this post was submitted on 31 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 of the first nuclear icebreaker ever built, the Lenin, which entered service in 1957 in the USSR and decommissioned in 1989. It is now a museum ship in Murmansk. I just think it's neat.


My weekly preamble is in spoiler tags below.

preambleThe last week has had a lot of Trump admin dipshittery that isn't important enough to be worth remarking on, so I'm just going to skip right past all that. The sanctions campaign against Iran appears to have stalled before it even left the starting line, with China saying that, nope, they aren't going to cut off their ally for the sake of their enemy. From what I've gathered from Naked Capitalism's (albeit limited) reporting on the state of Iran's economy, the impression I get is that while inflation is running kinda wild, everything else, including state revenues, are doing sufficiently well that there isn't going to be an economic collapse this year nor probably next year if we assume a continued no-deal situation over Hormuz.

The underlying geopolitical situation has had some interesting little developments. Iran and Oman appears to have worked out their plan for joint control over Hormuz. Ansarallah is continuing their explosive campaign against the Saudis, who are now begging the US for help. Additionally, the ever-barking never-biting Türkiye is showing some signs that they might soon, finally, after three years of witnessing outright genocide, do 1 (one) (the first numerical digit) action that isn't to the Zionist's direct benefit, by putting up a modicum of resistance in defence of their puppet in Syria; but, quite frankly, I'm not holding my breath on anything truly substantial happening while Erdogan's in charge.

The state of oil flows in and around Hormuz are very hotly debated right now. Many of the oil flow numbers can be dismissed out of hand because they aren't reflective of the reality of Iranian control and vision of the strait. Due to the narrowness of the strait, full visual coverage of the ships travelling through the channel can be achieved with technology no more advanced than a dozen people with binoculars and a not-especially-tall mountain. However, figures that are around 3-5 million barrels per day (compared to the pre-war 20 million per day) seems plausible when including Iran allowing some allied vessels out (notably Iraqi and Chinese vessels, among others). This, plus China's rather odd actions in the oil market over the last six months, have resulted in the US's SPR now draining at "only" 4-6 million barrels per week, compared to 8-9 earlier in the war. However, the war's impact on fertilizer and diesel stockpiles and prices are now unignorable even to those with their heads in the sand, with anxiety steadily building in the mainstream media about food crises next year.

Meanwhile, Trump has decided to pick fights with Canada due to their strange unwillingness to graciously hand over their sovereignty to the US, with the two countries now in a tariff war. That being said, oil seems to be one product that neither side wants to fight over: the US needs a producer, and Canada needs a customer. The only other country in the vicinity with major oil reserves is Venezuela, who has been in the news a lot lately for precisely this reason, but they simply don't have the production to do much of anything to alleviate the US's stockpile issues and likely still won't by the time Trump has left office, and so they can be safely dismissed as a significant player in this ongoing global energy conflict.

On the subject of naval trade routes, a fascinating development is that Russia has finally unveiled the Northern Sea Route as a regular maritime passage, with a small fleet of eight Chinese vessels taking the route as a test run in mid-August. From Shanghai to Hamburg, the route is a little over 7000 nautical miles and goes through no chokepoints (though I suppose the Bering Strait could hypothetically become one), compared to the Suez route which is nearly 11,000 nautical miles and goes through three chokepoints (Malacca, Bab el-Mandab, Suez). Russia has the world's only nuclear icebreaker fleet, and the increased power from those reactors is necessary to provide the sheer force to break up the ice along the route, making them even more uniquely situated to benefit from the route. Many countries, China foremost among them, have identified the advantage of not being subject to chokepoints and hostile waters as the US navy continues its rapid transition to outright piracy, so it'll be interesting to see to what extent the route is adopted in the coming years.


Last week's thread 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:

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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[–] Lando@hexbear.net 25 points 1 hour ago (1 children)
[–] newmou@hexbear.net 9 points 24 minutes ago (1 children)

Truly the country of terms and conditions lmao

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 6 points 15 minutes ago
[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 9 points 57 minutes ago* (last edited 55 minutes ago) (2 children)

CNN - The war is raising the price of money. That’s a problem for the global economy

Yellow lights are flashing in the most important market on the planet: The US bond market. [...] The risk is that this situation morphs into a doom loop, where the more the war intensifies, the more it will removedthe bond market and slow the economy and stocks. “It feels like there is no end to the inflation problem, the war or the deficit in the near term,” said Hardika Singh, economic strategist at Fundstrat, an investment research firm. [...] The 10-year Treasury yield is 4.78%.

The national debt [hit] $40 trillion for the first time ever. [...] Over the next decade, US net spending on interest is expected to surpass $16 trillion. [...] That is a conservative estimate, and those costs could be higher if rates rise further.

The article has more very informative charts.

[–] segfault11@hexbear.net 6 points 37 minutes ago (1 children)

they should make the interest rate 6.7% reisen-dance

[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 3 points 34 minutes ago

Give it time - please.

[–] newmou@hexbear.net 3 points 23 minutes ago

This time there’s no finance capital outlet to the rescue

[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 8 points 53 minutes ago

Al Jazeera - Why Ali al-Taher ridge has become a key battleground in southern Lebanon? The Ali al-Taher ridge, which overlooks a wide part of southern Lebanon, has become one of the main flashpoints in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Hezbollah is believed to have built an underground command centre and weapons storage facilities inside the ridge, Lebanese security sources told Reuters in July.

At about 600 metres (1970 ft) above sea level, the position gave the group an advantage in launching short-range missiles and drones towards northern Israel, according to analysts cited by the agency. In June, Hezbollah said its fighters confronted Israeli troops trying to move towards the northern slopes of the hills. Military analyst Elias Hanna told Al Jazeera that Ali al-Taher is strategically linked to the Beaufort Castle heights and overlooks the Khiam area, making it important for surveillance and directing fire across nearby positions.

Its significance now extends beyond the battlefield. Reuters reported in July that the ridge had become a sticking point in efforts to expand US-backed “pilot zones”, under which Israeli troops would withdraw as the Lebanese army deploys and Hezbollah’s military infrastructure is removed.

[–] Lovely_sombrero@hexbear.net 21 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Looks like Iran is launching rockets and drones at Kuwait! Good.

[–] jack@hexbear.net 11 points 1 hour ago

DO NOT RELENT

FORCE THEM OUT

[–] Lovely_sombrero@hexbear.net 50 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

Trump aides seek 'quiet' in Iran war but say attacks may intensify after November elections

Iran, please. Fire when ready! At least 10 rockets every day. The US bases need to constantly be disrupted.

[–] DogThatWentGorp@hexbear.net 13 points 1 hour ago

"The hitting you whenever we want and running away like nothing happened /will/ continue until we run out of rockets or you give up for no reason."

[–] red_giant@hexbear.net 42 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

A tactical pause could also give the U.S. military some breathing room to replenish its heavily depleted munitions stockpiles, the ​sources said.

A tactical pause of about 8 years

[–] Lovely_sombrero@hexbear.net 35 points 6 hours ago

Most of the replenishment will come from pulling the remaining stocks from other regions.

[–] Lovely_sombrero@hexbear.net 49 points 7 hours ago (9 children)

CAP (Center for American Progress), the biggest liberal think tank in the US, publishes a new policy. I think it is fair to say that they are proposing Communism 2.

[–] casskaydee@hexbear.net 6 points 1 hour ago

No CAP

:kelly:

[–] red_giant@hexbear.net 23 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Does a “voluntary program” even qualify as a “policy proposal”?

It sounds more like an idea.

We have given the high school UN people far too many days without being bullied methinks.

[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 3 points 51 minutes ago

Does a “voluntary program” even qualify as a “policy proposal”?

:kelly: Abundance Theory

[–] Rojo27@hexbear.net 22 points 4 hours ago

Hardly the sort of policy usually associate with the party's corporate friendly center.

Its not? We're going to sit here and act like most grocers are mom and pops and not corporations of various sizes themselves? I've got 4-5 supermarkets in my proximity and at least 3, if not all are under the same corporate umbrella even though they all have their own branding.

Also let's not act like giving businesses incentives to be slightly better to consumers isn't something Democrats don't do all the time.

[–] supafuzz@hexbear.net 24 points 4 hours ago

daring today, aren't we

[–] darkcalling@hexbear.net 41 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Credit card companies are among the most powerful institutions in American capitalism. You can ban things two ways: act of congress or getting the credit card companies to demand it from on-high. Countless stories of big companies freaking out and pulling things or stopping things the moment credit card lawyer teams contact them to object because they have the ability to bring private financial sanctions and exclusion from the economy which can bring even the biggest companies on earth to their knees.

The only way you could do this would be if the government just paid the credit card companies those fees instead. And at that point just subsidize the food by that much so even those paying with cash can get discounts.

A real proposal would be higher taxes on all grocery companies and relief only for those who avoid these cost increases and keep prices low.

[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 34 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

How will the economy function if the middle men don't get their service fees?

[–] Lovely_sombrero@hexbear.net 27 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

The fees are subsidized by the government, so the middle men gets taxpayer money! Like I said, pure Communism!

[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 24 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Communism is when we operate our economy exactly the way we do now, the government just pays for the most inefficient aspects of it.

[–] Staines@hexbear.net 14 points 4 hours ago

and the more inefficient it is, the more communist it is.

[–] SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net 25 points 7 hours ago

Eurocommunism with American characteristics.

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