Image is from this article, of a Chilean copper quarry.
Title is a reference to Trump's social media post about copper, which was, as usual, mostly deranged.
Trying to follow Trump's administration is pretty difficult, but as of right now, he is threatening 30% tariffs on Mexico and the EU starting on August 1st, as well as new tariff announcements on a bunch of other countries (including, bizarrely, a 50% tariff on Brazil), and also apparently a 50% tariff on copper, which the US imports half its supply of and is, of course, a very important metal in many applications.
I'm not sure what the plan is to bring back domestic copper production beyond hoping that it just sorta works out, but prominent copper producers, such as Chile and Canada, seem both concerned and confused. Reuters had a line that made me chuckle:
Boric said he was awaiting official communication from the U.S. government, including whether the tariffs would include copper cathodes, and questioned "whether this will actually be implemented or not."
Big mood, Boric.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
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Corbyn party now at 15. This is probably the last shot the UK has to pull out of a tailspin without a revolution.
I really hope Corbyn and co. have enough candidates to run all over the place. They'll never get a first election again and probably never have this much media coverage again either, it will be a real waste if it's just to get him and Zarah reelected in their consituencies.
Expecting Labour to see the writing on the wall and call an early election to hand it to Reform if the JCP is gaining momentum and poses a real threat
hate this shit tbh bc the "Corbyn party" doesn't exist yet and it's not clear whether Corbyn even wants to be involved in a leadership position. very premature, worried that a lot of people are gonna end up disappointed in this org, there's a lot of enthusiasm rn that needs to be seized upon and they're just not doing it.
Revolution is scary and impractical so it makes sense that much of the western left is so willing to constantly throw itself behind even hypothetical movements.
Not hating on OP, moreso folks like the SWP that were sidelined from involvement with this potential party and are still trying to act like the trotskyists will be able to seize Whitehall through an act of parliament.
Yeah, it seems like revolution in the UK would be dependent on trots, so it's not really in the offing. It would be ideal though.
The trotskyist sects (and the ML ones really) are largely vestigial organisations anyway and mostly end up following the lead of the most advanced edge of various social movements and their emergent leadership. It won't be them defining any revolutionary moment, but new generations of leaders and organisations that have been coming through for a couple of decades now. Last summer was the closest thing to a revolutionary crisis I've seen in this country since I've been alive; I've never seen a crowd of hundreds of people gather in my city, cheer a speech calling openly for revolution, and march off to physically confront fascists in the streets, either before or since then. The police were completely unable to control the situation at that point and it was left to the masses to do so.
It wasn't the Trots who organised any of that but the anarchists, unaffiliated Marxists, and less explicitly political social organisers - the trots were hapless and sluggish, and ended up following our lead. This was only possible because of the severity of the crisis at that moment and the need to act quickly, and it abated once the fascists were no longer terrorising people in the streets. When a more severe and longer-lasting crisis emerges, something that again threatens the immediate physical wellbeing of the masses, this dynamic will assert itself again and there will be very rapid developments that will open up space for a revolution. My money is on either a global famine or an imminent nuclear war triggering this eventually, but an outright fascist putsch following the collapse of the coming Reform government might also do it.
I'm not familiar with the particulars of the events you're describing, but it sounds almost exactly like what Lenin experienced in the course of the Russian Revolution.
Revolutionary parties are not what spark or lead these spontaneous explosions of class anger and often times are surprised by the masses moving. The Bolsheviks were not organizing protests in 1917 and oftentimes found themselves behind the curve of where the masses were at. It was only after the formation of the Soviets and after Kerensky had severely discredited himself in the July Days that the Bolsheviks gained traction with the masses and were able to play a leading role in the Soviets, resulting in the October Revolution.
I'm not trying to compare where you are right now to 1917 - obviously the situation is way different but - Trots or anarchists or whoever, revolutionaries are in the streets and gaining in popularity because the consciousness of the proletariat is developing. That's not due to the work of these groups. They're simply seizing on the opportunity as best as they can. The real thing that's driving this is Capitalism, and more people will keep showing up until there's a revolutionary situation. We just gotta do what we can to ensure that the right people are in the best possible position to seize on that when the revolutionary situation arises, and try to win over as many workers as we can to those causes.
This is wild. Is the Corbyn Party even a thing yet? And they're still polling equal to the Labour party with all it's resources and it's entrenched position in a two party system.
Are there any predictions on how many seats each one will get?
The Corbyn party is still hypothetical, nothing has been formalised yet. The 15% is purely based on his name recognition / hate for other parties. I assume when they create an actual program and campaign the polling would change a lot
It isnt registered legally. Corbyn was recently a speaker at the Durham Miner's Gala and didn't utter a word about it. Oh, and it already has wreckers leaking messages to the press.
Corbs is apparently pissed off at Zarah Sultana for announcing it and was telling her to take the post down. Also seems to he pissed off that Zarah said shit about it being a co-leader syatem when he hasn't agreed to it. Depending on who you ask it's either coz Corbyn doesn't like co-leader systems or coz he wants to run the show himself.
I'm gonna vote for anything that isnt fash anyway, but I think this stuff is too early to call because there's a lot of ratfucking and liberalism that will need to be addressed. The insistence on forming a party against the Greens seems like a big risk too. Our FPTP system is so fucked that they'll need well over half the vote to have a good chance at forming a cohesive govt. And even then, I'm not sure if the ratfucking would stop.