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.
The most extreme of this new generation of American leftists have found a home on sites like Twitter and Reddit, where Maduro’s “wokewashing” is designed to earn their retweets and upvotes. Colloquially known as “tankies,” a term originally used disparagingly to denote pro-Soviet British leftists, the members of these online communities of leftists who support foreign authoritarian regimes — many of whom decorate their profiles with a hammer and sickle or emoji flags of countries like Cuba, Venezuela and China — range from the niche to the verified, with hundreds of thousands of followers.
For Smith, the politics and economics blogger, “the new tankies have no personal connection with the old tankies” and would more appropriately be called “campists,” a term he uses to denote leftists who support certain countries only for their mere opposition to the U.S. and its allies, while disregarding the actual political situation of these countries.
Lmao you're all campists
campism is more to do with like, supporting Iran, Syria, ect because they oppose the US than Venezuela and co who do have leftward policy and do need solidarity. not that I agree with the term
it's one of those things that got used so much it kinda just slid into 'bad thing I disagree with' honestly. leftist infighting has and remains dumb and petty af
Gee i wonder why they are supporting countries who are against the US, it must be the kids who are wrong.
What the fuck do you call our regime that has brutally held down wages for my entire life, controls millions of slaves, murders and pillages abroad, and where five geriatrics are about to unilaterally end all civil rights if not fucking authoritarian!
All authoritarian means to them is that there exist literally any limitations on business exploitation, I swear.
Venezuelan-Lebanese journalist and polisci (BU 21). Now at @Politico. I've written for @Business, @theEconomist, @CaracasChron and others.
Looks like Politico have their new yellow, blue and red striped worm
Took me a second to realize this is infact a quote by certified big boy Noah Smith, and not just a random white guy named John Smith, who was grown in the BUTTIGIEG tubes at the CIA.
:fidel-salute:
Comrade this has become an important news source for me. While it is a part of my daily routine to check it, I know how rewarding positive feedback can feel and I wanted to make sure you got some! This kind of routinism is only possible because of your dedication, professionalism, and growing expertise, and that deserves recognition. Please know that even if I don't always comment I do always read.
Not to channel my inner :alex-supplements: too much but these people are demons and goblins.
So they improved their forecast and media selling it as a cut?
GDP in America goes down 1.4% after a ~7% increase in the final quarter of 2021: Eh, not all bad, there's even some opportunities here!
GDP in China goes from a projected 4.8% to 4.3%: This is a fundamental weakness of the Chinese economic system and reflects the absolute folly of trying to maintain Covid Zero after the rest of the world has moved on (because, as we all know, the Ukraine War ended coronavirus)
Reminds me of trying to discuss the Xinjiang situation with people on Reddit. They just throw article after article at you, who either cites the same non-story, or who makes wild claims and backs them up with an interview by Zenz.
Remember when we thought deep fakes were going to be used for nefarious political purposes?
Turns out governments will skip the careful manipulation and just say whatever crazy shit they want.
Why would they deep fake when they can just post an ARMA III video?
Yeah they really don't need to cos the whole 'call him a pigfucker' strategy is tried and tested. You literally just need to get your opponent to deny being a pigfucker metaphorically speaking.
You can show using actual proof that the video of you fucking a pig is fake. You can only claim that the rumours of you fucking a pig are fake.
but also Kendrick Lamar will use them to morph into OJ Simpson which is cool
The Zone is getting awfully Cool in Sri Lanka, folks. From telegram:
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has resigned as violence erupted in the capital this morning
At least one death has been reported so far - that of Amarakeerthi Athikorala, a member of the government-aligned Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). The lawmaker reportedly died in a clash with anti-government protestors.
“The MP fled the scene and took refuge at a nearby building,” a police official told AFP by telephone. “Thousands surrounded the building and he then took his own life with his revolver.”
Imagine people doing this to, say, supreme court justice Alito in the US! How savage and uncouth that would be! Truly, it would be a horrible sight!
Sri Lankans, I cannot believe the lack of civility on display. I urge you to go home and then :vote: in your next elections.
the left has also really been the driving force in all of this. it's been great to see
Wouldn't all sides be leftists in the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka?
India also calls itself a socialist country in its constitution "The Constitution of India, which came into effect on 26 January 1950, originally stated India to be a "sovereign, democratic republic;" this characterisation was amended in 1971 to "a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic". names don't do much to material politics
I don't know about that, I'm just looking at the parties that submitted candidates for the 2019 presidential elections and am having a hard time finding a single one that sounds like a neoliberal party.
If you can't make a neoliberal at home, storebought is fine. The CIA is going to go into the PETE chamber and soon enough you will see a perfectly smooth man in a suit, who nobody has ever heard of before, but look at this fancy new campaign video he made, with a dance to boot!
No. It looks like a combination of financial issues, climate change,Covid, and repercussions from the Ukraine-Russia war.
It's the latest post in the Mango Press telegram, and it has an image of the resignation letter. Also being reported on in the MSM, etc.
YOU MOTHERFUCKERS SLAUGHTERED A MILLION PEOPLE ON A FUCKING ALTAR TO FUEL ECONOMIC GROWTH. YOU FUCKING WEASELS, YOU EVIL LITTLE FUCKING PARASITES, I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD. YOU HAVE NO CONCEPT OF THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE. WE ARE ALL AUTOMATONS FOR YOU TO FREELY DISCARD FOR AN IOTA OF PROFIT, AND NOT ONLY DO YOU KILL AND MAIM MILLIONS, YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO ACCUSE ONE OF THE ONLY COUNTRIES ON EARTH TAKING THE APPROPRIATE STEPS TO CONFRONT THIS DISEASE OF DOING IT TO CONSOLIDATE POLITICAL POWER. WHEN THE REVOLUTION COMES WE WILL NOT MAKE EXCUSES FOR THE TERROR.
:party-parrot-science:
Teaching my boss' kid what a kulak is as a way to get back at him
Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil exporter, has cut prices from record highs for Asia - but not for the US
:sicko-laser:
breaking news:
"Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and his team have discussed whether he will promise to resign in the event of being fined by Durham police for breaking Covid rules." dear fucking god please let it happen. I need this dub
ascendant Sinn Fein and Starmer resigning in 1 week is too sweet a morsel
it would be such a dumb move to do so, from his factions perspective. you gain no good will in doing this, and give a shot at the left recapturing the party through people like Rayner. and like the idea is to smugly go to Boris and Rishi and go 'well Starmer resigned and he did much less than you did' as if they're gonna resign from some smug quote tweet. but it's such a dumb lib gesture he just might do it.
Sir Kier Starmer, you have done nothing but fucking brain dead empty lib gestures up until this point. don't fail us now.
"Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he will quit if given a fine by Durham police for breaking lockdown rules." he confirmed it, he will quit if fined. so the thing is he defo had a beer with coworkers and claims oh that was work so it's ok when it was clearly a party if you're drinking. and what's so funny is THIS IS THE EXACT THING BORIS DID that both got him fined and Starmer calling him out over to resign lmao
like none of the analysis of the Sinn Fein victory in Stormont I have seen ever seems to talk qbout how destitute Northern Ireland is. SF are not just republicans who want a 32 county free Ireland, but they are socialists who want to provide economic policy to deal with how shit it is in Northern Ireland for working people, Catholic or Protestant. that's kind of an important point in the middle of a massive economic crisis
it's not like they sway unionist voters with this, but that is a big part of what keeps their base mobilised where the unionist vote decreased because they do not provide an alternative just more of the same
there's also the PUP if they have unionist sympathies and succ-dem economics
I think APNI is honestly the one absorbing those votes, the PUP are who tier tbh, they didn't even run this time
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/05/09/russian-ambassador-to-poland-doused-in-red-paint-during-victory-day-protest/amp/
Russian ambassador to Poland seems like a hell of a job
i was told the embassy gets removed when a civilization denounces you
From my favorite website:
"I hate defending this because I was against the war, but it was not at all like Ukraine.
I get that this was almost 20 years ago, and you're a European, but the legal basis of the Iraq invasion was to enforce the UN SC Resolutions (there were around 10 of them) mandating the inspection of sites for WMD's.
Iraq kicked out the WMD inspectors in 1998 and refused to allow any new ones back in. That's why UK, Australia, and Poland joined (with smaller groups from Spain, Italy, and, I think, Denmark).
Everyone remembers the incorrect/false uranium story. But apparently no one in Europe remembers that that was to show why an invasion was necessary; it wasn't the reason for the invasion.
Again, I was opposed to the war because I didn't think it was necessary - but there was a legal justification for the it.
Other differences include the fact that a (slight) majority if Iraqis supported the war and Iraq was ruled by Saddam Hussein, a dictator who had started two wars and used poison gas on his own country.
Ukraine was invaded by Russia with the intent to annex part of it; Ukraine's leader was democratically elected."
Ukraine’s leader was democratically elected."
Remember, kids; Democracy is a suicide pact. If a hostile majority wins power you just have to passively let them destroy you.
Also, dudebro conveniently forgets that the UN weapons inspectors were desperately trying to find someone who would listen to them that there were no WMDs in Iraq and the war was bogus.
used poison gas on his own country
Anyone who uses the phrase "their own people" or anything similar ought to be waterboarded.
Didn't France sell Hussein the gas he used to kill Kurds? It's been so long I can't keep it all untangled.
Redditors have figured out you can just make shit up and let the bots upvote you
Oh, now I see, the Bush regime claimed to have filled out the correct forms before invading Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands of people. I guess it's okay then.
that was to show why an invasion was necessary; it wasn’t the reason for the invasion.
Words.
The fucking chief weapons inspector in 1998 says that the inspectors broke previous agreements in limiting the amount of people that get access to sensitive information in Iraq and suddenly demanded no limits on the amount of people allowed into a Baath party HQ, then when they said to fuck off they pulled out the inspectors(not kicked out) and fucking bombed the country!
It's interesting that the West's economies are extraordinarily fragile right now. If China wanted to they alone could bring the West to its knees.
Seems like a good time to make big moves. Goes against their long-term plans for sure. But things happen, plans change.
I feel like any economy which isn't some combination of being self-sufficient and in a bloc is weak. China isn't really either of those things, which is why the leadership is rather scared shitless that they have something like $3 trillion in foreign reserves that could be seized, similarly to Russia, and is trying to work out what to do. As well as efforts to either become more self-sufficient or make incredibly close ties with Russia (a massive commodity supplier) and try and create its own bloc via the BRI and BRICS. Of course, having considerable state control over your industries helps that immensely. But I think it'll be a while (don't ask me to quantify that because I don't know) before they can really exert economic power in the same way that the US can and does, because they're working from a place of disadvantage right now when compared to the combined force of the West.
The West in general has depended on globalization and the exploitation and cheap labour of people in other countries, and so hasn't needed to become self-sufficient. I don't know whether this crisis has been a kick up the ass for them, or if they'll really just switch out Russia as a fuel source for Africa and the Middle East instead and then call it a job well done. As I've been trying to cover in these updates, there's also a scramble for resources like lithium and rare earth elements. China by itself supplies the majority (~80%) of REEs to the planet even though they only have about a third of the known reserves. Most of the rest of these reserves are found in Vietnam, Brazil, India, and Russia. Whereas lithium, outside of South America, is mainly produced in Australia - the combined lithium potential of South America is extraordinary, though. And demand for lithium is gonna go up massively as time goes by.
So I think on a broad timescale, China's plan (not to pretend I know any better than China's government, of course) should be to unify basically every country outside of the West under a single banner and thus strangle the West of the resources it needs for its capitalist growth, causing the economic system to shudder to a halt and then, well, revolution, hopefully. And the BRI is, I hope, a method of building up countries exploited by the West to the point where they can really start to saw through their shackles, as the West will hold onto them at all costs and will never let them go.
which is why the leadership is rather scared shitless that they have something like $3 trillion in foreign reserves that could be seized, similarly to Russia, and is trying to work out what to do.
We had this discussion back in March with the Michael Hudson posts about the new multipolar world. Taking Russia's foreign reserves was a historical blunder nobody could ever expect because it goes against all the principles of the US order up to now.
Even what happened with Venezuela and Afghanistan would never be taken as a serious warning that the US would do this to another superpower. Like it or not both of those countries are third world backwaters.
You are right about China. They are not ready. But I would give them some credit that the US collapsing their own dollar hegemony in 2022 was like a less than 1% chance nobody could predict this. I believe China would eventually move to deal with this foreign reserve issue in the long term and they were simply stunned unprepared.
In the past holding such a huge amount of US treasury bonds would be a huge geopolitical asset. Today it is a huge liability.
In the past holding such a huge amount of US treasury bonds would be a huge geopolitical asset. Today it is a huge liability.
I'm reminded of this article from April 22nd:
The West froze Russia’s foreign reserves. Should Asia—with its even larger dollar hoard—be worried?
In Asia, the size of a country's foreign reserves is a source of pride. No conversation on economics is possible without someone boasting about how large their nation's hoard of foreign currency is.
But the U.S. Treasury gave Asia’s bankers a rude awakening when it cut off access to about half of Russia’s $630 billion in reserves held in foreign banks, an action that should force Asian central bankers to re-evaluate their reserve holding strategy, and how that connects with their country's foreign policy.
Any Asian central banker would likely tell you that the best protection against a potential economic or political crisis is their formidable holdings of foreign reserves—mostly in dollars, but increasingly in the Chinese yuan as well.
Asian countries have the world’s largest holdings of dollar reserves, a legacy of the 1997 Asian financial crisis where policymakers fretted about dollar shortages and free-falling local currencies. In reserve holdings, China towers above them all with a cash pile above $3 trillion but peers in the region have also been formidable accumulators, predominantly in the US dollar. They include Japan ($1.4 trillion), Singapore ($426 billion), India ($604 billion), and Taiwan ($550 billion).
...
Some commentators have even pronounced the war to be a distant conflict with few direct implications for the region. ... But the Asian commentariat is wrong on the one metric that really matters to the region: economics. The U.S. and Europe have deployed tools of economic warfare—crippling sanctions that cut Russia’s financial system from the dollar-based global economy. Tools like these, regardless of who wields them, will have wide ramifications for Asia, a region even more connected with the world than fossil-fuel-addled Russia. More trade and investment flows into and out of Asia—even if you exclude China—than any other region in the world.
In any future conflict, will the region be forced to take sides? If tensions between the U.S. and China really accelerate, what will Asia do—and will it be ready to incur the wrath of either the U.S. or China in the process? ... While Asian leaders may declare that they don’t wish to take sides in a future U.S.-China conflict, sitting on the fence could compromise their ability to access hundreds of billions of dollars in reserve holdings. That would test the longstanding Asian inclination to stay neutral.
I try not to get too into that line of thought tbh, it just ends up feeling like copium. China has their own shit, and they've made it very very clear that is mutual economic development and multipolar non interventionism. they're fine to sell ass loads to the EU or even America. and I just do not see that changing any time soon, because although Xi has a lot of influence the guy is not a god emperor whos whims change mass economic policy and global outlook like that, and a lot of the party like how things are and want to keep that on track especially in a time of economic uncertainty where although China is doing well there's no need to risk that
Some might even say, "There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen." :lenin-da:
