Very slight change of plans: I'll begin the updates next Monday instead of this Friday. So this week will have no updates. Dang. So y'all better post hard enough to make up for it. But not so hard that we get past 1000 comments by the end of the week.
Links and Stuff
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists, for the “buh Zeleski is a jew?!?!” people.
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.
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 ~ Gleb Bazov, banned from Twitter, referenced pretty heavily in what remains of pro-Russian Twitter.
https://t.me/asbmil ~ ASB Military News, banned from Twitter.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday Patrick Lancaster - crowd-funded U.S journalist, mostly pro-Russian, works on the ground near warzones to report news and talk to locals.
https://t.me/riafan_everywhere ~ Think it's a government news org or Federal News Agency? Russian language.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ Front news coverage. Russian langauge.
https://t.me/rybar ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine
With the entire western media sphere being overwhelming pro-Ukraine already, you shouldn't really need more, but:
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.
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the r/china thread about this is hilarious and entirely unhinged
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:galaxy-brain:
China's economy continues to grow despite zero covid policies: CHINA IS DOOMED TO FAIL
Infinite COVID: Millions dead, millions disabled, life expectancy on downward trajectory, partial collapse of the hospital system, growing disbelief in modern medicine, extreme wealth inequality, contraction of the economy followed by partial rebound
Zero COVID: Few thousand dead and disabled in a gigantic country, life expectancy continues to grow, hospital system secured, continued increase of living standards, decreased growth of the economy followed by partial rebound
It's obvious which one is better, but of course :porky-scared-flipped: can't let it show and thus their economists are in denial.
only critique I have is that China doesn't have a free healthcare system
A very deserved critique particularly when you have the example of cuba
And they used to have one under Mao and the Deng dismantled it
:denguin:
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I had this talk with a moroccan relative of my wife pretty recently. They were talking about some tiktok of Chinese problem being "locked up" and how Zero-Covid was barbaric, while also lamenting the fact that in Morocco the government tried to put in place some extremely harsh curfew measures / lockdowns. I argued that the government then didn't provide much in the way of support for the population, and people then rightfully determined that the lockdowns were bullshit, and everybody started going out like they were planning anyway. Also apparently the army that was used to supplement the police force didn't get paid a lot, so a lot of moroccans just bribed the guards (allegedly) in order for them to be left alone. I think I got my message through, but i gotta admit that it gets hard to combat the ambient propaganda that's being sent over whatsapp and consumed by my wife's entire extended family.
Also just systemically a market economy starts to disintegrate if you shut down too much stuff for too long, even if it's totally unproductive shit, due to financial entanglement. Money needs to keep moving around or the system starts to eat itself. Like how a bar might be broke after two months shutdown, even though it's still there obviously, and all the people who work there are still there, but it's now non-operational because number go down, which means some people won't get the money they're owed, and others are out of a job, and so those people don't have any money, and that ripples around until it actually hits something important. And the only fix the government can do is sprinkle around money liberally, which in turn means half of it goes to the best-connected and not the people who actually need it, which in turn just causes the whole machine to become unbalanced.
You missed a bit - "coupled with huge stimulus spending and profits for companies, then followed by crushing recessions imposed by central banks to reduce inflation"
(Inflation in China is 2.8%)
Oops, totally did! Thanks, it bugs me when people talk about how China's economy isn't growing fast enough for them compared to the west when the situation is even worse here in the west when you take into account inflation (and inequality) wreaking havoc!!
Also while other major countries' economies shrink by the same metric. You know, the countries that forced mass death and disablement on their populations "for the economy".
Love to gloat on the internet about making an ass out of myself at a bar like it was some bold stand.
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I just want to shake these people and yell "You will never find peace or happiness in the quest to please empire! My boomer family will always look at you differently, my chud cousins will always say racist shit behind your back, and in times of hardship you will still be the first place they cast blame, no matter how much you denigrate others! You are like a genestealer cultist who doesn't realize their ultimate goal ends with them being eaten! You are Sysiphus pushing a big racism up an endless mountain! THERE IS NOTHING BEYOND THAT ILLUSORY GATE OF HONORARY WHITENESS, NOTHING!"
:michael-laugh:
See, gusano ain't an ethnic slur, the term clearly applies to people from multiple ethnicities
This is true, :biden-alert: is also a gusano
:ira:
neither is Kulak
Yeah... I've been drunk and said dumb shit as well. Not this dumb though.
Gusano central
I love how "Per Capita GDP" was used.
The US is basically run by a Finance/Military industrial cartel, with a low growth population so median per capita GDP until 2005 rapidly outstripped China even though China was already catching up in total GDP and Median Income.
In recent decades, with China's population growth slowing GDP per capita has skyrocketed and is increasing at about the same rate as the USA.
my debt got sold 10000 times before the statute of limitations ran out
OMG THE GDP!!!
Can you feel the pure unadulterated liquidity of transactions that aren't trading goods, aren't even trading predictions on goods like Marx complaining about the futures market, but are trading predictions about the performance of financial clusters containing fractions of unforgivable debt to pretend to bolster the risk values of clearly criminal transactions!?
Keep going I'm almost there :porky-happy:
i'm feelin' it now mr krabs
Amazing
https://lateralthinkingtechnology.wordpress.com/2022/05/11/waiting-for-the-good-guys-to-win-middle-class-china-and-foreign-friends/
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this guys writes like a drunk leftist who reads Carl Schmitt and Cioran
Lord
Bit Idea: A hard liquor called, "Bringing out the Calipers."
As is tradition.
What in the LaRouchite fuck is that place? Every second post is some about China's 'demographic crisis'.
A sub for sexually demented crackers who like to role-play as the aggrieved emperor of China
Without looking for myself this sounds very :jesse-wtf:
theres an r/cuba too, i bet you can guess what that board is like.
Reactions I have seen so far:
"I say, Smithers, I don't know why Harvard bothered to show up this year. They barely even won."
Show them these kinds of growth stats when you remove the FIRE sector lol
Don't threaten me with a good time
I think real estate is pretty important to China's economy as well, but yeah if you took out FIRE, the US would be hit way harder lol. :this-is-fine:
Real Estate makes up something like 20% of China's GDP, (at least according to the latest Michael Roberts blogposts) so taking it out would massively change the entire calculus. The big thing for the US is the fact that no sector has been able to grow aside from the FIRE sector and that the FIRE sector is the only sector whos growth is entirely dependant on parasitism.
I highly recommend the Michael Hudson book on Finance and debt "Killing the Host" which I am currently reading. He's good folks.
New goal: +6.9%
gotta get to 4.20% first
So our ruthless capitalist regime is gonna start shit with China, I guess? Probably provoke a conflict over taiwan?
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Tbf thats really quite low vs the usual
:xigma-male: "What do you mean? you didnt get double digit growths?"
State power :gigachad-hd:
China's growth is really impressive and has a strong resemblance to the US growth in the late 1800's. I feel like the Soviet Union would have also been passed just as quickly if it were still around today.
This comment has been at the top of "active" for ages
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