this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
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Image is of Elon Musk giving the Nazi salute a week or so ago.


I didn't really want to keep spotlighting American domestic events as I had assumed that shit would calm down pretty quickly, but it appears that the Trump administration, including Musk, are determined to bring down the empire from the inside.

One of the most important lessons of ruling a country - and especially an empire - is to never, ever believe your own propaganda; and yet now we have neo-Nazi failsons disrupting parts of the imperial apparatus and causing general government mayhem because they actually seem to believe in libertarianism; that the state and the capitalists are somehow in opposition, rather than working in lockstep to maximise profit and boost American hegemony around the world.

I'm not so optimistic as to believe that a national collapse is FOUR DAYS AWAY, like those weird anti-China cranks often speculate - the US has at least a decade or two left even under these conditions. But consider the damage being inflicted in these past couple weeks, and extrapolate that over the next four years. Does any living American political figure possess the competency to halt - or even meaningfully slow - the already ongoing decline? And could they achieve power (or even be allowed to do so) after Trump's term is done?


Last week's thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

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The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli 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 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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[–] [email protected] 60 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (2 children)

There had been more US military activity around México. A United States Air Force RC-135V "Rivet Joint" Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft flew right up the Gulf of California/Sea of Cortez, likely spying on communications inside México by the military and cartels and even civilians if they want to. While US military aircraft have flown on the west side of the Baja California coastline before, this is the first time in recent years, to my knowledge, that a US military aircraft has flown within the Gulf of California itself.

Now did this US military aircraft enter Mexican airspace? There are many misinformed accounts on social media that will say yes, but the truth is, technically and legally, no, this US military aircraft did not enter Mexican airspace. A state's territorial sea extends up to 12 nmi (22 km; 14 mi) from it's baseline. This sea, including the airspace above it, is the sovereign territory of that nation. Anything outside of that is technically international waters (and airspace). I'll post an image here showing the territorial airspace and seas of Mexico.

Many misinformed social media accounts have confused the concepts of Flight Information Regions (FIR) and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) with a nation's territorial/sovereign waters and airspace. I think the source of this misinformation is because AI LLMs like Google AI, Gork, and ChatGPT also confuse this concept, so OSINT social media accounts using these LLMs to do research just blindly believed their output. Please do not believe everything AI models say, they are often incorrect.

The RC-135V aircraft made sure to stay clear of this 12 nautical mile border/demarcation, and U-turned before entering Mexican sovereign territory under international law. But the USA has now exercised freedom of navigation rights with a military aircraft in the Gulf of California, in the context of recent events.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Wow damn that's an insane provocation regardless if the SIGINT aircraft entered Mexico's airspace or not. They clearly have bellicose intentions, it matters little if they're flying over international waters or just outright neutral territory.

Risky shit, they must be cooking something or maybe they're doing this to put pressure on Mexico. Dangerous times indeed.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah it's still quite a provocation, and the US must feel confident after whatever deal they got with Mexico today (maybe stuff like this was part of it?) In general the ramping up of US military activity on the border is extremely concerning. The P-8A Poseidon aircraft is also conducting patrols now. With the current rate of escalation, I'm wondering if we'll see US special forces cross the border and start raiding the cartels.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Reminder that Taiwan (and the US on its behalf) gets pissy whenever China flies a military aircraft over a zone that has more mainland Chinese land than all Taiwanese land.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

That has to do with their Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) and the median line, which is not sovereign /territorial Taiwanese airspace. ADIZs are not recognised by any international treaties or bodies. Here's a graphic that shows the difference. The dotted line around Taiwan is their territorial airspace. China does not violate this territorial airspace or waters, they enter the ADIZ to continually exercise their freedom of navigation right recognised by international law, in the same way that countries like the USA and Russia do. The US has gone to war over freedom of navigation before, just research all the incidents with Libya around the Gulf of Sidra.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I hope the one plane in eastern ADIZ was just doing a fun loop of the whole island 🏝

[–] [email protected] 17 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

At least the pilot can brag amongst their squadron. "I'm the only one to have been to the east! They make you do hundreds of flights to the west, but only I go to the east, I'm special."

[–] [email protected] 81 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Trump going around and demanding nations pay a tribute like a mongolian khanate

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 day ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 day ago (1 children)

only his horses randomly explode

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 day ago

The horses die trying to carry the weight of the treatlerites who feast on blood

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sebastian gorka whispering in his ear

[–] [email protected] 31 points 23 hours ago

AHHH, YES, THE MONGOLIAN KHANATE - A TSUNAMI OF PURE, UNFILTERED DOMINANCE! NO BUREAUCRACY, NO WEAKNESS, JUST HORSEMEN, BLOOD, AND ABSOLUTE WILL! GENGHIS DIDN’T FILE PERMISSION SLIPS - HE CONQUERED! NO HR, NO FOCUS GROUPS, JUST SUBMIT OR BE ERADICATED! They drank fermented horse milk, not pumpkin spice nonsense! And now, NOW, the globalists try to ERASE this legacy because it’s TOO MANLY! WHERE IS OUR KHANATE?! I MUST RETURN TO MY YURT IMMEDIATELY - AHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Reports from Panama of arrests and home raids against student leader participants of the anti-Marco Rubio protests held in the Panamanian capital.

Even the liberal media have been reporting protests against the US in Panama, something very rare given that Panama is one of the US's closest allies in Latin America. Picture of Rubio in Nazi Uniform Burning.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 day ago

If they keep this spirit up when a Dem is president then there might be hope for Panama

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yeah, I'm gonna need that poster as a new emoji. :gusano-delincuente:

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What are the short term and long term ramifications of the US sovereign wealth fund? Is this just another step in privatisation of every aspect of American life or is it something more?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 20 hours ago

The benefit to Trump would be that this fund would presumably be under the control of the executive, so he’d be getting a slush fund worth potentially trillions. He’s currently limited in that Congress unambiguously controls the purse strings. Use your own imagination as to the possibilities for corruption or ideological warfare.

For ghouls like Bessent and the capitalists, it seems they are thinking of taking the federal government’s real assets that are not currently on their balance sheet (think Yosemite National Park) and financializing them. Maybe selling them (which probably requires congressional involvement now but if it’s instead in this fund maybe Trump actually could sell it with the stroke of a pen), maybe just moving things like income from drilling rights out of the Treasury and over to this fund.

The doomsday scenario - which I am not saying plausible, but just taking this to a logical extreme - is that the executive branch ends up with a huge pile of assets generating income or can borrowed against, that would allow a president to do whatever they want, basically forming its own government within a government, so to speak.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 day ago (1 children)

To me, this seems like a way to go around congress when it comes to funding allocation: move tariff revenues and "cost-savings" from federal fund impoundment to a fund and then use it to pay for presidential priorities/graft.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 23 hours ago

I think it's more a way for him to go around the Fed than Congress, but the initial money is going to have to come from somewhere, and until the fund is collecting interest, only Congress is going to be able to do that. There's definitely a constitutional question over whether or not any revenue generated falls under the control of Congress

[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The US puppet president of Ecuador announces a 27% tariff on Mexico. Noboa has ordered the militarization of ports and borders but its his security forces that are working with the cartels.

lol

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Abolish that place and roll it into Colombia.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 day ago

The Current President is attempting to do a Coup and take over the country. He literally kicked out his own VP (who is far-right too, but she decided to make an alliance with the leftists that control Congress against Noboa's coup) because he doesn't trust his own political party, while he was partying on the USA his entire country was under fire and without energy.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago

retvrn to Grande Colombia

[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 day ago (18 children)

Trump agrees to postpone Canada and Mexico tariffs by one month - The Guardian

President delays threatened 25% tariffs on US neighbors but China still to face 10% levy on exports to US from Tuesday. Donald Trump has pulled back from the brink of a trade war with Canada and Mexico, postponing sweeping new US tariffs on goods from its two closest economic partners by one month.

It is the third time in two weeks the US president has delayed his threatened 25% tariffs on the two countries. China is still set to face additional 10% levy on its exports to the US from Tuesday. Following talks with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Monday, Trump agreed to hold off from imposing new duties on the two countries.

The agreements came on a day of extreme volatility in global financial markets as rattled investors reacted to the prospect of a dramatically escalating dispute involving the world’s largest economies. The US president had upended US-Mexico ties over the weekend when he announced 25% tariffs and accused Sheinbaum’s administration of engaging in an “intolerable alliance” with Mexican crime groups.

Sheinbaum rejected that “slanderous” accusation, but on Monday morning struck a softer note as she announced “a series of agreements” with Trump after a conversation between the two leaders during which they agreed to pause US tariffs for a month to allow for fresh negotiations. Mexico had agreed to send 10,000 members of its national guard “to prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the US, in particular of fentanyl”, Sheinbaum said. In return, the US had agreed to work to prevent high-powered weapons crossing the border into Mexico.

Trump confirmed the deal shortly afterwards on his Truth Social network. He said 10,000 Mexican soldiers would be “specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our country”. Negotiations involving senior Mexican officials, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, would take place during the pause, he said.

Following two calls with Trump on Monday, Trudeau announced that tariffs would be “paused” for 30 days. “Canada is implementing our $1.3bn border plan – reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl,” he said in a statement. “Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.”

Late last year, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China on the first day of his presidency. From the first day of his presidency, he said he would do so from 1 February. This weekend, he said they would kick in from 4 February. They have now been delayed until March. Economists have warned Trump’s planned wave of tariffs would risk raising prices for millions of Americans, just weeks after he pledged, upon taking office, to “rapidly” bring them down.

On Monday, however, Trump maintained that tariffs were a “very powerful” means of both strengthening the US economically and “getting everything else you want”. He had conceded over the weekend that they could cause “a little pain” in the US. Markets sold off sharply worldwide in response to what has been described as a “Trump tariff tantrum” before recovering some of their losses after news broke of the deal with Mexico. Wall Street fell in early trading, with the S&P 500 down almost 2%. Share prices in Europe followed a sharp move lower in Asia.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 day ago (7 children)

sicko-wistful Becoming increasingly clear Trump has no idea what he's doing and got no meaningful concessions from Canada (as there's no "meaningful concessions" to get in the first place, Canada is already a resource colony/lapdog of the US). Bruv just loves the game of tariffs and deals. Not sure what the point of this charade was.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago (5 children)

He’s doing mafioso shakedowns and playing chicken with both the American economy and the economy of his opponents

It’s working. The opponents are folding.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The large wet boy that cried tarrif

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 day ago

In one month he swears he'll do it!

[–] [email protected] 119 points 1 day ago (14 children)

Assalamu Aleykum to the good people of Hexbearistan. Finally back from my Iraq trip with my wife and the kid. Absolute top tier travel destination, would recommend for sure if you're thinking about doing a lil Middle East trip one day. Here are some little notes on the trip:

  • Flew from my city to Istanbul, spent a few miserable hours in Istanbul's expensive ass airport, then flew to Baghdad. My kid was surprisingly chill during almost the whole trip, no extended periods of crying or anything. The plane from Istanbul to Baghdad was filled with non-Arab foreigners, which was quite surprising honestly. Lots of Chinese people for some reason, which usually leads to new schools and ports spawning in any country that the Chinese visit.

  • Baghdad Airport is functional but quite rundown. I went in with my Lebanese passport which technically needs a paid visa on arrival, but the guy on the counter waived the fee for me and just said welcome. My wife's uncle was waiting for us outside and we were on the highways of Baghdad after a few kisses and hugs. The first few kilometers must be a shock for every new visitor to Baghdad, as it is filled with posters of Qassem Soleimani, Yahya Sinwar and Hassan Nasrallah. Iraq is still a very anti-imperialist country, you will finds flags of Yemen, Palestine and Lebanon in every corner. I thought it was super cool that one could find posters of the Houthis on billboards and shops selling Hezbollah memorabilia.

  • Baghdad as a city has recovered well from the American invasion and occupation. New roads and bridges spawning everywhere, barely any armed military presence, new and shiny malls and restaurants everywhere, massive international schools and it's just alive in a way that only Beirut can reach. The biggest problem is the traffic congestion, which the new Baghdad Metro project hopefully solves in a few years. The trash situation is also annoying, Baghdad is a quite dirty city, the people are as responsible as the government there honestly.

  • The food was fucking amazing, but I've gained a few extra kilos from all the fatty foods. Some of the new restaurants are insanely good, and white people will never understand the appeal of a nice proper cafe with hot tea, diabetes-inducing sweets and hookah. Internet was decent, but this website barely loaded without a VPN for some reason. I paid around $10 for a week of unlimited 4G data.

  • Made a quick one-day trip to Erbil, capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan. Took a smooth four hour drive there and crossing the inofficial "border" was pretty straightforward. Very beautiful city with great markets and more good food. Lots of new exciting construction projects in Erbil and it's cleaner than Baghdad, but same traffic issues. It's a good intro city for someone that wants an authentic Middle Eastern city, but not too "complicated", nor too artificial like the Gulf cities.

  • Finished the trip with a Shia Islam religious pilgrimage megatour with my wife's family. We started in Baghdad and visited the Shrine of Imam Musa bin Jafar Al Kazim, then we drove around two hours to Karbala and visited the Shrine of Imam Hussain and Imam Abbas, then another hour to Najaf and visited the shrine of the greatest Muslim to ever live, Imam Ali bin Abu Talib. Was a great trip even if I'm not really the strongest believer out there. The shrines were magnificent, definitely something I'd recommend to everyone here.

  • Overall summary is that Iraq is worth visiting, especially if you want to give your tourist dollars to a country that 100% doesn't use them to murder Palestinians or buy American senators. It will be a culture shock for sure, but Baghdad is a nice and historic city, with the added bonus of having top tier food. I'll upload some pics if I figure out how to do it in a non-doxxing manner.

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