexican farmers, US congressmen sent a letter to the US chargé d’affaires stating that he must defend US agricultural exports to Mexico, as it is their primary market. If the Mexican government agrees to continue importing these products, it will continue to favor US producers at the expense of domestic producers, further jeopardizing self-sufficiency and increasing Mexican dependence on foreign imports.
The President said that “we must be very responsible about what can and cannot be done,” and in this regard, it must be said that economic policy must be responsible in order to satisfy the demands not only of agricultural producers, but also of those who clamor for well-paying jobs, just enough to address the growing poverty and crime plaguing the country. To achieve this, the government must abandon budget cuts and ensure that the central bank serves the growth of the productive sector and employment. Furthermore, trade liberalization must be reviewed, and protectionist policies implemented to favor domestic production. If the government does not increase investment and spending to boost private investment, production, and employment, and if the central bank does not lower interest rates, the economy is headed for a crisis.
Without growth in production and employment, there is no growth. Neoliberal policies must be abandoned . If the government fails to meet the needs of the population and continues to act in favor of the interests of the US and the financial sector, economic and social problems and discontent among affected sectors will worsen, leading to increased protests.
The post Continuing Neoliberal Policies Over Farmers’ Demands appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.
El gobierno privilegia mantener las políticas neoliberales, en vez satisfacer las demandas - Alternativa Económica
El gobierno ha señalado que “la petición de los productores de fijar un precio muy superior al valor actual de mercado para todo el maíz nacional rebasa la capacidad financiera del gobiernoArturo Huerta González (La Jornada de Oriente)
@Salamence@lemmy.zip please add the required [Opinion] prefix in the title.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Mexico Solidarity Media, or the Mexico Solidarity Project.
Is Europe ready to pull the trigger? Officials whisper about dumping US treasuries if Trump cuts Ukraine deal
Is Europe ready to pull the trigger? Officials whisper about dumping US treasuries if Trump cuts Ukraine d
European governments US Treasuries: European governments are considering a radical economic strategy by possibly selling off US Treasury bonds to counter a feared Trump-Putin agreement that could jeopardize Ukraine's security.Shreya Biswas (Economic Times)
i was going to say something like this.
it's like eisenhower's threat to eden but in reverse and just as empty; they'll never threaten profits or capital and they've also made themselves even more depended on the us.
Florida governor designates Muslim rights group as terrorist organization
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order designating one of the country’s most prominent Muslim civil rights groups, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, as a “foreign terrorist organization,” becoming the second high-profile Republican governor to do so in recent weeks.
CAIR's Florida chapter announced a lawsuit challenging the order at a Tuesday press conference in Tampa, where Hiba Rahim, the chapter's interim executive director, called the order "defamatory and unconstitutional."
The U.S. government has not designated CAIR or the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations, but President Donald Trump last month began the process of doing so for certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters, such as those in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan.
The Florida order instructs agencies to take action to prevent CAIR from receiving any state contracts, employment or funding.
CAIR was founded in 1994 and has chapters in nearly two dozen U.S. states.
Army begins to reshape its acquisition enterprise along portfolio lines
“We will leverage taxpayer dollars in a more accountable, flexible and deliberate manner to maximize their value across capability portfolios,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during an address at the National War College. “We will shift funding within portfolios’ authorized boundaries swiftly and decisively to maximize mission outcomes. If one program is faltering, funding will be shifted within the portfolio to accelerate or scale a higher priority. If a new or more promising technology emerges, we will seize the opportunity and not be held back by artificial constraints and funding boundaries that take months or even years to overcome.”
In that address, Hegseth credited the military services with laying the groundwork for some of the reforms he wants to make department-wide. And the Army started its implementation work last month, naming six new “portfolio acquisition executives.” Each of those PAEs will oversee different “capability areas” with programs managed by what had, up until now, been called program executive offices (PEOs), and will now be called capability program executives (CPEs).
Army begins to reshape its acquisition enterprise along portfolio lines
Former program executive offices are starting to realign their organizations under the new "capability portfolio executive" construct.Jared Serbu (Federal News Network)
grandel
in reply to jankforlife • • •Jentu
in reply to grandel • • •grandel
in reply to Jentu • • •eldavi
in reply to grandel • • •