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.
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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.
What is behind attacking Venezuela now instead of anytime in the past two decades? How has the current situation inclined America towards this possibly incoming war?
Edit
I just remembered once doing the connection between this and the ramping up of the anti-immigrant mechanisms. This has probably been building up behind the scenes for at least a decade now. Scary to consider this means they think they're ready to "deal" with a huge influx of refugeesThey want to keep China out of "their" hemisphere. Same reason they retook the Panama canal. They weren't even hiding it very well then, since they were talking about China "controlling" it.
They were hoping to break Venezuela with blockades, starvation campaigns, and color revolutions, but the Bolivarian Revolution prevailed. Now their only option is war.
Edit: To be a little more clear, China is quickly developing power projection capabilities (air and naval), and the US foreign policy blob wants to get ahead of it by locking them out altogether.
Edit2: Also probably same reason as the Argentina bailout. They are hoping to keep Milei in power to prevent Argentina from drifting back toward China.
But why is Milei selling Soy beans to China then?
In the short term, I'm not sure that it matters much. Maybe they are doing it as an extra economic boost ahead of the elections.
Dead dog told him to do that
I'm willing to bet money that they see Venezuela as having untapped strategic resources. For example, Rare Earths: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0895981123003437
The current global embargo China is placing on rare earths is probably forcing america to act or get fucked. The US probably knew this embargo was coming and began these operations as a result of it.
Isn't it the case that rare-Earth elements are not constrained by supply of raw material, but by industrial capacity?
Doubt that white supremacists can comprehend this statement
usa have shittons of rare earths, they are just located in reservations, and i somehow doubt republicans give a single shit.
also it isn't really just about REMs themselves. China has the refineries and processing facilities that made it convenient and cheap for other countries to rely on instead of competing with a domestic alternative. The minerals are useless until the supply chain catches up with demand.
Also Greenland
Yess I noticed Greenland has a very hefty amount while I was researching this possibility. Coincidence? I doubt it.
All of the current conflicts are being driven at least partly by it. Guess what's also in eastern Ukraine but not in western Ukraine? Some rare earth deposits.
We're living in Dune. Control of these resources is being regarded as control of the future.
The fact you need these rare earths in small quantities to upgrade some materials for crazy properties makes them even more like "Spice".
i still remember reading ghoulish conservative paper from 2018-19, where they advocated to just seize the mining locations from indigenous folks, tell them sucks to be losers, lift environmental regulations and go to town, cause "nobody lives there(tm)".
(that was some paranoid anti-china pro military piece, somewhat prescient in attitudes about rare earths, so i do believe that thought is still rumbling somewhere)
Removing Chinese and US influence from the western hemisphere. If escalation with Russia in particular is inevitable in the short term on the current course, might as well remove Russia's influence in Venezuela to prevent Russia staging missiles or one way attack drones there, preventing a Cuban missile crisis 2.0 through Venezuela. Preventing Chinese influence is more of a medium term goal.
Could be a variety of factors. There’s the obvious classic of the MIC needs something to self justify and loves bombing countries for oil.
It could be an intended testing ground for more involved conflicts, like hawk’s promised war with China or Iran. Ukraine is certainly taught them a lot, but that’s not the same as the actual US military getting experience in actual war again.
Could also just be rampant Nazi xenophobia brain rot driving them to find some “easy win” in their mind. Not that invading would be easy.
Russian oil being de jure(but not de facto) off the market for western countries, and Venezuela having the world's largest proven oil reserves may have an influence
The control of eastern europe decided the cold war. The control of Latin America and Africa will decide the new one?
They were tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan for Chavez's entire presidency. After Chavez's death/assassination, they did try couping Maduro, even going so far as to try to assassinate Maduro with a drone, so it's not like they did absolutely nothing to Venezuela.
I think since the failed coup, the US is losing its grip on the Global South and is now consolidating its grip on its traditional domain: Europe and Latin America. They locked in Europe after blowing up that pipeline and now they'll move to consolidate their control over Latin America. I suspect they'll intensify their attacks on Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba with the aim of overthrowing all three governments. Right now, Venezuela is the most dangerous of the three because of its size and natural resources. And if Venezuela falls, they'll move towards Nicaragua. For Cuba, they'll intensify the blockade, and if that doesn't topple the government, I could see them trying to invade Cuba again. The political goal is to consolidate Latin America under US control in preparation for war with China.
There's also the possibility that the Zionist entity, being the rabid dog that it is, completely messed with the timetable of the US. Since the IOF is completely incompetent, the US is forced to prop them up. Perhaps the ceasefire is just the US yanking the leash of their dog so that everything can go back as scheduled.
All other things to achieve their goals there have failed. They took their shot at Iran and the middle east and have more or less locked it down as much as they can in their favor without a massive war that could drag on for 10 years which they cannot afford if they want to war with China before that point. The zionists and US took out Assad, Syria is a puppet, Hezbollah mostly confined to quarters, Hamas isn't going to be in a position to carry out huge operations soon in the future now thanks to that deal, Iran bombed and cowed, the list goes on.
So this is one of those points on the game map glowing red for enemy and they want to lock down their hemisphere economically, militarily, etc for the coming cold war and hot war with China. It's either this or go back to the middle east or go over and try to topple the Sahal states in Africa (which they are doing with ISIS and Ukrainian fascist paramilitaries for the moment and if that fails in 5 years maybe they'll try this or maybe they'll be at war with China already).
It is not US preference to militarily invade a country as they have learned it often doesn't end well and turns the western public against them over time. Vietnam, Korea, etc. Meanwhile the last cold war shows a legacy of success with various coups, color revolutions, kill squads, etc. So that's always their first choice. But when that fails they're the global empire so they're going to reach for the military and try and pull out a win. They did get a win in Libya after all, the destabilization there suits them wonderfully. Syria too. So military campaigns have had success too.