It's the second biggest one ever for you dirty, dirty content hogs.
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.
To free Cuba, global solidarity is more important than U.S. policy WaPo
What are we freeing Cuba from? The US's tyranny?
:fidel-wut:
Wasn't that the one followed up with protests with tens of thousands of people giving their support to the Cuban government?
Based and true.
Based.
It targets independent journalists, who often receive support from abroad, by prescribing 10 years in prison for those who accept foreign funding “with the purpose of engaging in activities against the State or its constitutional order.”
Holy shit, based.
Fear not, WaPo, I do maintain solidarity with the Cuban people, and maintain clarity on the true source of their poverty and oppression - the US sanctions that have forced them into this position and yet never broken their resolve.
:fidel-salute-big: :fidel-salute: :fidel-balling: :fidel-cool: :fidel-peace:
DON'T MIND IF I DO, THANKS! 🇨🇺:maduro-katana-2:
This is rich coming from the US where the regime brutally suppressed a spontaneous wave of street protests against racist violence committed by the security forces with overwhelming force.
And unlike in Cuba where the protest was really just a few astroturfed douchebags trying to do a colour revolution for a few days, the BLM uprising was really spontaneous.
I just want to remind everyone that in 2020 "Regime security forces" in Minneapolis arrested over 600 people at one protest, including disabled people and children. All in one night. For... standing in a road.
Also - Fuck the libs who lead those people in to kettle with no plan or purpose accept to get everyone arrested.
I think it's pretty clear that the stories of the Cuban government being extremely brutal and repressive and generally authoritarian are mostly propaganda. However, I think it's kind of a shit thing to call the things that propaganda says about it "based". The state punishing people—whether in fact or in fiction—really shouldn't be applauded.
Yes, you're probably correct and I should be slightly more critical in my support of Cuba - my reasoning was that I assume that most of the people they are punishing are likely to be serious reactionaries or western plants or something similar to that that would need to be dealt with one way or another in order to prevent the state from weakening and thus the US being able to take advantage of it. Like, if China somehow managed to get a hold of the people at Radio Free Asia and put them in jail for 10 years, then the US would absolutely be like "These poor journalists were speaking truth against a repressive regime! China is an Orwellian state!" while I myself would be celebrating that those losers got what's coming for them.
But yeah, it's likely genuinely innocent or mostly innocent people get caught in the crossfire and that does genuinely suck.
Pretty impressive to see how quickly the Donbass front is now progressing after the Popasna battle. I really hope that Zelensky allows his troops to just withdraw from Severodonetsk and Lysychansk instead of allowing 15k troops to be slaughtered needlessly in the inevitable siege soon. I guess that the next target after the LPR completes liberating their entire oblast will be a major DPR operation towards Kramatorsk
There's not a lot of roads left coming out of Severodonetsk. Just eyeballing DPA's map, I can only see one way that doesn't involve going through dirt roads or farmland, which is to go through Siversk and then take the road going southwest. Every other route takes them too close to Russian territory and they'd get bombarded. Of course, they might get bombarded by aircraft anyway.
Basically, if they wanna get out, this week is the week to do it.
also: apparently Russia has just captured Vidrodzhennya, just north of Svitlodars'k, and some surrounding villages. If true, while it is a fairly insignificant settlement, the Ukrainian strongpoints and trenches there have clearly been overrun, or the Ukrainians have retreated. A little further north than that, Russia is 2 km away from Soledar and has control of the road there, which connects to Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. If Soledar is captured and they continue forward to Bakhmut, an entire comprehensive system of tens of Ukrainian entrenchments would then be encircled on three fronts, including behind them, which is not generally what you want to happen. Bakhmut and Soledar are also important places in terms of supply lines.
If those entrenchments collapse, then there's honestly not a ton left for Ukraine in the region. The only big trench system left would be the one near Donetsk city, and there are battles at either ends of its extreme points (i.e. Adviika and Velyka Novosilka) that could fall, or at least be encircled, by DPR forces within the next week or so. After those strongpoints fall...
In all, I would say the above events would take about a month to execute, though it could be half that if Ukrainian positions are sufficiently battered or allowed to retreat, or double that if the Peepee Poopoo weaponry by the West actually makes a difference.
I've seen nothing yet on the proposed attack on Kherson by Ukraine. Not saying it won't happen, but just that if they're gonna do it, it can't be planned for fucking mid-to-late June or it might be too late.
They are withdrawing troops in the Poposna region. The threat of encirclement is almost as potent as a real encirclement. I’m going to expect attempts to withdraw most forces soon because the region doesn’t seem stable enough for now. Maybe the LPR forces could try swinging south to push forces away from Donetsk
c a u l d r o n t i m e
Some positive news: Starbucks Workers Are Winning 90 Percent of Their Union Elections, by Jacobin
Also: Workers Have Won the First Union at a Major US Video Game Company, also by Jacobin
The Pentagon had their Ukraine flags upside down, lmao.
MoA also refers to our boy Defence Politics Aaaaasia. Not much else there that I haven't already put in the updates, except:
Probably one of the most literal :heartbreaking:s I've ever seen. Apart from that last part, though - that ship has sailed.
deleted by creator
Realpolitik seems to be a lost art
Henry Kissinger has been alive for ten times longer than the average person has been. He's well aware that empires rise and fall long-term.
Henricus Kissinger Crassus, born in 450 BC, saw the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and has been changing names ever since, as he hid his phylactery containing his soul in a secret pyramid chamber built in Old Kingdom Egypt. He still has hundreds of years to live before his body finally fails him.
He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.
(Apologies to @judgeholden )
deleted by creator
And just wait until he consumes the blood of enough infants for his next extension! Good thing it's not quite time yet....
Kissinger is a monster but he's from a generation of ghouls that didn't get high on their own supply so he's a rational monster.
Blue sky over fields of wheat 🇺🇦
The worst person you know has a point.jpg
We need a real debate about the Ukraine war WaPo
I was fully expecting this to be something like "You think Putin is a bad man? I think Putin is a VERY bad man. We need to make sure people know how bad Putin is, because there's a ton of people out there (read: people bullying me on Twitter) saying that Russia is good." But it's actually the best WaPo article that has come out of that accursed, rotten place in a while.
accusations of being a putler puppet in 3,2,1
yeah it's surprising they allowed that to be posted, good to have 'trusted media' items to share, hopefully this gets around before it's scrubbed
deleted by creator
:agony-turbo:
sort of like all the brave journalists who questioned the Iraq war in 2010
This is a concise masterpiece of cynicism. I love it.
Given who owns Wapo I'd assume this is Bezo and company floating the possibility of dissent in preparation for leaning on politicians to turn it down a notch. Bezos at least relies on Americans having enough money to buy his cheap shit, and people effectively have no money to even afford necessities, let alone anything else.
TBH I'd be okay with that. Discredit the fucking Washington Post all you want, libs. The affect on the opinion piece writer wouldn't be great, but the damage to the shitpaper itself and its editorial board and people's inclination to trust it? :chefs-kiss:
Is the western bourgeoisie starting to grow tired of the shortages on energy, raw materials and money the west has imposed on itself because of this war?
Not everyone is in the MIC. Industrial capital is being fucked over by sanctions, financial capital is losing credibility because of confiscations of Russian assets, the huge Russian market is closed to western capital.
Lots of people in powerful positions have an objective material interest in getting their governments to climb down from the tree and seek detente.
It's an opinion piece, of course, but still a miracle it got past the editorial board. Maybe the war fervor is starting to weaken just enough for some hairline cracks around the edges.
deleted by creator
Western nations and politicians are eating so much shit.
WE MUST EMBARGO FASCIST RUSSIA, THIS IS THE ONLY PRINCIPLED STAND!!!!
well if nobody else is doing it perhaps we were a bit too hasty
:homer-bye:
lol. lmao, even
deleted by creator
speak your truth
potatoes mostly
I am growing potatoes here too. Potatoes are good.
I'm looking forward to my potato planting next season. For now all I have growing are garlic and broccoli.
I agree (and I like'em a lot, likely too much), they are OK as long as you know how to control their glycemic index/load and phytates.
They're going to try and drag non-nato countries into the war as proxy-interventionists?
If nato can't intervene due to nuclear war possibilities then intervention via a non-nuclear nato supported proxy makes logical sense. They will need a reason to get involved though, such as a ship being attacked.
I think this is definitely THE most insane plan I've read since the beginning of this war.
Churchill himself would be in awe by the sheer idiocy. "Oh yeah boy, I couldn't have though that up better myself! Let's do it, I give you threed cruiser fleets to execute, Admiral!"
Average Liberal brain would interpret it as a genius tactical move that will save Ukraine.
Wait what non nato country has a navy that will be able to escort ships in the Black Sea? The Dardanelles are closed to warships lmfao
Egypt's navy is actually quite capable of doing this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_of_the_Egyptian_Navy
This is probably mostly because of the Suez Canal.
The reality however is that it will drag Egypt into the war when something happens to their ships and this is what nato would want to happen.
You can’t go from the Suez to the Black Sea without passing through the Dardanelles, which are closed to warships
Oh I see what you're saying, well I guess they would be expecting Turkey to uhh... Let them through? For reasons Completely ignoring the fact that this issue was already raised earlier in the war and no excuses were found.
Turkey letting them through would mean a violation of their own treaties and would mean they essentially couldn’t exercise control over one of the most strategic waterways in the world. It also means the Russian Mediterranean fleet would just try to force the Bosporus or something in response
I guess they'd be counting on Russia's unwillingness to do that because Turkey is a member of nato?
It doesn't make much sense.
My phones auto recommended news stories today?
"Opinion: Ukraine needs weapons, not lectures"
:agony-consuming: yeah, let's stop all this talk and give Ukraine weapons already!!!
Maybe try getting a smart phone? Yours sounds like a fucking idiot.
:hahaha:
Every motherfucking time I stg
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/24/thousands-of-detained-uyghurs-pictured-in-leaked-xinjiang-police-files
Really churning it out now to overshadow whatever comes of the UN visit
deleted by creator
Pretty funny that the narrative has shifted away from "Russia is gonna lose and we should keep funding Ukraine to speed this along" to "Russia is gonna lose and we need to make sure Putin doesn't feel threatened by this loss and nuke the world" while Russia continues to advance and take territory from badly beaten Ukrainian forces and is actively annexing Ukrainian territory into Russia.
Not sure if it's a way to shift a narrative to make it seem like these territorial acquisitions are actually The Plan to Not Piss Off Putin, or as a way to be like "Russia is losing, AND" to make the point of contention with the mainstream narrative NOT whether Russia is winning or losing (they OBVIOUSLY are), but instead the established arena of allowed thought (the Overton Window, I guess) is now what we should do with this losing Russia. Or, maybe both?
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
:spray-bottle:
I would call the volcel police, but you know what? ACAB. Just don't drool all over my section.
What about the cops who assisted the Venezuelan socialist fishermen in capturing American mercenaries? Hoisted by your own petard
You say ACAB and yet you are one
...curious :thinking-about-it:
deleted by creator
I don't see how you can do whatever financial magic of conjuring trillions of dollars out of nothing to solve supply-side issues.
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
Yes all economic metrics are terrible. We are seeing hyperinflation, stagnation, contracting GDP, collapsing securities markets and global movement away from USD. But don’t worry. It’s going to be good and fine, we have momentum
capitalist economists literally have no idea what they're talking about. it's like asking someone who makes car advertisements about the aerodynamics of a car.
Its not going to happen.
If it happens then it wont be that bad. <---
It is bad but we will recover soon.
It is taking longer to recover but when it does it will be even stronger than before.
OK we didn't recover because the government is interfering with the free market and this is why we need more reforms, America lost competitiveness, this is how we recover.
Lotta libs believe that the economy works mostly on willpower of the central administrators. So one of the most important parts of the job as Federal Reserve Bank President is to minimize the amount of panic in the market, even if that includes blatant lying.
Wooooow 4 whole people quit! He'll never live this down!
White House Press Secretary Quits Over Biden's Failed Presidency