Apologies, this one is smaller than usual, as I'm gonna be very busy over the next few days. It's the same amount of headlines, just not as much quoted from them.
Links and Stuff
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can, thank you.
Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map, who is an independent youtuber with a mostly neutral viewpoint.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have good analysis (though also a couple bad takes here and there)
Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict and, unlike most western analysts, has some degree of understanding on how war works. He is a reactionary, however.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent journalist reporting in the Ukrainian warzones.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Yesterday's discussion post.
They're not on the verge of victory as they're not really in control. The real power still remains vested in the police, the money men, and their capitalist administrators. Churches can't actually enforce this shit. They can't control who buys and sells contraceptives or abortion drugs. They can't dictate what goes on in hospitals - who gets registered as a miscarriage and who gets flagged as an abortion - or which individuals get to legally cross state lines.
They're actively working to concentrate power into an increasingly aggressive centralized government system. But their grip on that power still runs through the offices of those executives. So much of the original power of churches - their ability to engage and mobilize large groups of people into direct action - has decayed. Church attendance is down. Churches that don't command a high-roller audience are going bankrupt. And those that do are barely more than country clubs.
The insular Jesus-themed cults and privileged niches that still wear the trappings of a national religious movement can still operate as a network for powerful families. But the Mega-Church glory days are all behind us. 4chan and Facebook and Twitter are more effective at whipping up crowds of vocal adherents than any Protestant denomination. Yoga studios command larger crowds than your typical Baptist Church. This isn't victory for Evangelicals, its an Apotheosis. They're no longer a popular movement. They're just The Federalist Society with a cross hanging in the window.
I don't think we can do that shit again, nor do we particularly want to. The next generation of this shit is going to be driven by the Tech Sector and The Algorithm. We're already seeing the edges of it on Social Media, but I suspect we're going to be increasingly targeted based on our consumption habits rather than our race or gender.
The courts will open the door to a new kind of color-blind bigotry. Something more akin to Black Mirror's "Nosedive" or Community's "Meow Meow Beans", where everyone's in an endless popularity contest and access to amenities is dictated by associating more and more exclusively with "Five Star" people.
The rubes at the bottom aren't, but the leadership cadre has seized extremely resilient control over the government of many states, they own the police, the money men have no problem working for them, and the high capitalists don't care as long as the money flows. Their faction controls the SCOTUS, permanently after this election. They control all the red states at all levels of state and local government. With the SCOTUS and Congress in hand they can strip all human and civil rights off the books with no resistance. No more unions, no more financial independence for women, just pick something and they can get rid of it.
People have been talking about a demographic shift moving power to the center and left for years, and the GOP know that, and they're trying to finalize their coup to ensure that it doesn't matter.
They're going to finalize the coup just in time to be lowered into their graves.
The next generation has a different sent of priorities, even in the upper crust. Just look at the new Saudi Crown Prince. Or the Green Party takeover of Germany.
Even the Mormons are struggling to maintain membership. Churches can't command as niche cults. They need people power to function.