Now in our second week of the conflict, we have seen continuing damage to both Israel and Iran, as well as direct US intervention which nonetheless seems to have caused limited damage to Fordow and little damage to Iran's nuclear program. Regime change seems more elusive than ever, as even Iranians previously critical of the government now rally around it as they are attacked by two rabid imperialists at once. And Iran's government is tentatively considering a withdrawal, or at minimum a reconsideration, of their membership to the IAEA and the NPT. And, of course, the Strait of Hormuz is still a tool in their arsenal.
A day or so on from the strike on Fordow, we have so far seen basically no change in strategy from the Iranian military as they continue to strike Israel with small barrages of missiles. Military analysts argue furiously - is this a deliberate strategy of steady attrition on Israel, or indicative of immense material constraints on Iran? Are the hits by Israel on real targets, or are they decoys? Does Iran wish to develop a nuke, or are they still hesitating? Will Iran and Yemen strike at US warships and bases in response to the attack, or will they merely continue striking only Israel?
And perhaps most importantly - will this conflict end diplomatically due to a lack of appetite for an extended war (to wit: not a peace but a 20 year armistice) or with Israel forced into major concessions including an end to their genocide? Or even with a total military/societal collapse of either side?
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
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.
The total American cultural victory is undeniable when me, a Lebanese dude who has never set a foot in America and will never be able to get a visa, is pumped for Zohran Mamdani's victory in his road to becoming the mayor of NYC. Honestly, good work America.
Blue Jeans, Rock Music, and baring witness to endless political ratfucking after a minor victory against the entrenched liberal political class.
Isn't the DSA more like a relief valve?
Unless I'm mistaken (admittedly highly likely), the most radical policy is what, a rent freeze? Welcome the hard left policies of checks notes Nixon in the early 1970s
You might be thinking of the democratic party, I think one should wait for 1 or 2 cycles until the DSA actually functions like one to say this.
The DSA has never been in power nor really held anything as significant as NYC, if they get to do some of the things they propose to do it could, as you say, take some pressure of working people only and not really empower them, only for the right to come back to power and go back to pressuring them to squeeze them, like how some european social-democratic parties who reach government work.
Or they could make some progress in solving whatever structural problems NYC has that keep the masses unmotivated and desinterested so that by the end of it SOMETHING will have changed to make it easier for the left, and even if the right comes back they will be the ones to deal with what the left did rather than vice-versa
I don't really buy the notion that putting in the effort to elect this guy wasn't worth doing because, frankly, there is nothing obvious going on in america where that effort would've been better spent, I really don't think the left can make things any worse for themselves by boosting a DSA guy to mayor of a big city, so might as well throw shit at the wall and see what sticks.
So you can elect a progressive mayor in a huge democrat city, let's see how it goes.
Bowman and AOC were DSA members I thought?
Better than Mayor Sexual Assault Bloodfeast anyway
Kinda but they're not mayors they're house reps, and there's only a handful of them so it's not like they're able to govern and function as relief valves the way social democrats in europe do, or like Mamdani might.
One can still argue that they do work as relief valves for the system but it's in a less direct, more ideological, way than actually governing a big city that is a whole political, economic and social system onto itself (I assume, was only ever in new york as a baby child)
I'm also pretty sure the DSA can't actually discipline them into doing anything, whereas Mamdani, unless the dem estabilishment buys him off, is gonna have to depend on whatever political power groups like DSA might give him.
They had some DSA affiliation and support during their campaigns, but I hear that it was never the case that their membership (if they ever officially had it) was enough to put DSA in the driver's seat in any way.
yeah it might be a massive compromise to 99% of socialists but if it "makes the libs mad" then i wont complain too much
if only the imperial metropole was in a country that actually had a real culture instead of whatever the fuck the american simulacra of european shit is meant to be. instead we have burgers and fries
American creative and artistic culture is one of like two truly great things about this country. In film, literature, and especially music, Americans have produced an incredible variety of beautiful and influential work. NYC specifically has earned its place as a global cultural hub through mass quantity and high quality of creative output.
To be fair even among Arab states Lebanon is uniquely western brained
All Arabs are now western brained, it's over for my people.
You do spend a lot of time on an American website. Does this have much reach outside of places like Hexbear in Lebanon?
Well yeah, I'm seeing random left-adjacent accounts on Arab Twitter talking about it. I follow lots of Shia Islamists also and they're also happy that a Twelver Shia will become mayor.