A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like “in Minecraft”) and comments containing it will be removed.

Image is a map of Middle Eastern oil/gas production sites, which Iran has promised to strike in retaliation if their own energy infrastructure comes under attack.

My weekly preamble is in spoiler tags below.

preamble

For the weekend of August 1-2, Trump had once again promised major strikes on Iran, which would have included crossing the critical red line of striking their energy infrastructure. In response, Iran once again essentially promised to end the possibility of modern civilization as we know it throughout much of the Gulf States and, to a certain extent, the Zionist entity, with the economic impacts radiating outwards around the world from there. The frustrating part about these threats from Trump is that while he’s reneged on them before, the consequences of them actually occurring are so dire that it’s difficult to ignore them; rolling a dice with even a 5% chance for complete catastrophe will always be nerve-wracking.

Anyway, as we all know, these strikes did not occur, with the excuse this time being much the same as the previous times: our regional allies begged us not to (potentially true) and Iran called us and said they were willing to negotiate/surrender (untrue). The point of these threat displays is at least twofold: first, to see if Iran is genuinely going to flinch, or, at least, if internal elements that may or may not exist will be spooked into action against the IRGC; and second, to manipulate oil prices downwards by creating constant cycles of “relief” out of an otherwise relatively constant downward trend as Hormuz stays closed and oil reserves continue to ebb. I do say “relatively”, of course, given that Ansarallah now appears to be delivering a boot up the ass of Saudi Arabia by taking offline quite a lot of its refinery infrastructure.

It is into this situation that Ukraine seems to want in. For those out of the loop, the situation over in Ukraine has largely the same overall attritional dynamics as previous years, but with a few added wrinkles. Ukraine started striking Russian infrastructure a while ago, and while their effectiveness is hotly debated and I don’t want to dismiss them as totally ineffectual, it’s clear that the psychological effects - such as they are - are greater than the material effects. Russia’s retaliation strikes have been considerably more impactful, including strikes on Ukrainian Black Sea ports and vessels, and a campaign explicitly against gas stations across Ukraine, as well as some rather impressive and disruptive explosions at Ukrainian military fairs and production sites. Zelensky has admitted publicly that they are now basically out of Patriot missiles and that Russian missiles are now landing entirely unopposed (beforehand, they were just landing largely unopposed, given the lackluster performance of Western air defences in general). He seems to have considered a possible way out: linking together the Ukraine and Iran Wars to a united front against Russia and Iran, which would then grant Ukraine more munitions to keep fighting on.

Now, for all the fear I’ve seen of this occurring (and, don’t get me wrong, the US and Russia being in non-proxy, direct conflict is a genuinely frightening prospect for continued life on Earth) how linking together two wars which the West is quite decisively losing into a single war would help at all is beyond me. At this moment, at least, US military planners appear to agree with me. Ukraine hit a Caspian Sea vessel going to Iran a while ago, but then seems to have quickly apologised after being given a stern talking to by the US. This shows just how willing the US is to grant Ukraine more aid, as their own interceptor stockpile is running very low due to Iranian strikes. One would almost feel sympathy for Zelensky if is wasn’t for… well, everything that’s happened. The path of Ngô Đình Diệm is a tough one to walk.

Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

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The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine

If you have evidence of Zionist crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA reports on the Zionists’ destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

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.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
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.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

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 Telegram Channels:

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.

  • Tervell [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    87·
    15 days ago

    damn man, Colombian mercs are just getting absolutely chewed up in Ukraine… most of these are just in July too, so much in just one month

    https://lostarmour.info/mercenaries

    from the comments there (machine-translated):

    Arrests of Ukrainian mercenary recruiters have begun in Latin America.
    more

    The international OSINT project TrackANaziMerc reports: Griselda Inés Ortiz, 45, a former Buenos Aires provincial police officer, was arrested in Tigre, Argentina, accused of recruiting mercenaries to fight on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Authorities alleged she recruited former police officers and other personnel trained in weapons use to fight in the conflict. They were lured with promises of monthly payments of $3,000. A pistol, several Ukrainian army insignia, recruitment forms, and Ortiz’s old police badges with her number were found in her apartment in a multi-unit building. The investigation began in March of this year, when airport security officers identified four men at Ezeiza Airport who were planning to travel to Ukraine on a suspicious route. The passengers claimed they were going to work on infrastructure restoration, but their statements contained contradictions, and none of them could explain who was funding the trip or provide details about their return to the country.

    An analysis of their itineraries revealed that they were all scheduled to fly on Turkish Airlines to Istanbul, Turkey, with a final destination in Chisinau. They were then to enter Ukraine under the pretext of performing “infrastructure restoration work as construction workers.” It’s important to note that interrogations of the captured Colombians clearly showed that their logistical route appeared identical. Also included were Turkish Airlines, a layover in Turkey, and subsequent transit through Moldova. All of this suggests, at a minimum, the knowledge of Turkish and Moldovan intelligence agencies regarding the transit of foreign mercenaries to Ukraine. It’s significant that while Istanbul is used exclusively for the transit of Latin American mercenaries, Ukrainian intelligence agencies have effectively set up a transit base in Moldova. Authorities are also investigating the involvement of Griselda’s partner, a former federal police officer who later transferred to the city police and is currently on the run. According to investigators, he likely fled to Brazil and was part of an organization recruiting and transporting Argentines to the conflict zone under false promises of employment. This is Jorge Alberto Otero, call sign Trembo, a former member of the Argentine Federal Police who later worked in the security service of the city of Tigre. He is also originally from Buenos Aires.

    It should be noted that, according to our information, an investigation into Ukrainian recruiters is also underway in Colombia. However, following the presidential elections in that Latin American country, all proceedings have been suspended, allowing several Ukrainian military intelligence officers to leave Bogotá.

    • Redcuban1959 [any]@hexbear.netMEnglish
      67·
      15 days ago

      A lot of Brazilian and Mexican mercenaries have also died, most of them are 20 something old chuds anyway. Ukraine, before the war, was being used as training ground for far-right terrorists in LatAm.

      Sara Giromini, a far-right political activist, feminist group FEMEN member and Daniel Silveria, a former military police officer and federal congressman from Rio de Janeiro, said they wanted to “Ukrainize Brazil”.

      “Ucranizar o Brasil” (Ukrainize Brazil) referred to emulating the 2014 Euromaidan protests in Ukraine. For these activists, it meant using radical street pressure, militant camps, and potential civil conflict to shatter democratic checks and balances and grant broader authoritarian powers to Bolsonaro.

      Both Giromini and Silveira positioned themselves as loyal shock troops for Jair Bolsonaro, organizing aggressive demonstrations and torch marches targeting democratic institutions like the Supreme Federal Court (STF). Sara publicly claimed she had traveled to Ukraine and received instruction from ultra-right or nationalist paramilitary networks there (such as elements associated with the Azov movement), using those tactics to model her Brazilian camp. Daniel Silveira echoed the call on social media, telling followers that “whoever knows what was done there will understand”.

      Later, the rhetoric became an embarrassing contradiction for the Bolsonaro administration when the Russia-Ukraine war broke out and Bolsonaro pursued close diplomatic neutrality and pragmatic ties with Vladimir Putin.