Image is of Chinese FM Qin Gang and German FM Annalena Baerbock, in Berlin.

Conor Gallagher over at Naked Capitalism details the latest in EU idiocy - foreign ministers backed a more hardline position on China and are considering putting sanctions on Chinese companies that they accuse of supporting Russia. The ideological contagion of "you are either with us or against us" has, without a shadow of a doubt, taken root in the brains of European politicians despite whatever words fall out of Macron's mouth.

The obvious problem here is that China is the EU's biggest trading partner for goods, their second largest import market, and their third largest export market. China's manufacturing is equal to that of the US and Europe combined, outputting most pharmaceutical ingredients, processing most rare earths, manufacturing most solar power wafers, and leads the world in the clean energy market in general - important, as the EU has given up cheap energy from Russia. It is not impossible for the West to develop their own domestic alternatives, but it will take several years to do so, and the sanctions war may escalate independent of that timetable.

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.

This week's first update is here in the comments.

This week's second update is here in the comments.

Links and Stuff

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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.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    President Lasso Dissolves the Ecuadorian Congress

    The right-wing politician resorted to a legal mechanism to avoid being ousted by lawmakers on Saturday.

    Appealing to article 148 of the Constitution, President Guillermo Lasso on Monday decreed the dissolution of the National Assembly arguing the existence of a "serious political crisis and internal commotion."

    The decree activating this legal mechanism establishes that the National Electoral Council (CNE) must call for general elections to be held within a period of 7 days. This new electoral process, however, may be carried out up to a period of six months.

    The National Assembly is also notified that its legislators' term has ended early. This early termination of functions does not imply labor obligations.

    "Ecuador needs a new political and social pact that will allow it to get out of the political crisis in which it finds itself. We must move towards a solution that offers hope to families and puts an end to a useless and irrational confrontation," Lasso he said at the beginning of his address through a mandatory national radio and television broadcast.

    After a very long argument focused on presenting the legislators as "permanent conspirators," President Lasso announced that he was dissolving the National Assembly to "return to the Ecuadorian people the power to decide their future in the next elections."

    Popularly known as "Cross Death", this legal mechanism allows the Executive branch to rule for six months through decrees that are applied as if they were laws. The Constitutional Court, however, must review the contents of these "law decrees."

    "Starting today, the National government will issue decrees that will comply with the mandate that you gave me. I have signed a first decree to reduce taxes on families. It will be sent to the Constitutional Court for its review," Lasso said.

    "Public services will operate normally. The Armed Forces and the Police continue to guarantee security. The private sector has all the guarantees to continue contributing to economic growth," he added.

    While these announcements were being made, State security forces began to surround the National Assembly building to prevent people from entering or leaving. These scenes surprised a country that had not seen anything like this for more than 40 years.

    Lasso is fucked, he is trying to become like Fujimori, but Ecuador's economy will collapse.

    • Redcuban1959 [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Ecuador's main indigenous leader blasted Lasso for dissolving the assembly, calling it a self-coup and "an imminent dictatorship." He's comments came moments after the military and police threw their support behind Lasso's decision and warned against unrest on the streets.

      Former Lasso ally and prominent right-wing leader Jaime Nebot accused the president of violating the constitution by activating the Muerte Cruzada without legal grounds. His party will appeal to the constitutional court to reverse the decision and restore the National Assembly.