There’s way too much going on right now for me to really focus on any one country this week. The aftermath of the fall of the Nepal government has, somewhat surprisingly, reverberated around the world, and not only in countries that are enemies to the West as you’d expect; for example, Morocco’s government battle fiercely with Egypt’s and Jordan’s to be first in line to lick the dogshit off the boots of Zionists, and yet Morocco is currently embroiled in a large protest wave based primarily around a youth unemployment crisis (though their population is also remarkably pro-Palestinian, which generates additional friction). We’re also seeing similar protests in Madagascar, Peru, and Paraguay, and perhaps more will come. I’m personally fairly doubtful in the potential for meaningful economic results from these protests (the current imperialist system seems too deeply embedded for a movement that isn’t explicitly communist and anti-imperialist to alter conditions), but it is quite possible for new political results at least.
Outside of the developing world, it appears that the unpopularity of western leaders, such as in the UK, France, and Italy, is creating new levels of unrest. In Britain, the political system has become so utterly moribund that even the artificial democracy of a two-party system (more-or-less; the Lib Dems do exist I suppose) no longer suffices, with both Conservatives and Labour gradually sinking. The Reform party appears like it may become the new standard-bearer of the capitalists and petit-bourgeois - that is, the historical wellspring of fascism - and the Left Party (whatever name they eventually choose) may or may not rise to meet the occasion. In France, they’re on their fifth Prime Minister in two years, after Lecornu lasted about a month, attempting the liberal classic: promising change, and then appointing the exact same people who have ruled for the last few decades. And pro-Palestinian protests and general strikes have erupted in Italy, in defiance of their rightwing government under Meloni.
While there’s plenty of other events (e.g. continuing aggression against Venezuela that might soon erupt into a war) it would be remise of me not to mention the very much ongoing events vis-a-vis Palestine and a potential peace deal there, seemingly supported to some degree by Trump. It could be legitimate, and it could be some big act (very likely the latter, IMO). Both Trump and Netanyahu seem to believe that they’re very talented political masterminds, producing manoeuvres and feints that would make Machiavelli blush. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I trust the militant organizations inside Palestine to outplay these American failsons. Hamas and similar groups are not nearly as gullible as the Iranian reformist faction - though few people are!
Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group 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
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 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.
https://x.com/EventsUkraine/status/1977363528995438624
Interesting assertion of what the front lines look like on the Ukraine front.
__
1/ Infantry and armor is under greater pressure than ever
The Ukrainian army has had to move logistics (fuel etc) 40-50km away from the line of contact
2/ Defensive lines don’t exist anymore
Because of Ukrainian infantry deficiencies, there are simply burrows occupied by tiny groups of troops
With a distance of 300m to a kilometer between defensive positions
3/ As a result, Russian troops can often simply bypass Ukrainian troops to enter cities
Sometimes, Russian troops can even get so far as to attack Ukrainian artillery crews
4/ Sometimes, Russians set up their positions at one end of a captured chain of trenches, while Ukrainians hold positions at the other end.
‘Single burrows are hastily dug depressions in the ground’, as Ukrainian media reports
5/ The Ukrainian strategy is for drone dominance of the air to form ‘kill zones’ that Russia can’t advance through
But as Ukrainian commander Stanislav Buniatov of the Aidar batallion writes, these kill zones are rarely achieved - Russia advances
6/ https://eventsinukraine.substack.com/p/frontline-chaos
__
So what this is reading according to this account’s take is that Ukraine had been bled white through slow attrition, attempts to plaster over holes in defenses caused by shortages of manpower through drone defenses fall short due to both manpower and equipment shortages. The author asserts the only way to reinforce the areas Russian forces are pressing into is only by the reallocation of human resources from other defensive fronts which in turn further weakens them as well.
Should this be true, the only alternative at this point for Ukraine is to either further sacrifice their future by lowering the age of conscription from where it currently sits at 25 years old or to sue for peace and try to salvage what it can from recognizing russia’s claims over its lost territories.
Ukraine may be hoping that with the ceasefire deal in the Levant may free up more resources to be allocated its direction, but they really should be fully prepared to snuff those hopes out in addition to the possibility of being cut completely loose by the west should the United States pursue the unthinkable yet again and attempt to invade Venezuela.
I don’t think Ukraine is actually sending that many of their unwilling conscripts into battle. Their supposed problem with raw manpower is overblown, in my opinion, which is why they haven’t lowered the draft age lately (and aren’t going to). The whole song and dance about Biden pushing to lower the age and Zelensky refusing was a psyop to make him look good.
In any case, I believe Russia is creating the conditions for a major offensive. If that happens, NATO/Ukraine may decide to send the Volkssturm into the meat grinder, or try to “flip the table” somehow.
No surprise which one they’re probably going to choose.
Here comes the phase of this war where the collapse goes from slow to fast overnight and the westerners are left wondering how their brave definitely-not-nazi wunderwaffe-wielding soldiers didn’t win. It turns out that this slow grind for years followed by collapse is the only way to win a conventional war if you’re not going to do the American shock-and-awe level-every-standing-structure strategy.
I think the lesson here is the very droll and pedantic conventional war works and putting on the military equivalent of a superb owl halftime show of a war doctrine doesn’t.
I’m interested to see how a grinding conflict like this ends up affecting post war insurgency.
Shock and awe leaves nearly all the enemy manpower alive and ready to resist. It may well be too few committed ukranians will survive to resist at the end of this war.
If Ukrainians used superb owls,they would have won
I would love to watch a superb owl show though
The most obvious answer is usually the right one.
Doesn’t what?
Win wars lol