Bulletins and News Discussion from October 14th to October 20th, 2024 - Paper Tigers
Bulletins and News Discussion from October 14th to October 20th, 2024 - Paper Tigers
Image is a frame taken from this video of Iranian missiles raining down on Israel without interception due to a weak and depleted air defense system after a year of war and genocide.
Mao, 1956:
Now U.S. imperialism is quite powerful, but in reality it isn't. It is very weak politically because it is divorced from the masses of the people and is disliked by everybody and by the American people too. In appearance it is very powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of, it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain. I believe the United States is nothing but a paper tiger.
When we say U.S. imperialism is a paper tiger, we are speaking in terms of strategy. Regarding it as a whole, we must despise it. But regarding each part, we must take it seriously. It has claws and fangs. We have to destroy it piecemeal. For instance, if it has ten fangs, knock off one the first time, and there will be nine left, knock off another, and there will be eight left. When all the fangs are gone, it will still have claws. If we deal with it step by step and in earnest, we will certainly succeed in the end.
Strategically, we must utterly despise U.S. imperialism. Tactically, we must take it seriously. In struggling against it, we must take each battle, each encounter, seriously. At present, the United States is powerful, but when looked at in a broader perspective, as a whole and from a long-term viewpoint, it has no popular support, its policies are disliked by the people, because it oppresses and exploits them. For this reason, the tiger is doomed. Therefore, it is nothing to be afraid of and can be despised. But today the United States still has strength, turning out more than 100 million tons of steel a year and hitting out everywhere. That is why we must continue to wage struggles against it, fight it with all our might and wrest one position after another from it. And that takes time.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel's 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.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
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.
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.
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Just go back from the assembly we held at our university, and we resolved: The building will be occupied by the students and the authorities will be displaced*, effective now the premises are under student control for an indefinite period of time. Classes will resume as normal (most will be held in the street). We also declared a state of permanent assembly.
*I'll dig more into this. We voted on displacing them, however, I think some will remain in their posts to fulfill their duties. What I think happens is that their authority is shared with the students, meaning that we kinda abolished hierarchies lmao.
Meanwhile, more and more universities are being occupied by students, althrough such occupations differ from one another. I think the number is well above 50 institutions around the country, more will be joining us as the movement gets bigger.
A few days ago, milei announced that occupations are illegal and thus efforts must be directed to evict those who participate in the occupations.
So, anybody knows how to deal with riot police? Honestly I don't know what to expect, in one hand we're protected by the right of protest and there's also the fact that neither police or federal forces are allowed to intervene in universities (they can't even step inside), on the other, it's milei we're talking about, not that he gives a shit about all this. I do expect shady people to come and go from the building to collect intelligence for the cops, this has happened before.
What keeps me worried are possible sporadic attacks by pro-milei people. Today, during the assembly to decide on the occupation of the University of Quilmes, a group of libertarians tried to crash it by using tear gas on students. They were promptly kicked off the establishment and the university was occupied regardless. This hasn't happened in previous times when universities were occupied because the conext was different, but now, fascists and libertarians (they are the same thing) are completely empowered by the state. Gotta keep watch I guess.
death to "israel" btw
So, anybody knows how to deal with riot police?
What I'm about to say is just an idea: it may be an idea I've had for years, and one I've put a lot of thought into, but it's still not something I've tested and should be taken with a grain of salt for that reason:
Itching powder
If the key to winning is to turn your enemy's advantages into disadvantages, I can think of no better way to turn heavy armor and tight formation into huge liabilities than with a cloud of m. pruriens spines
I took this as "anyone know how to deal with them in conflict". if you just meant like how to deal with their presence and keep things from popping off, I'm not sure, but there's definitely someone else here with that knowledge.
This is exactly what I would expect out of a dialogue between protestors in the global south and westoids. Literal pranks. They're going to be clubbed, and you're talking about crickets and stink bombs tier solutions.
The plant is notorious for the extreme itchiness it produces on contact,[3] particularly with the young foliage and the seed pods. It also produces many medium-sized red swollen bumps along with the itching
Scratching the exposed area can spread the itching to other areas touched, which can cause blindness if in the area of the eyes.[13] Once this happens, the subject tends to scratch vigorously and uncontrollably and for this reason the local populace in northern Mozambique refer to the beans as "mad beans" (feijões malucos).
Yeah, I can't think of a single advantage to rendering an outnumbered and tightly-packed group of attackers blind and unable to stop scratching themselves. Especially not over the course of a long day in the sun, they'll probably love spending several hours one second at a time resisting the urge to tear off their armor and thrash around on the asphalt for relief. It'll probably make them focus better. After all, the police never depoy sensory irritants to give themselves an edge, that's sticker and stink bomb shit.
Those irritants are deployed by gas and the police wear protection against them, for one. "Why has nobody thought of this wacky scheme" is always shit that will be met by disproportionate escalation as well, both violently and legally. These are cops we are talking about here. They are going to claim you sprayed sarin and fentanyl on them.
I apologize for being terse and negative before but I already have misgivings about most nonviolent protest tactics. To me, Occupy while a critical ideological juncture was also the farce-nephew event to Cold War civil disobedience tactics. There needs to be somewhere for the pressure to be felt, or the sacrifice (of people's time, energy, incarceration, and lives (if they are in a 3rd world country like Philippines or Argentina that gets more kicks to the head instead of the ass)) is just done as part of going through the motions. Meaning if you are not at a stage where there is somewhere for the pressure to be felt, do not sacrifice critical resources.
"Just throw shit and piss and itching powder and hmm spicy stuff on the cops." blurs the lines enough to be a gun-level escalation in part due to the confusion allowing misinformation about what the protestors are doing.
I would also want to rub peppers and itching powder all over someone telling me this a few years ago so please don't take what I am saying as Trojan horse liberalism sneaking in to turn everything into toothless crap.
This is like suggesting home alone style traps if you are going to get swatted. Not to be glib
This assumes a chunk of the occupation will be indoors and smaller spaces?
In the long run, dealing with rioting police ends with the defenders losing.
Playing defense, meaning occupying a physical location, should be viewed as a "temporary" situation. You will be displaced by force, one way or another unless a larger friendly force can flank the attackers or the attackers are called off by their bosses.
That being said:
Do you have a place to pee, poop, and other things typically done in a private room with running water? If the water gets cut off, what are you going to do? If the power gets cut off, how will that affect things?
Ventilation? Are there windows that can be opened or closed to get dust, gas, smoke out of a room? Are there A/C ducts that can pump smoke or gas into the location?
Can you seal off door frames, windows, ventilation ducts/grates to keep smoke or gas from being pumped into a location?
Flashlights, masks, goggles, heavy duty work gloves, brooms and dust pans, electric fans (until the police/authorities cut the power they will help keep the indoors spaces comfortable and can move dust/smoke/gas around).
Stockpile food and water before the police start rioting. Keep it safe, secure and inventoried. Do some research now to figure out how much water and food to you will need, per person, per day to sustain the group occupying all locations. Once a group is barricaded into a location, you're going to want to start keeping things rationed.
A separate supply of water for hygiene. At a minimum, washing hands and faces for when you eat food and after using the toilet but be prepared for having to deal with pepper spray and teargas.
Medical supplies, first aid. Bandages, pressure dressings, antibiotic ointment, antiseptic (rubbing alcohol), medical tape, butterfly bandages, disposable gloves. Stuff to clean up blood, snot and vomit. Trashbags, cat litter (absorbs stuff), baking soda (helps to absorb odors), medical sanitizer (if you can) for cleaning contaminated surfaces/floor.
Sleeping gear. Towels and sheets and some way to create privacy. If you've got to use a bucket as a toilet or want to change out of soiled clothes, it will definitely make things more comfortable. Also, for spaces where there are lots of windows facing outside, you will need to think about covering the windows to make snipers, spotters and drones unable to see inside.
Have an idea of how many people are going to be at each location. Figure out who has the physical capacity to stay for a long period and who can't (people with disabilities, people with outside obligations, etc). Those who cannot stay barricaded inside a room for a long period of time should be the first to leave when it looks like the police are bringing the riots indoors. This will help with rationing food, water, and cleaning supplies.
If possible, for those who can occupy a location for a long period of time, try to work out a schedule to rotate people in and out before the police get to the point of causing a group to barricade themselves in a location. Its not good physically or psychologically to keep a person cooped up in a small space with a bunch of other people. Example: You've got a group of 20 who can occupy an administrative space for a long duration, make sure that 10 are always in the space while the other 10 have some time to go outside and walk around. Then the two groups switch. There can be more comrades in the space but there should always be a dedicated group that can be relied on to ALWAYS be in the space and ALWAYS rely on being rotated out to take a break before the police start a siege of the location.
Which ways to the doors open? Where are the hinges located? Are the doors metal, solid wood, wood with a sheet of metal on the outside, or thin sheets of wood over a hollow core? Will it be easy or hard for a battering ram to break down the door? Are the door frames wooden or metal? Are there deadbolts? Does the door sit in the door frame in a way that makes it harder for crowbars to be used to force entry? How are you going to keep the doors closed, to keep rioting cops out? In the room you are occupying, are there things you can put in front of the doors/windows to keep the cops from easily getting inside? Things to remember: Pulling is easier than pushing. If you can make a floor slippery, (think of vegetable oil and dish soap), somebody trying to pull down your obstacle is going to have a harder time.
GOOD post