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.
There was a very interesting behind the scenes interview on Radio War Nerd the other day, with the Harper's war correspondent Seth Harp.
A few things stood out to me:
- Basically all the western journos get their information from the same source, the official Ukrainian media centre. Reporters are hanging out at this Lviv craft brewery media centre and they all get the same material
- There is no access to hospitals, and journalists are forbidden report on UKR casualties
- Harp interviewed a Ukrainian admiral about the foreigners fighting for Ukraine, and he asked about the professionals, western soldiers who could be Green berets, SAS etc, whether if they are in UKR in some kind of official capacity, but before the admiral could answer an intelligence officer stepped in to change the subject of the interview,
- The amateurs in the international legion are not getting deployed. Many of these westerners in the international legion are frauds, who don't actually do anything, yet the western newspapers interview and quote them like they are some kind of experts on the war
- The reporting on the Bucha massacre was not some kind of investigative journalism: UKR officials told the western reporters where the bus will be waiting for them, then they got off the bus in Bucha where Azov was already waiting for them, they basically got a guided tour, took some pictures then got back on the bus
- So Harp decided to go to a few other villages to uncover Russian war crimes, and he asked around the village, but the villagers said that not much happened, no rape and pillage, Russian soldiers mostly kept to themselves
- Still Harp doesn't say that Russians haven't committed war crimes, or that Bucha isn't real... but the reporting on this topic is definitely suspect
- Zelensky has a body double parading around, shaking hands
- Press conferences: most reporters have stock questions and Zelensky is very good at answering these. One Ukrainian journalist asked Zelensky about the Ukrainian oligarchs being involved in the peace talks, that was the only question that made Zelensky uncomfortable and he didn't give a straight answer
- one Azov base has "WHITE POWER" spray painted on the side of the building
- Azov is growing
I listened to this a couple of days ago, so I'm writing this from memory. I recommend listening to it.
Harp is a correspondent for Harper's and Rolling Stone, so not like a super-anti-establishment Grayzone guy.
Of course I already knew we should doubt the mainstream narrative... we are definitely getting propaganda fed to us thru MSM
Inventing Reality and all that :parenti:
Ghana determined to solve debt crisis without IMF help
Ghana about to have a western led "special operation" then...
'Earth Now Has 50% Chance of Hitting 1.5°C of Warming by 2026' I remember when I was a kid in school, and I am only in my early 20s fwiw, and we were told that 2c was more or less apocalyptic and could happen within 50 years and that's why we have to act asap. we all know nothing will happen in 4 years to stop climate change so 1.5c is as good as happening, already. we're gonna hit 2c before 2035, and god knows what 2050 could look like as environmental feedback loops become exponential
I've lived in california my entire life. We used to need rain gear for at least a couple months out of the year. Now it's maybe a couple days out of the year.
We are so unimaginably fucked.
And we get to commiserate with our sister land of eastern Australia about all the shit burning up in our horrendous annual fires. Yeehaw!
Don't worry, I'm sure the next massive solar storm will happily conform to our strict hell world standards by happening at a time when the middle of the Pacific Ocean is experiencing midnight.
I live in the US South and our temps are now swinging from 110F in the summer to around 0F (or less) in the winter, for days to weeks.
In the 90's, 32F in the winter would get news stories about how cold it was and if it was going to snow this Christmas. Now we're getting fucking sub zero blizzards when a cold dome settles in the middle of the USA.
None of our shit is able to handle swings like that in our area.
it's also worth mentioning that figures like 1.5c and 2c and so on are averages. there will very much be times and places that this is much higher and are hit much harder. and honestly, going by how EVERY climate report worth its salt goes these days, these are conservative estimates that will be blown out of the water within a year or two with an even more dire report that still was hushed and watered down
:doomer: Ah, isn't it great to be young and looking forward to all this?
Slavoj Zizek reveals feelings on RT role
Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek has defended publishing his writings on RT, pointing out in an op-ed published in Germany’s Berliner Zeitung on Sunday that stories and opinions that are overlooked or even prohibited on the pages of the Western press can find safe harbor on this site.
“Am I ashamed to have published my texts on Russia Today? No, absolutely not!” Zizek wrote.
While the philosopher professed “full support of Ukraine,” he insisted that this stance did not contradict his previous writings for RT at all, calling it “part of the same fight” in the same manner that “fighting anti-Semitism and fighting what Israel is doing to the Palestinians in the West Bank” are not mutually exclusive.
As the range of permitted opinions in Western media narrowed, he said he had no choice but to turn to RT to publish his own views, citing the “weaknesses of liberal democracy, Israel’s policy of apartheid in the West Bank, [and] the aberrations of political correctness” as examples of topics considered off-limits in the Western press.
They mention Assange, then:
Commenting on calls for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be tried for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, Zizek argued for former president George W. Bush, as well as his defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, if he were still alive, to be similarly tried for the invasion of Iraq under manufactured pretenses. The West and Russia must be interrogated with “the same critical questions,” he said. “How can the US demand this while not recognizing the jurisdiction of the Hague tribunal over its own citizens?”
Neither ‘side’ should be considered immune from criticism, Zizek argued. “If we are forced to choose between Ukraine and Assange, we are doomed. Then we have sold our soul to the devil.”
Zizek's based levels are like a pendulum. He's constantly saying cool shit, and yet when you read some of his shit takes you're just like "is this the same guy?"
Dealing with socially conservative communists - such as those in Russia, who remember that they were better off under communism but don't really understand exactly why and therefore fall for weird traps like "the gays dunnit!", or China, though that's improving over time I feel - is always a bit frustrating for that reason. Zizek isn't that bad (I think - I don't know what his exact takes are on most social issues but the use of "political correctness" there is setting off alarm bells) but still, same overall group of people.
Zizek isn't really conservative. He's anti-racist and pretty sexually liberal (to a weird degree), which gives him the ideological freedom to point out any and all capitalist offenses against minorities and colonized peoples with materialist clarity regarding the realpolitik behind those decisions. I will concede that he has old manisms regarding queerness, intersectionality, and nonbinary identities, but he is definitely in the pro-gay-rights camp and throws shade at Western govts over it frequently.
But for some reason his works accept mainstream narratives of AES atrocities and so he tends to view historical movements as abject failures right out the gate. He and Badiou both play off each other to try to redefine socialism to move beyond the USSR and China, but in their desire to learn from the past they reject a lot of lessons AESs already learned for themselves.
Suddenly "missiles don't matter" now that Russia and China have unstoppable hyper-sonic tech. The cope we are expected to absorb is beyond me.
The fact that Rand Paul of all people is the only person holding this shit up is pretty depressing. Like, I know that AOC and the Squad are congresspeople and not senators but the fact that they just let it slide is :agony-shivering:. And Barbara Lee, of Iraq War opposition fame, also not opposing it at all.
Most of this money will go to the US weapons manufacturers anyway, so AOC and the Squad are thinking of simple working folk making those Javelins actually :think-about-it: especially considering how many non-real sector US companies are about to go under and how relatively few real-sector companies there are
The Roe V. Wade leak seems to have pretty convenient timing to let progressive Democrats shut up about war and focus entirely on talking about something else. I'm not quite cynical enough to think that was intentional. But yeah: pretty fucking convenient.
I mean, we absolutely should be standing up for bodily autonomy and against misogynist backsliding, but there's just way too much willingness to let other important issues slide instead of hammering on both (and looking for movement overlap, etc.)....
Ghana determined to solve debt crisis without IMF help – Finance minister
Violent coup in Ghana IN 3...2...1
Reading this I have the musical buildup before the drop in the Ghana says goodbye meme stuck in my head.
this shit with Sweden and Finland maybe joining NATO is wild, I wish more ppl were talking about it and helping the left there oppose it
https://twitter.com/DSA_Intl_Comm/status/1525120090575884296
Erdogan is literally the Joker when it comes to the NATO-Russia relationship
Erdogan says Turkey opposed to Finland, Sweden NATO membership
More likely because as a NATO member, Turkey would really not like to go to war with Russia, they depend economically on Russia quite some (produce, tourism, energy, as well as some military equipment), and Sweden and especially Finland joining NATO increases the likelihood of that 200%. Erdogan is also playing his own game, with pan-Turkyism, some mini-imperial but real aspirations, so he really doesn't need that shit now. Also considering that his bet on devaluing the lyra, plus the global crisis, is not doing any favors to their economy rn, he clearly doesn't want to escalate any of this.
While this is no doubt true, to answer @mrbigcheese, Erdogan did say that Sweden and Finland were “guesthouses for terrorist organisations” referring specifically to the Kurds. So ostensibly yeah, that's the reasoning.
Turkey is such a shitshow. America just let them steamroll the kurds after the kuds helped destroy isis. Fuck.
ya pleasantly surprised the Left Party is holding out in Sweden and actually putting up a serious fight to campaign against it
https://www.vansterpartiet.se/nato/
I know certain military ghouls really want to rush Finland's inclusion into NATO and I don't think it's gonna work. They should be wary of provoking Russia when they can't put up 1/10th the shitshow of a fight the Ukrainians currently are. Really everyone in Finland should oppose this but political consciousness is in short supply everywhere really.
It's fucking wild that countries aren't looking at this and learning the exact opposite lesson: NATO involvement fucked Ukraine over royally, and is ultimately likely to do the same to them.
I guess Cold War (or world war?) pick-your-side mentality tends to get in the way of that....
Following the crypto crash was all fun and games for awhile but some of the stories coming out are just too grim for me.
I'm going to take a breather on crypto news for awhile.
$250 billion gone in less than a week, mostly small accounts. This might be a bigger crash for smaller investors than 1929 or 2000.
You know if this somehow triggers a rube Goldberg machine level collapse of the u.s economy because of Iraqi denarii investors Dutch tuliped themselves then we've gone beyond the cool zone and entered the :supreme: Supreme zone :supreme:
Wait, we have a Vermin Supreme emoji?! There really are emojis for just about everything, aren't there? :party-cat: :cat-vibing: :lenin-cat: :data-outdoor-cat: :thurston:
(Sorry, I got a little carried away there.)
loling at the russian oil magnate who died from toad venom. good stuff
Still think doing toad is still safe, kids? Remember to not so drugs or you'll end up like Russian Steve Jobs :data-laughing:
Billionaires self-deleting for just the stupidest fucking reasons gives me strength
Uncritical support for our toad comrades in their struggle against hungover billionaires :FrogPog:
I mean the libs will always have their final secret weapon: you may have won the war but HISTORY IS WATCHING YOU!!
More over I brought those names up because I can’t easily see any super popular American comedians really saying anything too subversive about the state of things here.
Bo Burnham probably the only one. And his popularity is ?
Alright, what ongoing trends/broad happenings are there beyond the Ukraine War itself?
I can think of:
- Global food precarity/the coming famine; fertilizer prices increasing
- Global fuel prices high, particularly diesel, which supplies agricultural equipment as well as supply chain transportation
- The Europe natural gas saga, as well as cost of living crisis; Europe reaffirming its position as Chief of Boot Licking to Washington to its own disadvantage
- The "scramble for Africa" but with natural gas and oil, but also soon to be with other commodities
- Western African states having difficulties with coups and insurgent movements; France getting kicked out
- Internal US struggle with abortion rights and other issues soon to follow; unionization efforts increasing
- Sri Lanka entering the Cool Zone
- Latin America + South America unifying into a more cohesive bloc to hopefully resist the neo-Monroe Doctrine
- Argentina hopefully joining BRICS to form an alternative to the IMF and other tools of US imperialism, as well as the BRI
- Central Asian countries, Russia, and China becoming more diplomatically close, with India (along with Turkey etc) playing both sides for their own gain
- To combine those last two, the trend of de-dollarization continuing, though this will be far from rapid
- In opposition, America trying to create a bloc in SE Asia that can contain China, with some success, but I'm getting a vibe that most of them aside from the die-hards (Japan, Australia, etc) are playing both sides off each other for their own benefit
- Ukraine War means that coronavirus is over no matter what, China is doing heckin' 1984 over there by doing the right thing and trying to save lives at the expense of The Line
- edit: Iran ramping up anti-Israel messaging, more diplomacy occurring there (between Turkey/Syria and Saudi Arabia for example); Israel continuing to do fucked up shit in Palestine
Anything I've missed?
It is sort of impossible for China to suddenly go through another crisis like the 2008 crash. There are some severe fundamental differences between how both economies function and the respective political forces within it.
But most importantly mainstream economic theory and their stereotypical explanation of 2008 are a gross oversimplification and in fact hide the main reasons. Marxist theory on the other hand is able to point out severe warning signs that appeared years in advance. I recommend you read Michael Robert's blog. Here is a faq sort of explaining the basics of this.
The actual root of capitalist crisis is the falling rate of profit and in the US every time corporate profitability falls it lead to a drop in investment and then a crisis a few years later.
This can't happen in China because while corporate profitability may fall the Chinese government commands investment and therefore is able to keep the economy growing. This is why the CPC keeps the relentless investment in infrastructure and other areas for example.
And he also wrote specifically about the Evergrande case here.
This is just a summary I recommend reading the post completely because its too long to quote here.
But in my view, there is not going to be a financial crash in China. The government controls nearly everything, including the central bank, the big four state-owned commercial banks which are the largest banks in the world, the so-called ‘bad banks’, which absorb bad loans, big asset managers, most of the largest companies. The government can order the big four banks to exchange defaulted loans for equity stakes and forget them. It can tell the central bank, the People’s Bank of China, to do whatever it takes. It can tell state-owned asset managers and pension funds to buy shares and bonds to prop up prices and to fund companies. It can tell the state bad banks to buy bad debt from commercial banks. So a financial crisis is ruled out because the state controls the banking system.
US unhappy with the Philippines election (May 9) because like Duterte, Marcos Jr is unwilling to antagonize China
I just want to say personally how much I appreciate news posting comrade. That is all.
The RSS feed of your bulletins are so great. Love live RSS!
