Image from this article.
Assad has returned with full force to the regional diplomatic scene. The earthquake, followed by the Iran-Saudi peace deal, has shook the Middle East.
Ever since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, Saudi Arabia has closed its embassy in Damascus, but now the two countries are discussing the restoration of diplomatic ties. Various Gulf States have been in talks with Syrian officials and have visited the country, such as Jordan's foreign minister. Assad has been to Oman to meet with their leader. And Assad has recently gone to Moscow to meet Putin, agreeing that Russia is fighting "old Nazis" and "neo-Nazis" in Ukraine (Syria is one of the few countries, alongside Belarus and the DPRK for example, that are unabashedly pro-Russian and always votes alongside them in the UN).
All of this poses a profound problem for America in the region, as they're slowly being squeezed out. Two roads lay before them - escalation, or retreat. While a dignified retreat might be the pertinent thing to do, the Biden administration seems desperate to cause and escalate conflicts everywhere they can. Their base in Syria was attacked on March 23rd, prompting retaliation strikes against Syria. And Russia looks like it's ready for America's next moves, as Russian aircraft frequently fly over the US military base at At Tanf.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
Here is the archive of important pieces of analysis from throughout the war that we've collected.
March 27th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
March 28th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
March 29th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
March 31st's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
April 1st'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 decent analysis. Avoid the comment section.
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 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 journalist reporting in the warzone.
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 still quite reactionary in terms of gender and sexuality and race, so beware). 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 ~ Another 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's army.
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.
went to a doctor and the nurse asked me when my last cycle was. i said i dont have a cycle (at least, not in the way she was asking). she left and came back and asked if i had a hysterectomy to be sure i wasnt pregnant. i explained no, and that im trans. she said 'WHAT' really loudly like she had her entire worldview changed of what trans people look like lmao. she said she would have never guessed.
thats the point, lady, lmao
European ammunition maker says plant expansion hit by energy-guzzling TikTok site
One of Europe’s largest manufacturers of ammunition is facing a roadblock to the planned expansion of its largest factory because a new data centre for TikTok is using up all the spare electricity in the area.
Nammo, which is co-owned by the Norwegian government and a Finnish state-controlled defence company, has been told there is no surplus energy for its Raufoss plant in central Norway as a data centre that counts the social media platform as its main customer is using up the electricity in the region.
“We are concerned because we see our future growth is challenged by the storage of cat videos,” Morten Brandtzæg, Nammo chief executive, told the Financial Times.
...
Brandtzæg said demand for artillery rounds was more than 15 times higher than normal. The European ammunition industry needs to invest €2bn in new factories just to keep up with the demand from Ukraine, let alone other European countries, according to the Nammo chief executive. “We see an extraordinary demand for our products which we have never seen before in our history,” he said.
TikTok is building three data centres this year with the option of adding two more by 2025 in Hamar, 25km to the east of Raufoss, Norwegian data centre provider Green Mountain said(opens a new window) this month.
Asked whether it was coincidence that a Chinese-owned company was stopping a defence company’s expansion, Brandtzæg replied: “I will not rule out that it’s not by pure coincidence that this activity is close to a defence company. I can’t rule it out.”
:xinternet:
Doing TikTok dances is officially anti-imperialist praxis. Fill up European data centers ASAP with as much inane shit as you possibly can.
Time to upload endless 8k high bitrate videos to TikTok to fill up the servers then lol
can we have a one for all with al the flags in it , if we have specific flags we are missleading , as we suggest they are souvereign entities or deserving of special Hexbear Mention.
like :Subkontinenttrash:
I think we need one for all. French brainworms are different from Norwegian brainworms. Each country plays its own instrument in the grand orchestra of imperialism.
:biblically-accurate-west: where each of the eyes is a different burning flag
whether it was coincidence that a Chinese-owned company was stopping a defence company’s expansion
I love how they imply that this is due to a convoluted Chinese conspiracy and not a private company putting their data centre where they can get cheap energy. They would not have gone this :alex-aware: if it had been a Facebook data centre.
Sounds like the free market at work to me, if you don't like it GET OUT!
Funny I’ve never once seen an article about this happening before now
:soviet-hmm:
So the lack of energy in Germany isn’t because of the US blowing up Nord stream and Germany sanctioning itself from using cheap gas.
It’s that Ghynese spy app.
He just got indicted? Wow. I didn't know that... He's led an amazing life. What else can you say? He is an amazing man, whether you agree or not. He is an amazing man who's leading an amazing life. I'm actually sad to hear that.
People in my country have been watching more viral clips of street brawls and crime videos from the US. It's shattered their image as the US being a utopia but for all the wrong reasons. Their takeaway is that the US is falling apart because they abandoned religion and that black Americans have a violent nature.
Would be cool for someone like you (I know you're not the only one here who's qualified) to do a "Chinese social media roundup" post once a month kinda like the "news mega" that we're currently in.
There are chuds, libs and leftists.
Are they in relatively the same volumes (both in terms of rough percentage of the population and in terms of how obnoxiously loud they are in drowning out dissent) as in Western social media though? If so, that would be incredibly surprising and sad news to hear. I mean, in a society where Marxism is part of the standard curriculum, and where an actual Communist party has improved the material well-being of the masses, if the ratio of chuds to libs to leftists there is the same as what I see on reddit and twitter, then I'll just throw my hands up and concede to the "human nature is bad" argument.
Marxism technically being in the Chinese curriculum is irrelevant, can any of you really unironically say you paid much attention in like civics class or whatever? It's the same in China. Marxism's presence in the political consciousness of the Chinese youth is vastly overstated on this site which is understandable, but still inaccurate.
I just want to say I really appreciate your response and insights. Even if it's a little depressing to hear that a decent understanding of Marxism is pretty lacking over there broadly (especially regarding party members), what you said about the youth interest getting renewed and increasing is even kind of uplifting. Either way, count me among the grateful people here who would like to hear as much as you're willing to talk about with respect to these kinds of things.
I wonder if that is singificantly different based on geographical location. I'd expect the party to be closer to working class in the rural and poorer provinces where officials are required to listen more closely to the requests and necessities of the people than say the big T1-2 cities. I don't think the modern city life in China is too different than in the west at least when it comes to political engagement.
Also I think there is a fundamental difference compared to the west is that if the western working class "doesn't care" about Marxism in the west then 95% of the reason is because they actively hate it due to bias and propaganda. Meanwhile in China, but specifically the industrial/modern city areas maybe its because as you said they can't afford to care about Marxism i.e too tired and not enough engagement from the party in the first place.
Ya but we eat shitty takes for lunch here. Would be fun to have the occasional meal of Chinese brainworms alongside the euro/American brainworms is all I'm saying
I know that it's everywhere but it's interesting to see that people who used to worship the ground Americans walked on are now turning away from it. They even say the same about Europe to a lesser extent. Only Canada somehow manages to be free from all of this with people choosing to worship Canadians now and holding them up as an example we should aspire to be.
Videos of poverty, homelessness, and drug addiction are potent propaganda for the PRC as well, even if the image they conjure is often racially charged
Do the Asian hate crimes make the rounds on Chinese social media?
it is pretty disheartening to hear that the people of the PRC would be led to think poverty, homelessness, and drug addiction affect minorities in the US because of peoples skin color affecting their behavior, and not that those are the groups of people most affected by discrimination and thus marginalized and intentionally put into extreme poverty because of Americas uniquely evil society. That seems like an easy slam dunk for anti-american propaganda
One of the biggest issues with the CCP is the lack of anti American propaganda to guide these sentiments in a more correct direction.
Maybe in a decade (or less) they'll have a firmer foothold on the world stage where they can get away with that kinda thing and really shatter the world's image of the US, but I think it's important that they gain the "upper hand" in a more "fair fight" before taking a cheap shot like that to finish them off.
Hell that's one of the main reasons why americans think the usa sucks now, big reason why MAGA did so well and why Trump is running again on a tough on "crime" platform.
I'm willing to bet the neolibs overreached with the TikTok ban by linking it with the Restrict act shit banning VPNs. Its starting to get traction and I wouldn't be surprised if it picks up higher it will start to anger the chuds and tech/crypto bros and as a result they'll have to rewrite the whole thing or delay it.
It may become the TPP all over again, it will be extremely easy for Trump-like candidate to get an easy W by opposing it, its a perfect combination of blaming it on leftist communist Biden big government nonsense and the obvious fear of being a white male and actualy having the government coming to get you for using the "internet". Also something something just like China.
Michael Hudson introduces us to Professor Wen Tiejun, who has freely distributed his 500 page analysis of the ten crises that China has endured, and also provides videos of ten lectures to accompany the book and a joint discussion.
This is your chance to become a China Understander, but for realsies.
Ghana is restructuring their debt with China.
:dean-smile:
Its so they can get another 3 billion US dollar IMF loan.
:dean-frown:
IMF loans could be great if the west is losing the ability to enforce collection long term :tito-laugh:
The IMF is giving a $15.6 Billion loan to Ukraine, the first loan in IMF history to go to a country at war.
Ukraine was already the IMF’s third largest borrower BEFORE the war started. This is fucking grim. Here comes the shock doctrine
The TikTok scare really does show how much social media is astroturfed. Youtube and Reddit comments would lead you to believe most Americans are heavily in favor of banning TikTok but the reality irl is that most aren't.
Brazil and China intend to do business without using the US dollar :xigma-male:
Brazil and China have taken another step to deepen their trade cooperation - and to exclude a possible American influence on business between the two countries.
On Wednesday morning (29/3), the two countries announced the creation of a "Clearing House" (or Clearing House), a banking institution that allows the closing of deals and the granting of loans between the two countries without having to use the U.S. dollar to make the international transaction viable.
The ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China), is the bank that will operate the clearing house in Brazil to allow Brazilian and Chinese businessmen to make commercial transactions and loans in yuan, and not only in dollar, as it happens today between the two countries.
As it is a large Chinese financial institution, the bank would be able to guarantee Brazilian businessmen the immediate conversion of their earnings into real, should they decide to do business in yuan.
Fuck, new shooting in Nashville. 3 kids dead in a Preschool. :agony-deep:
CW death discussed
spoiler
https://www.newschannel5.com/news/police-responding-to-active-aggressor-situation-at-covenant-school
Officers went to the gunfire. When they got to the second floor and saw the shooter, a female.
Oh brother, are we going to get bad takes about the shooter being a woman.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Co-zRQoUIAAPEAQ?format=jpg&name=medium
More thought and prayer incoming. Also more tiktok and Chyna spying
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughts_and_Prayers_(BoJack_Horseman)
Monkey's paw curls
Weird how the finger is actually curling, but hey
As we continue to respond, please join us in praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community.
Country beyond saving
Like, I truly get it if you need something to look for in times like these. I sure as hell wish that I believed in a god
But this is their only response when fucking pre-schoolers get gunned down
Video titled "Nashville_tribute_prayer.avi" and it's a maga hat chud shooting tannerite that says "thoughts" and "prayers".
Mr. Joe Brandon, you need to put SWAT teams in schools to deal with this.
Two blackhawks collided in Kentucky and 9 US soldiers are dead lmao
No fucking way. Trump actually got indicted the day we have the :who-must-go: thread lmfao
@SeventyTwoTrillion deep state agent confirmed?
Today, Keir Starmer has broken his commitment to respect the rights of Labour members and denigrated the democratic foundations of our Party. I have been elected as the Labour MP for Islington North on 10 consecutive occasions since 1983. I am proud to represent a community that supports vulnerable people, joins workers on the picket line and fights for transformative change.
This latest move represents a leadership increasingly unwilling to offer solutions that meet the scale of the crises facing us all. As the government plunges millions into poverty and demonises refugees, Keir Starmer has focused his opposition on those demanding a more progressive and humane alternative.
I joined the Labour Party when I was 16 years old because, like millions of others, I believed in a redistribution of wealth and power. Our message is clear: we are not going anywhere. Neither is our determination to stand up for a better world.
:long-corbyn:
ok, he's blocking Corbyn from standing as a Labour candidate in the next election. What a shitty person.
The so-called Labour party indeed.
He's also affirmed his dedication to tackling the most important issues facing Britain in 2023 (people doing whippets and the public smelling weed sometimes)
It can always go lower. I'm not satisfied before Dover is a Chinese treaty port.
China needs a 99 year lease on Bristol, Spain gets control of the land just around the Chunnel for some reason, and Las Islas Geurnsey Siempre Son Argentines that’s when we’re talking.
The NEY (Northern European Yuan) will be issued and controlled by the Peoples' Bank of China.
Corbyn brought boxing gloves to a gun fight. Hopefully, future leftists won't make the same mistake.
The western left is full of boyscout nerds who do the right thing and take the moral high ground. And where did that bring us?
If the left is to gain popularity we need leaders who are not afraid to fight dirty. We need pigs who will happily roll around in the mud, assholes who will mock the liberals instead of appealing to their better conscience. Someone who will gloat as they publicly humiliate their opponents. Someone who will not only point out all the good they want to do but also point out who your enemies are and make you believe that they can be crushed.
The western left is full of boyscout nerds who do the right thing and take the moral high ground. And where did that bring us?
I mean, I'd argue that a lot of what made folks like Sanders and Corbyn appealing is their boyscout-like rightousness. You can't discount the public appeal of a Saintly figure. So I don't think it is fair to say that we need less people like that on the Left. But once they're in a position of power, they need to recognize that they need a more militant Left to maintain control.
Give the militants more slack and be ready to shield them from the inevitable backlash.
We need pigs who will happily roll around in the mud, assholes who will mock the liberals instead of appealing to their better conscience. Someone who will gloat as they publicly humiliate their opponents. Someone who will not only point out all the good they want to do but also point out who your enemies are and make you believe that they can be crushed.
I mean, we need more people who will burn down a Target for sponsoring a fucking cop parade after a brutal civilian slaying.
I don't know about all the gloating and mudslinging. But I do think there's a point at which we need some serious head-thumpers in the movement. Folks who can go toe-to-toe on the street without getting wiped out or picked off by state security services.
I think Sanders and Corbyn are victims of a kind of Leftist survivorship bias. But Kier Starmer isn't exactly marching around in Jackboots, either. A guy like that is fairly easy to bully. Corbyn just needs a few attack dogs who will actually do it.
Kier Starmer's response: I also joined the Labour Party when I was 16 years old because, like millions of others, I believed in a redistribution of wealth and power (upwards). Our message is clear: we will sell out anyone in our way. Do we have determination to stand up for a better world? No.
Somebody just blew up a cafe in St. Petersburg. Looks like the aim may have been to kill Vladlen Tatarsky, a Russian pro-military influencer. At least a dozen injured with an unknown amount killed. I wonder if this is the same group that tried to blow up Dugin.
Edit: Careful when looking this up on twitter. There's graphic video of the aftermath frequently posted.
