Image is one of many rallies in Iran in support of the government and the leadership.
short summary here, longish summary in spoiler tags below: Western standoff munition stockpiles now substantially depleted, therefore Western aircraft activity directly over Iran increasing (as is footage of attempted and actual hits against them) as the US attempts to transition more to using bombs dropped directly onto targets, Iran is increasingly in the driver's seat and controlling the conflict, world economy is fucked and yet could still get much worse very soon, if you require a car to live (especially if it's not electric) and cannot work from home then you have my sincere condolences
longish summary here
While I've seen several estimates on the current stockpiles of US and Zionist missiles and interceptors - somewhere in the realm of a third depleted, perhaps even up to half - it seems like we're reaching the point at which the US does not want to commit even more standoff munitions and is trying their luck against the Iranian air defense network directly.
We have already seen footage of Iran attempting to shoot down, and sometimes actually striking Western fifth generation planes like the F-35, and more footage along those lines is appearing for other plane models (with one side claiming that they evaded interception and the other claiming they hit it, etc etc, propaganda is everywhere, you know the drill). How much the US is willing to test their planes against Iranian air defense is a matter of debate. Strictly speaking, a few fighter jets and bombers shot down would be no catastrophic loss in the grand scheme of things, as the US has hundreds. However, the narrative of such a thing would be quite bad for the US - "You're telling me an OBLITERATED Iranian military can shoot down some of our most advanced equipment?? What are we gonna do against China?!" - and given Trump's deranged jingoistic rhetoric aimed to buoy markets, it's clear that he cares very deeply about narratives. Additionally, with Chinese exports of several critical metals to the US banned, the prospect of replacing these aircraft (and indeed the standoff munitions and the interceptors and the ground radars etc) is looking questionable.
All the while, Iran continues its strikes across the Middle East. Missile and drone strikes are reportedly on the uptick again, demonstrating that Iranian military capabilities have by no means been "destroyed" as Western propaganda claim, though it's impossible to sure there was ever a significant downtick due to Western censorship and outright fabrications. People around the world are gradually realizing the magnitude of the economic disaster that is occurring and may yet occur. Refineries and factories which deal with oil and gas directly are starting to slow down or stop production, and those who make products downstream of those are starting to follow them like dominoes. Outrage at gas station prices is rising, and many countries are considering limiting civilian driving and implementing work-from-home policies akin to the coronavirus pandemic. And now, threats are being made by Trump against both Kharg Island (where most Iranian oil is shipped from) and the Iranian electrical grid - which is highly decentralized and would require a prolonged bombing campaign to completely take out -and the promised Iranian reprisal would be apocalyptic to the Middle East. It would make oil prices rise to previously unfathomable heights as oil infrastructure turned off and remained off for months, perhaps years, and set in motion one of the world's greatest humanitarian catastrophes as the desalination necessary for tens of millions of people is shut down. It would also not be a symmetrical problem, as Iran does not rely on desalination for its water supply.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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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 the Zionists' 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.
The US Air Force is deploying 18x A-10C aircraft for close air support to the Middle East for close air support for whatever ground operations thry have planned in Iran.
Source on flight tracking
This is really going to happen, isn't it?
Looks like it. I saw a bunch of posts a couple of days ago from people saying their relatives were deployed or strippers saying US soldiers are telling them they are getting deployed etc.
I love how sex workers are the most effective spies. Men will say anything to hot women, its astounding.
I was checking out r/military yesterday and lots of people were dooming about Americans not being ready for drone footage of American soldiers getting popped. The reality is starting to set in
Thry are absolutely not ready, and even if the US succeeds somehow, it will happen.
Imagine a clip of 30 marines achieving lifelong benefit status with an energetic fusion of dubstep and Persian techno as the soundtrack.
The USA is not ready for this.
My body is ready
I'm ready
Have a10s ever operated without total air dominance? It seems like they're easy hunting for anti air missiles
Everything tells me a ground invasion of any sort is going to be a disaster for the US.
What would allow this to succeed? Like what needs to happen for US troops to complete an objective?
At the minimum,
Air superiority over the areas where troops are.
A chain of logistics that is safe enough from missile and drone attacks
Full support from the gulf nations
Quite possibly, with a herculean effort, the US can maintain some ground presence in a very small part of Iran near the coasts or some ally's borders. They can get their troops in Iran, and prevent Iran from transporting their own troops to where the americans are by use of airstrikes and drone strikes to disrupt iranian logistics.
Consider the map. Look at the possible entry points for the Americans (many suggestions have been floating around recently, i presume as part of American psyops).
Ideal case for the Americans is they can establish presence and pressure at and near one of their entry points. For the most part this will be a propaganda and political win for the Americans, but it might establish some tactical benefits as well by giving americans a better ability to target stuff in attacks.
That's all assuming the americans ca actually pull off this move. If i was an american general right now I'd be sweating like crazy.
What ally would allow staging from their border? That's just asking Iran to go scorched earth on their remaining water and energy infra.
Generally speaking, countries dumb enough to become American vassals. Or maybe ones that allow the Americans to use military bases from their country, thereby turning themselves into targets for Iranian attacks.
Sarcasm aside, the gulf states know an American ground invasion is coming. There must be some sort of understanding between the Americans and the gulf states.
Right but... I hear what you're saying, this does not sound feasible in any way. Air superiority, sure. Landing and logistics? No way. Holding any ground? That seems like they'll just be targets.
Look, you don't get it. All America has to do to obtain this relatively small win is accept thousands of dead soldiers, a whole buncha blown up cargo helis, and sunk boats. What's a few hundred smouldering APCs in the desert?
No but in all seriousness, the Iranian borders aren't impenetrable. If the Americans have the will they can launch and maintain a ground op. It won't be strategically successful. There will be many failures along the way. But if the Americans are willing to eat big losses, they can do some shit.
I guess that's the short sightedness I should expect from this iteration of the American regime.
I accept that it's possible to invade but I just don't see an amphibious landing going well and overland routes seem impossible as well.
American hubris is unlimited, especially in the blob.
I think the logic is that they always have the Bomb^tm. For when things start to look really bad.
Could the A-10s be intended for armament with APKWS for air defense instead? https://theaviationist.com/2026/03/16/a-10-thunderbolt-iis-operation-epic-fury/