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 is from this article, of protestors in Mexico tearing down a steel fence.

While military, economic, and covert pressure on Venezuela and nearby countries in South America proper continues to mount, a similar process is occurring against Mexico, currently under the leadership of the very popular Sheinbaum, who has generally followed the footsteps of AMLO in terms of policies.

While figures in the Trump administration have made statements to the effect of wishing to bomb Mexican territory, internal pressure within Mexico is rather hard to generate when the government is doing generally positive things for people. As such, protests - comically denoted “Gen Z protests” despite young people being a vanishingly small proportion - have arisen in Mexico, very obviously astroturfed by pro-US and anti-Sheinbaum interests. The first protest, on November 15th, gathered less than 20,000 people, while the second, on November 20th, gathered perhaps 200. Article headlines suggesting that Mexico was “on the verge of collapse” have proven rather sensational and wishcast-y.

While it’s easy to poke fun at these farces (I certainly am), it’s important to keep in mind that soft coups have long been part of the American strategy in Latin America, and with unlimited money and many resources to throw at a project, even incompetent forces can eventually create enough chaos that it can make the ruling president or party feel forced to resign. Such eventualities are certainly not inevitable, and even weak states can provide enough resistance to force the US to try a hard coup instead, with outright bombing campaigns and covert military operations. Cuba has provided perhaps the best example in the western hemisphere of how such plots can be subverted with enough national support (e.g. the hundreds of times the CIA tried to kill/maim Castro, plus the Bay of Pigs debacle), but you do have to be willing to take extraordinary measures to do this - the sorts of measures figures like Chile’s Allende did not take in the 1970s, and the measures Venezuela’s Maduro appears to be taking right now. We shall see what path Sheinbaum takes.

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

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 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.

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.

  • Tervell [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    20·
    5 hours ago

    https://archive.ph/o8K5a

    U.S. Military Documents Indicate Plans to Keep Troops in Caribbean Through 2028

    As rumors of a U.S. war on Venezuela swirl, military documents show plans to feed a buildup of troops in the region for years.

    more

    The United States is formulating plans to feed a massive military presence in the Caribbean almost to the end of President Donald Trump’s term in office — suggesting the recent influx of American troops to the region won’t end anytime soon. As gossip, official leaks, and RUMINT (a portmanteau of rumor and intelligence) about a coming war with Venezuela reign in Washington, Defense Department contracting documents reviewed by The Intercept offer one of the most concrete indications of the Pentagon’s plans for operations in the Caribbean Sea over the next three years. The contracting documents earmark food supplies for almost every branch of the U.S. military, including the Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. They detail an effort by the Defense Logistics Agency, or DLA, to source “Fresh Bread & Bakery products to Department of Defense (‘DoD’, or ‘Troop’) customers in the Puerto Rico Zone.” One spreadsheet outlining supplies for “Puerto Rico Troops” notes tens of thousands of pounds of baked goods are scheduled for delivery from November 15 of this year to November 11, 2028. Foodstuff set to feed the troops include individually wrapped honey buns, vanilla cupcakes, sweet rolls, hamburger rolls, and flour tortillas.

    The Pentagon has built up a force of 15,000 troops in the Caribbean since the summer — the largest naval flotilla in the Caribbean since the Cold War. That contingent now includes 5,000 sailors aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s newest and most powerful aircraft carrier, which has more than 75 attack, surveillance, and support aircraft. The surge of combat power comes as the U.S. has conducted more than 20 strikes on suspected drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing more than 80 civilians. As part of that effort, the Trump administration has secretly declared that it is engaged in a “non-international armed conflict” with 24 cartels, gangs, and armed groups including Cártel de los Soles, which the U.S. claims is “headed by Nicolas Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan individuals,” despite little evidence that such a group exists. Experts and insiders see this as part of a plan for regime change in Venezuela that stretches back to Trump’s first term. Maduro, the president of Venezuela, denies that he heads a cartel.

    Mark Cancian, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Intercept that the documents suggest the outsized American military presence in the Caribbean could continue for years. “The procurement’s length of time and the level of effort seemed to point to these operations continuing at the current level for several years,” said Cancian, who previously worked on defense procurement at the Office of Management and Budget. “That’s significant because it means that the Navy will maintain a large presence in the Caribbean that is far larger than what it has been in recent years. It further implies that the Navy will be involved in these counter-drug operations.” The Pentagon has tried to keep the details of its military buildup in the region under wraps, failing to answer questions from The Intercept about troop levels, the bulking up of bases, and warships being surged into the Caribbean. “For operational security reasons, we do not release itemized operational details of asset, unit, and troop movements and locations,” said a spokesperson for Southern Command, which oversees military operations in the region. “Information released is published via official communication web sites and social media accounts, or shared with reporters via news releases and updates.”

    …

    Another former defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to his current job with a military contractor, said that the documents raise significant questions that the Defense Department would rather not address. “People will ask whether this means escalation from the strikes on smugglers into a Venezuelan campaign, whatever that eventually looks like,” said the former official who has significant experience in military logistics, procurement, and supply chains.

    …

    Troops from the 22nd MEU are currently conducting training exercises in Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean island nation only miles from Venezuela. Maduro called the drills “irresponsible” and said the neighboring country was “allowing their waters and land to be used to gravely threaten the peace of the Caribbean.” Members of the unit have also conducted reconnaissance and surveillance training at Camp Santiago in Puerto Rico. For months, the 22nd MEU has failed to respond to The Intercept’s questions about its operations in the region. The unit also did not respond to recent repeated requests for comment about its use of Defense Activity Address Code M20179 and the potential for food deliveries into late 2028 for troops in and around Puerto Rico. The DLA documents are also no anomaly. Other recent contracting documents detail “food catering services for 22d MEU personnel located at José Aponte de la Torre Airport, Puerto Rico, from 15 September to 31 December 2025.” The Defense Logistics Agency is also looking into a separate “potential six-month contract for full-service food support to visiting U.S. Navy Ships” in Puerto Rico. That deal would include foods from beef steak, chicken cutlets, and lasagna to chocolate pudding, brownie mix, and chocolate chip cookie dough, not to mention breakfast burritos with bacon, egg, and cheese. Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the campaign of attacks in the Caribbean and the Pacific is called Operation Southern Spear. Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and Southern Command, “this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” he wrote on X. Southern Spear kicked off earlier this year as part of the Navy’s next-generation effort to use small robot interceptor boats and vertical take-off and landing drones to conduct counternarcotics operations.

    Trump recently teased the possibility of holding talks with Maduro; Maduro said he is open to face-to-face talks with Trump. The Pentagon has reportedly presented Trump with various options for attacking Venezuela, according to two government officials who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose information from classified briefings. Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson did not reply to a request for comment. Trump has also publicly spoken of moving the sea attacks to land, confirmed that he secretly authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela, threatened future attacks on Venezuelan territory, and said he has not ruled out an invasion of Venezuela by U.S. troops. Asked if the U.S. was going to war against Venezuela, Trump nonetheless replied: “I doubt it. I don’t think so.” But when asked if Maduro’s days as president were numbered, Trump replied: “I would say yeah. I think so.” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers did not reply to questions from The Intercept about plans to attack Venezuela, the options for strikes presented to Trump, and the contracting documents which indicate the U.S. will have a major troop presence in the Caribbean into late 2028. “These documents suggest that the Trump administration plans to maintain a significantly increased military presence in the Caribbean through the remainder of President Trump’s term in office. With ongoing military strikes against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and the Pacific, the potential for escalation between the U.S. and Venezuela in particular is high, even if the administration isn’t seeking it,” Gabe Murphy, a policy analyst at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget watchdog advocating for an end to wasteful spending, told The Intercept.