Finding an Apartment
I am re-writing this guide that I previously did in the summer of 2018 as I have recently moved again in China, making it the 6th time in total! Twice in Guangzhou, thrice in Shenzhen, and once in Shanghai. This guide will mostly be focused on Shenzhen and Guangzhou, as those are my experiences. Should you be looking at moving to a different Chinese city, a lot of the information here will still be relevant, though take it with a pinch of salt. It might be worth checking www.travelchinaguide.com for more information about your city in particular.
I think my method for finding an apartment works pretty well so I would like to impart what information I can to make your move a little easier. Please leave a comment with any other tips, criticisms, your own experiences, or if there's anything else you'd like to hear about. I'm currently recording a video on how to catch buses in China too :)
Firstly, Research
Decide where you want to live. For me, this means looking at the metro map, pin-pointing the locations I visit most often, where is most convenient (a junction between two lines is always good), where the price won’t be ridiculously high (not in the city centre, go near to the city centre), and on the same side of the city as the airport. Ideally you want to be near one of the connecting stations on the metro so you have access to two lines. On the map below of Shenzhen metro, I would start by looking at the areas in green, whilst avoiding the CBD in red.
https://imgur.com/kWf2l7b
Usually the end of a metro line will still be less developed, meaning it will be cheaper. Another reason to avoid the city centre is the metro stations will be too busy in the morning, and it will take you half an hour just to enter the station, let alone forcing your way onto a sardine train. You’ll also find that naturally, prices will be higher, both for rent, and local amenities. I find the expense is simply not worth it.
Having said that, I have met many expats who prefer to live in the CBD area as the environment is a lot more modern, English language speakers are more common, and choices of Western foods and supermarkets will be aplenty. Personally that’s not for me, but if it is your cup of tea, you can double any example prices I put in the rest of this guide.
Normally, the selection of apartments in the CBD will be of a higher quality, though there will always be development projects going on everywhere in the city, and some of the apartments I have lived in look quite dated on the outside, but are newly decorated and renovated on the inside.
Once you have decided upon your location, visit and spend half a day or a day there finding out which garden (/apartment complex) you like. For me that means which blocks look fairly modern, are within a 5 minute walk of the metro station (think about what the weather will be like in the summer, and rainy season), has a Western restaurant nearby (or McDonalds, KFC), where the banks are, a swimming pool, a phone shop, and a large supermarket. Typically, every garden will have these amenities, but not always. I have lived in a solitary apartment before, literally nothing around it except construction sites, perhaps in 5 years it will be great, but not now -> always research the area!
https://imgur.com/0tQgOeR
This was where I lived in Guangzhou for 2 years, Chigang, note there’s a few food choices nearby, banks, metro across the road, the local bus cost 2RMB to get to downtown, literally 2 stops away across the bridge. Also there is a large hospital, just in case.
https://imgur.com/Rm1SXaQ
On a larger map of the area, the green square is Chigang, red is downtown CBD, purple is the international expo centre, and yellow is where most factory sourcing can be done. For 3,000RMB a month I was living in the perfect mid-way point of all the main places I needed, whilst also living on the wrong side of the river to the CBD, and thus not paying exuberant prices.
https://imgur.com/sBsCaTZ
Talking of exuberant prices, when I first arrived in Guangzhou, I lived in Liede, the green box on the right, fairly new apartments, right next door to the CBD, had a Lamborghini and Ferrari dealership around the corner, pricey neighbourhood (the above photo was taken from Chigang looking towards the CBD).
On the left side of the picture, next to Guangzhou Tower, the higher ones are closer to the tower, and newer, and thus more expensive. The lower set you can clearly see are older buildings, and thus, cheaper.
https://imgur.com/G3yLjMB
Similarly, for Shenzhen I am based in the green box, the 2 business districts are in red, airport in blue at the top left, factory area in yellow, and border checkpoint for Hong Kong in orange. Again, ideally situated between all of these areas, so they are all as convenient / inconvenient as each other. Being 30 minutes’ metro ride from the CBDs helps with rental costs too, of course. Also a stone’s throw away from 3 universities, so there’s lots of cheap food and bars dotted around.
Taking a look
Once you have seen a couple of gardens which tick your boxes, visit the estate agents posted around the ground floor. Much like in the UK they will have a selection of pictures in the window of houses for sale. You want to go in and say
我要租房 [wo yao zu fang] “I want to rent an apartment.”
and someone will talk you through what they have in stock. Important point, 房 [fang] does not always mean number of bedrooms, it can mean number of rooms. A 1 bedroom apartment might be advertised as 2房, if you want 2 bedrooms you need 3房. It will help if you can be more specific:
我要一房一厅 [wo yao yifang yiting] “I want one bedroom, one living room.”
我要两房三厅 [wo yao liangfang santing] “I want two bedrooms, three living rooms.”
Alternatively, you can use the character 室[shi] instead of 房 [fang].
Next, make sure if comes with furniture, unless you really want to buy everything yourself, including air conditioning and a fridge.
已经有家具吗 [yijing you jiaju ma?] “Has it already got furniture?”
I’ve seen some that were semi-converted offices, no air conditioning, nor bed, though the boardroom table would have been good for indoor ping-pong.
有西方的马桶吗？[you xifang de matong ma?] Does it have a Western toilet?
Normally the estate agent will be able to take you round to visit a few there and then, so if you plan to go flat-hunting make sure you haven’t any other appointments that afternoon. Usually the first two he shows you will be his best, so if they are not up to scratch then forget this estate agent and find a different one. I’ve heard that, unlike in the UK where if you are a landlord and you want to rent your place out, you use one estate agent to manage that, in China you can use as many estate agents as you want, so often they will have the same properties as each other on display. Having said that, two estate agents next door to each there will have unique properties, so it can be worth going between different ones if the first doesn’t have what you want, though I’ve only used a second estate agent once.
Tip: take a look online [www.zufang.cn or 58.com/zufang/ etc.] at apartments in the area you like, and you can have a look at the sort of apartments your budget will allow, however I wouldn’t commit to an apartment over the internet, better to visit the estate agent in person and have him take you to the apartment. Online listings are... I don’t want to say fake, because it seems unintentional, but they will pretty much always say “oh, someone just moved into that one, but I have another I can show you instead…” But if you are sat at home looking at a map of the city and wondering where you might want to live, zufang.com can give you an idea on types of apartments; done-up or down-trodden and also estimates of prices.
https://imgur.com/VJB8TUs
Regarding prices, the estate agent normally charges 10 to 50% of a month’s rent from you, and from the landlord. When you wish to reserve the apartment, they will normally ask you to put down a reservation fee, which will be deducted from the charge once the deal is done. Deposit is usually two months rent, but I'v had 1 too, and you will need to pay the 1st month of living too, so it can be quite an expensive day when you move in. A 4,000RMB apartment may cost you 14,000RMB on month one.
Apartments in China come in various shapes and sizes, and various costs too. I’ve individually rented my own two bedroom place in city centre, but in a 40 year old building (with only 2 electric sockets in the whole place!) for 3,000RMB a month. I’ve also rented a city centre place in a modern building, 3 bedrooms that were rented to others, for 2,000RMB a month each. My last place was a large 1 bedroom 1 living room in a converted hotel, in a convenient location outside of city centre for 4,200RMB a month. As you can see, prices are fairly similar to what you’d pay in the UK. Gas and electric will come to about 300RMB a month, then management fee is based on sqm, probably about 200RMB a month. There may also be a garbage collection fee for around 20RMB, and my current place requires us all to chip in for the lift and corridor lights, 13RMB.
In my first apartment I let my friend handle the utilities, since he had been in China much longer than I. In my second place the land lady sent over a picture of the bill via We Chat, and I would transfer over to her on We Chat. In another place the land lady didn’t want me on the We Chat utilities account, so she gave me a little red ICBC book (reminded me of the old Post Office savings account) which I had to take to the bank every month to “top-up”. With that one I set-up Wi-Fi myself with China Mobile and paid it in line with my phone bill (done over We Chat). In my current place, all bills including internet are added onto my monthly rent bill, as you can see, utility payment comes in different styles too, but all are pretty straight-forward, and cheap.
You`ll usually get a washing machine, but no tumble dryer. Bathroom will probably be a wet room, i.e without a partition dividing the shower (^{convenient if you want to poop, shower, shave, and brush your teeth at the same time?}). Living room and bedrooms will have A/C, I advise you buy a fan for night time as the A/C will dry your lungs out. Kitchens will have hobs (/stove) but no oven, might have a microwave. Set-up Taobao and get a microwave for around 200RMB. Unless it’s a brand new apartment, it probably won’t have been cleaned very thoroughly, and I’m afraid it’s on you to clean it, or pay someone to clean it (ask your estate agent or the security guys downstairs). It’s worth talking to the previous tenant if possible to find out what’s wrong with the apartment, what doesn’t work, are the neighbours annoying, does it get wet when it rains etc. The security guys downstairs will also be able to sort out a cockroach pest control guy too, incase you have a nest lurking around.
Obviously as you would in the UK, take your phone and phone charger with you around the apartment checking the electric sockets. Turn on the washing machine and hob. Is the fridge freezer cold? Do all the lights work? Same as you would in the UK. If the air conditioning is a very old unit (as in my last place), demand that if you are going to sign a 1 year contract then they have to replace it with a newer unit. They said they would send somebody round to check how it works, I refused that offer by asking if they will be sending a Guangdong person who is used to the local climate or a British person who is in the same boat as myself, obviously a local person is used to the local humidity and would say its fine. Haggle as many repairs as you can out of the place. Helps if you can speak Chinese… For sticking stuff to walls, or hammering nails in, best to check with your landlord first. In terms of buying furniture, they normally won’t mind if you leave it behind after (except mirrors), or take it with you. When you leave you can put adverts up on 2nd hand websites, if you can be bothered with the trouble (I haven’t yet).
Moving in
You will be given an itinerary of all the current furniture (in Chinese), tick what is there, and write any comments on if its broken or not. I got the estate agent to fill it in and write what I wanted writing. Remember, you’re paying him. It is also worth asking for a pest control guy, there’s probably a cockroach nest somewhere that’s worth clearing up, and they’re not expensive.
Personally, I prefer the slightly older apartments than the newer ones. The converted hotel was great, apart from the lack of sunlight in the living room. But it was very spacious, and I liked the feeling of it being a little worn in, rather than brand spanking new.
https://imgur.com/d1K1WjH
Chinese sockets typically look like this, you can find adaptors fairly easily on the ground here, even for UK plugs. Just take your phone charger to some electrical hardware stores (malls or big outlets are usually best) and get some adapters. Typically, about 20RMB each. Easy enough. The top side 2-pin socket can be tough to ram your plugs into, I find there's no need to be delicate, just force the plug in.
Remember that once the deal is done and you are in the apartment, the estate agent no longer has anything to do with it, so don’t bother asking him for help. It’ll all be between you and the landlord, who will probably now have your We Chat. You can normally transfer your rent by We Chat, go to your bank and transfer at the desk, or you could sign in online, very straightforward.
You will likely not be interacting with the security guys downstairs very often. They can be helpful if you need to borrow a ladder, order pest control, or call someone in to clean your place. One of my current guys I guess is related to a farmer because he is usually flogging cheap fruit and veg off downstairs.
Wi-Fi will likely not be included in your apartment, you’ll need to go down to China Mobile yourself, take your passport, and get them to do that. In the phone shop you’ll give them your address, and someone will come along to your home, probably that afternoon or the next day, and get your router etc. installed. Ready to use within half an hour.
Lastly, once you have finished moving in, head down to the local police station (派出所) to get your residency permit. You will need your passport, with a copy of your ID page and the visa page, passport photo, and a copy of your housing contract. Do not delay on this or you can get a nasty fine (I think about 2,000 RMB, but I’ve never had it so not sure, #goodcitizen). Sometimes you will need to go through several different police station until you find the one that deals with residency permits, strong chance your landlord won’t know which one.
https://imgur.com/X0PkIyu
Quick look on Google and my local police station isn’t even on the map, though on Gaode Maps it is. Worth noting that Google Maps is very unreliable in China, seems it has not been updated in a long time.
https://imgur.com/HzkXXBc

It's been (just over) 9 months! Here's what I've learned/what's worked for us - minimalist/eco-friendly edition

Hi there soon-to-be moms and dads of Babybumps!
I see a lot of recommendation posts, and thought it might be a good idea to add my own perspective, as it is a little different - and could be of interest to some people out there. My baby is a little over 9 months now!
This got super long - so skip to the bold type if there is anything of particular interest to you!
Quick back story. I was lucky enough to have a very easy pregnancy, truthfully I was very grateful for my experience. Baby was born at 41w2d, planned water home birth with 2 midwives, a doula and my husband (I haven't done a birth story, but would do one if there was enough interest). Please note, I'm in BC Canada. Midwifery care and home births are supported by the government and hospital system here. We did not find out the sex, and we ended up having a boy, who was much larger than we had expected. He was just shy of 9lb, and was 56cm at birth. At 9 months old, he is already wearing 18m + clothes.
My husband and I are both expats, having emigrated to Canada a little over 5 years ago. We have no close family around, and not a lot of friends with babies or kids of their own. We live in a very progressive, environmentally aware/conscious/active community and until I joined Reddit, I didn't know that the world in general would refer to us as "crunchy/granola". This might shed some light on some of our parenting choices.
We also live in a small 1.5 bedroom apartment/suite. A nursery was not an option for us at all, so what we ended up doing was having a friend build a custom 'nook' in the wardrobe in our bedroom. This added some shelving, some space for the crib and bassinet, and some hanging space.
Space is very limited for us, so we just don't have a lot of room for extra 'stuff', and clothes etc. In addition, money is also VERY tight for us. Due to the emigration process, long story short - I'm not eligible for any maternity leave pay, and so we are living on only my husbands wage. I would say we are on the lower end of 'middle class'.
I'm also really grateful to have a very supportive and hands on partner. We talked at length before having the baby, about things that were important to us, some of our preferred parenting choices and he understood that he would need to be very involved in taking care of the baby as well - especially because we have no family anywhere nearby.
Ok so here are my thoughts/recommendations/experiences:
Pre-cooked food

I spent the last 3-4 weeks of the pregnancy cooking a bunch of food and having it ready in the freezer. I had no idea what to expect with recovery post partum, and didn't want to be stressing about what to cook every day. This food was soooooo handy for us, personally. 10/10 would do again.
Some of the things we did were (baby was born early October): chili, soups, curries, canneloni, lactation cookie dough (no idea if this worked, but the cookies sure were delicious!), cut up fruits for smoothies, breakfast burritos.

Doula
This is one of a handful of 'things' we splurged on. Not having my mom or sister around, I felt like I could do with the extra support from someone who has been through it all before. We interviewed a handful of doula's and the one we chose was amazing. She is incredibly well known and respected in our community, is undertaking her midwifery studies, has attended more than 350 births, runs prenatal classes (which I loved), and she is our local La Leche League leader. She was with us for some prenatal visits, throughout the entire labor and birth, and also for 6 weeks of post partum care. That alone was worth so much to us.
Baby geaitems

So the 'big' things we got were the infant car seat, stroller with bassinet attachment (we decided against a travel system that clicked the carseat into the stroller), crib, bassinet & stand, change table & pad, baby bjorn bouncer (we affectionately referred to this as the "seat of neglect"), and highchair.
All of these items except for the carseat, crib mattress and bassinet mattress we purchased second hand.
As I said, we don't have a lot of space for extra things, so we didn't bother with items like a rocking chaiglider, swings, pack'n'play etc.
We also wanted to keep plastic 'things' to a minimum, or if we did get them, they would be second hand.

Baby clothes

Except for a few gifted items, we got almost everything second hand clothing-wise for the baby. That is even considering that we did not find out the sex. We mainly kept to neutral-ish things, and then because we live somewhere with obvious seasons, we have just purchased 2nd hand clothes lots from local buy and sells, baby consignment stores etc as needed and as appropriate for the season.
For the first 6 months or so, he was basically in various types of onesies. As he was born in the fall, and we live in an area where it snows (a lot) during winter, onesies were great for layering and also just made it easy for changes etc.
Our onesies were really a mix of brands, and I learned quickly not to pay too much attention to their sizes. At one point he was wearing clothes with tags that ranged from 3-6m right to 18m.
We didn't have a lot of clothes to begin with, so once we better understood his size and what worked well for us, we just hunted down more of the same for that brand.
We ended up with a lot of Carters and a lot of Bonds and mostly zips and snaps. We didn't feel particularly strongly towards zips or snaps, so long as it fit and was in good condition we made it work.

Post partum recovery

My recovery was very easy. I needed to go to the hospital immediately after birth however, because I had a 2nd degree tear that the midwife said the OB on shift at the hospital that day was very good at repairing. I tore 'upwards', and she just wanted to make sure it was done perfectly. The OB explained the midwife could have easily done it, but he has a particularly good reputation for post partum stitching. The baby was also listed as large for gestational age (LGA), so they wanted to keep an eye on him overnight. Ultimately there was no need to worry, because his APGARs and his bloodwork was perfect. They just wanted to be sure.
I was back at home on the afternoon of the next day and I was lucky enough to not have any issues with the dreaded first poop, and no real issues with peeing. I just made sure to squirt with warm water each time. By about 10 days or so, I didn't really feel any major pain.
For the bleeding, I used re-useable/washable cloth pads which were perfect. They were very comfortable and soft. I think from memory, my bleeding stopped at around 3 weeks pp.

Breastfeeding

At my 32 week appointment, the midwife asked us if we had any feeding preferences or questions. We told her that we'd give breastfeeding a shot and if that didn't work, we'd go to formula. At the 34 week appointment, we spent the hour talking about breastfeeding, the struggles and difficulties, breast anatomy, how it looks in the early days and weeks, what to expect etc. I feel like this really prepared us well. She talked about so much, including supplementing if baby is not gaining weight/preterm/post partum complicatins etc etc.
I strongly suggest you talk about feeding options with your care provider, if you're not sure what might work for you and your situation. I feel like a lot of women just have no idea what to expect with breastfeeding, so during those frequent night wakings, and those days of clusterfeeding, it can be overwhelming enough when you know to expect it, and that it's totally normal.
If you're not so prepared, it could be too much, very easily. You can see some of my comment history about breastfeeding and tips/what has worked for me.
Also, check out breastfeeding for support.
There is so much to say about feeding your baby whilst also taking care of yourself. Do your research, consider your own circumstances, and seek out all kinds of experiences as much as possible.
I recommend spending more time reading about breastfeeding and discussing this with your care provider, than the birth itself. There is little you can do to control your birth/labour and it is over relatively quickly. The feeding experience and journey (wherever you end up, if you exclusively breastfeed, combo feed or exclusively formula feed) goes on for months/years.

Partner support

My husband has been very much a hands on parent from day one. I didn't change a single diaper for I think about 3 weeks. Also during the night wakings and feedings with the baby, he would wake up with me, and tell me little jokes in the dark. I actually think back fondly to those nights.
In addition to this, he did a lot of the baby bathing, dressing baby, and lots of outings with him alone throughout the day. Our baby has never taken a bottle (which has resulted in many tears for all three of us), so the idea that he could only bond with him by feeding him a bottle really upset my husband, because he just couldn't do it.
Dads out there - there are sooooooooo many other things you can do with the baby, and do for your partner that still offer a lot of support and a 'break' for mom that don't involve bottle feeding (if your baby refuses to take one).

Friend/mental health support

The truth of my situation, is that our friendship group is COMPLETELY different post partum. Well, in fact it started happening even whilst I was pregnant. We live in a very active community. I'm used to rock climbing, hiking, remote back packing, downhill mountain biking in the summer; snowboarding, backcountry snowboarding and ice climbing in the winter. Considering all this, my life has completely changed and so has my identity (for now).
What has helped me tremendously is to continue seeing my therapist, and also leaning on my new mom community. I've mostly avoided post partum depression, with only some bouts of anxiety/mild panic attacks. Keeping accountable to my partnefriends/therapist and ultimately myself has really helped me.

Diapers

We talked this over a lot. A LOT. With each other, other friends, family, the midwife, the doula...Ultimately what we decided on was cloth. At my surprise baby shower, we were given one small pack of newborn disposables, which the guests had written funny/motivational quotes on. Out of the pack of 30, we only used 18 in total. My husband kinda took control of the cloth diaper project and after much research and discussion, he decided on getting some new prefolds and covers for the initial newborn stage (these lasted us for about 8-9 weeks I think?) and then pass them onto my cousin who was due for her 2nd baby in the following March. We then got a set of 18 second hand pocket diapers with various inserts. Both of these options worked wonders for us.
The laundry was never an overwhelming issue, we still to this day have never had a blowout and it has worked out so cheap for us all in all. 10/10 would recommend, and would definitely do again.
Check out clothdiaps for more support and info on how it all works.
I even used cloth when I went solo with the baby for an international 1 month visit to Australia. So cloth on the plane, there and back. I considered disposables, but I had no concept on which ones would fit him at the time (he has always been ~95th percentiles for weight and height), and worried about blow outs and leakage that all my friends talked about. Ultimately it was far easier for me to stick with what I knew, and take the 18 pocket diapers and inserts with me to Australia, and wash them there.
We have also never had a diaper rash, so we've never had to use diaper cream or anything for him.

Cloth wipes
We were given a lot of second hand receiving blankets, so I decided to turn a lot of these into cloth wipes. I made about 50 double sided 3x3in wipes by just roughly serging them together. 9 months in and they're still holding up, and they've been one of my favourite things!
Elimination Communication

So this one might be considered a bit 'much' for some, but has worked so well for us. Casually since birth, we have used elimination communication. We now get most pees during the day (particularly if we're at home), and he has not pooped in a diaper since he was 5 months old. In fact, some nights now he can go from bedtime to morning and wake up in a dry diaper. There have been times where he has not soiled a single diaper for around 36 hours or so. I have not changed/cleaned a poopy diaper and butt in months.
Of course this is easier for us because I'm a stay at home parent, but even done casually, it's actually really easy to do. Now at 9 months, my son LOVES his potty.
Head to ECers for more about how it works.
Ultimately, I would love if he was able to potty train with as few tears as possible (or none?! *crosses fingers*), but I don't think there are any studies out there that show a correlation between EC and earlieeasier potty training. However, him being comfortable using a potty might help to take away any possible fear of what it is, or how to use it later on. We'll see how that goes over the next 12+ months!!

Sleeping

This one will possibly be contentious, but we've essentially bed shared with him almost since birth. He has gone through periods where he has slept in the bassinet and now crib, and we do still try to put him into the crib for naps and night sleep with some success.
Ultimately, we have all slept far better making a conscious choice to bed share. We follow guidelines and recommendations on this such as: neither of us smoke/take drugs, not doing it intoxicated, firm mattress, no pillows, no blankets, hair tied back, no nursing tanks/straps, breastfeed, 'c-position'.
Like I said, we do try to put him in his own space, but this hasn't always equaled the best and most quality sleep for all of us.
We have NEVER 'accidentally' fallen asleep with him, or slept on the couch with him or anything like that.
There is a lot in this subreddit (and other parenting subreddits) that only refer to the AAP guidelines, however Reddit is global, so taking into consideration other countries and cultures, the AAP guidelines (which are amazing!) are not a one-size-fits-all for the entire world. There are other options, which we have discussed at length with our midwife, and our GP.
We have also made the choice not to sleep train, because we feel like at this stage he sleeps pretty well (not perfect, but a couple of wakes a night over about 11-12 hours is ok at this stage for us), but there are so many ideas and options out there for you and your baby.
Ultimately, do your research, talk to your care provider, and if you are going to do something that contradicts recommendations, understand and accept the risks involved and do your best to mitigate those where possible.
We also didn't get a white noise machine because for him, it didn't seem to do anything anyway (we tried using spotify on our phones at first).
As for a monitor, we got a cheap one second hand. It doesn't do video, but our place is very small, we didn't feel that that particular feature was important to us.

Bathing
We didn't buy a baby bath, because we don't have space. So, for the first week or so (maybe until his umbilical cord fell off??), we just bathed him in the sink. But, because he was so long and heavy, we ended up just getting in a bath with him. At first this was mostly my husband, but then as I healed a bit more with less post partum bleeding, then I was doing it too. Our baby absolutely loved the feeling of being in the water and floating around. It has become part of the bedtime routine, but now he is able to confidently sit unassisted, we just pour a very shallow bath and supervise him in the bath with some toys. We've never used any soaps, or lotions on his skin. Only ever just water.
Feeding

Solids have been going great for us, and thankfully our little one is a great eater. At 9 months, he's having 3 'meals' and a snack or two during the day.
He's taken to the baby led weaning approach, but I think part of this is because he just likes to do it himself. Even when he is eating yoghurts or cereal, he doesn't like it when we take his spoon to load it up. He really likes to feed himself. For this, before we got our highchair, we would sit him upright in the corner section of our couch with a waterproof sheet under him. He would just pick at and eat bits of the food there.
Now that he is in his highchair, we just put the food directly on the tray, and give him a spoon if the food needs it.
Apart from some second hand baby cutlery and a sippy cup, feeding him has taken zero extra stuff or effort.

Second hand clothes, gear, toys etc

We're lucky to live in an area where the second hand market is great. People in our community support and encourage it, and there are a lot of local municipality events like community garage sales and baby gear buy/swap/sell etc. which have worked out great for us.
We keep our eyes open on certain Facebook market groups, and frequently check out baby consignment stores in the area.
What has worked out great for us, is actually posting up requests for items, or letting other mom friends, or people in our area know we are looking for something. More often than not, we are referred to someone selling what we are looking for, without even 'searching'. This has worked out great for our wallets, helps others looking to offload their preloved items, and also helps by with all of the unnecessary extra packaging etc. that comes from buying new.
The only things I've been strict with buying new have been carseats, the crib mattress, and we purchased a better and more firm mattress for the bassinet as well. Otherwise, everything is second hand. We have never purchased anything on Amazon, or even have accounts.
As for toys, we are part of a municipal program where they give away toys every seasonal program. So with those, a lot of books (babies seem to LOVE books, so the more books the merrier in my experience) and then usually kitchen items (he loves measuring cups, lids from jars, protein powder scoops) and also musical things - he has an old ukulele with a string missing that keeps him entertained for ages - plus spending a lot of time outside and at the library and the pool...we really haven't needed a lot of specialty toys.

Costs

So, we have actually kept a spreadsheet detailing the particular items we have purchased for the baby (including pregnancy items like my maternity rock climbing harness, new gym sports bra for my growing boobs prenatal yoga class etc.).
Not including food, which now he does eat a decent amount - we haven't yet calculated our grocery bill against before I was pregnant - we have spent a total of $1380.
This even includes the $600 carseat, and the custom wardrobe build (which was done at 'mates rates'). We were gifted some things such as the stroller, the jogging strollechariot, some of the cost of the diapers, and some hand me down clothes etc. This also factors in any money we've received from selling on some items as well.

So all in all, I've found in my particular circumstance, we've been able to do this (and by 'do this', I mean survive!) with spending as little as possible, whilst making careful choices on what we buy, and consuming very consciously. Of course it goes without saying that only some of this, (or maybe even none of this) could work or apply to you, because I feel like if I didn't have the time (or given different circumstances), then some of this couldn't happen, or wouldn't work.
It is totally possible to be happy and have a healthy thriving baby (and family), without all of the 'stuff' and material things that seem to be pushed on us these days. For better or worse, we kinda just figured it out as we went, and in hindsight I guess it worked for us that we didn't have our large families around telling us what to do, or what worked for them, or what we should spend money on, what was a waste etc. So far we've been grateful that nothing we've bought was a waste. We've managed to use everything in a way that we've felt the return on investment (if any at all!) was well worth the effort of spending time hunting the item down, or waiting to find it second hand.
I can't really think of anything else to add right now, but feel free to ask anything if you are curious for more information!
Good luck to you all, and I just want to say not to stress, or let it get to you if you feel you can't afford all the fancy things. You may find that ultimately you won't need them anyway!

Season Preview: Toulouse FC (Ligue 1)

Toulouse FC

by THZHDY

Hello everyone, I want to preface this by saying I won't be doing this for every Ligue 1 club, if anyone else wants to do other clubs they're more than welcome to do so, I figured since the season is starting next weekend now would be a good time to make this. Shamelessly stealing the template for the PL preview, so all credit to NickTM for that one. If anyone makes a Toulouse/to lose pun I will force feed them cassoulet until they fart themselves to death. Forza Viola
About

Established: 1970 (as US Toulouse)
Stadium: Stadium Municipal
Capacity: 33,150
Official website
Wikipedia page
Club subreddit (very inactive)

Last season

Pos	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Points
16	38	8	14	16	35	57	-22	38

The 2017-2018 exercise was horrendous for Toulouse, finishing in 18th place, synonymous with a relegation playoff against the winner of the ligue 2 gauntlet, in this case AC Ajaccio. Fortunately, circumstances made it relatively trivial to put the Corsican team away 4-0 on aggregate (they had to play their home game on neutral ground due to their fans being major knobs, and their star goalkeeper got injured just before halftime in the first game)
The summer season proved fruitful, the board managing high-money sales in Issa Diop for around 25 million euros to West Ham, a club record sale, and wonderkid goalkeeper Alban Lafont to Fiorentina for a reported fee of around 8 million, among other departures, and securing the crucial permanent signing of Max Gradel from Bournemouth after a brilliant season on loan where he quite literally single-handedly saved the team from relegation, scoring important goal after important goal, becoming an immediate fan favourite. He was then appointed captain. Other important signings include goalkeeper Baptiste Reynet from Dijon, right-winger Mathieu Dossevi (political affiliation unknown, twitter legend) from freshly relegated FC Metz and highly rated prospect Manuel Garcia on loan from Manchester City.
The 2018/2019 season started very well for Toulouse, despite a 4-0 thrashing on opening day against Marseille at the Vélodrome, which saw the very first use of VAR in Ligue 1 afford a penalty to Marseille just before halftime. Toulouse would go on to win the next three games, against rivals Bordeaux, Nîmes and Guingamp, showing great football in the process. Coach Alain Casanova set the team up in a free-flowing 4-2-3-1, with new sensation Jean-Clair Todibo breaking into the first team on matchday two and establishing himself as our best defender. Then started the sharp decline. Toulouse would fail to win their next 11 league games, and get eliminated from the league cup against 2nd division side Lorient, at home. In a desperate attempt to stop the drastic amount of goals being conceded due to an abnormally high amount of defensive errors, the coach switched to a very boring 5-2-3 system, which did not work at all. The last game before the victory was against fellow relegation candidate Dijon, in the Stadium, where Toulouse would go a man down, thanks to former Dijon man Reynet getting a red card inside of 10 minutes, perhaps in loyalty for his old brotherhood. Toulouse would proceed to go 0-2 down in what looked to be yet another gutless defeat, but would manage to claw their way back thanks to a spectacular performance from captain Gradel, scoring this overhead kick to bring the deficit back to one goal, and assisting Belgian U21 international and brother of Chelsea's Michy Batshuayi Aaron Leya Iseka for the 2-2, to cap off a comeback that sparked hope in the team.
They would finally win their first game since September the 1st on December the 5th, away at Reims, thanks to a goal from left back Issiaga Sylla. A loss to relegation threatened Caen due to a 90+9' penalty after VAR review put doubts back in fans' minds but a win away at surprise sensation Lille just before the winter break, with two Max Gradel penalties, sent people away happy for the holidays. Keep in mind Toulouse had not won a home game since winning the first two in August at that point, the next home win would come against last placed, 10 men Guingamp on March 10th with a goal from Gunners superstar Yaya Sanogo. Toulouse's last win of the season would come on matchday 31 against 10 men Nantes, thanks to another Issiaga Sylla goal.

This Season

"Fuck this club all it's good for is making me able to see my mate harcole for a kebab after the boring shitfest we endure every couple of saturdays" - THZHDY

Another season of boring football behind, things look to be depressingly similar for the next one. Despite some nice reinforcements being brought in, such as Greek league top scorer Efthýmios Kouloúris or Dijon forward Wesley Saïd for a club record fee of around 7.5 million euros, the football shown in preseason hasn't shown anyone why we should bother stomaching another year of the same old shit, and yet I know I will. Two wins, one draw and three losses in 6 preseason matches, granted, with several crucial first team players missing, and an unambitious 4-3-3 with a very physically heavy, non-technical midfield (apart from Ibrahim Sangaré) seem to indicate the focus will be more on breaking angles with tackles rather than dribbles.
Some holes in the squad haven't been patched, and the board as well as the coach are going to put heavy trust on the club youngsters, namely the U19 squad who went to the final of the prestigious Gambardella Cup last season, to provide cover when needed. No natural left back besides Issiaga Sylla, only two natural centrebacks, little to no midfield depth, and the same can be said for the wings, especially since Max Gradel is rumoured to be unhappy and wanting out of the club, due to the direction not showing enough ambition, and really, who can blame him, even if he had an awful second half of the season.
There are however things to be hopeful about, if you look very hard for them. Koulouris can prove to be the goalscorer that the club so desperately needs instead of relying on a moment of brilliance from Gradel, moments that have become few and far between in 2019. The academy keeps producing brilliant players, many of whom can aspire to get solid first team minutes, like Manu Koné and Nathan Ngoumou, both of whom featured in the last game of the season last year.
All in all the problems lie in the way we play: lethargic build-up, and as a one-trick poney team, the strategy is pretty much to pass the ball to Gradel and hope, unfortunately teams caught on to that, and Gradel also suffered a massive dip in form around the turn of the year, only scoring 3 league goals in 2019 and losing his penalty taker spot after missing about 200 penalties. (slight exaggeration) If the team can balance the play out, find our striker some more (our two strikers last season, Leya Iseka and Sanogo, both touched the ball fewer times than our substitute right back Moreira who only appeared ten times in the whole season...) then we can have some hope of staying up. The direction's ambition is to finish between the 8th and 12th position and get a good cup run, I am personally not as optimistic.
Transfers
Highlights

Player	Type	From	To	Fee(€m)
Efthymios Koulouris	Perm	PAOK	Toulouse	3.5
Wesley Saïd	Perm	Dijon	Toulouse	7.5
Agustin Rogel	Perm	KS Samara	Toulouse	2.5
William Vainqueur	Loan	Antalyaspor	Toulouse	/
Jean-Victor Makengo	Loan	OGC Nice	Toulouse	/
Christopher Jullien	Perm	Toulouse	Celtic	8
Yannick Cahuzac	End of contract	Toulouse	RC Lens	/
Jimmy Durmaz	End of contract	Toulouse	Galatasaray	/

All incoming/outgoing transfers (link in french)
Full 2019-20 squad (link in french)
3 players to watch out for
Ibrahim Sangaré
One of the best players in the team last season, highly rated Ivorian midfielder Ibrahim Sangaré has almost already secured a big money move for next summer, barring an atrocious season or serious injury. The box to box midfielder has become an integral part in the side, being extremely solid defensively, as well as springing forward and providing the odd goal or two.
Efthymios Koulouris
The Greek striker spent the last year on loan at Atromitos, where he finished top scorer of the Greek top flight, scoring 25 goals in 35 games in all competitions, the expectations are pretty high for him, as we have a history of bringing strikers from semi-obscure leagues for a significant amount of money and have them score 5 in 50 for us, but he seems to have the talent to score a few, even though he hasn't found the net in preseason yet.
Matthieu Dossevi
I could put a youngster in there, but Dossevi's performances and overall regularity make him one to watch. Arguably our most consistent player last season, his performances on the right flank will be crucial to our survival, especially if Gradel were to leave.
What the fans think
Thanks to harcole for their help.

How do you think this season will go?

I hope another relegation battle is not going to be on our hands, but I fear the worst. I do think we're going to do slightly better if players click, and I am at least expecting a 13th place finish, and I would like Koulouris to score 10 goals.

THZHDY (yeah we don't have a lot of fans alright it's me)

This season is full of hype, with a new striker who seems to have it all, and young talented players getting gametime, expecting a flying start before it goes back to being the usual snoozefest and we barely escape relegation because two or three teams are even shittier than us, as always

harcole

Which player is going to be your star of the season and why?

Expecting Sangaré to step up big time and boss the midfield this season, having missed a few months of the last exercise due to an unfortunate foot injury (slipped in the locker room...) I also have big hopes in Wesley Saïd, who, as a record signing, has some inherent pressure to perform on his shoulders

THZHDY

In my opinion the one to watch this season will be Dossevi, I think he's going to be the one to get the job done, and when he performs, the whole team will perform.

harcole

How do you think the team will line up?

4-3-3, with a defensive midfielder.

 Reynet Amian - Rogel - Shoji - Sylla Vainqueur Sangaré - Makengo Saïd/Dossevi Gradel (c.) Koulouris

THZHDY

Wrap Up

by THZHDY

The Manager: Alain Casanova's return in the summer of 2018 was met with groans from the fans. He had previously coached the team from 2008 to 2015, having the team play a boring, lifeless football, think Big Sam without the results. The fans don't like him, the board loves him, he's a "safe" yes-man, a puppet for the chairman to parade around, as long as he doesn't get us relegated, he'll keep his job. He got us to safety even though we were the only team to never win by two goals or more, and the only team to never score three goals in the same match last season (in the league) so who knows, maybe he'll keep us up with 38 0-0's this time. One good thing about him is that he isn't afraid to give young players some minutes, perhaps to a fault sometimes, as Kalidou Sidibé got a lot of gametime last season over Manu Garcia despite being significantly worse.
The Team: Yannick Cahuzac's departure and possibly Gradel's make me fear the worst in terms of leadership on the pitch. No real character stands out from our first 11, as it is a fairly young squad. Lots of departures in the summer, most on free transfers means less dead wood on the wage bill. Hopes are to make our defensive mistakes less common, and have more stability at the back, in order to compensate for our low scoring numbers, though with a centreback pairing of an inexperienced Uruguayan yellow card machine and a sometimes shaky though relatively solid Japanese, the worst may be yet to come. The youngsters will hopefully get some games and impress, and get us through this season relatively unscathed, so they can unleash their potential in the next, and possibly make a push towards a higher position on the table.
Why to like them: Struggling to find valid arguments here, the city is lovely, we have our own little pre-match song "Se Canto" and we give youth a chance, that's pretty much all there is to it, also if you come around to see a game definitely give harcole or myself a shout and we can all get a drink together to forget the atrocities we see unfold on the field. Also we have purple kits I guess, despite being nicknamed "The pink city", purple kits are cool.
Why to dislike them: We're boring, sort of the Sunderland or WBA of Ligue 1, just always sort of "there" and seemingly unable to get relegated somehow. And we play gritty, aggressive defensive football sometimes, which is pretty dislikeable, although we don't really cause major injuries. Also we get a lot of penalties, some of them bullshit, even with VAR, but fear not, we miss them all anyways.
Summary: This sums it all up. The sword of Damocles that is relegation still hangs above us, the feeling that one injury could mean a crisis, the desperate cries and sighs still to come after the umpteenth time a pass goes into the stands, and yet, the hope that one day, things could get better, that this could be the season that we turn it around, that we could relive 2007 again, the final day against Bordeaux, Elmander's hattrick, Lille equalizing against Rennes in stoppage time, sending us to the CL for the first time, just to get mauled by fresh runners-up Liverpool in the qualifying rounds, 5-0 on aggregate. Or 2016, the great escape, with Dupraz taking charge of the team, 10 points from safety with 10 games to go, and saving us, with Yann Bodiger's freekick giving us the 3-2 away win at Angers which meant safety.
Moments like these probably won't happen
But they might.
And that's why we keep watching, keep enduring this torture, because it's football, and it sucks most of the time, but when it's good, few things feel better.

Holt Mk VIIB - The Mercenary from California

While not nearly as well known as many of the tanks used by the great powers that clashed during the 2nd Weltkrieg, the story of the Holt Mark VII is an interesting one that spans several decades and continents. The Mark VII’s origins lie with the Holt Manufacturing Company, a noted California-based manufacturer of tractors. During the Weltkrieg, the Holt Company made a fortune selling its tractors to the warring powers (mostly the Entente), where they were put to use hauling artillery pieces and supplies in conditions where wheeled tractors or teams of horses were ineffective. It was quickly realized that a vehicle like a Holt tractor - but carrying weaponry and protected by steel armor - might be able to cross the no-mans-land and end the stalemate of trench warfare, and many of the early attempts to build tanks were little more than modified Holts.
However, the Holt Company would not simply stand by while its inventions were changing the world. While an American intervention into the Weltkrieg - predicted by many - never came, the U.S. Army nevertheless began a campaign of expansion and modernization towards the end of the conflict, fueled by the “preparedness” movement, unrest in Mexico, and the Army’s own desire to not be left behind by the technological and doctrinal advances the war had brought about. As a result of this, Holt artillery tractors were also bought by the U.S. Army, and the Holt Company collaborated with the Army’s Ordnance Department in the development of a series of self-propelled guns, none of which saw mass production or service.
The finest of Holt’s SPGs was the 1921 Mark VI, which was designed from the beginning as such, unlike its tractor-derived predecessors. The hull was light, compact, and mobile, but could mount a variety of hard-hitting artillery pieces interchangeably.
The Mark VI was not adopted, but the design was considered to have great potential for development. Holt engineers proposed building a tank called the Mark VII on the same hull, with the gun platform at the rear replaced with an enclosed crew compartment crowned by a cylindrical turret mounting a small-calibre cannon. As the U.S. Army had already committed to building the Ford M1921 light tank, they were uninterested in the design, and it never left the blueprint stage.
Nevertheless, in the following years Holt’s engineers continued to toy with the idea of building a light tank for export, especially when sales of agricultural tractors imploded during the great depression. At the same time, there were many smaller nations which wanted to acquire tanks for themselves, but found themselves unable to buy Weltkrieg leftovers in quantity, as Germany, the nations of the 3rd International, and the Entente all guarded their stockpiles of equipment jealously, refusing to sell to potential enemies. Holt saw this as a lucrative potential market, and reworked the Mark VII into a more capable design known as the Mark VIIB during the late 1920s.
The Mk VIIB reversed the layout of the original design, placing the engine (now a six-cylinder diesel) and transmission at the rear of a hull similar to the Mk VI SPG but wider, taller, and longer. Towards the front there was a crew compartment with room for two men, a commandegunner and a driver. The commander stood up to operate a small conical turret which could mount a variety of weaponry, with the most common configuration being the Browning M1924 37mm cannon and a .30 caliber coaxial machine gun. These were mounted in a basic cylindrical rotor mount alongside a direct sight telescope, which could be protected behind a movable teardrop-shaped piece of armor. Within this mounting, the weaponry was noticeably offset to the right side of the turret, a feature intended to make loading the weapons easier for a right-handed crewmen. However, it had the negative side effect of causing the turret to rotate slightly when the main gun was fired, if the turret was not locked into place. The only way to enter or exit the tank was through the hatches of the turret, a primary one in the roof, and a secondary one at the rear, intended to be used for removing the weapons, but also large enough for the crew to escape from.
The armor of the Mk VIIB was light, with the heaviest protection being on the turret and the vertical plates at the front of the hull; 5/8ths of an inch (15.9 mm). The hull sides were ½ of an inch (12.7 mm) thick, as was the gun shield/mantlet. The hull roof and floor, as well as the rear of the engine compartment were 3/8ths of an inch (9.5 mm) thick, and the plates covering the suspension were 1/8th of an inch (3.2 mm). This was only really capable of protecting the tank from rifle-caliber bullets, but was comparable to the armor of many other tanks of the period.
Although it somewhat resembled the Renault FT and Ford M1921 in profile, the Holt VIIB was wider in relation to its length, which led to the prototype being nicknamed “the badger.”
Thanks in large part to the Holt company’s excellent network of international contacts and sales channels, the Mk VIIB was a modest success on the export market. The United Fruit Company purchased three on behalf of the Guatemalan government in 1932, Ireland, Spain, and Brazil each bought a single tank for trial purposes that same year, while the National Government of France (A.K.A. the “Algiers Regime”) bought two. None of these resulted in larger orders. Egypt bought 31 in 1933, and the Kingdom of Travancore (part of the Princely Federation) purchased 20 in that same year.
Apparently, a number of the tanks (either 8 or 10, depending on the source) were also purchased by one of China’s wealthier warlords (most likely Zhang Zhongchang), though the exact identity of the buyer has evaded historians. What is known is that the American ship that was hired to bring them to China was stopped by German authorities off Shanghai, and the tanks were confiscated. German forces in China used them for policing until the collapse of the League of Eight Provinces, after which their fate is unknown.
The Holt tanks ordered by Travancore and Egypt saw significant combat, but the most intensive use of the tanks came far closer to home. In 1937 the Pacific States of America refused to accept General MacArthur’s seizure of power, and the resources of the western states were harnessed to the war effort, including the factories of the Holt Company in Stockton. Production of the Mk VIIB continued for the PSA, though it was recognized that the design was very much obsolete, and work on getting Holt’s newer Mark IX design into production was underway.
Nevertheless, the Mk VIIB soldiered on, mostly seeing combat in the Nevada and Arizona deserts during the PSA’s push to the rockies. Compared to the mainstays of the US Army before the civil war, the Ford M1921 and M2 Light Tank (which were used by all sides during the war), the old Mk VIIB was not totally outclassed. It was superior in most ways to the M1921, but it’s only redeeming feature compared to the M2 was the fact that most of the Holt tanks mounted a 37mm cannon, while the early M2s only had .50-caliber heavy machine guns (which were nevertheless powerful enough to knock out a Mk VIIB at 600 yards). In this way, the Mk VIIB was also better-armed than the German-made M.I “Kätzchens” which were used by the American Union State.
The Mk VIIB was handicapped in the 2nd American Civil War by its relatively low top speed, stemming from the obsolete tractor-style suspension. This defect, and the rapidly-declining effectiveness of it’s armor, lead the PSA to expedite the design of the new Mk IX, and the Japanese government was asked for help with this, as a result of their extensive material support of the PSA. The desire to get the Holt VII replaced could thus be said to be one of the primary factors that led the PSA to seek technical assistance from Japan, a decision which would have a profound impact on relations between the two countries.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed! If you're wondering how the Holt Company still exists under that name in the lore I've written here, I've written more about that elsewhere, but the tl;dr is that in real life Holt got into trouble and had to merge with another company to form Caterpillar, as a result of Holt over-committing to U.S. Military contracts and the sudden end of WWI, conditions which wouldn't exist in the same way in the Kaiserreich universe.
Also, if you look closely at my illustration, you may notice that I drew it on the back of an old worksheet, because it started out as just a doodle, but I liked where it was going and ended up getting way to invested in this idea, as you can see from the wall of text above.

Can the world’s second superpower rise from the ashes of twenty years of war?

By: Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies - February 14, 2020
Read the article here: https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/02/14/can-the-worlds-second-superpower-rise-from-the-ashes-of-twenty-years-of-wa
February 15 marks the day, 17 years ago, when global demonstrations against the pending Iraq invasion were so massive that the New York Times called world public opinion “the second superpower.” But the U.S. ignored it and invaded Iraq anyway. So what has become of the momentous hopes of that day?
The U.S. military has not won a war since 1945, unless you count recovering the tiny colonial outposts of Grenada, Panama and Kuwait, but there is one threat it has consistently outmaneuvered without firing more than a few deadly rifle shots and some tear gas. Ironically, this existential threat is the very one that could peacefully cut it down to size and take away its most dangerous and expensive weapons: its own peace-loving citizens.
During the Vietnam war, young Americans facing a life-and-death draft lottery built a powerful anti-war movement. President Nixon proposed ending the draft as a way to undermine the peace movement, since he believed that young people would stop protesting the war once they were no longer obligated to fight. In 1973, the draft was ended, leaving a volunteer army that insulated the vast majority of Americans from the deadly impact of America’s wars.
Despite the lack of a draft, a new anti-war movement—this time with global reach—sprung up in the period between the crimes of 9/11 and the illegal U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The February 15th, 2003, protests were the largest demonstrations in human history, uniting people around the world in opposition to the unthinkable prospect that the U.S. would actually launch its threatened “shock and awe” assault on Iraq. Some 30 million people in 800 cities took part on every continent, including Antarctica. This massive repudiation of war, memorialized in the documentary We Are Many, led New York Times journalist Patrick E. Tyler to comment that there were now two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion.
The U.S. war machine demonstrated total disdain for its upstart rival, and unleashed an illegal war based on lies that has now raged on through many phases of violence and chaos for 17 years. With no end in sight to U.S. and allied wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Syria, Palestine, Yemen and West Africa, and Trump’s escalating diplomatic and economic warfare against Iran, Venezuela and North Korea threatening to explode into new wars, where is the second superpower now, when we need it more than ever?
Since the U.S. assassination of Iran’s General Soleimani in Iraq on January 2nd, the peace movement has reemerged onto the streets, including people who marched in February 2003 and new activists too young to remember a time when the U.S. was not at war. There have been three separate days of protest, one on January 4th, another on the 9th and a global day of action on the 25th. The rallies took place in hundreds of cities, but they did not attract nearly the numbers who came out to protest the pending war with Iraq in 2003, or even those of the smaller rallies and vigils that continued as the Iraq war spiraled out of control until at least 2007.
Our failure to stop the U.S. war on Iraq in 2003 was deeply discouraging. But the number of people active in the U.S. anti-war movement shrank even more after the 2008 election of Barack Obama. Many people did not want to protest the nation’s first black president, and many, including the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, really believed he would be a “peace president.”
While Obama reluctantly honored Bush’s agreement with the Iraqi government to withdraw US troops from Iraq and he signed the Iran nuclear deal, he was far from a peace president. He oversaw a new doctrine of covert and proxy war that substantially reduced U.S. military casualties, but unleashed an escalation of the war in Afghanistan, a campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria that destroyed entire cities, a ten-fold increase in CIA drone strikes on Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, and bloody proxy wars in Libya and Syria that rage on today. In the end, Obama spent more on the military and dropped more bombs on more countries than Bush did. He also refused to hold Bush and his cronies responsible for their war crimes.
Obama’s wars were no more successful than Bush’s in restoring peace or stability to any of those countries or improving the lives of their people. But Obama’s “disguised, quiet, media-free approach” to war made the U.S. state of endless war much more politically sustainable. By reducing U.S. casualties and waging war with less fanfare, he moved America’s wars farther into the shadows and gave the American public an illusion of peace in the midst of endless war, effectively disarming and dividing the peace movement.
Obama’s secretive war policy was backed up by a vicious campaign against any brave whistleblowers who tried to drag it out into the light. Jeffrey Sterling, Thomas Drake, Chelsea Manning, John Kiriakou, Edward Snowden and now Julian Assange have been prosecuted and jailed under unprecedented new interpretations of the WWI-era Espionage Act.
With Donald Trump in the White House, we hear Republicans making the same excuses for Trump—who ran on an anti-war platform—that Democrats made for Obama. First, his supporters accept lip service about wanting to end wars and bring troops home as revealing what the president really wants to do, even as he keeps escalating the wars. Second, they ask us to be patient because, despite all the real world evidence, they are convinced he is working hard behind the scenes for peace. Third, in a final cop-out that undermines their other two arguments, they throw up their hands and say that he is “only” the president, and the Pentagon or “deep state” is too powerful for even him to tame.
Obama and Trump supporters alike have used this shaky tripod of political unaccountability to give the man behind the desk where the buck used to stop an entire deck of “get out of jail free” cards for endless war and war crimes.
Obama and Trump’s “disguised, quiet, media-free approach” to war has inoculated America’s wars and militarism against the virus of democracy, but new social movements have grown up to tackle problems closer to home. The financial crisis led to the rise of the Occupy Movement, and now the climate crisis and America’s entrenched race and immigration problems have all provoked new grassroots movements. Peace advocates have been encouraging these movements to join the call for major Pentagon cuts, insisting that the hundreds of billions saved could help fund everything from Medicare for All to the Green New Deal to free college tuition.
A few sectors of the peace movement have been showing how to use creative tactics and build diverse movements. The movement for Palestinians’ human and civil rights includes students, Muslim and Jewish groups, as well as black and indigenous groups fighting similar struggles here at home. Also inspirational are campaigns for peace on the Korean peninsula led by Korean Americans, such as Women Cross the DMZ, which has brought together women from North Korea, South Korea and the United States to show the Trump administration what real diplomacy looks like.
There have also been successful popular efforts pushing a reluctant Congress to take anti-war positions. For decades, Congress has been only too happy to leave warmaking to the president, abrogating its constitutional role as the only power authorized to declare war. Thanks to public pressure, there has been a remarkable shift. In 2019, both houses of Congress voted to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen and to ban arms sales to Saudi Arabia for the war in Yemen, although President Trump vetoed both bills.
Now Congress is working on bills to explicitly prohibit an unauthorized war on Iran. These bills prove that public pressure can move Congress, including a Republican-dominated Senate, to reclaim its constitutional powers over war and peace from the executive branch.
Another bright light in Congress is the pioneering work of first-term Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who recently laid out a series of bills called Pathway to PEACE that challenge our militaristic foreign policy. While her bills will be hard to get passed in Congress, they lay out a marker for where we should be headed. Omar’s office, unlike many others in Congress, actually works directly with grassroots organizations that can push this vision forward.
The presidential election offers an opportunity to push the anti-war agenda. The most effective and committed anti-war champion in the race is Bernie Sanders. The popularity of his call for getting the U.S. out of its imperial interventions and his votes against 84% of military spending bills since 2013 are reflected not only in his poll numbers but also in the way other Democratic candidates are rushing to take similar positions. All now say the U.S. should rejoin the Iran nuclear deal; all have criticized the “bloated” Pentagon budget, despite regularly voting for it ; and most have promised to bring U.S. troops home from the greater Middle East.
So, as we look to the future in this election year, what are our chances of reviving the world’s second superpower and ending America’s wars?
Absent a major new war, we are unlikely to see big demonstrations in the streets. But two decades of endless war have created a strong anti-war sentiment among the public. A 2019 Pew Research Center poll found that 62 percent of Americans said the war in Iraq was not worth fighting and 59 percent said the same for the war in Afghanistan.
On Iran, a September 2019 University of Maryland poll showed that a mere one-fifth of Americans said the U.S. “should be prepared to go to war” to achieve its goals in Iran, while three-quarters said that U.S. goals do not warrant military intervention. Along with the Pentagon’s assessment of how disastrous a war with Iran would be, this public sentiment fueled global protests and condemnation that have temporarily forced Trump to dial down his military escalation and threats against Iran.
So, while our government’s war propaganda has convinced many Americans that we are powerless to stop its catastrophic wars, it has failed to convince most Americans that we are wrong to want to. As on other issues, activism has two main hurdles to overcome: first to convince people that something is wrong; and secondly to show them that, by working together to build a popular movement, we can do something about it.
The peace movement’s small victories demonstrate that we have more power to challenge U.S. militarism than most Americans realize. As more peace-loving people in the U.S. and across the world discover the power they really have, the second superpower we glimpsed briefly on February 15th, 2003 has the potential to rise stronger, more committed and more determined from the ashes of two decades of war.
A new president like Bernie Sanders in the White House would create a new opening for peace. But as on many domestic issues, that opening will only bear fruit and overcome the opposition of powerful vested interests if there is a mass movement behind it every step of the way. If there is a lesson for peace-loving Americans in the Obama and Trump presidencies, it is that we cannot just walk out of the voting booth and leave it to a champion in the White House to end our wars and bring us peace. In the final analysis, it really is up to us. Please join us!

[H] Many Steam Games 75-80% off [W] Paypal, Crypto, Wishlist

[Trip Report] Tokyo, Koyasan, Kyushu, and Yakushima.

Here is my long as heck trip report! It’s not your standard itinerary so I hope some find it helpful!
First, my general advice on some of the basics -

Allow an hour between landing and leaving! Between immigration, picking up tickets, and grabbing anything else like a SIM card, Suica, etc… the minutes add up. Time from wheels down and departing on the Skyliner was 1 hour for us - and we were moving quickly/didn’t get caught in a big line anywhere. Also do not try to do much on your first day!! We could barely do a walk around our neighborhood for longer than 30 minutes before feeling like we needed to get in bed.
Pocket wi-fi is fine and all, but I had a really great experience with Sim2Fly from AIS (can buy on US Amazon.) I stuck it in the SIM slot while we landed and it worked within 1 minute, connecting to Softbank’s 4G network. It even worked when our “wide coverage” GAC Pocket Wifi couldn’t find any signal in Koyasan, Kyushu, or Yakushima. (So with that said, I recommend a Pocket Wifi that does not run on AU/YMobile.) IIJMio’s SIM also worked super well on docomo. We got one from b-mobile through Amazon that didn’t work at all, though others have had great experiences with them by ordering directly.
When traveling with luggage, favor routes that don’t have as many transfers and leave more time than you think you need. Luggage gets heavy. Stations get crowded. The transfers hyperdia and google suggests are “doable,” but give yourself a margin of error just in case you make mistakes or get caught in a crowd. On our trip, my SO accidentally swiped his Pasmo at Namba Nankai on the way to Koya. He didn’t even realize it until we tried to swipe in at Namba subway to catch our shinkansen at Shin-Osaka. Thankfully I’d allowed a 25 minute buffer and remembered the route back, so I ran back and got it corrected and we still had time. There are routes that may save you 15-30 minutes with more transfers, but I’d rather be relaxed than feel like I need to rush through.
Have a breakfast plan! Yoshinoya and other 24 hour spots, or convenience stores if that’s your thing (but it can get old in my opinion) are a good bet if you don’t want Starbucks, Tully’s, or your hotel breakfast. We got stuck a couple times at 9-10am searching for food before just settling on those.
Google Maps is really good but not 100% accurate all the time. If you blindly rely on it you may end up confused sometimes. Look at the train times in the station, follow signs, and be careful with the exits (especially in Shibuya station - it told me to take wrong, inconvenient exits a few times, potentially due to construction.) The routes it suggests are definitely doable if you’re used to subway systems, but if you’re not then allow more time!
Google translate is life! The camera made menus/food ticket machines somewhat decipherable and on occasion we used the recording feature to talk to various people (like when I returned the SIM to Amazon from a post office in Fukuoka- it was a fun experience!)
I absolutely loved mobile Suica. I will sing its praises to anyone who will listen. It made my life infinitely easier. Highly recommend it for newer iPhone users. Topping up anytime with my CC took less than 10 seconds and it shows a history of your transactions/routes.

Daily stories in the context of our itinerary -
Day one:
Landed at Narita 1:35 PM. Picked up Keisei Skyliner tickets and Pasmo for my SO, got to Koenji, did some walking around and had Coco Ichiban for dinner. I’m a spice fiend so I got their spice level 10 and it was certainly as spicy as I wanted it to be! I discovered the Pokemon card collection at Hard Off and went wild - I didn’t realize there’d be so many places to buy cute card singles. I’m not a huge collector, but I keep a binder of my favorites that I’ve been collecting for the past…20 years (jesus)...and it seemed like a great, cheap way to get a whole lot of souvenirs that I knew I’d appreciate!
Day two:
Wandered around Koenji very early with some coffee while things were closed. Had Ghibli tickets for this day (any time, JTB) so made our way to Kichijoji, got some Magikarp taiyaki at Kurikoan, and walked from there to arrive around opening time. I wasn’t a huge Ghibli fan before this trip, but I do appreciate animation, and I was absolutely blown away by the museum. Very worth the trip and I get why it’s so popular! I had some friends visiting Tokyo at the same time so I met them for lunch after at Oniyanma in Nakameguro. We shopped around in the area (this ended up being my favorite shopping neighborhood - the store Vase is super cool for people into bags/accessories/fashion, as is 1LDK) and got coffee at Onibus. From there we split up and despite being super tired I went on to Ginza by myself to check out some more stores on my list (my SO hates shopping so I tried to condense it mostly to when we weren’t together) and then walked up to the Pokemon Center DX. I’d actually planned on going there the following week for the Pokemon Cafe, but after checking it out I cancelled that plan - it didn’t seem like my cup of tea and I felt like I could get my Pokemon fill in many other places. I also didn’t want to feel tied down by that plan anymore. I stopped by Tokyo Station quickly on my way back to pick up our shinkansen tickets so we didn’t have to deal with it in the morning (bought through SmartEX. Took about 2 minutes to print everything I’d purchased.) Had great omurice for dinner at Cafe Terrace Gon - it was so cute and cozy!
Day three:
Woke up early anyway thanks to jetlag and made our way to Tokyo Station for our 6:42 AM Nozomi to Shin-Osaka - goal was to make the 10AM limited express to Koyasan. We had green car tickets due to a smartEX deal (same price as regular cars when I booked in advance.) Picked up ekibens and a small packet of Tokyo Banana (yum!) for the trip. I booked Fuji-side seats and the weather cooperated - we got a clear view for several minutes! I was so happy! We transferred at Shin-Osaka to the Midosuji line, got out at Namba and walked to the Nankai station. I thought this transfer was going to be much harder than it was - it was all underground and signage was simple. We had to wait in a 10 minute line to buy our Koyasan World Heritage tickets, but managed to get on the 10AM 3 minutes before it left. When we got to Koyasan station I had my first Boss Black. I was addicted. We finally dropped our stuff off at our temple around 12:30. (The cable car was also fun - I’m a minor transit enthusiast and really enjoyed this part of the trip for all the different methods we got to take.) We had a few hours before check-in so we walked around the town, got some free snacks with promo coupons from the Heritage Pass, and had a nice leisurely meal at Kissa Yakata. This place was adorable, an older woman ran it all by herself (greeting you, cooking your meal, giving some advice about the area) and the food was great. We walked around the main junction to see some of the sites. It was really quite beautiful and peaceful, and people were fairly quiet and respectful compared to other tourist hotspots. After that we finally checked in. It was absolutely incredible - we had 2 tatami areas in our room and we were right next to the private single person onsen. It opened at 4pm and I was the first one in. We walked around the temple and just chilled out for the rest of the afternoon before our dinner. I was pleasantly surprised by the meal - there was a ton of food! We didn’t like it all, but there was a lot of rice as well. Unfortunately, the cemetery night tour was cancelled due to rain so we just went on a short walk by ourselves in the cold.
Day four:
We easily woke up for prayer (still jetlagged, we’d planned on that which is why we did Koyasan first) and it was just enthralling. Breakfast wasn’t my cup of tea, but again plenty of rice at least! We had a lot of time before check out so we took the full walk through the cemetery. It’s so breathtaking! After packing up we headed back into town and had another meal, this time at Komi Coffee. Fluffy pancakes were so so so good! Long afternoon ahead of us as we headed to Fukuoka. We were pretty exhausted by the time we got to Tenjin and just had our obligatory bowl of tonkotsu at Ramen Zen before calling it a night.
Day five:
Sarted our sightseeing at Ohori Park by renting a swan boat. It was loads of fun! We walked through after that and took in the Japanese garden - a total treat. It's small but gorgeous. From there we went to Canal City to look at the architecture. We had a blast playing Mario Kart at an arcade and I got a delicious croissant taiyaki. Took a walk through the Kawabata shopping arcade and headed to the Hakata Pokemon Center (of course) and Tokyu Hands before a late lunch in the Mitsukoshi basement food hall. There was too much to choose from and we got a bit overwhelmed, but I enjoyed a batch of Hakata-style one bite gyoza! My SO got sick this evening and stayed in. I shopped at Loft and Don Quijote, tried some grape flavored Strong Zero, then went to a yatai by myself while slightly drunk and ate another delicious bowl of tonkotsu! My SO joked that he wanted a bacon egg and cheese sandwich as sick comfort food and I was determined to make that happen in my tipsy state so I bought him a bacon and egg burger from Freshness Burger and felt very proud.
Day six:
We finally started our much anticipated road trip through Kyushu! Booked directly with Toyota Rent-A-Car and arranged pick-up from their Yakuin location at 8AM. I’d reserved an ETC card in our original booking and a Kyushu Expressway Pass ahead of time via e-mail. Grabbed a conbini breakfast for the car and a surprisingly incredible coffee from Rec Coffee! My SO was the first to drive, bless him, as I’m not as confident a driver (much better navigator!) and going on the other side of the road was a bit daunting. While our GPS gave directions in English, it wanted addresses input in Japanese. I’d read that mapcodes are useful so I’d printed them out ahead of time, but I wish I’d looked more in depth at certain POIs on Google Maps before getting the codes as the addresses weren’t always perfect (a common issue we found with GMaps in Japan.) Sometimes it’d spit us out a block or a few blocks away from where we really needed to be. We had to cross-check with my phone as we approached destinations. There was a minor scare about 2 hours into the drive when our ETC card holder started beeping incessantly and saying something in Japanese whenever the car started. We tried to translate and couldn’t figure it out, and the beeping was so constant that we needed to solve it immediately. Taking out the ETC card and putting it in seemed to fix it so we left it at that. Honestly still have no idea what it was! Our first stop was the old town district of Hita, Mamedamachi, for a short walk around. It was super adorable and quiet! Next up was Nabegataki Falls. On the way there we were absolutely awestruck by how beautiful the scenery was - while we had saved POIs to check out on Kysuhu, we assumed much of the drive would be highway-like and not exciting. The drive ended up being a huge highlight! The falls were really picturesque and lovely, definitely worth the stop. Next up on the itinerary was Mt Aso. Unfortunately, we saw online that the crater viewing area was partially closed. We decided we’d go there anyway and see as much as possible (and hope for a change in conditions) as otherwise the plan would just be to spent more time around our ryokan. On the way there we stopped by the oddest “rest stop” that was just a line of several vending machines by the side of the road with an abandoned shop next to them. The conditions didn’t get better as we arrived, sadly, but we still really enjoyed the drive and lookouts up there and the atmosphere near the top. Surprisingly, we bought a beautiful piece of art at the gift shop! Our last stop of the day was our ryokan in Kurokawa Onsen. The ryokan itself was gorgeous and the service was impeccable. I immediately went to the onsen area before the sun set. The rotenburo were split into a men’s and women’s side, both right on the river. I definitely messed up the etiquette a bit - first I walked all the way to the bath in full yukata before realizing I needed to change in a specific room. Then I realized I needed my towel from my room too as they didn’t have spares! I thought I was going to be more nervous about getting naked, but since everyone else is also naked it doesn’t feel so weird. I have 5 small tattoos and brought some “foundation tape” and medical tape to cover them up. I couldn’t see any reviews/info online stating whether or not they were allowed so I wanted to be careful. It worked fairly well, the patched up area was still visible but only if you looked closely. I thought people would stare at them and then I actually saw a Japanese woman with a much more obvious white cover-up sticker on her body! (Sidenote, the foundation tape was very difficult to get off later!) Kaiseki dinner was in a dining room area, but everyone had a beautiful private room so it felt very intimate. The food was fantastic. I’m somewhat adventurous now, though I was a vegetarian for over 10 years until fairly recently. I’m basically willing to try anything with some nudging, but still pretty scared of seafood. I tried everything they brought us which I’m very proud of, even if I couldn’t finish some of the fried whole fish. We got pretty drunk off sake and had a blast!
Day seven:
Took a final dip in the rotenburo before breakfast. I had it all to myself as it was so early! Heavenly. As it got crowded, I moved to our room’s private bath and spent the rest of the morning there. They offered us the rest of our sake for breakfast, which was kind of hilarious at 8AM. I could have spent another full day just lounging around here if it weren’t so expensive! Everyone waved us off as we pulled out. We stopped in the actual town of Kurokawa next as we hadn’t had a chance to see it the day before. It was super adorable, but I’m glad we stayed a bit further out for a less hectic experience. If we’d stayed 2 nights it could have been nice to move to a more central one, though. We got some pastries at Patisserie Roku (SO got their cream puff and it was incredible) to eat in the car as we left. Our first stop this day was Kamishikimi Shrine, up a handful of beautiful steps. We kept going up past the shrine until we made it to an opening that overlooked a valley. It was really stunning. I’d recommend it to anyone going to the Aso area! From there we went to Takachiho Gorge which was far more crowded. We were super hungry by then so we got a warm bowl of noodles from the one restaurant we could find before walking to the other “side” of the gorge viewing area. The other side (near the boat rentals) probably would have been the better place to park - there were plenty of food stalls and it seemed most of the tour busses brought people there. I originally wanted to rent one of the boats to see the waterfalls, but rowing section didn’t feel as secluded as I imagined it would be (full of families and the area was fairly small) so we skipped it and got some dango from a food stall as we left. My only “regret” of the whole trip is what we did next. We left the gorge slightly earlier than I expected and I was overly ambitious so tried drive around the Miyazaki coastline on the way to Kagoshima. In retrospect, it would have been best to just head straight there via the most direct road and enjoy the evening without feeling exhausted. I stopped at Hyuga Cape first and my SO was too tired to go to the viewing point, then by the time we got to the Nichinan coast portion it was sunset and we couldn’t get in to Udo Shrine except to look at it from afar. We didn’t get to Kagoshima until nearly 9pm and we were too exhausted to go out for dinner and enjoy the area (realistically we would have been tired either way, I guess.) We also had a minor scare regarding gas on the expressway, but thankfully found a station about 30 minutes from Kagoshima that was still open. Getting gas required a bit of translate help, but was easily done with a credit card.
Day eight:
We woke up at sunrise to make our flight to Yakushima. To make up for the missteps of the day before, I drove us the “long way” to the airport and we got a beautiful view of Sakurajima as the sun rose! Dropping off our rental car was super easy, we just had one toll leaving Fukuoka that wasn’t covered by the KEP to we pay for and otherwise were good to go. They drove us to Kagoshima airport a few minutes away and we checked our bags as the teeny plane to Yakushima wouldn’t even allow our carry ons. The propeller plane was a lot of fun for me, but anyone who is afraid of flying will not have a good time. Thankfully it’s just a quick 35 minutes or so and we just read a bit about the island from our Yakumonkey guide. Our new rental car was booked directly with NAVI and they met us at the airport. The woman we dealt with, who I had emailed with originally about our reservation, was possibly the friendliest person we met on our whole trip. She gave us trail info packets, laminated maps of the island and main towns with her favorite restaurants highlighted, bottles of water, and snacks. After asking us where we were staying, she told us which places to go to for lunch, which way to drive around the island (do it counter-clockwise as the narrow road on the Western side is scarier if you have to drive on the left), and which hikes to do We didn’t even have to plan our day out, and had enough food/water to get us through the hikes, all thanks to her! We went to Miyanoura first for lunch then started Shiratani Unsuikyo. The trail maps they give you at the hike are way more helpful than I thought they would be - almost had no need for the guide book given that we weren’t doing the lesser-known hikes. They clearly mark checkpoints on the map and on the hike and explain how long different routes will take. We decided to go off the “main” trail and connect to a walking path and nearly thought we were lost when a local man on the same path came along and asked if we needed help. Turned out he used to live in New York! We walked with him back to the parking lot (we weren’t lost after all, the path was just taking longer than we thought it would.) As I stopped to admire a cute snake, he let me know that it was super poisonous…yikes. We came across quite a few of monkeys on our drive around the Western side of the island and I was enamored! Something we realized as we drove around was that many things marked prominently in the guide/maps weren’t actually that easy to find. I wanted to see the Hirauchi seaside hot springs and we thought we were heading into a private driveway as we approached it. It was lovely, though. I’d also saved a cute looking cafe in Onoaida by our guest house, but it was closed when we got there. We stopped at another cafe across the street which was just a tiny 1-table room in this guy’s house. He gave us fruits and juice and had us sign some coasters with a note so he could put them on his wall of visitors! He had some beautiful handmade wood items for sale as well. We finally got to our lodging around 4pm and I made use of our private open-air bath, watching the sun set as I looked at the mountain - it was a moment where I almost wanted to pinch myself to make sure it was real! We had dinner nearby at a restaurant suggested by the guest house. The place was eerily quiet with bright lighting and odd music and had just 2 other couples dining in that night - it was a bit of a surreal experience. Our room that night had twin beds and we tried to share one before growing frustrated with the lack of space. As my SO moved to the other bed, a gigantic (several inch wide) spider crawled out from underneath. Suffice it to say, we shared one bed and left the lights on.
Day nine:
We enjoyed a really nice breakfast outside at our guest house, again complete with a beautiful mountain view. It was idyllic! We did the Yakusugiland hike this morning. On the drive there I got out of the car to take a picture of some monkeys and despite not making eye contact, one of them decided to chase me back into the car. I assume it wanted food, or it wanted to attack me, who knows. A nice exhilarating morning! The hike was super quick and easy and we went early enough that it wasn’t crowded yet. My SO preferred this hike, and I liked it as much as if not more than Shiratani. I accidentally stepped in monkey poop though so had to spend a good 15 minutes in the bathroom afterwards washing my shoe while a tour group arrived and lined up and watched me struggle. On the way back to town I got out of the car We stopped for sushi in Anbo at another place recommended by the car rental agent. It was probably one of my least favorite meals, unfortunately, just because I’m not a big sushi fan. It was still better than sushi I’ve had in New York, though! We stopped for some great matcha soft serve at a tea shop and by the “pillow shaped lava field” before getting gas and dropping off the car. We flew back to Tokyo via Kagoshima and landed in Haneda around 5:45PM. We got to our Ebisu hotel fairly quickly and decided on Yakiniku for dinner. Landed on a location of the Niku-Azabu chain near our hotel. Their ground floor area was full, but thankfully they fit us in the 4th floor section after a brief wait. We struggled with the menu a bit, but the waiters were super patient with us and after translating specific items and asking if we would or would not eat (no urchin, no offal), pointed us to a set meal as the best option (worked for us as we didn’t want to do the work of picking which meats to try!) They asked if rare meat was ok and I’m glad we said yes. They cooked it all for us and specified which sauces to eat with which pieces. I didn’t realize meat could taste so good! We also had a hilarious miscommunication when my SO asked if there was alcohol in his drink (it was just disguised well and we were curious to see if we misunderstood the menu) and the waiter came around and poured a glassful of extra shochu into his drink.
Day ten:
Finally a full day in Tokyo where we’re not super jetlagged! Plan was to go to Akihabara and figure things out from there. Well, let’s just say we didn’t get to much else. We shopped around all sorts of places - for manga, doujinshi, sex toys, Pokemon cards… and at Yodobashi Camera. I went wild for the cute claw machines. We even walked into the espace pachinko parlor before quickly escaping the assault on our ears (holy shit it’s so loud??) We briefly left Akiba for lunch at Izuei Honten in Ueno - this was a place my SO had tried on his last trip to Japan and really wanted me to experience. I was pleasantly surprised! We shared their lunch for 2 and were absolutely stuffed by the end. Their instructions said to put a small amount of sansho on the eel….we probably doused it far more than we should have, but the numbing sensation was so good. My friends who I hung out with the previous week were heading back to Tokyo from Kyoto and also wanted to hang out in Akiba so I went back and played a few more claw machines, tried out a purikura photobooth, shopped for Pokemon cards again (Cherumo had a pretty great selection) before briefly meeting them at the haven that is Super Potato. We made plans to meet back up for an izakaya night and picked a spot in Omotesando (friends were staying in Ginza so wanted a sort of midpoint) and, wisely, some back-ups as well. The first place we tried was “full” and told us it’d be a 2-hour wait. This happened to us quite a bit on the trip - I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt and say we just picked popular places with high tabelog ratings which meant they were often crowded and didn’t accept walk-ins… Our back-up had a table for us though and we had a great time trying various dishes and drinks!
Day eleven:
Our goal on this day was broadly to check out Shibuya and Nakano Broadway. We started early in Daikanyama as it was just a short walk there from our hotel. I really wanted to look at the architecture and it did not disappoint! We both loved it even more than we thought we would and delighted in wandering the streets there, looking through the gigantic Tsutaya, and eyeing coffee shops. It was a quick ride to Shibuya station and we stopped for breakfast in the Hikarie department store basement. I had a weirdly amazing cheese, pumpkin, and bacon croquette. We shopped a bit for clothes in BEAMS before heading to a few reuse shops I wanted to check out like Don Don Down and Ragtag. We were over shopping quickly and made our way on foot to Meiji Jingu (my feet were getting tired so we skipped Yoyogi) and while we were there we happened upon a wedding! The outfits were incredible to see (there’s a picture in my album.) From there we headed to Nakano Broadway. We explored the various floors there a bit - it’s an amazing place for secondhand anime shopping. Didn’t end up buying anything (aside from grape soft serve in the basement), but really enjoyed it. We also ate at a great gyoza restaurant just outside the main building. I stopped in Harajuku on the way back to check out a few more reuse stores on my list. Kindal ended up being my favorite. Back at the hotel we geared up for a night out in Shinjuku, finally! We saved a few restaurants to try near Bar Benfiddich (where we wanted to start the night) and unfortunately the first 2 couldn’t seat us and as I got anxious about traveling further without food, my SO suggested Hinoya under the bar. That did the trick. At Benfiddich (we went to the newer one on the lower level) I was served a fascinating pear and mascarpone cocktail, satisfying my weird request for “sweet, fruity, and creamy.” My SO got a pear brandy negroni after asking for something bitter. Next stop was a walk through the Omoide Yokocho - wish we’d waited to eat until we got there but I was stressed out without food earlier - followed by Dug’s Jazz Cafe & Bar. There’s a cover, but I thought it was well worth it. We really enjoyed the atmosphere and music and I got very drunk from the small bottle of sake they gave me! We swiftly wandered through Kabukicho and Golden Gai. Didn’t go in any bars in this area as we had planned on just looking, our goal was to cap the night with a drunken bowl of ramen at Zundoya and it was all on the way. We were hoping to check out some live music as well if possible, but it was too late by the time we got to one of the venues (Wednesday night near midnight…)
Day twelve:
I started the morning early in Shimokitazawa with a plan to meet at 11:30 for lunch at Magic Spice (pretty interesting spot.) In retrospect, it was pretty unnecessary going to Shimo this early as most of the stores didn’t even open until 11. I spent the first hour walking the entire neighborhood while photographing street art and storefronts before settling in a cafe with a coffee and slice of cheesecake. After shopping, I ended up with an awesome pair of pants for 300 yen at Mode Off! The fashion score of the trip. Next up was Ueno park and we walked the entire area. It wasn’t my favorite park of the trip, but it had some interesting architecture. I picked up our return Skyliner tickets as we were right next to the station anyway and had planned on getting a very early train for our flight on Saturday. (Of course, this ended up being a bad move, but we couldn’t have foreseen that….) We moved on to Asakusa in the early afternoon. It was absolutely packed on the main shopping streets, the temple area was overrun with people, and by the time we wanted to eat everything around us seemed like a tourist trap with minimum spends and mediocre food. We really just wanted to get out of the area quickly so I decided to make the most of the late afternoon by checking out Ikebukuro! First, I stopped at Kikanbo and had the best bowl of ramen of the entire trip. Medium sansho level….heaven. Then I happened across a pop performance in Sunshine City! I have no idea who it was, a girl group? There were tons of people watching. I heard the same song the next day on the street, but forgot to Shazam it. The Pokemon Mega Center was everything I hoped it would be. I did the bulk of my Pokemon shopping here and also stopped at a card store on the way back to the station where I found a bunch of great 20 yen singles. We went back to Koenji this evening for dinner at Dachibin, an Okinawan restaurant my SO went to the last time and had fond memories of. Tried some raw horse meat! A couple guys next to us really wanted to help us out with our order and chat. Afterwards we headed to Asagaya to check out an anime-themed bar called 44Sonic. It was closet-sized and full of regulars who encouraged us to try a calpis/shochu cocktail. Weirdly amazing. The atmosphere felt very local and casual and the place was covered in all sorts of anime merch (including figures on the bar.)
Day thirteen:
We awoke to a notice from our airline offering to waive any change fees for our flight due to bad weather in NY. Our original return flight involved 24 hours of travel with a long layover, free upgrade to a nonstop was a no-brainer! It meant we had to figure out new accommodations, though, as our hotel had no availability for Saturday night. We spent the bulk of the morning dealing with logistics to get it over with. This meant I’d also have to go back to Ueno to change our Skyliner tickets… I had plans already to meet some other friends (who were also on holiday in Japan at the same time!) for lunch in Nakameguro so finally headed out at 11:30 for that. Took a nice walk from Ebisu and did some shopping on the way at stores I’d liked previously. We met for lunch at Seirinkan pizza and it was incredible! Absolutely worth it. My friends had stayed in Nakameguro for part of their trip and took me to their favorite ice cream (Premarché) and coffee place (artless) afterwards. Both were amazing. I headed to Shibuya to shop at other stores on my list, then walked to Daikanyama from there to meet my SO for some tea. Sucked it up and took the long ride to change our Skyliner tickets. Stopped in Harajuku on the way back to shop again. We met up at a manga cafe in Shibuya, but it was closed for an event. Decided to walk to an okonomiyaki restaurant halfway between Shibuya and Ebisu, but when we got there it was full. So began our Friday night of trying restaurant after restaurant - we must have walked into 4 different ones at least - in Ebisu without being able to get a seat at any of them. Our final attempt was at Kaoriya Soba (we’d agreed to give up and eat Coco Ichiban if it didn’t work out) and they had seats available! Experience there was great and the roast duck appetizer was phenomenal.
Day fourteen:
Our first “extra” day! We just decided to wing it after dropping our bags at the new hotel. Booked tickets for teamlab Planets in the evening, did some gift shopping, then we stopped for curry at Hanaichi and made the impromptu plan to walk through Hibiya Park and to the Imperial Palace gardens. Hibiya was a nice surprise! It was really pretty, and we happened upon some sort of festival with various themed plant stands. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was for, though. It started to get super hot out and we had to take a bunch of sitting breaks on the way to the East Gardens from there. The scenery was great, though, and the grounds were not too crowded given that it was a Saturday. This was one of the most pleasant, unplanned surprises of the trip! Shopped around the Tokyo Station Character Street (another Pokemon store! It was packed!) on the way back. We had a bit of time to relax before teamlab, and my SO had made a sushi reservation that night for us in Ginza (Sushi Banya Honten) which we planned to head to right after. I’m not sure how much more crowded Borderless gets, but Planets was very manageable and super enjoyable as well! It took us about an hour to get through - I do think we could have spent several more minutes in some of the rooms, though. We had some extra time so took the train to Odaiba to get a drink and a view of the Rainbow Bridge. Our sushi dinner was great fun even though I can’t really appreciate the taste yet. We saw some other guests eating an off-menu dish and after asking about it they agreed to make one for us too. It was some sort of cheese & sea bream cooked, creamy filling with salmon wrapped around it. Really incredible! They also gave us plaques with our names written out artfully in Japanese before we left. It was clearly something they give to every tourist who stops by, judging by the instagram hashtag, but we love them anyway.
Day fifteen:
Last day! I went to Jiyugaoka to have a relaxing morning of wandering. What a weird, cool neighborhood. ABC coffee was great - nice patio to relax on. La Vita was bizarre as expected. Kumano shrine was a beautiful surprise. After I had my fill there and started to get hungry I planned my last meal… I knew I needed a final (seventh) bowl of ramen to wrap up the trip, but where to go! I considered Fuunji, Afuri, and Rokurinsha. Rokurinsha won out and I prepared myself for a long wait given that I showed up around 12:30. I was not wrong! I didn’t get seated until 1:15. Easily spent a chunk of my remaining cash afterwards on bags of kit kats at Don Quijote. As I contemplated how to spend my final hour, I realized I was right by Cafe de L’Ambre. Couldn’t leave without trying such a legendary cafe. It was certainly the best coffee experience of my trip - watching them pour water over the grounds while moving them in a circular motion was truly mesmerizing! I took in the atmosphere and chatted with a regular. As I walked back to the hotel from Ginza I saw what looked like a traditional Geisha ceremony being performed on a platform for an engaged audience. Paused for a long moment to take it all in and appreciate what I was seeing.
Some opinions:

Favorite neighborhoods in Tokyo were Nakameguro, Daikanyama, Koenji, Ebisu, Shimokitazawa, and Jiyugaoka. They were so lovely to stroll around and had amazing vibes..
Favorite meals overall were at Niku-Azabu, Kikanbo, Rokurinsha, Izuei Honten, and Seirinkan. There were virtually no bad meals on the entire trip, but those ones really stood out.
Driving there is easier than I thought it would be! You get pretty used to the side switch. Most road signs were in English. KEP saved us about $20 on tolls. Toyota and NAVI were both great rental companies to deal with.
Kyushu is super beautiful and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in nature, wants to drive around, and is going on their 2nd or 3rd trip. It’s fairly off the beaten path and not as packed with Western tourists.
If you’re not a huge hiker, 1-2 days on Yakushima could be enough. Everything I read made me worry that we were spending too little time there, but honestly we’re just not that into hiking. Maybe if we hadn’t also done Kyushu we would have appreciated an extra day in nature, but the two trails we did satisfied my hiking urges and we were pretty ready to get back to a big city. If you love the outdoors and hiking though then 2 days is not enough!

Spending/hotels:
Tokyo 10/14-10/16: Hotel Mets above the JR station in Koenji. Total was $170 for 2 nights, booked through their website directly. It felt like a steal, and was one of our cheapest stays, but it was also one of our smallest rooms - couldn’t open both carry-ons and still be able to walk around the room. Location was perfect for the tired first part of our trip as we didn’t have to walk far from the train with our bags. They had great communication over e-mail before we arrived and agreed to accept/hold some packages with our SIM cards and Pocket Wi-Fi.
Koyasan 10/16: Shojoshin-in, booked through japaneseguesthouses.com. Total was $230 for 1 night. I was really prepared for barebones accommodation and it felt much more luxurious than I imagined. Highly recommend this place for anyone visiting Koyasan as it wasn’t packed with tourists like some of the others I saw (literal tour busses were parked at a few) and being right next to the cemetery is ideal if that’s a big reason for your visit. There’s no curfew here.
Fukuoka 10/17-10/19: Mizuka Imaizumi next to the Tenjin area. It’s on a bunch of hotel websites but I booked through Airbnb because I had some large discount coupons due to a bad experience this summer. That made it $155 total for 2 nights for a giant room with 3 beds and a couch. It was good for what we paid, but I wouldn’t have paid full price. It was an apart-hotel with a kitchenette, not full service, and definitely had some quirks. Would maybe recommend the room if you have a large group or otherwise get some sort of large discount like we did.
Kurokawa 10/19: Yamamizuki. Lived up to basically every expectation. Booked directly through their website, $477 total for the night (final price we paid after adding the 1500 yen sake bottle) for a “type D” room with a private semi-outdoor bath and nice separate sitting area by the windows with a view. It’s just outside of town which was nice since we obviously had a car (and we actually found driving in the town a bit annoying!)
Kagoshima 10/20: Dormy Inn Kagoshima, in the Tenmonkan area. Booked through agoda, $86 total for 1 night. This was our smallest room on the trip. It was fine. Not as good as Hotel Mets for the same price, but for a Saturday night it was one of the best hotels I could find in the Kagoshima area for <$100. They charged 1000 yen for parking right in the hotel building which was a bonus after all the driving. They also had free ramen after 9:30PM which we made use of given our late arrival, it was surprisingly good.
Yakushima 10/21: Shiki no Yado, around the Onoaida area. Booked directly through e-mail with the owner (contact info on their website.) The owner is very friendly and even though he originally said they had no rooms with private open-air bath available, he put us in one when we arrived. They usually serve dinner (5/7 nights a week) and unfortunately our stay was on one of the dinner-less nights, but that meant we only paid $97 total. They accept cards!
Tokyo 10/22-10/27: we stayed at the Ebisuholic (in Ebisu.) It’s a brand new hotel and feels very trendy. We got the smallest 2-person room, but the bed was gigantic and there was more than enough space for our bags/things without feeling too crowded. The shower was huge and modern. Breakfast was basic but they have really good donuts. Total was $811 for 5 nights after an Agoda discount of 10%, felt very worth the price as it amounted to ~162/night after tax and it was definitely a step above all the other 3-star hotels we had.
Tokyo 10/27-10/28: This was our last-minute additional night and we stayed at the b tokyo shimbashi. It was convenient enough and we paid $154 for the night. Slightly roomier than the Hotel Mets, not by much though. Didn’t love the area. I don’t agree with people who say it doesn’t matter where you stay - it’s hard to stay out of your room/neighborhood from 8am-11pm every day. The hotel was decent for the price especially given that we booked it last minute for a Saturday night, though I’m sure it’s cheaper if you book in advance.
Flights were $1160 each RT. Car rentals were $58 (Yakushima) and $280 (Kyushu, including KEP.) Gas was ~$70 total for both cars. Flights from Kagoshima - Yakushima - Tokyo were $220 total per person. Shinkansens were $220 per person. Haven't fully calculated the daily spending yet but sure we kept it under $100 per person/day even counting our nicer meals.
Pics

[Model Indymedia] MANO DUNCA: SENIOR CLASSICAL LIBERAL REFUSES TO CONDEMN GENOCIDE: When Neo-liberalism Becomes Fascism

A guide to the Guatemalan genocide, fascism disguised as "anti-communism", and a former Prime Minister's bizarre decision to not condemn it

Those who have ever interacted with Duncs within any context will be aware of his often self contradictory radical nationalist views and his refusal to actually admit that he or any of his heroes could do any wrong. One thing that has never really been associated with the Classical Liberals' Svengali is making light of genocide... until now. In a spectacular example of someone turning the tables on themselves, Duncs managed to turn a discussion on Soviet genocides (something he is an enthusiastic commentator on) into himself making light of the Guatemalan genocide. Declaring death to be preferable to communism, and lovingly quoting Ronald Reagan, Duncs (who is probably the most enthusiastically pro Israel man in British politics) would refuse to condemn Israel's role in sending weapons to the fascist Guatemalan government while it was openly committing genocide, instead pouring scorn on sources such as... er... Ronald Reagan's personal files, Israeli intelligence officers, and... er... the Guatemalan president at the time, Efraín Ríos Montt
This is more than just a social media gaffe from an elder statesman of the realm, however. This is a slipping of the mask. In his refusal to condemn Israel's role in the Guatemalan genocide, or the genocide in general, all the while quoting Reagan (a supporter of the genocide), Duncs unwittingly shows us the true nature of right wing capitalist ideology, and it's genocidal "better dead than red" mantra.

Strap in, folks. This article does not contain my usual humour. I discuss a heavy topic in detail and at length. If you want to avoid discussions of genocide, rape, slavery, child murder, Ronald Reagan, look away now... I honestly don't blame you

PART UNO: BANANAMAN, MONROE AND NAPOLEON THE FAT

First off, we need to explore in detail the Guatemalan Genocide, which peaked between 1981 and 1983 in a period known as the "Silent Holocaust" and saw 200,000 Guatemalans (mostly ethnic Mayans) massacred by the army and the government-backed fascist death squads such as Mano Blanca ("White Hand"). The roots of these killings can be traced back to the 1873-1885 Presidency of the Liberal party's Justo Raffino Barrios, who, to build a coffee industry in Guatemala, implemented a system of peasantry that resulted in Guatemalan civilians often being no more than serfs for corrupt landowners. With the growing implementation of the USA's Monroe Doctrine starting in the 1890s, multinational corporations such as United Fruit took an interest in Guatemala. Many authoritarian Guatemalan leaders followed, and allowed US companies (most prominent of whom being United Fruit) to take much of Guatemala's land and hold huge numbers of Guatemalans in effective serfdom. The government also privatised many state owned assets, exempted many US companies from tax, and had it's police and military work closely with US forces inside the country. It was the interference of the US and it's businesses that would lead to the rise of fascism in Guatemala, a stain it has still not washed away

Notable among these Authoritarian leaders was Liberal party leader Manuel Estrada Cabrera (president between 1898-1920), for it was he who allowed United Fruit into Guatemala. Having run out of funds for building railways due to a collapse in the coffee trade, Estrada Cabrera went to United Fruit and signed a contract for them to finish the work in return for land, tax exemptions, and control of all railroads on the Atlantic side of the country. United Fruit's treatment of workers, and Estrada Cabrera's brutal rule in general, made him unpopular. he established a fearsome spy network and had many political rivals murdered. In one typical incident, United Fruit workers went on strike, and the company went directly to the president for a response. The army was sent in to the workers' compound, where the soldiers "arrived in the night, firing indiscriminately into the workers' sleeping quarters, wounding and killing an unspecified number". In 1906, elections were held by the people against Estrada Cabrera's will. He had the president-elect killed.

By 1920, Estrada Cabrera was a weak leader, deeply unpopular with his people and reliant on loyalty from influential generals. However, with Estrada Cabrera having been backed by the American government steadfastly, the US threatened to invade if a revolution dethroned him. Instead, both parties of the Guatemalan Legislature had him declared mentally unfit, and replaced him with Carlos Herrera.

1931 saw the beginning of the presidency of self-described Napoleon reincarnation (and fascist), Jorge Ubico (1931-1944). Ubico is widely regarded as one of the most totalitarian and violent rulers in Latin American history United Fruit became by far the largest landowner in Guatemala, with Ubico just giving them hundreds of thousands of hectares of land and crushing any attempts from the mostly Amerindian peasant population to live tolerable lives. Ubico asked the company to pay its workers only 50 cents a day, to prevent other workers from demanding higher wages. Ubico passed laws allowing landowners to execute workers as a "disciplinary" measure. He also exempted United Fruit from tax and allowed the US to establish military bases in the country. Like Estrada Cabrera, Ubico created a widespread network of spies and informants and had large numbers of political opponents tortured and put to death

The peasant system looked likely to collapse after the 1929 New York Stock Exchange crash. To ensure United Fruit and coffee plantations had enough workers, Ubico implemented a system of debt slavery and forced labour. Openly identifying as a fascist, Ubico stated "I am like Hitler. I execute first and ask questions later." Ubico was disdainful of the indigenous population, calling them "animal-like", and stated that to become "civilized" they needed mandatory military training, comparing it to "domesticating donkeys." These attitudes would be widespread throughout the later genocide

John Gunther, who visited in 1941, described Guatemala as "a country 100 per cent dominated by a single man... He [Ubico] has spies and agents everywhere, and knows everyone's private business to an amazing degree. Not a pin drops in Guatemala without his knowing it." He likened Guatemala under Ubico to "a modern jail."

Needless to say, the USA continued to back Ubico (a close ally and admirer of Hitler) while fighting the European fascist threats of Hitler and Mussolini in the 2nd World War. After his overthrow in 1944, Ubico was granted refuge in New Orleans, where he would die of cancer 2 years later

In 1944, Ubico was finally deposed by the populace after a general strike. In free and fair elections, former teacher and philosopher Juan José Arévalo was elected on a social democratic ticket, promising mild reforms. While not abolishing the feudal agrarian system of Ubico, Arévalo sought to raise the minimum wage and implement literacy programs. He also sought to implement universal suffrage. His vision of Guatemala (Arevalismo) was that of a capitalist society with a strong welfare element. Juan Jose was no communist. He exiled several communist activists, refused to legalise the Communist Party of Guatemala, removed government officials with ties to the communist newspaper and shut down the Marxist school, Escuela Claridad

Naturally, the Americans called him a communist, and United Fruit started lobbying the US government for his removal. The US funded 25 seperate unsuccessful coup attempts. In 6 years

Arévalo retired from politics prior to the next election, where he was succeeded by former soldier Jacobo Árbenz. He was similar in ideology to his predecessor, and continued his reforms while promising to turn Guatemala from "a backward country with a predominantly feudal economy into a modern capitalist state." He also made an effort to reach out to the Mayans, who had been viewed as an inferior race by Ubico and oppressed accordingly. Unused land was seized and redistributed. While Jacobo was by no means a communist, Untied Fruit lobbied the US government to have him overthrown in the name of "anti-communism". The legendary propagandist Edward Bernays was hired by United Fruit to this end, successfully convincing the US press and politicians of the enormous lie that Guatemala was a communist state. The CIA joined in when it launched Operation PBSUCCESS, with Eisenhower's authorisation. A psychological warfare campaign and threatened invasion led to the army deserting Árbenz, and his resignation. The CIA's appointed successor, Carlos Castillo Armas, was a fascist colonel. Along with other people with fascist leanings, he started the National Liberation Movement (MLN). The founders of the party described it as the "party of organized violence."

After the CIA coup, hundreds of Guatemalans were rounded up and killed. Documents obtained by the National Security Archive revealed that the CIA was involved in planning assassinations of enemies of the new military government. Once again, the liberal interventionists had deliberately installed a fascist government

Árbenz had been a principled capitalist during his rule. However, he was radicalised by the circumstances of his overthrow, and in 1957 he joined the Communist Party

PART DOS: THE AXIS OF ARSEHOLES OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND KILL THE MAYANS

The US, of course, was not alone in it's imperialist ventures. It was backed in these ventures by Apartheid South Africa, Argentina, Taiwan, Mexico, and Israel.

This military government of Guatemala reversed the reforms of the democratically elected presidents. This economic injustice, social tension, and racism from the white government towards the majority Mayan and Ladino populace, led to an officers revolt in 1960. Unsuccessful, the officers went into hiding, which started the civil war. The government, on the advice of the Americans, set up multiple death squads, the most notable of which being Mano Blanca. A thousand Green Berets were also sent by the United States, along with military consultants, some of whom were implicated in the setting up of the death squads. in 1963, U.S. advisors began to work with Colonel Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio to defeat the guerrillas, borrowing extensively from counterinsurgency strategies and technology employed in Vietnam. In subsequent years, Arana earned the nickname "Butcher of Zacapa" for killing 15,000 peasants to eliminate 300 suspected rebels. The death squads were often funded by wealthy landowners, and by 1966 those accused of having leftist sympathies were being killed in their thousands. By 1967, the Guatemalan army claimed to have 1,800 civilian paramilitaries under its direct control. These paramilitaries, and the army itself, were trained by the Green Berets, and their generals were trained in the CIA run School of the Americas. According to Susanne Jonas, "the U.S. military attaché during this period publicly claimed credit for instigating their formation as part of "counterterror" operations"

In response to 15,000 civilians being killed by the government, the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (E.G.P.) emerged in the 1970s. The government responded by stepping up their killings, with the first large massacre being committed at Panzos in 1978. A peasant demonstration was fired upon by the military with rifles and machine guns

This marked an upturn in systemic killings. More than 100 villagers of Olopa were murdered by the Mobile Military Police in 1978, including several religious workers, 15 women and more than 40 children. Reports from peasants said that the death squads and military would murder small children in Olopa by grabbing them and breaking their backs over the knees. Another infamous death squad, the ESA, announced it's existence in 1978, with the following message released in January 1979:

"The Command of the Secret Anti-Communist Army [ESA] is presenting by means of this bulletin an ‘ultimatum’ to the following trade unionists, professionals, workers and students: ... [it] warns them all that it has already located them and knows perfectly well where to find these nefarious communist leaders who are already condemned to DEATH, which will therefore be carried out without mercy..."

Israel had begun it's involvement in the conflict in the 70s, acting as a proxy for US arms shipments given the US congress' opposition to the shipments, and also in an attempt to boost Israel's own arms industry. By 1983, the New York Times reported that Israel was acting as a surrogate for the United States (in a similar fashion to its actions in Nicaragua). The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) calculates that 39 percent of Guatemala's weapons imports between 1975 and 1979 were from Israel. These shipments included Galil automatic rifles, IMI Uzi submachine guns, FN MAG general purpose machine guns, IAI Arava STOL aircraft, RBY MK 1 armored cars, patrol boats, field kitchens, and large quantities of ammunition.

The Israeli Press estimated that around 300 Israeli military advisors were operating in Guatemala, performing training in counter insurgency, surveillance, and intelligence matters. With funding from USAID, Israeli specialists – acting as subcontractors for the United States – held torture workshops with the Contras in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. High-ranking officers from Guatemala also attended courses in interrogation in Tel-Aviv – also with funds from USAID

Guatemalan Generals had high praise reserved for Israel. In 1981, General Benedicto Lucas Garcia – the architect of the Guatemalan army's "scorched-earth" policy – proclaimed that the "Israeli soldier is the model for our soldiers". In a 1982 interview with ABC News, General Efraín Ríos Montt attributed the success of his coup to the fact that his soldiers "were trained by Israelis". General Rodolfo Lobos Zamora, a leading military official during the conflict, mentioned the United States, Israel, and Argentina as countries that "spontaneously" offered military aid Guatemala

The Argentinian military junta was a close friend of Guatemala's fascists also. Working alongside the US in Operation Charly, Argentina provided material aid as well as a framework for the government's crackdowns

A minimum of 8,195 people were assassinated in Guatemala in 1979–80. It was at this time that Argentina had started provided army and naval officers to aid with counter insurgency operations. The government started conscripting thousands of villagers into "civil patrols". The Catholic Church estimated that 11,000 people were killed in 1981. In April 1981, President Reagan's national security team agreed to supply military aid to the Guatemalan regime in order to exterminate leftist guerrillas and their "civilian support mechanisms," according to a document from the National Archives. Reagan also stepped up military aid to Guatemala, despite a congressional embargo. Such aid included a $3.2 million shipment of 150 jeeps and trucks and shipments of three Bell-212 and six Bell-412 helicopters – worth $10.5 million – which were reportedly indispensable to the Guatemalan Army's capacity to transport its troops into the highlands for counterinsurgency sweeps. While condemning human rights abuses of "the extreme right" in public, Reagan secretly sent weapons to Efraín Ríos Montt through Israeli government channels so that they couldn't be traced to the US. Robert Parry (the journalist who broke the Iran-Contra scandal) traced a delivery of 10 helicopter gunships from the US, via Israel. Identical helicopters were seen mowing down Guatemalan peasants who were fleeing a massacre

The Government's 1981 operations in Guatemala City were massively boosted by aid from Israel and Argentina. The military's new computer system had been installed by Tadiran Electronics Industries Ltd. of Israel. Argentine advisors introduced a data analysis system developed during the "Dirty War" in Argentina, which was used to monitor electrical and water usage to pinpoint the coordinates of guerrilla safe-houses. Due in part to this support, a number of clandestine "safe-houses" operated by the insurgents were subsequently infiltrated and a clandestine network of the Organizacion del Pueblo en Armas (ORPA) was destroyed in Guatemala City. Argentine military advisors also participated in the Guatemalan army's rural scorched-earth campaign in the Guatemalan highlands in 1981 code-named "Operation Ash 81."

1981 also saw 200 Guatemalan officers sent to Buenos Aires to undergo advanced military intelligence training, which included instruction in interrogation. In addition to working with the regular security forces, Argentine military advisors as well as a squadron of Argentina's special forces unit Batallón de Inteligencia 601 worked directly with the government's paramilitary death squads, most notably the ESA

With Efraín Ríos Montt's ascension to power, the genocide reached new heights, known as the "Silent Holocaust". Civilians in "red" areas are reported to have been beheaded, garroted, burned alive, bludgeoned to death, or hacked to death with machetes. At least 250,000 children were estimated to have lost at least one parent to the violence; in El Quiche province alone these children numbered 24,000. In many cases, the Guatemalan military specifically targeted children and the elderly. Soldiers were reported to have killed children in front of their parents by smashing their heads against trees and rocks. Soldiers at times raped pregnant women.The military also employed false flags, committing rapes and massacres while disguised as guerillas. One example is the massacre of up to 300 civilians by government soldiers in the village of Las Dos Erres. The abuses included "burying some alive in the village well, killing infants by slamming their heads against walls, keeping young women alive to be raped over the course of three days. This was not an isolated incident. Rather it was one of over 400 massacres documented by the truth commission – some of which, according to the commission, constituted 'acts of genocide.'" according to testimony to the UN

In October 1982, it was discovered that the US Army Special Forces were instructing Guatemalan Army cadets in a wide range of counterinsurgency tactics at the Escuela Politecnica, the Guatemalan Army's main officer training school. The curriculum offered to Guatemalan cadets by the US Special Forces during this period included training in surveillance, small arms, artillery, demolitions, ambushes, "helicopter assault tactics" and how to destroy towns. In early 1982, with authorisation from the US government, ten M41 Walker Bulldog light tanks were illegally delivered to Guatemala by ASCO – a Belgian company – at a cost of $34 million. The 10 tanks were part of a U.S. government authorised shipment of 22 tanks from Belgium to the Dominican Republic. Only twelve of the tanks were unloaded and the remainder were shipped to the Guatemalan military in Puerto Barrios on the Caribbean coast

In December 1982, Reagan met Ríos Montt in Honduras, where Reagan dismissed reports of human rights abuses by prominent human rights organizations while insisting that Ríos Montt was receiving a "bum rap". Human Rights Watch reported that soon after, the Reagan administration announced that it was dropping a five-year prohibition on arms sales and moreover had "approved a sale of $6.36 million worth of military spare parts," to Rios Montt. Shortly after President Reagan's "bum rap" comment, Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights Elliott Abrams went on television to defend the announced resumption of military aid: The army massacres and the ensuing refugee flows should be blamed "on the guerrillas who are fighting the government", he said. Massacres and refugees are "the price of stability."

18,000 killings were documented in 1982. In April 1982 alone (Ríos Montt's first full month in office), the military committed 3,330 documented killings, a rate of approximately 111 per day. Historians and analysts estimate the total death toll could exceed this number by the tens of thousands. Some sources estimate a death toll of up to 75,000 during the Ríos Montt period, mostly within the first eight months between April and November 1982.

In 1983, Guatemalan officers travelled to South Africa and Namibia to study first-hand South African techniques being employed against the SWAPO independence movement, particularly those used in isolating the SWAPO from its civilian infrastructure. Also of interest to Guatemalan intelligence was the South African experience in fighting Cuban forces in Angola. Material support was provided by South Africa as well. Sources reported as early as 1981 that South Africa was assisting the Lucas regime in the construction of an armaments factory in Guatemala. In November 1984, high ranking South African Generals L.B. Erasmus and Alexander Potgeiter headed a delegation to Guatemala which toured Guatemalan military bases and installations and held talks with government officials to discuss continued military aid.

Ríos Montt was removed in a coup in 1983. The killings continued at a reduced rate after the removal of the military government in 1986, with the CIA employing the death squad leaders as informants and supplying them with intelligence on guerrillas, farmers, peasants, and other opponents

Taiwan and Mexico's roles are less well documented, but they are known to have provided material and moral support to the Guatemalan regime

Summarising Reagan's role in the genocide, Human Rights Watch stated:

"In light of its long record of apologies for the government of Guatemala, and its failure to repudiate publicly those apologies even at a moment of disenchantment, we believe that the Reagan Administration shares in the responsibility for the gross abuses of human rights practiced by the government of Guatemala"

PART TRES: TIME HEALS ALL WOUNDS...

Even now, in 2019, the wounds of the civil war are not allowed to heal as it's perpetrators still rule. Efraín Ríos Montt was never truly punished for his crimes and entered democratic politics after his overthrow. In 1989 he founded the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) with a view to running for the presidency in 1990. However, the constitution blocked those who had participated in military coups from running. Instead, Ríos Montt became a congressman, which made him immune to prosecution. Alfonso Portillo was made the party's candidate, and he was elected in 1999. Portillo filled the Constitutional court with FRG supporters, and the party organised riots in Guatemala City that intimidated the Supreme Court into accepting the Costitutional Court's decision to allow Ríos Montt to stand in the 2003 presidential election. He finished 3rd, and went back to being a congressman. On 10th May 2013 he was convicted of crimes against humanity and genocide, carrying an 80 year sentence. However, 10 days later, the Constitutional Court overturned this conviction. In the subsequent retrial, it was ruled that Ríos Montt could not be imprisoned due to his age. He died of a heart attack, aged 91, in 2018. Then and current president, Jimmy Morales, openly mourned his passing.

National Convergence Front (FCN–Nación) President Jimmy Morales, a comedian by trade, is a hard right nationalist who denies the genocide ever happened. FCN–Nación is a party formed by military officers, many who fought in the civil war. Jimmy's right hand man, Édgar Justino Ovalle Maldonado, commanded "counter-insurgency" operations against the Ixil Maya during the height of the genocide that resulted in multiple massacres. These killings have been described by the Supreme Court of Guatemala as genocide

Morales' predecessor, Otto Pérez Molina, was also a commander of counter insurgency teams implicated in the genocide of Ixil Maya, and he played his part in the scorched earth policies of the early 1980s. His team, which he commanded between 1982-83, was implicated in forced resettlements, mass murder, destruction of villages, kidnap, and torture. Molina has also been implicated in the murders of Efraín Bámaca and Catholic Bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera. Gerardi was murdered 2 days after presenting a report on human rights in Guatemala to the UN

Molina's party, Partido Patriota (PP), was a member of the Liberal International alongside the Liberal Democrats and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. PP was dissolved by court order in 2017 due to widespread corruption.

Despite his apologia for fascist murders, the jester on the throne still boasts the backing of the world's liberal governments. Jimmy Morales holds two honours to his name. He was awarded the Order of Brilliant Jade with Grand Cordon by Taiwan (one of only 22 recipients since 1933) in January 2017; and an honorary doctorate, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in November 2016

PART CUATRO: BETTER DUNCS THAN RED

Now, let's look at the conversation that spawned this article.

Some Tory posted a low effort meme about communist deaths and tagged the Greens. Noting the irony of the party of Churchill and Thatcher talking about support for genocide, yours truly posted a picture of a mass grave from the Guatemalan genocide (which, as we've covered, was heavily supported by Thatcher's thunder buddy Ronald Reagan).

This was the response from Duncs

General Secretary Ray, Tory politician Rand, and Myself all called this out (META: I do not buy his "I didn't see it" excuse given that, due to our use of discord, he would have been looking directly at the picture as he posted). Duncs then approvingly posted an anti-communist quote from Reagan. I repeatedly asked why I should be held to account for the crimes of Stalin when Stalin would have had me killed for my political views. I also had a Reagan quote of my own:

"President Ríos Montt is a man of great personal integrity and commitment. ... I know he wants to improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and to promote social justice."

I asked if he condemned the role of Reagan and Israel in the genocide. His reply?

"My parting comment would be this. Has Israel done some shady shit? Quite probably. Have other countries done shady shit? Yes. Does that shady shit impact those country’s right to exist? No. Does the Jewish state have a right to exist? Yes"

There we are. Israel has "quite probably" done "shady" shit. No condemnation of what happened in Guatemala. No response to the well known links. None whatsoever. I asked for a simple yes or no on if he condemned the genocide or Israel's role in it. Response came there none

In this context, we can see why Duncs (a man who makes a huge song and dance of his opposition to Soviet genocides) would make light of the Silent Holocaust, for his personal hero Reagan played an integral role in it's most violent stage. It was a direct result of the fervent "anti-communism" that he himself espouses. Not only this, Duncs is the sort of person who views all criticisms of the Israeli government as illegitimate, or even anti-Semitic attacks on it's right to exist. this was shown in the twitter conversation where he brought this up completely unprompted. Nobody at any point attacked Israel's right to exist or even brought it up. In fact, throwawayravenclaw, describing themself as a "proud left wing zionist and Jew", had already shown up to condemn the atrocities. There was no issue of Israel's existence being attacked, but merely me asking Duncs if he was willing to condemn a state he supported aiding genocidal acts when he'd asked me to do the same for one he (wrongly) assumed I supported (and I'd obliged with some choice language).

I also wonder what opinion on Central American feudal peasants is held by a man who said "the poor have had it too good for too long". This is far from just a Duncs problem, however. The entire Classical Liberal party's ideology stems from him, and it comes from a tradition that is prevalent across the spectrum, even in Labour and the Lib Dems, but specifically in the Tories and LPUK.

PART CINCO: FREEDOM THROUGH FASCISM

This is the outlook of neo-liberalism. The ideology is the continuation of the economic liberalism that drove the US, Israel and Taiwan in their support of the Guatemalan fascists. We see the contradiction at the heart of this neo-liberal ideology: freedom, but only for the privileged few. The "freedom" we experience in the West is built on the skinned backs and kneecapped legs of the global poor. Neo-liberal ideology is about deception and double standards: socialism for the rich, cutthroat capitalist competition for the poor. Freedom of speech in Britain and America while their companies fund death squads in countries like Colombia to murder thousands of workers who speak up against oppression. We are told that a market should be free: the freer the market, the freer the people. Yet our governments will happily intervene with arms and skullduggery in any nation that doesn't play ball.

Guatemala, with the brutal repression of over a century of US backed military dictatorships, is this contradictory rhetoric distilled into pure and unadulterated praxis. Even Arbenz, a liberal reformer who declared his desire to make Guatemala a "modern capitalist state", was too radical for the forces of global economic liberalism. Rather, the advocates of freedom and equality enforced a fascist military dictatorship that led to a 36 year long civil war and a genocide. The basic measures that these Western leaders implemented back home as the rights of all men were decried as "communism" and "Marxism" when attempted in the states whose exploitation their prosperity depended on. Nixon, while visiting Guatemala during the civil war, declared it to be "free". The only freedom there was the freedom to exploit. This is the only freedom economic elites care for.

For the economic elite, they gain freedom through fascism

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