Image is from this article in the New York Times.

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Morocco on September 8th, with the epicenter 73 kilometers away from Marrakesh.

At least 2500 people have died as of September 11th, most outside Marrakesh, with more people being pulled out of the rubble every day, making it the deadliest earthquake in Morocco since 1960, and the second-deadliest earthquake this year (first being, of course, the one in Turkiye-Syria in February, which killed nearly 60,000 people). While the deaths are the most horrific part, damage to historic sites has also been very significant - including buildings dating back to the 1000s.

Morocco is situated close to the Eurasian-African plate boundary, where the two plates are colliding. The rock comprising the Atlas Mountains, situated along the northwestern coast of Africa separating the Sahara from the Mediterranean Sea, are being pushed together at a rate of 1 millimeter per year, and thus the mountains are slowly growing. As they collide, energy is stored up over time and then released, and faults develop. The earthquake this month originated on one such fault, as did the earthquake in 1960. The earthquake hypocenter was 20-25 kilometers underground, with 1.7 meters (or 5 and a half feet) of rock suddenly shifting along a fault ~30 kilometers (19 miles) long.

Earthquake prediction is still deeply imprecise at best, and obtaining decent knowledge and forewarning of earthquakes is highly dependent on dense seismometer arrays that constantly monitor seismic activity, such as in Japan, and detailed understanding of the local and regional tectonic environment. The best way to prevent damage is to build earthquake-resistant infrastructure and establish routines for escaping buildings and reaching safety. All of these, of course, are underdeveloped to nonexistent in developing countries, particularly in poorer communities inside those countries.

The Country of the Week, in honour of Allende's death 50 years ago (the only bad geopolitical event that has occurred on September 11th, of course), is Chile. Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The weekly update is here!

Links and Stuff

The bulletins site is down.

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists

Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Add to the above list if you can.

Resources For Understanding The War

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.

Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.

Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.

Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.

On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

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 ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.

https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.

https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.

https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.

https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.

https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.

https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.

https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine

Almost every Western media outlet.

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.

  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]M
    ·
    1 year ago

    Part 5

    expand

    Labour:

    Striking workers in America (aside from in New York and New Jersey) are not allowed to claim unemployment benefits, though Californian officials are trying to fix this in their state. A similar bill was introduced in Massachusetts, and Senator Fetterman in Pennsylvania has introduced legislation to give benefits to strikers.Jacobin Workers are trying to turn Los Angeles into the epicenter of a national strike wave.PW Workers at another public library in Ohio vote to unionize.PW

    Some German rail workers are understandably unhappy about the wage settlement that ended their industrial action.WSWS Australian natural gas workers began strike action, causing natural gas prices in Europe to rise.FT

    How scary headlines about ‘economic impact’ of strikes erode solidarity.RNN

    Left and Right:

    South African communists have called for the US ambassador to be expelled after he accused South Africa of sending weapons to Russia.PW

    LGBTQIA:

    Content Warning - this section is not usually good news.

    A California school district has been temporarily stopped from outing trans, non-binary, and GNC students.Advocate Georgia can enforce a ban on hormone therapy for trans minors after a judge ruling.Advocate Two More California School Districts OK Forced Outing of Trans Students.Advocate Miami School Board Shoots Down LGBTQ+ History month — Again.Advocate

    Hong Kong has rejected marriage equality, but has ordered some form of legal recognition for same-sex couples.Advocate Hundreds attend Serbian Pride march.EN

    Jewelle Gomez: the Black lesbian writer who changed vampire fiction – and the worldTG

    Climate:

    Socialism and Ecological SurvivalMR

    The many colours of hydrogen and the scam of carbon captureMR

    Africa should not become a source of carbon credits as it will benefit pollutors, not Africans.CCN Climate groups reject African environmental initiative.RT

    Antarctica warming faster than predicted,AM but sea ice melt in Antarctica is not yet irreversible.EN

    The first successful breeding of Atlantic bluefin tuna at a Spanish research centre has spurred at least two companies to ramp up plans for the industrial farming of land-bred tuna.TG

    Miscellaneous Analysis:

    Iranian-Saudi deal: They didn't do it for loveRS

    Emerging Economies Face Prospect of Worse Than 1970s-1980s Wave of Financial CrisesNC

    Imperialism and the new Cold WarMR

    None of the contents should be new to us, but it's worth mentioning nonetheless.

    African countries are increasingly banning TikTok, to suppress criticism of their governments.RoW

    EU and The Washington Post Escalate Their Censorship Campaign with a New Fraudulent “Disinformation Study” About Twitter and RussiaSP

    IIPPE 2023: part one -the end of US hegemony?MR

    Dipshittery and Cope:

    Don’t ban Russians from coming to Europe. Ban Putin's imperialism insteadEN

    Putin, you're fired.

    Russia ‘will be happy’ if Georgia fails to join EU, warns BorrellEuractiv

    Going up to my boss like "Sir, if you don't give me a raise, Putin will have a big smile on his face."

    Who’s Afraid of an Alternative for Germany?NC

    I think the article goes way overboard trying to make AfD look like innocent, misguided puppies that are being oppressed by German neoliberals - the party does contain many fascists. Nonetheless, this paragraph is interesting:

    Recent polling contains interesting findings with regards to the AfD. It shows that 44 percent of Germans supporting the party do not have far-right views, but they are more concerned with inflation (90 percent) and immigration (87 percent) than the general public (78 and 56 percent, respectively). A whopping 78 percent of those who said they would vote for AfD said they would do so to show they were unhappy with current policies.

    Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine would be a moral defeatFT

    It’s no longer a given that China will become the world’s largest economyFT

    China’s demand dilemma could spell trouble for the worldFT

    Have we reached peak pessimism on China?FT

    The consensus now sees the country stagnating long term, but is missing more dramatic short-term scenarios

    I Love My Trans Comrades!