Here is July 18th's update! TLDR? Here's the summary.
Here is July 19th's update! TLDR? Here's the summary.
Apologies fellas, the mixture of the heat and work has really exhausted me over the last day or two, so I think I will take a break day today and get rested up for the next three days of updates.
Here is July 21st's update! TLDR? Here's the summary.
Here is July 22nd's update! TLDR? Here's the summary.
Here is July 23rd's update! TLDR? Here's the summary.
No updates on Sundays.
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.
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 ~ Gleb Bazov, banned from Twitter, referenced pretty heavily in what remains of pro-Russian Twitter.
https://t.me/asbmil ~ ASB Military News, banned from Twitter.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday Patrick Lancaster - crowd-funded U.S journalist, mostly pro-Russian, works on the ground near warzones to report news and talk to locals.
https://t.me/riafan_everywhere ~ Think it's a government news org or Federal News Agency? Russian language.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ Front news coverage. Russian langauge.
https://t.me/rybar ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine
With the entire western media sphere being overwhelming pro-Ukraine already, you shouldn't really need more, but:
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.
Becoming? Germany and France are already the economic and productive center and you are right the poorer EU countries are deliberately forced to run their economies in a certain way in order to provide those two with a qualified and educated workforce along with cheaper resources and services. Perhaps it doesn't seem like we reached that point because it would be incredibly awkward for the neoliberal media to acknowledge straight up "ah yes the EU is actualy merely a failed project for industrialization and dominance around Germany with France just barely tagging along, always has been".
Also being part of NATO is just about having a membership card of the democracy club. There was never any real material benefit to it, Russia was never going to invade, certainly not after the 90s shock therapy anyway.
Ostensibly, until Russia pulls the plug on the cheap energy. Now its looking like the shambling remains of the Soviet state still have a bit of life in them. Moscow is proving itself the de facto center weight of the continent.
Much more than that. Just ask Libya or Syria. Look at Yugoslavia.
It is firstly and foremost a promise that you won't be the target of a vicious nightmarish conquest by other western powers (give or take a Turkey)
But it is, secondly, an implied threat that keeps all the other colonies in line. You're on Team NATO, so you can hit them but they can't hit you back.
You are absolutely right about NATO, but the question was more about "benefits" and you are describing a mafia/protection racket, NATO membership is a mafia pinky ring. It doesn't bring any benefits other than you just get to avoid being punched in the face every other day.
Not getting punched in the face is a BFD. Compare pretty much any country pre-war to post-war, and the longer they avoid getting bombed the better they perform. Even the most abused members of the EU outperform Latin American states brutalized by the drug war.
But NATO was also supposed to be the knife at the neck of Russia, extorting it for cheap raw materials. Being a NATO member was also supposed to mean you got first crack at the spoils.
I have heard historians speculate, that had Germany won WWII, Europe would more or less look the like EU today. With Germany at the center of power and the rest of Europe in an economically subservient position.
I'm not sure I totally buy it, but I think there's definitely some truth to it.
If Germany won that means USSR lost, there was never a post WW2 communist bloc and EU may have been United under Nazi rule (which may have eventually liberalized somewhat a a la Spain post Franco) but like 40 years ahead of the current time line so I think it would all look a lot different regardless.