Argentina is an interesting microcosm of the more widespread war that every other currency is waging against the dollar - in this case, the yuan is taking on the dollar in gladiatorial combat.
The Argentinian economy, like many, is fully permeated by the American dollar, but it has its own official currency, the Argentinian peso. This may not be for long: one of the major contenders for the Argentinian presidency has proposed replacing the national currency of Argentina with the dollar, which would therefore mean that an even more substantial part of the economy would be decided, with no input from Argentina, thousands of miles away. This is not unprecedented - Ecuador already does this, as does Zimbabwe, Timor-Leste, Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands. The motivation for doing so may also be convincing to Argentinian voters, as the country has faced hyperinflation, ever-increasing benchmark interest rates, and chronic shortages of dollar reserves.
However, the yuan has entered the scene, particularly over the last couple months. The Economy Minister met with Chinese officials in early June to sign a co-operation plan to promote the Belt and Road Initiative. Commercial banks can now open deposit accounts in yuan, and securities can now be issued in the yuan. The Western media, as one might expect, emphasizes how utterly desperate Argentina must be to go to the yuan - the yuan! - to sort out its economic crisis.
Whirlpool Corp, a major American appliances company, has said that it is considering paying with the yuan to import parts for a new factory in Argentina. Over 500 Argentine companies making a plethora of products have requested to pay for imports in yuan.
The share of yuan transactions in Argentina's foreign currency market hit a daily record of 28% in late June, compared to a high of 5% in May.
And last week, Argentina opted to use the yuan to settle part of its debt with the IMF for the first time, and it will be interesting to see if other countries follow their example.
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.
The first update this week is here in the comments.
The second update this week is 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.
We're all going to get nuked
I ask if it is going to be Fallout or Threads
They don't understand
I pull out illustrated diagram explaining what is Fallout and what is Threads
They laugh and says "It's a nuclear apocalypse mam"
Gets nuked
It's Threads
CNN: Zelensky says he wanted counteroffensive to start ‘much earlier’ to pre-empt Russian defenses
Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been “slowed down” by entrenched Russian defenses, President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN in an exclusive interview broadcast on Wednesday, adding that he wished that Western weapons deliveries had allowed it to begin “much earlier.”
“I’m grateful to the US as the leaders of our support,” he told Burnett through a translator, “but I told them as well as the European leaders that we would like to start our counteroffensive earlier, and we need all the weapons and materiel for that. Why? Simply because if we start later, it will go slower.”
“I wanted our counteroffensive to happen much earlier, because everyone understood that if the counteroffensive unfolds later, then a bigger part of our territory will be mined. We give our enemy the time and possibility to place more mines and prepare their defensive lines.”
We have now reached the blame NATO stage of Ukrainian counteroffensive cope, or maybe Zelensky's just trying to avoid being the villain of the stab-in-the-back-myth which Ukrainian nazis will embrace when they lose.
It's just occurred to me that it was necessary for the west to convince liberals that Russia wanted to do genocide and ethnic cleansing to Ukrainians because otherwise the argument "it doesn't matter which capitalist state is in charge as long as the people survive" holds more weight.
Recognising that the primary anti-war argument is "anything should be done to stop the deaths of millions of people", they created a myth where Ukrainians are fighting for their very survival against an opponent that seeks to exterminate them. This they then backed up by conflating what would be the end of the ukrainian state with the end of the people.
Anyone then attempting to cut through this myth would have to say "Russia aren't doing that" because it's essential for anti-war arguments, and this would then immediately make you a supporter of Russia.
And when the war is finally over they will argue that they were correct about this by using the total number of dead ukrainians caused by the war(which wouldn't exist if they were anti-war but they don't care about that). So liberals will never feel like they were wrong about their support for the war in the future.
Updated chad-n-cuck power ranking:
Gigachad Chad Neutral Beta Male Virgin Cuck Lukashenko (saved the SMO) Putin (trolled masterfully with a hyped speech that was nothing) ⬆️ Rybar (producing great maps while being called a loser by both sides) Arestovich (downgraded because of inactivity)⬇️ Shoigu (still a beta cuck) Kadyrov (took the nr 1 entertainer place after Prigo's outburst) ⬆️ Budanov (not dead, just trolled Russians for a few weeks) Zelensky (still successfully begging) Prigozhin (i'm not owned, i'm not owned reeeeee) ⬇️ The collective west (#ParisHolds) The ZNPP (yeah I might pop and cause a nuclear meltdown, do something bout it nerds) Surovikin (disappeared again and bad rumors circulating) ⬇️ Bakhmut (Ukraine has surrounded the cope factory on Deeznutskaya) Zaluzhny (insane cope coming from that man) Pro-Russian twitter (somehow pro-multipolar world but black people in France should be castrated and sent to concentration camps) 
Pro-Russian twitter (somehow pro-multipolar world but black people in France should be castrated and sent to concentration camps)
maybe you should do a power ranking specifically for the people in the war, and then an international one. maybe a national one for the US if you follow the politics there closely
like, you have the ones to do with the french protests already but you could have like, gigachad: palestinians resisting Israeli fascists, chad: Maduro getting boxing belt, neutral: Turkey for Erdogan being a monster but pissing off natoids in the process, beta male: blinken for having a 7 hour meeting with Qin Gang and then having Biden call Xi a dictator right after, and virgin cuck: that fascist that had to resign in Finland
virgin cuck: that fascist that had to resign in Finland
such a virgin cuck that they don't even have the dignity of being named
Half of them are named Jari or Pekka anyway, there's only so many Finnish names. But Nazis might name themselves something different to sound more like viking larpers
That's a great idea, Starting from next week, I'm gonna split it into a Russia-Ukraine power ranking, and a more general cuck and chad rating for the week's most prominent personalities internationally. The US gets one row in the international ranking.
Fucking bummer at least Zaluzhny is alive and I was half believing he was fucked somehow. It is still extremely bizzarre why Ukraine went through all that amateurish BS fake/doctored media to "prove" he was alive.
This shall remain one of the mysteries of the war, along with why the fuck Ukraine attempted what was realy just a very cheap immitation of a Tom cruise movie style rescue of the Azov in Mariupol. Rescue attempt at night?Check. Suicidal helicopters? Check. """"undercover""""(turns out the Russians clearly knew about it lol) freight ship for transportation? Check. Hero manages to somehow evade dozens and dozens of blind enemy soldiers missing every shot? Yeah about that.
I'm still not convinced Zaluzhnyi is alive. WAPO says they did an interview with him? and they never lie right? BBC says he's "the master mind behind the offensive" but didn't he say that they weren't ready and it would be a slaughter right before his month of silence?
He's dead. Incapacitated by shrapnel and then killed by Zelensky because as The BBC says "his popularity now rivals that of President Volodymyr Zelensky." meaning he was probably planning a coup.
So now WAPO and BBC are making him look good before they write stories of how he was martyred on the front during the offensive leading his troops to a massive defeat.
The IDF is straight up not having a good time in Jenin.
A single Palestinian has died today after being wounded during yesterday's airstrikestwo Palestinians have died today, meanwhile the resistance is carrying out ambush after ambush, reportedly inflicting heavy casualties.AOC endorses Biden. Already. LMAO. Not even keeping up the veneer of supposed leftism, eh?
We've seriously moved past the point where even the pretense of democracy is necessary or useful. We should've been burning this shit down decades ago. Lot's of catch-up to do here....
I wrote a short post on the US doing a soft-coup in Bulgaria a few weeks ago. A couple of completely unrelated news stories since then:
- The Bulgarian Parliament adopted a Declaration in Support of Ukraine's membership in NATO
- Bulgarian PM: No more ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ on Russian interference
- Bulgarian minister: New military aid package for Ukraine 'taking shape'
- Bulgaria wants to join the EU’s ammo-for-Ukraine club
- Ukrainian President Zelenskyy Arrives In Sofia For One-Day Visit
- Referendum to delay euro boycotted by main parties
- Bulgaria’s Top Prosecutor Ousted, Stirring Suspicion of Trade-Off
- Bulgaria’s government on brink of collapse after less than a month in office
And an extra dippshitery & cope, one of my favorite articles of all times:
I am genuinely laughing so hard at this, it reads like someone summoned RedditGPT to write a fanfic of Obama owning Trump
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy savaged his Bulgarian counterpart Rumen Radev in a bruising televised exchange in Sofia on Thursday, in which he opened up with both barrels against Radev’s opposition to arming Ukraine.
The flustered Bulgarian president, visibly taken aback by Zelenskyy’s indignation, asked TV cameras to leave the room in the presidential palace where the meeting was being filmed.
“No, you, as a real president, I am sure you would not allow a compromise with your independence. It is your right not to support aid to Ukraine. But I would really like you to understand me correctly,” he noted with barbed irony, as a cowed Radev intermittently took refuge in the note paper in front of him.
One thing that was made clear from this war is that the USSR was serious about fighting and winning an attrition war against NATO on the ground in Europe if need be. The weapon and ammo stockpiles they left behind are legit "infinite" compared to the production and stockpiles of the rest of Europe and even modern America. Especially considering how much of it was neglected and unusable now or simply sold in legit or black markets. Hey spending like 20% of your GDP in the military may not have been the best (tho they didnt have much choice) but turns out they amounted to smth and the west was right to fear them.
I wonder what would have happened if WW3 with very limited or non nuke use started between 1949 and the Sino-Soviet split. Whole lot of death yeah but beyond a likely on the ground red victory in Eurasia, gloabaly such a western initiated war against "communism" at the time would destabilize and tip the scale towards revolution in a shitton of countries where the organized left was much stronger and more popular than today.
When Mao said this in 1957
We stand firmly for peace and against war. But if the imperialists insist on unleashing another war, we should not be afraid of it. Our attitude on this question is the same as our attitude towards any disturbance: first, we are against it; second, we are not afraid of it. The First World War was followed by the birth of the Soviet Union with a population of 200 million. The Second World War was followed by the emergence of the socialist camp with a combined population of 900 million. If the imperialists insist on launching a third world war, it is certain that several hundred million more will turn to socialism, and then there will not be much room left on earth for the imperialists.
it could very well have been true
Oh hey the Austrian military guy also confirms the offensive has failed. If there is anyone out there that still needs a reality check on this.
Colonel Markus Reisner of the Austrian Armed Forces stated today that they currently believe that the 1st Phase of the Ukrainian Offensive has Failed due to Ukrainian Forces attempting to use NATO Military Tactics which do not work against Fortified and Heavily-Mined Russian Defenses, however he further stated that Ukraine is now beginning to change Tactics and that he expects for there to be Limited-Successes along the Frontline but No Major Breakthroughs.
Of course the problem was their tactics and not the absolute dogshit NATO equipement that they sent. You can see the writing on the wall, when Ukraine finaly loses this war it will be their fault.
Also what "tactics" were they supposed to use anyway? Also you knew as much as the Ukrainian shit generals about all the Russian fortifications, how on earth is it possible for these people to turn around and unironicaly say "well acshualy NATO tactics don't work against fortified positions", yeah because these Russian defenses magicaly appeared the day before and its not like everyone knew about it for months in advance. Maybe not launch the offensive then? This war is a farce.
I’m convinced that liberals are racist enough that the only way for them to distance themselves from Azov is with a black man.
Convince Kanye to do a charity concert in Kyiv in honor of the fallen Azov warriors and the living ones going off to battle. Let him cook in the middle of it, and the white crowd in military uniform are cheering during his antisemitic rants. Zelensky thanks him for the concert anyway.
Its the second day of the rapid-fire trials of 'rioters' in France today, using a process awfully similar to the one adopted by Kier Starmer during the students protests here.
Many of those on trial are minors and have been processed and tried so fast that they don't even have any family present, never mind legal representation. And naturally most of the sentences are more about collective punishment than justice.
From a courtroom tweet thread by Meerie Jesuthasan:
“I made the biggest mistake of my life,” says the plaintiff, a young man. He is accused of picking up a tube of 50 cent coins in front of a Sephora the evening it was looted June 30th, equaling a total of €20.
He is not accused of entering or vandalising the Sephora. He was arrested immediately after picking up the coins. There is no video evidence and no complaint from Sephora.
The prosecutor is asking for 8 months imprisonment. For picking up €20 in front of a Sephora.
Guilty. The sentence is 2 years probation (he will have to work, report all address changes) and 8 months prison for any future infraction. He will also have to pay a fine of €800 to the metropole.
There were some other sentences today (around 80 between yesterday and this morning, not counting this afternoon and tonight). The pace is frightening. A lot of families present but also some defendants without family, who are young, undocumented, homeless.
