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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Brazilian President Lula da Silva falls in the bathroom of the presidential palace and is taken to the Syrian Lebanese Hospital. The President of the Republic hit his head and, on medical advice, canceled his trip to Russia for the BRICS summit.
Lula's doctor says the president had head trauma, “but everything is fine”. In an interview with CNN, Dr. Roberto Kalil said that CT and MRI scans had been carried out, which showed a small amount of bleeding in the front of Lula's head. He will be under observation for the next few days.
Lula was treated at the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital with a cut on the back of his head; doctors recommend avoiding long trips, but he can keep to his normal schedule. Foreign Minister to lead Brazilian delegation to Russia during BRICS summit Mauro Vieira, who was already going to be part of the delegation, was appointed to head it after Lula canceled his trip to Kazan.
I have seen some people saying this was probably an excuse, so Lula wouldn't have to meet with Putin and anger too much the US. But anyway, I am glad Lula is doing alright.
taken to the Syrian Lebanese Hospital
Lula please watch out for zionist airstrikes
No kidding, I believe this is one of the largest hospital in Brazil, the other one is named "Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital", which is both a private and public hospital.
CIA hit him with the slip and fall gun
the CIA hit him with the slippery floor gun (it's just a bucket)
🔫
Maybe it’s fate, but it is always going to be a shitshow at the BRICS summit even though I am still hoping to see some positive vibes from it.
Lula has been pushing for a BRICS currency since 2023, which directly threatens the internationalization of yuan. (Personally, I am getting around to the fact that yuan is the only currency capable of defeating the dollar, so a BRICS currency is a no go.) But China is also not so interested in weaponizing the yuan, and has no problem with keeping the dollar strong. So, Brazil and China are likely going to be clashing on this issue, which is not a good look when you have two major players of the bloc that don’t share the same commitment.
The Russians, to their credit, have just put out a new BRICS financial mechanism proposal that correctly identified gold, crypto or a shared basket currency (which have been floated around) as not useful toward de-dollarization. I was actually worried they would propose something like the euro, which is possibly one of the worst designed currencies in modern history. So, at least the Russians aren’t as stupid as the Europeans. I’ll give them that.
At the same time, this also means that there is no alternative that can challenge the dollar (other than yuan, which will depend on the willingness of China to do so, and the answer is very likely a no). The Russian plan comprises of many good ideas that can help pushing a couple steps forward toward building a new financial ecosystem for BRICS countries but they are also realistic about it being very very far from actually de-dollarize, which is imperative toward ending US financial imperialism.
In short, small steps forward (if China is on board with the plan) but nothing major seems to be going. At the same time, things like this should have started two years ago when the Fed rate was still high and countries were seriously looking for an alternative to the dollar. This proposal comes almost a bit too late when the US has just cut the interest rate last month, signaling a flooding of dollars back to the Global South again. If you’re a Global South country in desperate need of dollars to survive the next fiscal year, would you take the dollars or place your entire faith on a BRICS proposal that doesn’t even have an established infrastructure yet?
In any case, going to be interesting to see what is being cooked up at the BRICS summit.
Is there a good video or book that describes how currency works at this level? I understand the idea of the Petro dollar and various MMT tidbits, but ultimately haven't been able to tie it together into a holistic understanding. Like what makes the euro bad from a design standpoint, and what are the theoretical hurdles with different BRICS currency approaches?