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 a map of Middle Eastern oil/gas production sites, which Iran has promised to strike in retaliation if their own energy infrastructure comes under attack.

My weekly preamble is in spoiler tags below.

preamble

For the weekend of August 1-2, Trump had once again promised major strikes on Iran, which would have included crossing the critical red line of striking their energy infrastructure. In response, Iran once again essentially promised to end the possibility of modern civilization as we know it throughout much of the Gulf States and, to a certain extent, the Zionist entity, with the economic impacts radiating outwards around the world from there. The frustrating part about these threats from Trump is that while he’s reneged on them before, the consequences of them actually occurring are so dire that it’s difficult to ignore them; rolling a dice with even a 5% chance for complete catastrophe will always be nerve-wracking.

Anyway, as we all know, these strikes did not occur, with the excuse this time being much the same as the previous times: our regional allies begged us not to (potentially true) and Iran called us and said they were willing to negotiate/surrender (untrue). The point of these threat displays is at least twofold: first, to see if Iran is genuinely going to flinch, or, at least, if internal elements that may or may not exist will be spooked into action against the IRGC; and second, to manipulate oil prices downwards by creating constant cycles of “relief” out of an otherwise relatively constant downward trend as Hormuz stays closed and oil reserves continue to ebb. I do say “relatively”, of course, given that Ansarallah now appears to be delivering a boot up the ass of Saudi Arabia by taking offline quite a lot of its refinery infrastructure.

It is into this situation that Ukraine seems to want in. For those out of the loop, the situation over in Ukraine has largely the same overall attritional dynamics as previous years, but with a few added wrinkles. Ukraine started striking Russian infrastructure a while ago, and while their effectiveness is hotly debated and I don’t want to dismiss them as totally ineffectual, it’s clear that the psychological effects - such as they are - are greater than the material effects. Russia’s retaliation strikes have been considerably more impactful, including strikes on Ukrainian Black Sea ports and vessels, and a campaign explicitly against gas stations across Ukraine, as well as some rather impressive and disruptive explosions at Ukrainian military fairs and production sites. Zelensky has admitted publicly that they are now basically out of Patriot missiles and that Russian missiles are now landing entirely unopposed (beforehand, they were just landing largely unopposed, given the lackluster performance of Western air defences in general). He seems to have considered a possible way out: linking together the Ukraine and Iran Wars to a united front against Russia and Iran, which would then grant Ukraine more munitions to keep fighting on.

Now, for all the fear I’ve seen of this occurring (and, don’t get me wrong, the US and Russia being in non-proxy, direct conflict is a genuinely frightening prospect for continued life on Earth) how linking together two wars which the West is quite decisively losing into a single war would help at all is beyond me. At this moment, at least, US military planners appear to agree with me. Ukraine hit a Caspian Sea vessel going to Iran a while ago, but then seems to have quickly apologised after being given a stern talking to by the US. This shows just how willing the US is to grant Ukraine more aid, as their own interceptor stockpile is running very low due to Iranian strikes. One would almost feel sympathy for Zelensky if is wasn’t for… well, everything that’s happened. The path of Ngô Đình Diệm is a tough one to walk.

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 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.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]@hexbear.netMEnglish
    26·
    13 hours ago

    Poll shows majority approval for Peru’s new President - Prensa Latina

    Article

    Lima, Aug 9 (Prensa Latina) Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori is approved by 60 percent of citizens, according to the first private survey that assesses the impact of her arrival at the Government Palace less than two weeks ago.

    The Datum poll indicates that the percentage is higher than the previous elected ruler, Pedro Castillo, who began his brief and turbulent term with 44 percent, although it is lower than that received by the four presidents before him.

    The initial support for the president contrasts with the margin of less than one percent with which she won the presidential runoff against the progressive Roberto Sánchez and with nearly 90 percent of the voters who, in the first round of elections, did not vote for her, although the dispersion of the vote among more than 30 candidates gave her the first place with which she qualified for the decisive stage.

    Datum’s director, Urpi Torrado, argued that the majority approval shows that “even among those who did not vote for her there seems to be a certain willingness to first observe the results of her administration” and highlighted that 62 percent expressed optimism for the future of the country.

    On the other hand, the poll anointed former presidential candidate Sánchez as the leader of the opposition made up of his party Together for Peru and the centrist parties Good Government Party, Now Nation and Works.

    Torrado noted, on the other hand, that “historically the beginning of a term is usually accompanied by a dose of optimism and an initial period of confidence.”

    “Sixty percent represents a good starting point, but also a responsibility. Citizens tend to be pragmatic, and initial trust will depend on the results they perceive in the coming months,” he added.

    He also said that the Datum poll showed that almost half of those surveyed predict a confrontational relationship between the Executive and Congress.

    The four opposition groups, although not unanimous, have a large majority in the Chamber of Deputies and half of the seats in the Senate, while the other half is in the hands of the ruling party, Fuerza Popular, and its ally, Renovación Popular, of the extreme right.

    On the other hand, on the day of the first poll on his term, he reaffirmed his main campaign promise, that of restoring order in the face of rampant crime, and praised seven police officers for the capture of a group of hitmen.

    • InexplicableLunchFiend [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      7·
      8 hours ago

      I really don’t understand this “honeymoon phase” that voters always have at the beginning of administrations. It’s always the same shit, the same policies, the same interests being served and they all eventually sour on the leader before a new one comes in and they reset. Like are people just fundamentally stupid? How do we ever build and maintain class consciousness in the masses when people are this goldfishbrained and unable to connect dots?

      • Redcuban1959 [any]@hexbear.netMEnglish
        5·
        7 hours ago

        Like are people just fundamentally stupid? How do we ever build and maintain class consciousness in the masses when people are this goldfishbrained and unable to connect dots?

        There an explanation to how they get these numbers. Most media in Peru is controlled by the Lima elite (with exception of the Belmont family who hate the Fujimoris and all right-wingers and have their own socdem conservative party called OBRAS), and they simply ignore anyone who does not live in Lima. People in Lima love Fujimori and Porky because they have either been mayors, or granted the city a lot of money and modernization stuff, these people genuienly think they have running water is a sign that they are upper-middle class and better than the people living in other large cities like Cusco (left stronghold).

        I’m sure if they did a poll in all the large cities her approval rating would be 40% and her rejection rating would be 60%, which was the election results if you don’t count the overseas votes.