Given that the map has a tendency to not move for extended periods of time, and this is technically the all-encompassing news thread and not just the Ukraine War thread, I do want to try putting other images for the thread.
I'm undecided about what exactly to put there though. I can think of two ways of doing it: a) doing a similar thing to the general megathread where we pre-plan a topic or concept to display every week and have a small description about it, or b) get an image of an important news event that has happened, maybe over the weekend before the thread switches, and display that instead.
I would appreciate thoughts and feedback.
Regardless, I will continue linking the map in the post text here.
Here is the archive of important pieces of analysis from throughout the war that we've collected.
January 2nd's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
January 3rd's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
January 4th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
January 6th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
January 7th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
Links and Stuff
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
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. I recommend their map more than the channel at this point, as an increasing subscriber count has greatly diminished their quality.
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. Beware of chuddery.
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 fairly brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. The Duran, of which he co-hosts, is where the chuddery really begins to spill out.
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 ~ Now rebranded as Battlefield Insights, they do infrequent posts on the conflict.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
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 ~ One of the really big pro-Russian (except when they're being pessismistic, which is often) telegram channels focussing on the war. 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. 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
Any Western media outlet that is even vaguely liberal (and quite a few conservative ones too).
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.
The curriculum doesn’t talk about land or real estate or debt or national income accounting. It just says lower living standards, that’s the solution to everything.
:maybe-later-honey: "Hey boss, I'm trying to get the computer to make an economic plan for me, but it keeps outputting the same thing, and it can't be right..."
:cap-think: "What's the output?"
:maybe-later-honey: "Here, take a look."
:porky-happy: "No, that's right, go ahead and implement that for next quarter. And punch up a presentation for the board."
:maybe-later-honey: "I guess if I don't do it, someone else will, and I really need that promotion! :picard-excited: "
[STUDIO LAUGHTER]
[PAN TO COMPUTER SCREEN FLASHING 'KILL ALL HUMANS' IN LARGE RED LETTERS]
Calling economics departments a "science fiction department" is a great line that I'll probably steal
Fucking :gigachad:
I hate video / audio for anything that can exist as print. Uphold Michael Hudson Thought!
You mean they might not even be functional enough to have a penis trial?
It's times like this a regret that the US isn't a Parliamentary system. It would be interesting to go through a new Prime Minister every week phase.
Its @SeventyTwoTrillion Cakeday Today
Congratulation Comrad !
:rat-salute-2: :chavez-salute: :kim-salute: :deng-salute: :sankara-salute: :fidel-salute: :maduro-salute:
So apparently they caught the losers that shot the electrical grid in Washington on Christmas. There's some fed bootlicking in there. One would think this was surprisingly fast for the feds, yet they included information saying that they caught the two with a combination of video evidence recording their vehicle, themselves and their very distinct outfits, their weapons, and - the interesting part - their phone data was the linchpin to rapidly catching them.
Why does this matter? It confirms that the feds can and are able to monitor and use all your internet profiles to figure out if you're an adventurous person - in addition to its GPS tracking and recording abilities lol - so the lesson here is the following
1: no adventurism
2: try to shut up about adventurism
2a: key word is try. Because we all know "holy shit, america" is like a catchphrase around here
3: if you're doing political high-profile shit leave your phone at your house, maybe get a burner with cash money, and put anything that can connect you to anything that can put you in legal crosshairs.
4: Indoor cats > outdoor cats
Indoor cats: live in the pod
Outdoor cats: eat the bugs
Synthesis?
This is why we keep cats indoors. So our carrier pigeons don't get got by the outdoor fed feline menace
Man, the rest of Hexbear has gotten goofy. Glad I have the news mega for substantial analysis and a more comradely environment.
Thanks y'all, a pleasure to read and comment in here.
https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/104yvd0/putin_violates_his_own_christmas_ceasefire_in/ feel like I'm taking crazy pills, UKRAINE DIDNT AGREE TO THE FUCKIN CEASEFIRE
wild that bloomberg is saying that U.S. unemployment is 'too low' (3.7% lol)
And while the United States cranks up the thermostat of their interest rates, the rest of the world suffers and is compelled by their material conditions to join Russia and China? Until the US economy implodes in 2024?
And then Biden is voted out? (not that it'll make a ton of difference but depending on who the Republican is, we could see a little course correction, or whatever the opposite of that is, towards other imperial ventures)
Idk what they were expecting. People have to get jobs to pay higher prices. The only thing there are doing here is maybe, just maybe, collapsing the real estate market, but all the housing is so over inflated that will kill real estate moguls if it collapses, because they've been borrowing like this will never end. However, they can't let that happen since those real estate guys are basically the primary driving force in local politics across the U.S.
they need the "reserve army of labor" to supress wages
No more Ukraine map :angery:
We really arent the Ukraine Mega anymore
We have evolved to the News Mega
:rat-salute-2:
Blows my mind that there are people in their early 20s having second and third children when I'm in my mid 30s and I'm still not sure how I feel about one kid. I'm sure I could be a good dad and I love teaching kids things, but introducing a new life to man-made horrors beyond our comprehension feels morally questionable.
My s.o. and I would love to have multiple kids at this point in our lives. We can’t even afford one. Both of us has almost no retirement plan. Our parents have almost no retirement plan. Both of us and our respective parents make “above average” income in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world.
The US is wealthy in the same way Russia has a smaller economy than Italy.
Rhetorical tricks.
I don't even know how you find a partner these days. :deeper-sadness:
Same, I'm getting to that age and honestly if I even have kids, I'll probably just adopt instead for this reason
President Lula da Silva signalled his intention to rejoin the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. :latam-solidarity:
On the first working day of his newest term, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spent this Monday (2nd) receiving heads of state and government, and representatives of foreign delegations who came to Brasília for his inauguration. The meetings took place at the Itamaraty Palace throughout the day. One of the meetings was with the president of Argentina Alberto Fernández, who confirmed Lula's trip to Buenos Aires on the next 23rd and 24th of January, for a series of commitments, including a meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), which is under the temporary Argentine presidency.
"We are on the same path, we seek the same destiny for our peoples and the integration of Latin America. On the 23rd of January we will meet in Argentina to advance with concrete actions and institutionalize this relationship, and on the 24th we will meet with Celac", posted Fernández on social media after meeting with Lula.
The Brazilian president posted on social media that he congratulated the Argentine for winning the World Cup and that he resumes dialogue with one of the main partners.
Another meeting was with Chilean President Gabriel Boric. The bilateral meeting was published by Lula on his official Twitter account.
Lula also met with other important regional leaders, such as presidents Gustavo Petro (Colombia) and Guillermo Lasso (Ecuador). There were also bilateral meetings with the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and with the president of Honduras, Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento. The King of Spain, Felipe VI, was also with the Brazilian president today. Not all the planned meetings ended up taking place, according to Lula himself updated on his social networks.
"Full day today. There were 10 meetings with representatives from Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America. We had initially scheduled 17 meetings. Unfortunately, there was no time with so many good conversations. We will have other opportunities. The world missed Brazil. Good night" , he wrote.
So Guaido has been flushed down the drain bc US oil reserve is half-empty, I assume. I wonder, though, what, if anything, happens to Venezuelan gold reserves frozen in favor of his "interim" govt. If they even still exist.
Reminder that the Squad could have blocked Pelosi the same way these 20 Republicans are blocking McCarthy.
I mean yeah, but what would the point have been? We get Jefferies 2 years earlier? Or we get a vote on M4A where 300+ congressmen vote down a bill and the media gets to talk about how unpopular socialism is in America?
I think the goal for healthcare reform more or less died with the Sanders campaign. The left in the United States doesn't have political power in any meaningful sense at the federal level regardless of if they're competent or not.
The good news is that there's still a chance to make an argument for improving healthcare because long covid is going to continue to ravage the population and healthcare prices are only going to continue to go up. The bad news is also that covid is going to continue to ravage this country and healthcare prices are going to continue to go up.
Why would we get Jefferies? They shouldn't vote for him either.
And I don't mean for the dumb "force the vote" thing, I just mean to not let that ghoul become Speaker again. Vote for Barbara Lee or anyone remotely better than Pelosi then just keep going until the rest give in and switch from Pelosi the same way McCarthy is currently slowly losing votes.
Hell yeah. The left is plenty good to play wreckers in our own ranks but can't do it to that god awful DNC give me a fucking break
Why would we get Jefferies? They shouldn’t vote for him either.
Because my understanding is that most of the people against Pelosi being speaker at the time were against her because she was old, not because she was meaningfully different from their politics.
switch from Pelosi the same way McCarthy is currently slowly losing votes.
McCarthy, and the Republicans, don't have an agenda because it's a split house. If the Squad tried to do this they would be obstructing the CARES Act, which had provisions that literally reduced child poverty by 50% and gave people $1200 stimulus checks. They would have been blamed for that. Also on the heel of Trumps presidency having Democrats come into power only not to be able to govern would have been unfavorable to them, especially the squad.
Yeah, Dems decided to half child poverty and then let it go back. They're fucking useless, but at the time the child tax credit was popular and more importantly, substantial in eliminating child poverty and helping working families.
Who cares if they're blamed for anything? You know that's the game right? They WILL blame the left for everything and anything, it's like the Parenti quote. It's able to reflect so badly on the left because no one is principled and we're constantly trying to play damage mitigation instead of actually trying to make the DNC fail/collapse to be replaced by a better party.
I do not particularly care if they're blamed for things, because as you said it is in the medias interest to blame the left for everything. If you're saying that the squad should have not voted for the speaker (Nancy Pelosi or whoever) for two years and let funding for COVID vaccine rollouts, stimulus checks, etc. not be secured then that's ignoring the material difference that the bill made, which I think is not a good strategy even excluding the less material consequences.
The point is to TRY. No one will fight for a "left" that won't fight for them. Who gives a shit about craven politicians trying to secure a career in Washington and only giving lip service to special interests instead of FIGHTING for a universalist program.
Brazilian Supreme Court Receives Arrest Request for Bolsonaro :bolso-pain:
"NO amnesty. This is not about revenge. It's about complying with the law and doing justice," Socialist lawmaker Boulos said.
On Monday, the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) filed a legal appeal for the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to order the arrest of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who fled to Miami before the inauguration of President Lula da Silva on January 1.
The PSOL petition accuses the far-right leader of having encouraged his followers to carry out violent acts, such as roadblocks and attacks on public buildings and vehicles, which were intended to reject Lula's electoral victory and promote a coup.
According to the local press, Bolsonaro left Brazil precisely because he feared that any judge would order his arrest in one of the dozens of legal proceedings opened against him during his administration (2019-2023).
The PSOL indicated in its petition that the ex-president is in a position to be arrested because he no longer has the prerogative of jurisdiction. It also asked the Supreme judges to order the lifting of Bolsonaro's telephone and telematic secrecy so that the Federal Police can review his messages and find evidence before the far-right politician destroys any evidence.
Samia Bomfim, the PSOL spokesperson at the Lower House, announced that the petition also requires the Brazilian Justice to confiscate Bolsonaro's passport to prevent him from leaving Brazil if he returns.
Among other things, the far-right politician has been under investigation in proceedings related to calls for a coup and the closure of Congress and the Supreme Court. "He has to be held accountable for the wrong he did to Brazil," Bomfim said.
"NO amnesty. This is not about revenge. It's about complying with the law and doing justice," PSOL lawmaker Guilhermo Boulos said, referring to the crimes carried out by Bolsonaro and other members of his administration.
Bolsonaro is under investigation for disseminating false news, leaking stealth data, attacks on the Supreme Court and interfering with the Federal Police. Before becoming president, he was investigated for incitement to rape and for slander against MP Maria do Rosario
:what-the-hell:
America be like: I hate immigrants who commit crimes :us-foreign-policy:
I'm crossposting a comment I made on a low-visibility post because I think it may be of interest to the denizens of this thread:
So here’s a note on 2022 wheat prices and the Russo-Ukrainian War. I don’t have a link for this because it’s something I’ve had to piece together myself through reading and talking with agronomists and farmers.
The overwhelming majority of wheat produced on the Ukraine is hard red winter wheat (HRW). Something like 80%. This kind of wheat is high in gluten and is considered the best for making bread. On an average year Ukrainian HRW production will be roughly double USA HRW production. As a side note, HRW is also popular in areas of the USA settled by Volga Germans -probably not a coincidence. In 2022 overall wheat production in the USA actually increased over the previous year, but there was one variety that saw what can be considered a failure: HRW. US HRW production fell by 29% in 2022 from the previous year, with some states seeing as high as a 40% drop. This is compounded by a trend of smaller and smaller total planted area in the USA for HRW, which reached a 100 year low in 2021 and has dropped from there. The falling rate of HRW production in the USA is climate related. Last year drought conditions were the major cause of the USA HRW crop failure.
This isn’t to say that the Russo-Ukrainian war isn’t the largest cause of high HRW prices globally. It probably is. But the USA crop failure is also a huge contributing factor. I have not seen this reported anywhere outside of trade rags and USDA reports. The improved overall wheat yield in the USA over 2021 obscures the HRW failure. HRW is a separate commodity from other wheat varieties. For example, the soft white wheat (SW) that is grown in the Pacific Northwest and California cannot be used for bread making. SW by the way saw a bumper crop last year. The prices are connected somewhat by feed use, but I have been unable to figure out to what extent. Please educate me if you know something about that.
