A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like "in Minecraft") and comments containing it will be removed.

Image depicts Kim Jong-un accompanied by China's Wang Huning, crossing the New Yalu River Bridge on a day's visit to China.


My weekly preamble is in spoiler tags below.

preambleThe situation in the Middle East remains very tense, with the two major points of speculation being 1) whether the war will resume at all, or if the US is bluffing to try and get Iran to concede on their demands, and 2) assuming the war will resume, whether the US will conduct strikes on Iran before or after the elections within the Zionist entity; the point being to try and further delay the elections by citing the war they started as an emergency and therefore keep Netanyahu in power. Quite frankly, if Netanyahu wants to risk destroying the whole Zionist project just to save his own skin, then I have no objections - aside from the part where he might do immense damage to the world economy in the process by prompting Iran's promise of regional retaliation, of course. Meanwhile, the Saudis keep getting pummelled, with Ansarallah landing missile after missile on pipeline pumping stations, airbases, military officials, and troop accumulations. Even the Western media is becoming dour about MBS's prospects. Attempts to isolate Iran economically are becoming rather spotty. Pakistan briefly halted their border exchange with Iran, but once Iran splashed cold water on their face by restricting their fossil fuel exports into Pakistan - which is already in a politically unstable situation - they wised up quickly and reopened them.

Next up, we have the surprising victory of Lula in the second round of the Brazilian elections. A loss in the first round into a victory in the second round hasn't happened in Brazilian history since 1989, and the president winning a fourth term via a democratic vote is unprecedented - and I fully confess that I went into this thinking Bolsonaro was gonna scrape by with a ~0.5% lead, so I will publicly and gladly admit to being wrong. The regular suite of electoral irregularities and not-quite-illegal tactics took place to try and prevent Lula from gaining the requisite votes, including a swathe of widespread interruptions to public transportation in cities that typically vote for Lula, as well as Meta putting a thumb on the scale by apparently reducing the visibility of Lula's online campaign. However, countering that was an upsurge of people who were otherwise unengaged who presumably went "oh shit" when they saw the first round results, as well as an emergency two hour extension to voting in order to counter the aforementioned public transportation interruptions. The next year or two will determine if Lula's victory is a curious aberration or instead a breakwater to the rising tide of conservatism in Latin America, fueled somewhat by explicit American intervention but mostly by the populace themselves finding little hope in lukewarm social democrats and instead finding community in, among other places, right-wing evangelical religious groups. I recommend RedSails 2023 piece, Reformists, Revolutionaries, and Social Liberals, which delves into the broad contours of the Latin American and particularly Brazilian political landscape, and how even reformism has been essentially abandoned in many countries in the region (and, therefore, why ground has been ceded to the right-wing lately).

It remains difficult to keep track of global events as the crisis worsens. The Hormuz oil glut prophesized by the US military and its quislings is still yet to show signs of being founded in reality, with Brent oil prices now reaching highs resembling those in the period of outright war in April, and emergency fuel supplies in the US being increasingly dipped into. While the biggest cause of this price increase is obviously the literal scarcity of oil, some of this trend is due to comically high tanker rates (which are that high due to a number of factors but which all still ultimately stem from Iranian strikes on tankers trying to slip through the strait), and some of it is due to China amping up their oil imports just in time for the US midterms, which puts further stress on world supplies. All of this pressure continues to feed protests and riots, of which those in Europe have received the most attention. The pressure on populations is coming at the exact same time that broader financial conditions reach points that usually prompt austerity measures, creating a pressure cooker of contradictions which governments will have to attempt to survive. Some have already failed to do so, such as Serbia's - however, as I said last week, the root cause of the dissatisfaction is typically another factor that the economic problems are merely fueling (i.e. in Serbia's case, a student movement).

As a more positive final note, Kim Jong-un visited the Chinese border city of Dandong to commemorate the 76th anniversary of Chinese troops marching to help northern Korea during the Korean War, with both countries reportedly seeking to deepen their industrial and trade cooperation. The New Yalu River Bridge between the two has finally formally opened after a 12 year delay, shortly after a bridge between the DPRK and Russia was completed last month.


Last week's thread is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine

If you have evidence of Zionist crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

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:

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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[–] 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (2 children)

I don't think anyone disputes that fact that these media certainly play a significant role in all of this, but to say the they unabashedly supported the student movement from the beginning is inaccurate. In fact, during the infancy of the movement, there were serious struggles about them even being an electoral movement. So much so, these same media houses then gave space to a certain liberal professor who labeled all the students opposed to an electoral reorientation as the "Khmer Rouge". His attacks were aimed at the students representing the Faculty of Philosophy in these plenary sessions, who were pretty much the most left oriented of all faculty students. How come did these tribulations occur if, as Berletic says, "this movement was planned years in advance", and funded by the west? In fact, as of today the Student List released all the people who gave them campaign donations, and everyone on that list is part of the local, petty bourgeois of this nation. The fact of the matter is, there is no concrete evidence to suggest this was a movement funded whatsoever by western NGO's. This was an organic movement that, in it's infancy having anarchist-like organizational tendencies, failed to achieve anything whatsoever with them, which then was transformed into an electoral movement where the liberals reigned supreme.

And what Berletic further claims in his video is laughable when it comes to Vucic, that he was secretly "uprooting" NGO's, when in reality the context of that event was Trump and Elon defunding USAID, and then jumping on that bandwagon and talking about the dangers of "woke". Although considering I wrote this and this comment, I don't think I need to elaborate further why a colour revolution against Vucic is not necessary whatsoever. In fact, if there is a silver lining, it's that the Student List will have nowhere near the executive power that Vucic possessed, and therefore will not be able to push through something like illegally granting permission for Jared Kushner to build a luxury hotel on the site of a building meant to commemorate the US bombing of Serbia.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 hours ago* (1 child)

    And what Berletic further claims in his video is laughable when it comes to Vucic, that he was secretly "uprooting" NGO's, when in reality the context of that event was Trump and Elon defunding USAID, and then jumping on that bandwagon and talking about the dangers of "woke"

    This is a mischaracterization of his argument. He said there's two possible scenarios. One is that vucic was uprooting NGOs, the other is that he is completely complicit with Trump and the EU. He said he leans towards the latter, but that this movement is completely captured by Western Liberals so there really was no choice (it was a choice between Western Liberals and Western Liberals). He specifically made another video about how this being a color revolt doesn't mean Vucic is the "good guy", he's not being a "campist" he's just doing materialist analysis and following the money.

    He also doesn't blame "woke" he is attacking the fake rainbow imperialism of the West, which many users here do as well. Western imperialism uses the modern white man's burden of "women's rights" and "gay rights" to destroy their enemies and topple nations in a cynical manner in the same way the British used to use "civilizing the savages" as theirs. Western "woke" NGOs are a fucking cancer that need to be destroyed in these nations, do I need to remind you of the words of Lukashenko?

    I'm sorry to say this, but often the people too close to these situations cannot see them clearly. There was a Nepali user here in the previous color revolt arguing much like that you are that it was a "anarchist" and "organic". He deleted his account in shame after the obvious came out. Vibes are not a useful heuristic, following the money is always correct. A lot goes on under the table in these situations that the average protester is not aware of, swept up in a public fervor of emotion, that they are being manipulated by massive economic powers.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 hours ago*

    This is a mischaracterization of his argument. He said there's two possible scenarios. One is that vucic was uprooting NGOs, the other is that he is completely complicit with Trump and the EU. He said he leans towards the latter, but that this movement is completely captured by Western Liberals so there really was no choice (it was a choice between Western Liberals and Western Liberals). He specifically made another video about how this being a color revolt doesn't mean Vucic is the "good guy", he's not being a "campist" he's just doing materialist analysis and following the money.

    And if he followed the money thoroughly enough, he would realize the evidence I myself have provided throughout my comments would prove why there is no up-in-the-air discussion to be had about it. But he can't have access to that evidence because he has not diligently been following this entire process, which I as a denizen of this nation have been practically forced to. Not to mention the obvious fact that the doesn't know the local language (even though his surname is from this region).

    He also doesn't blame "woke" he is attacking the fake rainbow imperialism of the West, which many users here do as well. Western imperialism uses the modern white man's burden of "women's rights" and "gay rights" to destroy their enemies and topple nations in a cynical manner in the same way the British used to use "civilizing the savages" as theirs. Western "woke" NGOs are a fucking cancer that need to be destroyed in these nations, do I need to remind you of the words of Lukashenko?

    You misunderstood what I was trying to say, there's nothing against Berletic in that remark. Rather, I was trying to say that the things Berletic was talking about as regards Vucic "uprooting" NGO's is merely Vucic trying to endear himself to Trump, since it was off of the wave of DOGE cutting off funding from USAID because they were involved in funding LGBTQ+ organizations. Specifically, it was the government checking on NGO's receiving money from USAID, only for many to point out the ironic fact that the Serbian Government was, as a matter of fact, the biggest recipient of USAID. This is exactly the kind of context that Berletic misses when it comes to the topic, because fundamentally, he does not live here and has not followed the whole wave of events that have begun transpiring 2 years ago.

    I'm sorry to say this, but often the people too close to these situations cannot see them clearly. There was a Nepali user here in the previous color revolt arguing much like that you are that it was a "anarchist" and "organic". He deleted his account in shame after the obvious came out. Vibes are not a useful heuristic, following the money is always correct. A lot goes on under the table in these situations that the average protester is not aware of, swept up in a public fervor of emotion, that they are being manipulated by massive economic powers.

    Except my analysis is not based on vibes, but off of the experience of both living here as well as all the actual evidence I have linked throughout the comments that I have made. Unlike some of the people I know, I have never participated in this movement, never endorsed them anywhere, and have not voted for them. If anything I have played devil's advocate, criticizing pro-Student List people on their naivete, whilst also pointing out the absolutely servility of Vucic and his cronies. In one of my comments recently I was just saying how an economics professor here, who is a certifiable neoliberal ghoul that is an MP for the Student List, might become prime minister and was airing out my grievances over it. I have given due credit to Vucic where that was earned, and bashed liberals over the fact that they considered everything coming out of his mouth automatically bad. But that doesn't mean that I don't know that Vucic is an opportunist who will pretty much forget about that statement when it's convenient for him, as I already pointed out with a concrete example of him first criticizing Trump and the US, and then praising them just a few months thereafter in a fucking Fox News piece of all places. Neither side will make the material situation better, but the Student List, with it's ideological confusion combined with their relative impotence as of right now compared to Vucic, will at least stem the tide when it comes to furthering the interests of the west, not because they want to but because they simply don't have Vucic's machinery to make it happen.

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