Due to American cluster bombing campaigns advised by Kissinger during the Vietnam War to damage supply lines, over 2 million tonnes of ordinance were dropped on Laos over about a decade, averaging a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes. Laos is thus the most bombed country on the planet up to this point. 80 million bombs failed to explode - the cleanup operation is expected to take centuries, and 25,000 people have been killed and injured by bombs in the last 50 years. About 50 people are killed or injured every year to this day.
After the United States withdrew from Laos, the Pathet Lao took power and abolished the monarchy. Kaysone Phomvihane became a dominant figure in Laotian politics, keeping the course on Marxism-Leninism and implementing the first Five Year Plan in 1981. The second Five Year Plan in 1986 was modelled on Lenin's NEP, and this doubled rice production and significantly increased sugar production. After the fall of the USSR, Laos allowed a small capitalist class to exist, with similar control over them as in China. Laos maintains a 48-hour work week with paid sick leave, vacation time, and maternity leave, and workers are well-represented in trade unions. They faired relatively well during coronavirus from a social standpoint due to quick and efficient action to lock down the country, experiencing ~750 deaths out of a population of over 7 million.
There is hope even after utter destruction by genocidal oppressors.
The weekly update is here on the website.
Your Tuesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Wednesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Thursday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Friday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
The Country of the Week is Laos! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
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 daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
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.
Good takedown of propaganda that the US and the Zionist Entity are in disagreement and the US is pressuring the entity to play nicer.
The War on Gaza Resumes: Washington Is the Source of the Plague
"Who holds the United States accountable? No one. The United States prevents any [international] accountability of “Israel” as well. The United States prevents any interruption in the war of extermination on Gaza. Washington, which participates in the killing of Gaza’s people, claims from its podiums and some of its directed media outlets to reject the war and make efforts to stop it. But the truth lies elsewhere.
Why does the US administration openly lie?
The answer is it wants to silence domestic United States entities that have begun to voice objections to Washington’s continued support for Israel, especially after the numerous massacres against civilians. According to a memo obtained by the US media outlet Politico and published on November 6th, officials at the State Department believed that Washington should “publicly criticize Israel ’s violations of international norms such as failure to limit offensive operations to legitimate military targets” and it’s “excessive use of force against Palestinians.” The memo revealed that US diplomats believe that the official opinions of Washington “contributes to regional public perceptions that the United States is a biased and dishonest actor, which at best does not advance, and at worst harms, US interests worldwide.”
It can be concluded that Washington decided to publish so-called leaks about the existence of disagreements between the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government, and another [so-called leak] about Washington’s efforts to pressure “Tel Aviv” to be less aggressive in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, in an attempt to pacify Americans who are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, or those who are no longer able to cover for and justify Israeli crimes. The White House is absolutely insistent on completing its regional project: the normalization between Arab countries and “Israel,” eliminating Hamas and all resistance factions in Gaza, and placing the Palestinian Authority in charge of the Gaza Strip on “Israel’s” behalf.
In this context, it must be emphasized, once again, that Washington directly manages the “Israeli” war on Gaza. All US statements about the necessity of continuing humanitarian ceasefires are nothing but sheer lies. It’s enough to remember that before the start of any new “Israeli” military phase, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Tel Aviv to oversee the military plans and participate in setting its political boundaries. Since the beginning of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood Blinken has come to the occupied Palestine three times. The first was at the start of the military campaign when he stated, “I come here as a Jew.” The second was before the start of the ground operation, and the third was on Thursday, November 30th, hours before the ceasefire was broken and the military aggression resumed. In all three instances, Blinken participated in Israeli War Cabinet meetings.
Once again, this should not come as a surprise. The United States of America is waging war on the Palestinian people."