A week ago, the Bolivian left-wing party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), currently led by Luis Arce, decisively lost the round of elections against the right-wing. This comes after a prolonged period of “infighting” between Arce, and Morales, who previously led the MAS prior to the 2019 coup which briefly installed Jeanine Anez.
I put infighting in quotes because despite the nominal similarities between Arce and Morales, it is clear that this is not merely a counterproductive battle between two men - instead, the Bolivian left has arrived at a time of unavoidable conflict between two competing strategies. The electoral strategy is represented by Arce, who has aligned himself with a more middle-class-oriented campaign that is more economically liberal, whereas Morales represents a more working-class-oriented campaign that seeks to go further than tepid reform.
Such a conflict between electoralism and revolutionary action is inevitable in any and every developing country that 1) possesses a functioning left-wing party or organization, and 2) is under internal and/or external pressure by capitalists. This crisis must be resolved eventually - and this electoral failure is how such a crisis is manifesting right now. So while the Bolivian left has indeed lost the election, it is not yet defeated. The revolutionary campaign can, if it is willing, still ultimately stand triumphant. But what must be done is a real movement towards socialism, which goes beyond technocrats reforming from above, and instead transforms the state into a full political project of the working class, in which their movements, organizations, and protests are genuinely empowered. Such a project will involve repression by the forces of reaction, not least by the United States, but it is the only road left to take.
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Israel'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.
Iran’s parl. launches emergency plan to exit NPT by Mehr News Agency
Article
The deputy chairman of the Parliament’s Article 90 Commission Hossein Ali Haji Deligani told local Iranian media on Friday night that the parliament has begun drafting an emergency three-part plan for a complete withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and said that this plan will be uploaded to the parliament’s system tomorrow so that it can go through the legal process for review and approval in the parliament’s public sessions next week.
The lawmaker said that the Iranian MPs move is a response to the Thursday move by three European powers in formally activating the process of snapback of the UN sanctions on Iran within 30 days.
He also said that the parliament will take other actions to make the three European state regret their action against Iran.
Haji Deligani explained that according to the three-part emergency plan in the parliament, Iran will withdraw from the NPT and the so-called Additional Protocol.
Tehran will also suspend any negotiations with the United States and three European countries, he said, adding that, " monitoring (inspection) cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency will end."
Expecting on the Front Lines: Motherhood in Ukraine’s Military by the NYT
Ukraine’s military is finding it hard to recruit young men as the war with Russia grinds on, but women — all volunteers — are a bright spot. The number of women serving has grown more than 20 percent to about 70,000 since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
Those who become pregnant often serve in tough conditions under relentless shelling, living without heat in the winter, or running water and proper toilets.
While the U.S. Army and many other militaries remove pregnant soldiers from combat zones, Ukrainian women usually serve until their seventh month. And that is in a military that doctors and soldiers say is ill-equipped to support them — from uniforms that don’t fit pregnant women, to a lack of prenatal care and nurseries — amid the costs and challenges of fighting the war.
The Ukrainian military did not respond to questions about how many women were pregnant or had given birth in the ranks, or about prenatal care for soldiers.
Ukraine long range strike capabilities, Part 2.
This one will be short and sweet, because there’s not much to talk about.The above was wrong. The topic is Ukraine’s “Long Neptune” cruise missile.
What is it? Long Neptune is an enlarged version of Ukraine’s Neptune anti ship cruise missile that can also hit ground targets deep inland. The original Neptune is a Ukrainian made version of the Kh-35 Bal/SSC-6 Sennight Soviet and Russian made cruise missile. The specifications for the Kh-35 in ground or ship/helicopter launch configuration are well known, 4.4m length, 0.42m body diameter, 1.33m wingspan, 145kg warhead and a 610kg Max Takeoff Weight, with a 300km maximum range. Guidance is INS, with terminal active radar guidance for hitting ships. It can cruise at an altitude of between 10-15m over the sea, at a maximum speed of between 980kph and 1040kph. 90kg and 0.55m of that consists of the solid fuel rocket booster at the rear of the missile that initially launches it up into the air from the missile battery on the ground, and detaches afterwards.
What Long Neptune does is it significantly widens the diameter of the missile and lengthens it, to accommodate more fuel and extended the range by over 300%, to 1000km. The cruciform wings and control surfaces are also proportionally enlarged, which does provide more lift, but also more drag. It’s interesting that there is no change to a planar wing, like with the Kh-55 that uses the same engine. In this respect the Long Neptune is essentially an enlarged Kh-35, similar to variants of North Korea’s Kumsong-3/Kn-19. The missile is the exact same, just bigger.
The real difference between Long Neptune and the original Neptune/Kh-35 is the seeker, and how good this new seeker is will determine how effective the Long Neptune is at striking ground targets. The INS and active radar seeker has been ditched, likely for a GNSS(Satellite navigation) + INS solution, potentially with DSMAC or TERCOM navigation to allow the Long Neptune to fly close to ground over variable terrain like it does at sea, and navigate independent of GNSS should jamming occur. While Long Neptune is significantly smaller than the FP-5 Flamingo and significantly harder to detect, it’s still far from a true stealth or low observable design, and will rely primarily on flying low to the ground to remain undetected and survivable. So just how effective it is all depends on the performance of this new seeker, both in accuracy and survivability. Remember, the maximum range of an S-300P air defence system against nap of the earth/very low flying cruise missiles is 25km, and the original S-300P systems were designed with such a cruise missile in mind as the primary target over 40 years ago. S-400 systems, if equipped with newer missiles, have a longer range against such targets, but are still limited by the radar horizon/curvature of the earth without third party tracking from an aerial sensor such as an A-50 AWACS or Su-35 datalinked to the S-400.
S-300PMU-2 engagement zone:
S-400 engagement zones:
1000km range will allow it to strike targets deeper into Russia and to be launched from deeper within Ukraine to avoid Russian left of launch defeat, via Iskander M ballistic missile strikes, the first of which occurred today. The 145kg warhead impacting at high subsonic speeds can do considerably more damage than a one way attack drone impacting six times slower, and with half of the payload. But not as much as two FAB-500s from an FP-5 Flamingo. Production capacity will rely on all newly built components, so there won’t be a surge in production from ready made off of the shelf components. The Neptune/Kh-35 type threat is well understood by Russia now, this was the missile that sank the Moskva at the start of the war after all. They just have to defend against it at significantly further range and over land now, something the Soviets did in the 1980s against Tomahawk/Gryphon and AGM-86.
Washington’s tariffs did not intimidate India:
"Russian oil exports to India are set to rise in September, as New Delhi defies new US tariffs imposed to punish the South Asian country for the oil purchases, Reuters reported on 28 August.
Three sources involved in the oil trade with India told Reuters that Indian refiners are expected to increase Russian oil purchases by 150,000-300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in September, which is an increase of 10–20 percent from August."
https://thecradle.co/articles/india-defies-washington-increases-russian-oil-imports-report
I don’t follow this cinematic universe enough, but as far as I can tell, the pro-Abundance lib podcast had a pro-Abundance lib on their show and this is the highlight.
In slightly funnier news, danish state media revealed a couple of days ago that people with ties to Donald Trump and the american government have been trying to cause “division” between the people of Greenland and the danish government. So we are now at the stage where we are openly acknowledging an attempted color revolution, while also not being in any position to stop it, since our government refuses to stop being dickheads to the people of Greenland.
Bolivia Legislative Results:
Congress:
- Christian Democratic Party (Neoliberal - Bitcoin-esque Milei, but doesn’t seem to hate China or Brazil): 47 (+47)
- LIBRE – Liberty and Democracy (Far-Right - Pro-Military - Pro-USA - Hates China and Native Americans): 39 (+39)
- Unity Bloc (Far-Right - Neoliberal - Pro-USA - Hates China and Native Americans): 27 (+27)
- Popular Alliance (Left-Wing - Andronicoism - Pro-Native Americans): 10 (+10)
- Autonomy for Bolivia – Súmate (Far-Right - Pro-Military - Pro-USA - Hates China and Native Americans): 4 (+4)
- Movement for Socialism (Left-Wing, Social Democracy): 2 (-73)
- Bia-Yuqui (Native American Interests): 1 (+1)
Senate:
- Christian Democratic Party (Neoliberal - Bitcoin-esque Milei, but doesn’t seem to hate China or Brazil): 16 (+16)
- LIBRE – Liberty and Democracy (Far-Right - Pro-Military - Pro-USA - Hates China and Native Americans): 12 (+12)
- Unity Bloc (Far-Right - Neoliberal - Pro-USA - Hates China and Native Americans): 7 (+7)
- Autonomy for Bolivia – Súmate (Far-Right - Pro-Military - Pro-USA - Hates China and Native Americans): 1 (+1)
https://xcancel.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1960681773521605085
Herr Stürmer says
together with a racist dogwhistle image.Israel recently carried out a wave of airstrikes and naval strikes on the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and reportedly in Amran Governorate too. The strikes are rumoured to have targeted senior leadership figures in the Ansarallah/Houthi movement, and occurred while Abdul Malik al-Houthi’s pre recorded weekly speech was on TV. The results are unknown at this time, with Ansarallah/Yemeni aligned news outlets stating that Israel is confused and hit nothing of importance, and no official comment from Israel on the reported targets, just that the strikes occurred.
What’s the deal with Algeria these days? A truly successful revolution against settler colonialism decades on, what is the political nature of the state that currently exists? I hear very little about it and don’t know where to look to find out more.
The chief of Iraq’s Al-Sawa’ed tribe gifted Iranian news anchor, Sahar Emami, a gold necklace bearing the image of Ayatollah Khamenei, for her courageous live broadcast during the Israeli attack on the IRIB building.
@PressTV
In order to “thwart” “anti-semitic and anti-israel bias” the US government is requesting the user data of everyone on earth who edited Wikipedia since January 2023.
The US Navy and Marines deployment off of the coast of Venezuela has escalated in scope and assets. The only AN/APS-154 (Advanced Airborne Sensor) and MUOS (Satellite communications) dual equipped P-8A Poseidon aircraft has arrived in Puerto Rico. This specific P-8A is the only one in service with both upgrades, and joins two others (without them) already stationed at Puerto Rico. Think of it as an AWACS aircraft, but for surface targets. More US Navy vessels are also on the way, a guided missile cruiser and submarine.
Dems created a dark money PAC that was funnelling cash to pro-Dem influencers… all of them were already in the tank for the Dems anyway. And they aren’t trying to reach new people, they are all just running lib podcasts. Their quest to create a “liberal Joe Rogan” (=reward themselves and their friends & relatives) is going great! The only names I even recognize are David Pakman and Olivia Julianna. Oh, and also the person running the “Occupy Dems” account.
