Image is of the Preah Vihear Temple on the Cambodian border. Image sourced from the UNESCO World Heritage website.
Over the last few days, Thailand and Cambodia entered into a heightened stage of conflict due to a long-running border dispute. Like many problems on this planet, Europeans are ultimately to blame - specifically France. Certain sections of the border drawn up by France about a century ago were not fully agreed upon by both sides, with the ownership of some Khmer temples being the most visible points of disagreement.
Despite interventions in favor of Cambodia in the 1960s and later 2010s by the ICJ - one of the mainly mostly useless global institutions that liberals periodically disown - the border conflict has simmered at a generally low level. Of the two countries, Thailand is significantly more militarily and economically powerful.
Last Wednesday, a Thai soldier lost his leg by stepping on a landmine, prompting a rapid escalation between Cambodia and Thailand that has since resulted in dozens of deaths and tens of thousands displaced. Cambodia was willing to come to the negotiating table fairly quickly, but Thailand was more hesitant. International pressure on the two countries by Malaysia, China, and the United States eventually forced Thailand to the table, and they have recently agreed to an immediate ceasefire courtesy of ASEAN.
Notably, Trump refused to hold trade talks with either country until they agreed to peace, which suggests that he really wants a Nobel Peace Prize - which he seems a shoe-in for given that he's met the two most important requirements that several Nobel Peace Prize recipients have needed to meet in the past, which are: 1) start at least one war, and 2) accelerate the genocide of millions of people as billions more people watch on. His policies vis-a-vis ICE creating a domestic terror regime only further increase his chances of winning the prize.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
If you have evidence of Israeli 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 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.
You confused me with whoever the “doomers” you’re describing. I never dogged on Mamdani, and if you want to accuse me of doing so, please provide at least the evidence.
You asked a question, that how could Mamdani be forced to throw the pro-Palestinian cause under the bus as a mayor of NYC, I provided the answer.
Look, I have no dog in this internet forum fight, but if the American left is serious about winning, then you better understand how the system of your own country works.
Outing myself a little here, but I did spend more than a decade in the US, and a couple years living in NYC. I loved the place, but come on, it’s not the center of the universe that many of you think it is lol.
Truly some American exceptionalism brained take here. Taking aside the power of Federal government, do you seriously think the most powerful entity in NYC, Wall Street finance capital, supports Mamdani’s cause?
As I wrote in another comment, 21st century American leftists truly cannot imagine a future without electoralism, just like how 16th century French people could not imagine a future without monarchy.
Instead of changing the game itself, they chose to play by the rules set by the others, and get mad when the rules get changed without their consent and cause them to lose every single time.
I never claimed New York is the center of the universe, I said it's the most powerful metro polity in the United States and a socialist winning the mayorship is a victory in itself
Trump can stomp his feet all he wants, unless he invades the City with the national guard and arrests Zohran on terrorism charges, he can't stop the election and Zohran will win the general, Zohran has already won a greater victory than even Sanders ever did, he won a flagship primary against the DNC, the hurdle has already been crossed
Saying Americans must change the game itself is fine and good, but until someone provides a program or roadmap that outlines that change, we have to deal with the conditions arrayed before us and under those conditions electoralism is a valid tool and tactic to acquire power
I never said Mamdani cannot win. The question you originally asked was:
I answered. I remind you that this is the position of a mayor, who will be responsible for keeping the city running while making sure it is operating under the budgetary constraints (not to mention having to pay off its billions of overhanging debt), so there are many ways to force the hand of the mayor to throw the pro-Palestinian cause under the bus when faced with hard choices. This is simply how the system of your own country works. The United States is not a Confederacy, my friend.
And I remind you that this is a city where much of its economic strength comes from Wall Street finance capital and the landlord class - both of whom have vested interest in introducing as much obstacles as possible to see him fail. Are you going to pretend that the city of Wall Street is simply going to let a socialist mayor do his thing without any resistance?
Taking out such virtual capital, NYC itself, as does most of the highest GDP cities in America, does not have the real economy that is strong enough to sustain the current nominal level of its economy. Don’t let the notion of the “greatest city in the world” cloud your vision. It has great culture, no doubt about it. But removed from its artificially boosted virtual capital, you will have to endure a rapidly deteriorating living standards. Even 50% of California’s tax revenue (the wealthiest state in the country) comes from capital gains tax (stocks and bonds), and that should tell you much about the structure of the American economy.
You seem to deny the possibility that a failed socialist mayor can also have detrimental impact for the rest of the left wing movements across the country.
This is a distinct possibility that you have to consider. I even provided the case that you need to have a strong organized mass movement to back him up in order to ward off the challenges coming from the establishment, but you continue to subscribe to the wishful thinking that he alone will be so powerful that the establishment won’t be able to do anything to curb his authority and his ability to deliver on his campaign promises.
Well, if he cannot deliver on his promises, he will be voted out or forced to resign.
Having said that, I am cautiously optimistic, but the lack of deeper analysis about what could happen post-election betrays a naive idealism and blind optimism. I hope Mamdani’s team and those that actually organize in the US understand that better than what I’ve seen here.
EVERYONE ALREADY KNOWS, the challenges and barriers you've outlined are not some deep lore nobody can figure out, we want the fight, Zohran is taking it seriously, and he has a plan, a tax plan, an anti-cop plan, a grassroot organizing plan, a social services plan, a housing plan, the motherfucker has the blueprints, we will see if they work
So far he's won a major primary and ran circles around the DNC, he's a lock for the general and there's nothing Wallstreet or Trump can do to stop him from winning the election and New York City does have municipal power bases outside of Wallstreet, landlords and DC and HE CAN LEVERAGE THEM
This is the problem with your analysis, if it was so rock solid, he wouldn't have won the primary against Cuomo, a man who is literally on Bibi's legal team, everthing you alluded to should have come into play denied Zohran the win in June, so what's going on with your analysis? WHY was he ALLOWED to win if American state power is so overwhelming and totalizing
Again I didn't call it the "greatest city" I said it's the most powerful, the largest, the most important, that's not an endorsement of that shithole, there's no "great" cities in this rotten trash heap country, and I couldn't care less about its ugly rude culture, I see victory, I pay attention, that simple