Image is from the January 2023 World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. Over 50 heads of state and 600 CEOs attended.

holding flashlight under face

Imagine a terrifying world where we are all ruled by monsters of every stripe. And not hot ones like werewolves, but instead decaying zombies and mummies who are both insensitive to, and actively benefit from the immense suffering they cause on a daily basis. The top echelon of society, filled with profit-seeking, bloodsucking vampires. And the worst of it is that they repeat on a daily basis that what they are doing is not only just, but there is no other possible way to do it.

Pretty spooky, right? What if I told you that this world... was our own?

Happy Halloween!

Friendly reminder: when commenting about a news event, especially something that just happened, please provide a source of some kind. While ideally this would be on nitter or archived, any source is preferable to none at all given.

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.

The Country of the Week is Lebanon! 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.

This week's first 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.

  • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    US and Israel considering peacekeeping force in Gaza - report

    The US and Israel are considering the possibility of a multinational force that could include American, UK, French troops in the Gaza Strip, in the event that Israeli forces are successful in ousting Hamas, according to a report.

    US and Israeli officials exploring options for the future of Gaza have also discussed a second option that would establish a peacekeeping force modeled on one that oversees a 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the conversations.

    A third option would see Gaza put under temporary UN oversight, it said. The sources noted that the conversations are still at an early stage and much could change.

    The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, alluded to the challenge of coming up with a plan for the future of Gaza when he addressed a Senate panel on Tuesday.

    “We can’t have a reversion to the status quo with Hamas running Gaza,” Blinken told the Senate appropriations committee. “We also can’t have — and the Israelis start with this proposition themselves — Israel running or controlling Gaza.” He added, "Between those shoals are a variety of possible permutations that we’re looking at very closely now, as are other countries."

    The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/oct/31/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-latest-news-today-hamas-clashes-idf-gaza-aid-plan-failure?page=with:block-65417b8f8f089b59d570dc12

    • emizeko [they/them]
      ·
      1 year ago
      • We say to the enemy who repeats his threats of ground invasion on a daily basis, that we are still waiting for him to taste new types of death.
    • Rojo27 [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Still a shitty idea, but what happened to the supposed proposal of having the Arab League have some sort of government or peacekeepers in Gaza after the war? Don't think a force of colonizing cracker would do Gazans much good. Not that the US and Israel have their interests in mind.

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
      ·
      1 year ago

      They're throwing any old shit they can at the wall. I posted the following only ~7 hours ago. Blinken said maybe the Palestinian Authority 2.0 could govern Gaza.

      Blinken: It would make the most sense for a "revitalized Palestinian Authority" to have governance over Gaza

      US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that it would “make the most sense” for an “effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority to have governance and ultimately security responsibility for Gaza.”

      < Blinken noted during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing: “Whether you can get there in one step is a big question that we have to look at. And if you can't, then there are other temporary arrangements that may involve a number of other countries in the region."

      The PA, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, has recognized Israel and engaged in multiple failed peace initiatives with it. But its credibility among Palestinians has suffered over the years.

      The top US diplomat has repeatedly said that there cannot be a return to the “status quo” with Hamas, and Israeli officials have said it is their aim to eliminate the group from Gaza.

      "We also can't have, and the Israeli start with this proposition themselves, Israel, running or controlling Gaza. That's not their intent. It's what they want to do. And it's not something that would be supported," Blinken said.

      https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-10-31-23/h_006831eeb95d7b5549ddb10948b6f355

      • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        It makes sense. Lacking the ability to expel the population of Gaza, Israel seeks to install a puppet government. Simply blockading and surveilling Gaza from the fence has proven to be catastrophic. They need to go in and reconfigure the political environment in some form, which requires a lengthy occupation. This occupation would come at an enormous, likely unbearable cost in IOF casualties. This proposed "coalition of the willing" is necessary to even sell it as a viable solution.

    • mkultrawide [any]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Vietnam 3: Electric Something that Rhymes with 3 and makes sense here.