As is tradition, at around this time of year, we discuss the latest developments in the communist plan to destroy Christmas and everything festive and jolly - including that bastard kulak Santa Claus. Down with holly and myrrh, and up with historical materialism!
This year, I'm highlighting the economic trend of de-Decemberization, as the world struggles to break free from the seasonal hegemony imposed by the North Pole. Some regard it as a rather overhyped phenomenon, stating that the chains of Christmas are too frozen for any country to thaw and break in the current environment. Others are more optimistic, and assert that perhaps an alternative world holiday could be established to outright replace it, or maybe a series of smaller holiday traditions can bring it down like a pack of wolves bringing down a moose.
To return to seriousness, as this year draws to a close, I hope everybody here - yes, also you, the person reading this - has a 2026 that was better than 2025, and that the efforts of the United States and their proxies are foiled at every turn. One day, humans will live in a world free from empires, and it would be nice if as many of us as possible lived to see that world's birth.
At the very least, I'd like to live to see an aircraft carrier sink beneath the waves.
Last week's thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. 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.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
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.
China just test launched its YJ-20 hypersonic anti-ship missile. Here are a few interesting details about this weapon system:
"Maneuverable missiles that can exceed Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, are considered hypersonic missiles, said Chinese military affairs expert Zhang Junshe. He told the Global Times that based on the appearance of the YJ-20, it is a boost-glide missile consisting of a rocket booster and a bicone glide vehicle. The bicone can form shock waves during hypersonic flight, which enables the missile's air rudders to perform maneuvers during the missile's terminal flight, boosting its defense penetration capabilities.
The YJ-20 can hit surface vessels via a nearly vertical angle like a ballistic missile, and with its hypersonic speed, it is very difficult to intercept, according to Zhang."
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202512/1351645.shtml
Not necessarily. Maneuverable ballistic missiles exceeding Mach 5 at some point in flight, have existed since the 1980s, and no one was calling them hypersonic missiles. Hypersonic weapons are all about sustained hypersonic speeds within the earth's atmosphere on a non ballistic trajectory for the majority of the flight duration. Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGVs) and Hypersonic Cruise Missiles (HCMs). China has these (I'll mention them later), but the YJ-20 is not really that. If the YJ-20s re-entry vehicle (RV) is considered an HGV, then so can the RV of the Pershing-II from the 1980s. Both are biconical, feature rudders, and can conduct terminal maneuvers, attain hypersonic speeds at some point in flight, strike at a near vertical angle. In fact, they look almost exactly the same!
The concept behind China's DF-21/JL-1/YJ-20 maneuverable ballistic missiles is in fact very similar to the Pershing-II. You have a single stage variant (YJ-20), and two stage variant (DF-21) sharing the same Maneuverable Re-entry Vehicle (MaRV), which the Pershing-II also did. In China's case, there's an air launched version of the DF-21 called the JL-1, and the YJ-20 can be ship launched. Also the single stage YJ-20 has no aerodynamic fins on the booster stage, relying only on thrust vectoring, and the aerodynamic fins on the MaRV fold up, so it can fit in the vertical launch system of a Chinese Navy destroyer/cruiser.
YJ-20 and JL-1:
Pershing-II:
Would this effectively make aircraft carriers a non issue for the PLAN? It seems like an incredible feat of engineering to design something like that in and of itself, let alone to make it accurate enough to hit a moving ship in the sea.
These new weapons of war are truly terrifying - especially after seeing the videos of those Iranian hypersonics. I can't imagine seeing those IRL along with the other missile and drone swarms from the perspective of the opposition...