As is tradition, at around this time of year, we discuss the latest developments in the communist plan to destroy Christmas and everything festive and jolly - including that bastard kulak Santa Claus. Down with holly and myrrh, and up with historical materialism!
This year, I'm highlighting the economic trend of de-Decemberization, as the world struggles to break free from the seasonal hegemony imposed by the North Pole. Some regard it as a rather overhyped phenomenon, stating that the chains of Christmas are too frozen for any country to thaw and break in the current environment. Others are more optimistic, and assert that perhaps an alternative world holiday could be established to outright replace it, or maybe a series of smaller holiday traditions can bring it down like a pack of wolves bringing down a moose.
To return to seriousness, as this year draws to a close, I hope everybody here - yes, also you, the person reading this - has a 2026 that was better than 2025, and that the efforts of the United States and their proxies are foiled at every turn. One day, humans will live in a world free from empires, and it would be nice if as many of us as possible lived to see that world's birth.
At the very least, I'd like to live to see an aircraft carrier sink beneath the waves.
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.
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.
As in most of Latin America, the Bolivian army is divided between the extreme right, opportunists, liberals/constitutionalists, and leftists. Bolivia has had several military governments (some left-wing, others right-wing) in the past, and the army has never really abandoned politics. Evo himself was a former recruit who participated in some of the coups of the time and was even a member of the Presidential Guard.
Quiroga (the former president who lost the 2025 elections) represents the far right of the army. He is not a soldier, but he was the lapdog of former president and dictator Banzer, the man who destroyed General J. J. Torres' left-wing military junta. Paz (the current president) is the son of a former liberal president who reached an agreement with Banzer to govern Bolivia in the 1990s, and is a distant grandson of another former president who was overthrown by the army and supported Banzer, only for Banzer to turn against the Paz family during the 1970s and 1980s.
I vaguely remember that when Evo was elected, his promise was to “keep the military out of politics.” And that was very popular among the working class, the middle class, and part of the Bolivian elite who despised the military class. Some conservative military figures, or people aligned with the military, supported Evo because they wanted him to expel US soldiers and Brazilian office workers and replace them with Bolivian companies, and because they saw Evo as a nationalist leader. Evo did finance a bunch of stuff for the Army, and continued their policy of refusing to establishing full diplomatic relations with Chile due to border dispute.
Evo never really touched on the issue of the military (just like Lula and Dilma in Brazil, Correia in Ecuador, Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, and the Kirchners in Argentina), because they did not want to antagonize the military class. The military stayed out of politics during Evo's first terms, although some more reactionary generals did speak ill of him. In 2019, the army refused to obey Evo, and helped the National Police stage a coup; in 2024, the army attempted another coup and to arrest all leftists, but failed because the police (which had been purged by Arce) refused to obey the army.
always the wrong move
learn from Chavez!
Chavez could do it because he was an extremely popular senior officer holding a lot of loyalty. Being from the military massively changes what you're able to do with it compared to politicians without military status. A politician needs to ally with someone in the military as their voice to military members to get it done.
Easier said that done. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, and thanks to the us of a - military cadres in LatAm have the bigger guns.