Image is from this article in the New York Times.

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Morocco on September 8th, with the epicenter 73 kilometers away from Marrakesh.

At least 2500 people have died as of September 11th, most outside Marrakesh, with more people being pulled out of the rubble every day, making it the deadliest earthquake in Morocco since 1960, and the second-deadliest earthquake this year (first being, of course, the one in Turkiye-Syria in February, which killed nearly 60,000 people). While the deaths are the most horrific part, damage to historic sites has also been very significant - including buildings dating back to the 1000s.

Morocco is situated close to the Eurasian-African plate boundary, where the two plates are colliding. The rock comprising the Atlas Mountains, situated along the northwestern coast of Africa separating the Sahara from the Mediterranean Sea, are being pushed together at a rate of 1 millimeter per year, and thus the mountains are slowly growing. As they collide, energy is stored up over time and then released, and faults develop. The earthquake this month originated on one such fault, as did the earthquake in 1960. The earthquake hypocenter was 20-25 kilometers underground, with 1.7 meters (or 5 and a half feet) of rock suddenly shifting along a fault ~30 kilometers (19 miles) long.

Earthquake prediction is still deeply imprecise at best, and obtaining decent knowledge and forewarning of earthquakes is highly dependent on dense seismometer arrays that constantly monitor seismic activity, such as in Japan, and detailed understanding of the local and regional tectonic environment. The best way to prevent damage is to build earthquake-resistant infrastructure and establish routines for escaping buildings and reaching safety. All of these, of course, are underdeveloped to nonexistent in developing countries, particularly in poorer communities inside those countries.

The Country of the Week, in honour of Allende's death 50 years ago (the only bad geopolitical event that has occurred on September 11th, of course), is Chile. Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The weekly update is here!

Links and Stuff

The bulletins site is down.

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists

Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Add to the above list if you can.

Resources For Understanding The War

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.

Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.

Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.

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 and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

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 all socially reactionary. 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 ~ A 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. Produces interesting and useful maps.

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.

  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Bank of Canada study finds it is more profitable for countries to ignore sanctions on Russia than comply

    The Bank of Canada has published a study that concludes that as not enough countries have joined the sanctions on Russia, it is more profitable to ignore sanctions than comply.

    The study looked at what affect on a country non-adherence of third countries to the sanctions regime affects the sanctioning countries. The study concluded if an insufficient number of countries support restrictive measures, Russia loses less, while those countries that are friendly are better off thanks to increased trade of goods that can be sold at higher prices.

    “Our welfare analysis demonstrates that the sanctioned country’s welfare losses are significantly mitigated, and the sanctioning country’s losses are amplified, if the third country does not join the sanctions, but the third country benefits from not joining,” the study found.

    To illustrate, the study’s calculations conclude that if a critical mass of countries were to join in restricting Russian gas purchases, Russia's GDP growth would decline by 9%. However, as long as only European countries comply with the measures, Russia's per capita GDP is reduced only by 4%.

    At the same time, those countries facilitating the trade of sanctioned goods see substantial gains in their balance of trade. A raft of countries have seen their trade turnover with Russia explode in the last 18 months, including most of Central Asia, Turkey, China and even the Baltic states, which have become a gateway for goods to Russia. Despite the war with Georgia in 2008, today the small country in the Caucasus is more economically dependent on Russia than at any time since its independence thanks to booming trade.

      • CarmineCatboy [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        if you start raining on their parade they'll enjoy a free shower. if you lace the water with poison they might gain superpowers.

    • RyanGosling [none/use name]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Many of the global south countries that don’t sanction Russia don’t even particularly like Russia. They’re simply siding with them and China because the west offers 0 alternative solutions for their fuel and food problems while Russia is continuing to export. The west is shooting itself in the foot because they’re stupid enough to depend on their mortal enemy and racist enough to neglect the poor countries that are necessary for sanctions to work.

      Many African leaders have justified their support for China and Russia because of their assistance with vaccines. Even neoliberal shit rags have warned their leaders to stop being condescending and hypocritical if they want Africa and South America’s support. Everyone remembers when the west spent more time bitching and moaning about the efficacy of china’s and Russia’s vaccines instead of helping the countries in need.

    • kleeon [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      lol why is this even a study? Obviously it's more profitable to engage with a large market rather than not