this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2026
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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.

preambleFor 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.


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Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

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English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
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Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
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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.


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[–] Tervell@hexbear.net 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (21 children)

https://archive.ph/fXD04

After specialist contacts congressman, Army admits soldiers got ‘sub-optimal’ food

"Due to high employee turnover and staffing shortages, the meal service was sub-optimal for 4th Infantry Division soldiers," an Army colonel wrote to a member of Congress.

more

Soldiers received “sub-optimal” meal service while taking part in a major exercise last month at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, an Army colonel acknowledged in a recent letter to a member of Congress. The July 27 letter from Col. Nicholas Sinclair, which has been shared on social media, came in response to an inquiry from Rep. Jeff Crank of Colorado, who had been contacted by an Army specialist about the meal issues at the National Training Center. A spokesperson at Fort Carson, Colorado, where the 4th Infantry Division is based, confirmed to Task & Purpose that the letter was authentic. Sinclair wrote that the concerns the specialist had raised about the quality of the food available to soldiers were “valid,” explaining that all meals provided to soldiers in the field during the exercise were provided by a local vendor. “However, due to high employee turnover and staffing shortages, the meal service was sub-optimal for 4th Infantry Division soldiers,” Sinclair wrote. At the time the letter was written, Sinclair was commander of the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. The unit has since become a Stryker brigade. Army officials talked to the vendor, which received a “Corrective Action Request” on June 30 and then took steps to correct the issues, Sinclair wrote. The specialist who contacted Crank said they knew that Army leaders are required to answer an inquiry from a member of Congress, which would force them to look into the food situation. The soldier also told Task & Purpose that since he exited the simulated combat zones at the center known as “the box” at the end of July, the food is “a good 65% better”

(more photos in the article)

Nearly 10,000 troops took part in the recent exercise at the National Training Center. Photos posted to social media and shared to both the unofficial Army subreddit and the Hots & Cots app show small portions, bad toppings, such as expired salsa, and appear to show shortages of food. The food was provided to the soldiers before they went “in the box,” where troops lived as if in the field. The actual exercise ran 10 days, from July 20 to 29, but soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division arrived in advance, with some arriving in late June. The food at the chow hall was available for breakfast and dinner, with participating troops having to go to private vendors or eat Meals Ready to Eat, or MREs, for lunch or meals. But soldiers reported long lines for the chow hall and poor food offerings.

“Some of it was inedible,” a junior officer with 4th Infantry Division told Task & Purpose. “Some sausages that you couldn’t tell were that bad on purpose or not. Protein ran out more than once. Some of the empty trays are because dudes didn’t take everything that was available, but those optional items at the end of the chow line looked pretty bad more than once.” Rob Evans, an Army veteran and founder of the Yelp-like Hots & Cots app, said that he heard from soldiers, both officers and enlisted, in mid-July who reached out about “subpar, not great” food options. Soldiers who spoke to Task & Purpose said that complaints were widespread and that they raised these concerns to leadership. However, the junior officer said that there was no official response beyond substituting MREs for food at the chowhall. “It wasn’t a ‘you’re new to the Army this is the standard,’” kind of issue, the officer said. Evans said he wasn’t sure if the training center was prepared to have a full division come through — which is between 10,000 and 15,000 soldiers, compared to a brigade, which can have between 3,000 and 5,000 soldiers. “NTC is not going to be your great [dining facility] meal; you’re not having campus-style dining, but you expect more than what these service members got,” Evans told Task & Purpose. The junior officer was more blunt: “I get NTC is supposed to suck, but it went from suck to insulting.”

[–] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 21 points 1 day ago (2 children)

it's a bit more understandable when you see these shitty plates served on a long-deployed carrier off the gulf, but this is in california.

[–] christian@hexbear.net 13 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

I skimmed and looked at the photos at first, and then when I started reading I did a double-take when I realized that.

[–] WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com 10 points 22 hours ago

So its probably much worse on the Lincoln now...

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