Image is of Colombian President Gustavo Petro giving a speech at the UN in 2022.
Trump has arrived in office with the force of an avalanche; ~~ending~~ slowing a genocide on the one hand, while simultaneously promising a total nightmare for minorities and the poor throughout and outside the United States on the other hand. [edited for clarity; I do not actually think Trump has ended the Palestinian genocide obviously, I was making a joke - but the ceasefire is a genuine improvement in conditions for millions of people right now who are on the edge of death, so it cannot be dismissed]
It's still far too early to truly compare and contrast his imperial strategy with Biden's, but initial signs show that there does appear to be somewhat of a reorientation. Biden was famous for being two-faced; ostensibly offering aid and stability, while also blowing up your pipeline to ensure you did not actually have an alternative to his idea. Trump, meanwhile, seems only really capable of aggression, threatening several "allied" nations with what may as well be sanctions because of the economic harm they'd do. I suspect we'll be debating for a long time how much of this can be attributed to the specific characteristics of Trump, or whether he merely embodies the zeitgeist of imperial decline - a wounded empire lashing out with extreme violence to try and convince everybody, including themselves, that they can still be the world imperialist hegemon.
I'll admit it: I did not believe that Trump would actually try and go ahead with putting tariffs on basically anybody who annoys him. And while the threat could still be empty in regards to countries like China and Canada, Colombia is the first indication of the potential of his strategy. Despite some fiery words from President Petro, after Trump's administration revealed the punishment if Colombia did not agree, it appears that Colombia will in fact be accepting deported migrants after all. It's funny how that works.
Last week's thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
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.
[nytimes archived link]~~https://archive.is/IkuOE~~ edit:: updatehttps://archive.is/zP5jp
hmmm
This is the most insane thing he's done by an order of magnitude.
And we're one week in.
Buckle up, folks, we're going for a ride.
hell yeah used to fall asleep to this in the morning after coming home on a sick one after a rave playing dreamcast to come down
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
big brain thing to do on a tuesday when the markets were already in turmoil on monday
Well they say this spending is mandated by law, but the supreme court recently ruled that the president can just do whatever, in the famous case of Norms vs. Fuck it, so... I'm guessing he can just do that.
Trump might suck ass but he definitely knows how power actually works.
show this to all the smarmy liberals who say "we just can't do that sweaty, sinema will vote against it"
I think liberals on some level do understand the Dems could force things through if they really wanted to, but at the same time are too reactionary to genuinely support good policy and this parliamentarian bullshit gives them an out to go "well we tried at least we aren't Trump" while being just as shitty. The Democratic party itself is just controlled opposition, but the supporters self delude.
I don't think it's him. Definitely the people in his admin this time around get it, which is actually the most disturbing thing
I still can't believe Justice Sotomayor ruled in favor of Fuck It
So does this include FAFSA? Good luck Trump with your visions of a strong domestic economy when the US is intentionally completely isolated by sanctioning itself, all the experts are leaving for China and Europe, college is unaffordable and you decided to sink the only program making a degree somewhat feasible, and the immigrant precariat your agricultural policy relies on have all been deported. Great job Mr president sir really smart genius large brain moves, can’t wait to see what you do next to lash out as this ship sinks
Maybe it's a Maoist gambit to force academics and university officials to have no choice but to pick fruit and work in the countryside.
It supposedly doesn't affect aid to individuals, so I think that student loans would fall under that, but with so much ambiguity who knows.
Yeah, I don't think that FAFSA would be affected...But college IS part of the woke agenda, so...
So we don't even know for sure what he paused? It could be like... farm subsidies?
In my limited knowledge, nonprofits and the like typically get federal grants/contracts on a quarterly/yearly basis. The federal government fiscal year starts on October 1st, so we are part way through Q2. My guess is that there is a pause on approving disbursements of the funding and grants for Q3 so they can review the different agencies applying to them to make sure they aren't woke, and then start pulling that funding for said woke agencies starting in April
edit: wait idk if this comment was supposed to be in response to you lol. But no I don't think farming subsidies would be affected, but perhaps