Image is one of many rallies in Iran in support of the government and the leadership.
short summary here, longish summary in spoiler tags below: Western standoff munition stockpiles now substantially depleted, therefore Western aircraft activity directly over Iran increasing (as is footage of attempted and actual hits against them) as the US attempts to transition more to using bombs dropped directly onto targets, Iran is increasingly in the driver's seat and controlling the conflict, world economy is fucked and yet could still get much worse very soon, if you require a car to live (especially if it's not electric) and cannot work from home then you have my sincere condolences
longish summary here
While I've seen several estimates on the current stockpiles of US and Zionist missiles and interceptors - somewhere in the realm of a third depleted, perhaps even up to half - it seems like we're reaching the point at which the US does not want to commit even more standoff munitions and is trying their luck against the Iranian air defense network directly.
We have already seen footage of Iran attempting to shoot down, and sometimes actually striking Western fifth generation planes like the F-35, and more footage along those lines is appearing for other plane models (with one side claiming that they evaded interception and the other claiming they hit it, etc etc, propaganda is everywhere, you know the drill). How much the US is willing to test their planes against Iranian air defense is a matter of debate. Strictly speaking, a few fighter jets and bombers shot down would be no catastrophic loss in the grand scheme of things, as the US has hundreds. However, the narrative of such a thing would be quite bad for the US - "You're telling me an OBLITERATED Iranian military can shoot down some of our most advanced equipment?? What are we gonna do against China?!" - and given Trump's deranged jingoistic rhetoric aimed to buoy markets, it's clear that he cares very deeply about narratives. Additionally, with Chinese exports of several critical metals to the US banned, the prospect of replacing these aircraft (and indeed the standoff munitions and the interceptors and the ground radars etc) is looking questionable.
All the while, Iran continues its strikes across the Middle East. Missile and drone strikes are reportedly on the uptick again, demonstrating that Iranian military capabilities have by no means been "destroyed" as Western propaganda claim, though it's impossible to sure there was ever a significant downtick due to Western censorship and outright fabrications. People around the world are gradually realizing the magnitude of the economic disaster that is occurring and may yet occur. Refineries and factories which deal with oil and gas directly are starting to slow down or stop production, and those who make products downstream of those are starting to follow them like dominoes. Outrage at gas station prices is rising, and many countries are considering limiting civilian driving and implementing work-from-home policies akin to the coronavirus pandemic. And now, threats are being made by Trump against both Kharg Island (where most Iranian oil is shipped from) and the Iranian electrical grid - which is highly decentralized and would require a prolonged bombing campaign to completely take out -and the promised Iranian reprisal would be apocalyptic to the Middle East. It would make oil prices rise to previously unfathomable heights as oil infrastructure turned off and remained off for months, perhaps years, and set in motion one of the world's greatest humanitarian catastrophes as the desalination necessary for tens of millions of people is shut down. It would also not be a symmetrical problem, as Iran does not rely on desalination for its water supply.
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The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on the Zionists' 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.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
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.
Bummer, the supposed hypersonic gap was cool for a while there but I guess its not surprising the US would catch up. I know we poke fun at the US industrial capacity anemia and inability to build shit at scale but they can also make some cutting edge shit even if actually producing it at scale is more questionable.
The US could pump up Tomahawk production via some means - I dont know what exactly, but apparently the 57 they supposedly made last year isnt actually the upper limit - but its still hard to picture a US state actually bringing industrial scale production up and they havent had to lately because mostly theyve been blowing up more like classic insurgents at an extreme materiel deficit (and losing long term anyway still)
so 410 chgnese missiles (99000 USD) + made wirh their parts. gap not qwite closed. can the US improve that faster than China? but the raw cost is a symptom of a deep incurable disease
China's Rare Earth Dominance and the Strategic Fqilure of the West <- investoids think they can do it just invest in their pet firms. let's see.
if you think the "supposed" hypersonic gap was nice for a while good news we're just gettin startd baby
the pentagon’s hypersonic wepons program relies on superalloys of niobium, tantalum, titanium + hafnium for mach 5 fligh. the us is 100% import relaint for all three. brics nations hold 70 to 80% of known rare earth reserves. 68% of intra brics trade now uses no dllar. china processes 90% of global rare earths. us diversificatin will source from other brics members like brazil + south africa. brics now dominates rare earths, industrial metals + grains. intrabrics trade is up 200% with new dollar bypass ypu prolly know. the march 2026 india brazil critical minerals pact creates a $20 bilion south‑south corridor for rare earths, lithium + niobum. analySSts call it a “third stratgic corridor” bc the US is left out. brics nations (especially china + russia) are net exporters of political risk in critical metals markets. the us military’s tech edge is threatenedby a “brics led mineral realignment”.
stateside domestic capacity is fragmened. mp materials operayes the only major rare earth mine at mountain pass, ca: 43000 metric tons of conc;entrate in 2023. china’s northern rare earth group alone produced over 150000 metric tons that year; total chinese mine output was 270000. relement technologies targets 16000 metric tons per year of separated oxides by 2026. china’s separation capacity exceess 300000. for magnets, usa rare earth plans 600 metric tons per year in 2026, scaling to 1,200 by 2027. e vac magnetics has a new plant at about 2000. noveon magnetics opertes a magnet facility, china produces 85‑90% of global permanent rare earth magnets, over 200000 metric tons annually. jingci material alone produces over 15000 metric tons per year of neodymium iron boron magnets. cyclic materials is building a recycling campus with 600 metric tons per year of mixed rare earth oxides, scaling to 1800 by 2028. china’s grirem advanced materials already recycles over 5000 metric tons per year and is expaning. bottleneck is mid‑stream proessing. historically, mountain pass concentrate was shjpped to china for conversion to metals + oxdes. competing on cost is difficult given china’s fine-tuned state management of the industry, scale, + lower environmental complince costs in some regions. prices for lanthanum + cerium have fallen to levels that make US producton unviable. military keynesianism is on notice
🏅 Proofread Post Award
Cool 😎
I did have a feeling that the PRC could outproduce America and honestly its kind of good to know how dire it is on that front.
Icm not the type to be comfortedby "us prollly gonna fuckd this uo" i strive for They R Swinging Towards The Erong Hole and invariably thatnis true
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Oh yeah and all the advanced material scientists and shit going missing or dieing is weird in the US??? Like, its still a country with a lot of violence but its been a handful dead or missing in weird circumstances in a short spate
It's aliens surpressing our technological advancement like in 3 Body . (I don't actually believe this)
No when I read the headline and reporting on it I legit thought that too lol, because theres also all these drone swarms around US continental bases???
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/irans-drone-attacks-raise-concerns-about-u-s-readiness-for-next-gen-threats
https://abcnews.com/International/multiple-waves-unauthorized-drones-spotted-strategic-us-air/story?id=131245527
Jam resistant unauthorized "criminal" drone swarms, multiple waves of em over a week. Weird story.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15658197/us-scientists-dead-missing-mccasland-reza-albuquerque-california.html
5 dead scientists since December, the tin foil hat one is one of em was an aliens guy apparently. Again, the US is a violent country and people die to random acts of violence.
I wonder how many of these scientists were considered "high risk" for defection?
this and the US missile test feel like preemptive posturing between the US and either China or Russia
if the daily mail says that they're probably just on a scheduled vacation
aliens but how uscis means it
While the gap in fielded hypersonic weapons systems (very important caveat) vs China is very much real, China is the world leader there, after doing further research, the supposed technology gap in hypersonic flight was never real, the US has actually been the technological leader in that field from the 1960s. The X-15 was the first controlled hypersonic flight within the atmosphere, the space shuttle was a massive hypersonic glide vehicle, the X-43A was a hypersonic glide vehicle equipped with a mini scramjet that provided a kick for a few seconds, the X-51 had a scramjet that operated for multiple minutes. Now while the US hadn't weaponised or mass produced said technology, they have always been pushing the envelope there.
The post says IF the test was successful so I wouldn’t doom post just yet
Thry don:t know hjow to rea d theße