Image is from the January 2023 World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. Over 50 heads of state and 600 CEOs attended.
holding flashlight under face
Imagine a terrifying world where we are all ruled by monsters of every stripe. And not hot ones like werewolves, but instead decaying zombies and mummies who are both insensitive to, and actively benefit from the immense suffering they cause on a daily basis. The top echelon of society, filled with profit-seeking, bloodsucking vampires. And the worst of it is that they repeat on a daily basis that what they are doing is not only just, but there is no other possible way to do it.
Pretty spooky, right? What if I told you that this world... was our own?
Happy Halloween!
Friendly reminder: when commenting about a news event, especially something that just happened, please provide a source of some kind. While ideally this would be on nitter or archived, any source is preferable to none at all given.
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
The Country of the Week is Lebanon! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
This week's first update is here.
Links and Stuff
The bulletins site is down.
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can.
Resources For Understanding The War
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.
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.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
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
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.
Last week's discussion post.
Are you eating terrorist ice cream? In extremely important Ukraine war reporting, Ukraine has named the multinational company Nestle as supporting Russia for continuing to sell their products in Russia. Finland frets over popular Finnish ice cream brands being owned ultimately by Nestle.
(Venäjä = Russia, emoyhtiö = parent company)
Ukraine news story about Nestle
spoiler
The Swiss corporation Nestle is one of the largest food producers in the world, doing business in 187 countries. Despite the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine, Nestle continues to operate in the aggressor state, supplying goods to its population and expanding its production base in the country. On this basis, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) is including the company in the list of international sponsors of the war.Nestle produces instant coffee, mineral water, chocolate, ice cream, dairy products, baby and pet food, and a range of other products. The company’s product portfolio includes more than 2,000 brands worldwide, including KitKat, Nescafé, Nesquik, Nestea, and others.
As of early 2022, the Swiss corporation was operating seven factories in Russia.
Despite the fact that the share of Nestle’s revenue made in Russia is only slightly over 2% of its global revenue, the company has not yet decided to leave the market of the terrorist state. Nestle explains this decision by citing the need to provide the Russian population with “essential products” and to take care of its 7,000 employees.
Nestle is represented in the Russian Federation through Nestle Russia LLC. The company paid more than USD 25 million in profit taxes as of 2021. Nestle has not published data on its income and taxes paid for 2022, most likely fearing international pressure.
In April 2023, the management of Nestlé Russia LLC asked the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation to take the necessary measures to restrict public access to the results of operations and financial statements of the company’s subsidiaries. The purpose of this step was likely to avoid imposing sanctions on Nestle’s subsidiaries.
The analysis of the Russian customs data reveals that in 2022 Nestle imported USD 374 million worth of semi-finished products and raw materials into Russia, while during the first nine months of 2023 this figure stood at USD 271 million.
After the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the company announced the suspension of exports and imports to Russia, except for “essential and basic goods for the local people.” Nevertheless, as reported by Swiss media, the shelves of Russian stores are still full of their products. Among the products available are Bystrow breakfast cereals, Maggi soups and broth cubes, Purina pet food, chocolate bars, and Nespresso coffee.
Additionally, in October 2022, the company imported technical equipment into Russia under the guise of milk powder, as evidenced by the court proceedings of Moscow Arbitration Court No. A40-24044/2023. In other words, the company does not only import raw materials to produce its “essential goods,” but also tries to covertly send technological equipment to Russia in order to further develop its business.
These facts provide ample evidence that the Swiss corporation has not learnt its lesson from recent history. During World War II, the company worked with both the aggressor and the victim, supplying food stuffs to the German Army and, at the same time, exporting them to the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition.
By continuing to work in the Russian market, Nestle is once again demonstrating to the world its willingness to collaborate with the aggressor state. Nestle’s Russia business also demonstrates to Russia itself that it continues to be integrated into the global market, despite numerous war crimes committed in Ukraine.
damn the swiss are playing both sides? who could have seen this coming
Lmao
Is it only Ukraine stans that still talk about "Z"? Do they think it means "half swastika"?
I just love the fact that Nestle uses literal child slaves but liberals are only upset that they are selling instant coffee to some guy in Yakutsk
theyre also on the bds list (of course)
Z is just like invasion stripes that were painted on planes at DDay. It's pretty important to know if the tank over there is your ally or if you should shoot a rocket at it/run away.
The Pingviini logo is adorable
Pingviini means penguin :)