Image is of thousands of Cubans gathering in 2026 to honor José Martí.
After the Soviet Union fell, in the 1990s, Cuba entered a period (known as the Special Period) of extreme economic pressure, losing almost all of its international trade and fuel imports. Caloric intake almost halved, and electricity was mostly unavailable for much of the day. In response, Cuba undertook Option Zero, in which the country prioritized distributing resources to the most vulnerable, and rationed what little was available as fairly as possible. During this time, the threat of total collapse led to experiments and innovations, and, paradoxically to those on the outside, Cuba's population came together under pressure, rather than shattering. The collective understanding that their suffering resulted from abroad rather than from internal inefficiencies and corruption meant that Cuba's government, and thus their sovereignty, survived.
As the American Empire contracts in the wake of multipolarity and can now no longer tolerate sovereignty in the Western Hemisphere, we are seeing a return to the time of the Special Period, with the illegal blockade being dramatically worsened - among other measures, the US is preventing all fuel from entering the island, a strategy made more viable with Venezuela's fuel exports now restricted. Imperialist supporters are predicting an imminent collapse, after which American mining corporations would descend on Cuba's massive nickel and cobalt reserves.
While it's absolutely possible that this time Cuba's government could collapse, it's important to note four things: 1) as noted, Cuba has been in a situation like this before and survived; 2) the geopolitical situation is quite different to how it was in the 1990s, with China and other powers increasing in power and influence compared to the USSR's incompetent final leaders leaving the lane wide open to American exploitation; 3) there has been a concerted effort to transition to renewable energy sources recently, with solar panels being imported from China and making up an increasing amount of the energy supply; and 4) Cuba's government is taking this threat very seriously, and beginning rationing efforts immediately.
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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.
US military buildup against Iran update:
There have been 122 strategic airlift C-17 Globemaster III and C-5M Super Galaxy (majority C-17) flights towards the Middle East, with a further 20 flights in progress or set to take-off in the next 24 hours. Of these, 77 flights are related to the movement of air defence systems (PATRIOT/THAAD) to the Middle East, with a further 16 set to depart from US military bases that host air defence units. The previous movement of air defences for last year's attack on Iran consisted of at least 115 flights, and we are likely going to see that number suppassed in the coming weeks. According to Theintelfrog and Armchair Admiral on X/Twitter for the exact numbers, I haven't been keeping track of exact numbers and I don't really pay attention much on weekends. However a general trend I've noticed is an increase of C-5M flights from Fort Hood, and an increase of C-17 flights from Fort Bliss.
6x F-35As from the Vermont Air National Guard, a unit that specialises in the suppression of enemy air defences and participated in previous airstrikes on Iran and Venezuela, have departed from Burlington, Vermont, and are set to stopover at RAF Lakenheath in the UK. There are currently 6x F-35A from the Vermont Air National Guard in Rota, Spain. The two groups will likely both simultaneously deploy to the Middle East soon, I'd guess to Jordan. It's possible that 12x F-15Es will also rotate out of Jordan and return to the USA soon, of the 36x F-15Es currently in Jordan.
Source
2x P8-A Poseidon maritime warfare and reconnaissance aircraft have deployed to Bahrain and Oman, bringing the total number of P-8A Poseidon aircraft in the Middle East to 4.
Source
Defences at Diego Garcia have been supplemented, with an AEGIS equipped Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer providing air and missile defence, 2x P8-A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft capable of anti ship and anti submarine warfare, and a presumed attack submarine. According to satellite imagery purchased from the Chinese company Mizarvision.
Source
I mean at this point it's pretty obvious, no? Have we ever seen deployments like this without the empire carrying out a strike? Basically telegraphed, and anybody in Iran still clinging to so-called «negotiations» is kidding themselves. The Americans don't move basically their entire C-17 Globemaster III fleet without intending to strike.
We certainly know that under Trump these always precipitate actual military action. In the two previous examples - Venezuela to kidnap Maduro and Iran to bomb the nuclear facilities - they were both 'restrained' or 'limited' strikes rather than entry into an ongoing war. So my best guess is they're lining up to do something similar - blow up the IRGC HQ or something and then walk away with their hands up.
my guess is that the US government is being misled by iranian opposition leaders into making them hope an uprising will happen after "limited" strikes dismantling iranian military capabilities and decapitating leadership leads to a power vacuum that will be filled with pro israel monarchist forces. the only deterrent iran has left at this point is threatening regional war, which will be extremely bad for the gulf monarchies as it will destroy oil exports and tourism. white people don't like spending time in shopping malls when there are missles flying around.
the real question is how much influence and corruption do the israeli have to make this happen versus the gulf monarchies. either US can convince UAE and the rest that the air defences in the region are sufficient to not disrupt the flow of capital, or israel will start another war "alone". there is basically no hope for peace (because israel wants war), except for the false hope of negotiations which are clearly designed to buy time.
Yeah at this point I'm just wondering if he has the "decency" to wait until the olympics are over
It depends. A lot of the stuff moved so far has been defensive assets so the US can frame it as "we're protecting countries we have defense agreements with from Iranian attack", but the more offensive stuff the US moves to the Middle East (EA-18Gs, F-35s, F-16CJs, and eventually F-22s and the EC-130H), the less room the US gives themselves to back out. 4x EA-18Gs have already made it to Jordan. There are 12x F-35Cs on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, and 6x EA-18Gs. There are 12x F-35As and 2x EA-18Gs waiting in Europe to go to the Middle East. So that's already some offensive equipment moved or on the doorstep. I think the US will only move large amounts of tactical fighter aircraft to the Middle East once all defences are in place, if the US chooses to make that decision.
If the US goal is "regime change", I don't think this can be a limited action over a weekend. The US would need to commit to a longer campaign of large scale. So far Iran has been acting quite confident in negotiations, not actually negotiating about anything the US would be interested in according to reports, almost as if they're calling the USA's bluff, thinking that the US will not carry out a large scale operation, or trying to get the US to strike earlier in a limited manner before defensive and offensive preparations are completed, to which Iran would respond with a large retaliatory attack on US bases. I don't know how that will work out. It's a very high risk strategy because the US could decide to carry out large scale strikes for weeks or even months.
I don't know if the United States has the appetite for large scale strikes for weeks or even months, especially given their self imposed deadline of 2027 for Chinese action in Taiwan. If they commit to strikes for months, they wouldn't be able to respond to a Chinese invasion. The empire is stretched thin, unless they've already given up re: Taiwan. To say nothing of public opinion, because a long war with Iran is going to get a lot of Americans killed.
Come on, it'll be any day now, there will be a small earthquake originating ~1km under some mountain in Iran. They are going to do it right? Right?