Image is of a destroyed American AWACS plane in Saudi Arabia, of which there is a very limited supply and each of which is enormously expensive both monetarily and in terms of components. Iran hit this with a precision drone strike that likely cost ~$20,000.
I don't have much to add from the last megathread description. This isn't to say that nothing has happened or has changed since then - decades are still happening in weeks - but the general flow of the war is remaining the same. Trump sometimes threatens to open the Strait with troops and flatten Iran to rubble, and other times threatens that he's gonna back off and let other countries handle it if they really want little trifles like "fuel" and "energy" so much. Iran continues to strike across the Middle East. The West continues to bomb civilian infrastructure due to their relative inability to affect the missile cities. In all: things are generally getting worse for America and the Zionists.
April is the month where the last ships that left Hormuz before it was closed will arrive around the world, so the last month of economic turmoil has been a mere prelude to what's going to occur in the near-future. The silver lining is that Iran appears to be formalizing the new state of affairs in Hormuz, creating a rial-based toll to allow passage between a pair of Iranian-controlled islands where they can be monitored, meaning that, as long as the US doesn't do something exceptionally stupid, the global energy crisis may "only" last a couple years instead of simply being the new reality from now on. Some countries have already agreed to this arrangement, and others will inevitably follow despite their consternation as their economies increasingly suffer.
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.
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 is reaching the point many imperial masters have with their vassals - thinking there was no possible way to push their piggies too far. But the piggies are driven by self-interest just as much as their masters.
If Melenchon/LFI wins the next election (and they will, imo), I think France goes through a permanent break with the US.
If Melenchon wins it's a 100% certainty, the entire left in France want it.
Also France will withdraw from nato again
It'd be amazing if they manage to pull off their whole vision, which to me reads as a plausible electoral path to revolutionary results. France's tendency to constitutional rewrites would allow them to do something very like the Bolivarian Revolution - a major electoral victory that rewrites the constitution along socialist lines based in mass organized support, but this time it's an extremely highly developed nuclear power with full food sovereignty, financial power, a UNSC veto, at the heart of the imperial system. Europe relies on France for food and electricity. LFI success in their goal would be one of the most significant events since the Russian Revolution - if they can pull it off.
I've always believed in the revolutionary potential of the French people, much more than the other big Euro powers, and that's rooted in both their revolutionary history and France's capacity for independence from the imperial system. It will be no easy task, but I think there's reason to believe they can pull this off.
We’ll see how revolutionary they are when they pay reparations to Algeria and all the other countries they fucked and also get rid of the CFA Franc.
LFI's program on Africa:
AI translated
Dynamics of citizen revolutions have been unleashed across Africa in recent years. The French government has remained deaf to these popular aspirations. His policy is rotten by a business vision that responds only to the narrow interests of the oligarchies. It is in the interest of the people that France adopts an African policy guided by the general human interest. Cooperation among peoples is the method that will make it possible to move forward in this direction.To build a policy that takes into account the reaffirmation of the sovereignty of the African peoples and the profound transformations of this continent
Strengthening development assistance to the Sahel and conditioning it on respect for human, democratic, social and ecological rights
Review defence agreements with African countries, so that they are concluded in the interest of peoples and prevent any interference in the internal affairs of African countries
Allow African countries in the CFA zones (whose western part has become an ECO zone) to have a currency of which they are the sole masters, and whose contours they can define
Cancel the “odious” debts of some African countries, i.e. the debts incurred by dictatorships for the sole purpose of enriching the ruling clan, or engaging in actions that go against the general interest
Create an independent commission of inquiry to shed light on the political and military fiasco that has seriously altered relations between France and the majority of Sahel countries
Imperialism in the post-Napoleonic era has been almost completely dominated by Anglo interests, whether by the UK or the US. French imperialists have never seen eye-to-eye with this. When the time comes, they will make their move against Anglo imperialism and make de Gaulle proud.
They will never be able to reassert France as an imperial power. Their only path to sovereignty is through socialism.