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 of Iranian missiles in one of their many fortified underground facilities. I sincerely hope this isn't AI generated, because I'm very wary of posting footage of explosions or combat and having it later turn out to be fake.
Now that the initial shock of the war's beginning is over and there's a meaningful dataset to analyze, the takes from the many hundreds of Geopolitics Understanders are flying in, with predictably extreme variance about how long they predict this war to last and who will ultimately be the victor - and, indeed, what victory even looks like for either side. There are some who are already toasting to their side's victory, but most serious analysts seem to believe that if there isn't any negotiations, and it's just attrition to the death, then it's gonna be a long war (months or even years), and then, depending on the analyst, either the US or Iran then concedes defeat.
All of these takes are being informed by quite possibly the worst information environment yet conceived by humanity. There's the usual stuff: falsehoods, lying by omission, wild exaggerations, state propaganda, doctored videos, masses of bots boosting certain narratives, etc - but now also easily accessible AI which creates images and videos that can be quite convincing unless further inspected by tools online, and people claiming that some non-AI videos were made with AI. On top of all of that, censorship across the Middle East is now in full effect, spawning arguments about whether Iran's strikes have actually decreased in intensity (and if they have, then why), or if we just aren't seeing them as much on social media anymore. Scant footage here and there confirms that strikes are still happening, but I suspect that most of the evidence of further damage to Western facilities will either be satellite imagery or indirect indicators like rescue crews gathering in certain areas, as well as the he-said-she-said of official statements by either side. Given the West's utter lack of reliability with reporting... well, pretty much everything, but especially the Ukraine War, I know which side I'm predisposed to believe, but obviously Iran's government generally isn't going to report successful strikes by Western forces for a myriad reasons.
However, the military conflict is being gradually eclipsed in importance by the growing likelihood of a global economic crisis of massive proportions. A very large proportion of the fuel that keeps the world running is now not moving, and may remain so for weeks or months. Some are even predicting that 2026 will be the year of the biggest energy crisis in world history, dwarfing the crisis of 1973, as countries around the world begin to restrict oil and gas exports and tap into limited reserves. In such a situation, Iran clearly holds all the cards, because even if the US eventually achieves air supremacy, it is still relatively trivial to fire cheap drones en masse at tankers in the strait and at oil facilities throughout the Gulf. Assuming that Iran and the US do not negotiate, then even if the US eventually somehow wins and can reopen the strait within a few months, the global economic and political situation may be so degraded that the victory will be pyrrhic.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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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:
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.
https://xcancel.com/IsraelRadar_com/status/2030214631671619686
@a_party_german@hexbear.net your mention of go-pills was very timely (https://hexbear.net/comment/6978001)
also, uh, darkly ironic given which military is the most famous for taking drugs to keep their troops going during war
That is why Iran really needs to start/continue hitting all the jet fuel capacity in and around Israel.
This is gonna cause sooooo much pilot error if they keep it up, it's why they reckon there were so many friendly fire incidents in the Gulf War.
As the great man himself says:
However on the topic, I find it hard to imagine that anyone would do the 5-6 hours trip from Israel to Iran more than once a day. Seems like bad propaganda. Twice maybe, if you really want to push yourself, but over several days...? Come on. There are physical limits to a human body, right?
By the way if anyone here wants to read more serious work on the topic of Nazis and drugs, I would wholeheartedly recommend this book:
It's quite recent (came out in 2015), not too long (250+ easy pages) and even though it's a translation from the original German, the unconventional writing style of the author comes through well enough. If you've read Rob Citino's works on the Wehrmacht - where he often writes like a sports reporter would write about the Battle of Kursk - it's not quite the same style, but in a similar league. The author often tries to evoke a deeper psychological connection between war, drugs, and aspects of imagined Nazi superiority and whatnot. I was entirely surprised by just how common meth use was in WW2 Germany, how all the big Nazi figures were absolutely aware that drugs gave Germany an edge over its enemies (at least in the first couple years of the war), and just how many Nazi leaders were doing rather large amounts of the stuff (or other drugs lol). If you liked Breaking Bad, have done any kind of upper drugs, or just enjoy discovering aspects of WW2 history you had not thought about yet...pretty good book then, yeah. Can post some example pages if anybody's curious.
I wasn't offended, I was lol'ing and it was a good analysis of the situation.
About the Blitzed book and how it is fairly well known now that the Nazis were all railing or slamming meth, really being the first to do so on a large scale, I am reminded of Brace Belden's theory that the more meth one does (might be stims in general), the more of a Nazi that person becomes. I always wonder if other former meth users tend to agree, because it sure fits my anecdotal experiences. Glad I was only into downers myself.
Nick Land is my go-to case study for meth turning someone into a nazi.
I just listened to Blitzed on audiobook a couple of months ago, highly recommend
I don't know enough about Israeli specific candies to make a good "Panzer Chocolate" joke...
Tel Aviv Toblerone
"take these boner pills so they can get your cum in time"
"no need sir. I'm always hard when I bomb civilians. send me out one more time."
It's quite standard for fighter pilots, Modafinil, Dexedrine, caffeine pills and energy drinks, and nowadays zyns are all that I've heard about of seen photos of in the cockpit, lots of pictures of Zyn in F-15 and F-16 cockpits.
Worth noting as well, per the reporting in Seth Harp’s Fort Bragg Cartel, Special Forces are on all of this stuff as well nonstop; modafinil/methamphetamines to stay “on” during missions (also helps lower your emotionality so you don’t loose your shit after getting covered in gore from all the people you just murdered) and Ambien/xanax on the flip side to come down or sleep. He basically charts through a couple narrative cast studies how these guys end up transitioning to coke and other stuff when they’re back, which plugs into the cartel drug running stuff as well.
Wow, how sustainable. These pilots are going to start crashing (literally and figuratively) if they don't cycle them out.
The maintenance load must be enormous, 100% the US/Israelis have permanently lost more aircraft to wear and tear than Iranian air defenses
the hitler meth chocolate
Armodafinil?
Lol I had forgotten about gorilla mindset
Interesting, indicates how this type of bombing is ultimately a logistics problem, like any other cargo, just moving things from point A to B. If they still had all their gulf-state airbases, they could "deliver" many times more bombs per ton-mile traveled. And shows why Diego Garcia is so important, vs launching strategic bombers all the way from the US