Image is of one of Ireland's only manned navy ships, the Samuel Beckett. Image sourced from this BBC article.
Putler has been HUMILIATED by the Kursk offensive and this proves that Russia's army is in tatters and unable even to defend its own territory. However, it is simultaneously true that Russia poses an existential threat to countries thousands of miles away, as this recent Politico article demonstrates. Ireland - a country that immediately springs to mind as one surrounded by enemies - is being bullied due to its lack of military.
Despite bearing responsibility for 16 percent of the EU’s territorial waters, and the fact that 75 percent of transatlantic undersea cables pass through or near Irish waters, Ireland is totally defenseless. And I mean completely unable to protect critical infrastructure, or even pretend to secure its own borders. [...] Ireland’s “navy” of six patrol vessels is currently operating with one operational ship due to chronic staff shortages. [...] Ireland simply has no undersea capabilities. How could it, when it barely spends 0.2 percent of GDP on security and defense? And it has, in effect, abdicated responsibility for protecting the Europe’s northwestern borders.
For all we know, the dreaded sea-people from the Bronze Age Collapse could soon emerge from the North Atlantic.
Unfortunately, things are even worse up in the skies. Ireland has no combat jets, and it’s the only country in Europe that can’t monitor its own airspace due to the lack of primary radar systems. Instead, the country has outsourced its security to Britain in a technically secret agreement between Dublin and London, which effectively cedes control over Irish air space to the Royal Air Force. This must be the luck of the Irish — smile and get someone else to protect you for free.
While this is very silly, rearmament has long been a part of US imperial strategy on an economic level. Desai, discussing the US imperial strategy in the WW2 period:
By 1947 [...] the domestic postwar consumer boom was nearing its end. While financing exports became more urgent, the 1946 elections returned a Congress unlikely to approve further loans. Now the Truman Administration concocted the ‘red menace’ to ‘scare the hell out of the country’, enunciated the Truman Doctrine of US support for armed resistance to ‘subjugation’ which launched the cold war, and Congress granted $400 million to prevent left-wing triumphs in Greece and Turkey in 1947.
One reading of history states that the US was so intimidated by the USSR that this forced a policy of massive arms production even outside of official wartime. Why this arms production is not occurring today can be puzzling, and (very reasonably) explained by neoliberals exporting industrial production overseas. However, a different historical reading can explain both the first Cold War, and the ongoing situation in which American weaponry is being almost purposefully given in insufficient numbers to give Ukraine a chance of victory and thus only prolonging their suffering (while generating massive profit for the military-industrial complex):
In this sense the Cold War was not the cause of US imperial policy but its effect. It combined financing exports with fighting combined development by national capitalisms as well as communism. When such ‘totalitarian regimes’ threatened ‘free peoples’, ‘America’s world economic responsibilities’ included aid to countries battling them.
By selling massively expensive weapons to Europe, America could simultaneously guarantee export markets for its industries, trap Europe into reliance on American industries at the expense of their own, and divert European funds away from constructing factories which could compete with American ones. Providing a way to defend against Soviet communism (and now Russian "imperialism") is merely a happy side-effect, and so the lack of effectiveness of American weaponry is causing no great panic among the military-industrial complex, nor an urgent plan to quintuple artillery shell production or Patriot missile production - the deals for F-35s and such are still there, and they are what matter.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Ireland! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
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 daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
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.
Another day of witnessing and posting the news on Hexbear, the most liberal site on the internet. I see that @Redcuban1959@hexbear.net has posted fifteen consecutive comments about semi-obscure Latin American politics, @shipwreck@hexbear.net or one of their alts is talking for fifth time this week about how China must immediately adopt a domestic consumption economy or perish under a tsunami of dollars, and we have our latest doompost about how Russia is about to lose the war that generates 20 comments dunking on them. All is well, as I leave my laptop for the evening, don my nightly attire, fulfil my evening duties, and slip into bed.
I wake up in my pyjamas in the middle of the night. I slowly rise out of bed and reach for my candleholder as I step down the creaky stairs. "Who goes there?" I call out, forcefully yet a little afraid, into the looming darkness. There is no reply. Just as I begin to suspect that I was yet again merely awoken by the deranged mutterings HexbearCope guy who lives in my walls (yet I cannot evict him, or that would make me a landlord, the lowest of all beasts), I turn around and find three ghastly apparitions - three Washington DC wonks, wearing gleaming, polished lanyards around their incorporeal necks. They reflect my candlelight right back at me, dazzling me. I recoil in shock, but without acknowledging my surprise, they launch into a perfectly synchronized, well-rehearsed speech:
"SeventyTwoTrillion, CEO of the Hexbear News Megathreads --" I briefly wish to interrupt them to say that I'm not the CEO, but I suspect they have no other word for 'leader' in America "-- we have come to help you see the error of your socialist ways. We are the Ghosts of News Past, Present, and Future. Walk with each of us in turn."
"No shit, I could read that off your lanyards."
While I also wished to call them mayo kkkrackkkers and throw various bits and pieces from around my living room at them, I suspected that it would be unwise to object. The Ghost of News Past separated from his fellows and walked to my door; I followed closely behind. As he opened the door with a gesture, what was outside was not the shithole country known as England that I was so unfortunately familiar with, but instead a newsroom. But it was quite old. Mid-20th century, perhaps. The lights were blaring onto a desk, where the news anchor was sat in a suit, talking about the new policies of John F. Kennedy.
As I was absorbed by the scenery, the ghost said "Witness. The news of yesteryear. So much more respectful than today. So much less polarization. Do you not see?"
I listened a while longer to the news anchor - who must indeed be Walter Cronkite - rattling off information. I turned around and saw the crew, working hard at whatever television crews do. Some of them were engrossed in newspapers. I moved closer, reading over the shoulders of a man. One of the titles was about the Civil Rights Movement - another was on worrying events in Vietnam. Before I could ask what the hell the ghost meant by "less polarization" as I glimpsed a figure of the latest poll showing how much white America hated black people and opposed their rights, the scene before me began to evaporate, and I was back in my living room, as if I had never left.
The Ghost of News Present then glanced at me, to check if my expression and general outlook on life had changed, and when he determined that it had not, he then confidently walked forward to the front door. I once again followed, now more curious. As we passed the threshold, I once again did not see the dilapidated concrete buildings I was familiar with, but instead a verdant field. There was silence, apart from birdsong and insects - and then a deafening boom, followed by a spray of dirt upwards about fifty feet from me. I darted backward on reflex, then remembered this was not real and nothing could hurt me, which was pretty great, because I didn't want to be turned into viscous pink paste by a Russian thermobaric bomb. I looked around and spotted a team of journalists not too far from myself, filming next to a van; they glanced nervously in the direction of the bomb but did not stop filming their colleague.
The Ghost of News Present turned to me, and said "Witness. The news of today. Inside the Kursk salient, where Ukrainians are fighting Russia for their freedom. Do you not see?"
I wanted to make a "Sudzha deez nuts" joke, but couldn't find a way to do it, and after about 20 seconds it was too awkward anyway. He must have thought my vague annoyance was instead confusion, so he grasped me and floated me a few hundred feets in one direction to a group of Ukrainian soldiers. Most of them looked inexperienced and quite old, and very, very tired. Any sympathy turned into anger as I saw their Black Sun tattoos. The ghost followed my gaze and uttered "They're actually just fans of proto-germanic runes from the 8th century," before the realm before me once again collapsed into vapor, and once again I found myself in my living room.
The Ghost of News Future saw my expression was now displeased, but took no particular notice. Again, we passed together through the front door, his lanyard seemingly glued to his chest. As the newest vision assembled itself, I gradually realized I was in some kind of prison complex, though it was much larger and well-kempt than any prison I'd ever seen. As we walked forward, inside one cell, third from the door, stood... no. It couldn't be. That was impossible. ...wasn't it? No, the ear gave it away.
The ghost proclaimed "Witness. The news of the soon-to-be. American polarization has reached this point, where even former presidents are locked up, and anarchy rules. This is what happens if you do not stop your ways in the news megathread. Do you not see?
The 45th President of the United States was sitting on the side of his bed, in some rather unfashionable overalls, watching a wall-mounted television intently. On it was images of riots in front of the Capitol building, protestors rampaging through America, using podiums as battering rams to access the stockpiles within their local Cheesecake Factory. The White House was surrounded by people trying to breach the fence and being beaten back by police, but only barely.
"Oh, woe is me! Woe is me, indeed! I have spent years of my life in the news megathread spreading pro-Trump propaganda in order to annoy liberals online and get him elected! And now look! Oh, I couldn't have possibly thought it would end up like this, with my idol imprisoned and everything in chaos! Oh, I am diminished! Vile specter, bring me back to my own time! I vow to henceforth support the Democrats in their every endeavour. My news megathreads will follow the mediafactbias chart and its almighty decree! Vote blue no matter who, I say! Vote blue, no matter who!"
The ghost, satisfied, dissipated the scene around me and returned us to my living room for the final time. In unison, they said "The future is not fixed. Your choices today matter. We give you a subscription to the New York Times. Use it well." And they disappeared, lanyards vanishing last, and the room was again dark.
Dirt_owl reveal
It's a russian thermobaric bomb