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submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

Image is of Colombian President Gustavo Petro giving a speech at the UN in 2022.


Trump has arrived in office with the force of an avalanche; ~~ending~~ slowing a genocide on the one hand, while simultaneously promising a total nightmare for minorities and the poor throughout and outside the United States on the other hand. [edited for clarity; I do not actually think Trump has ended the Palestinian genocide obviously, I was making a joke - but the ceasefire is a genuine improvement in conditions for millions of people right now who are on the edge of death, so it cannot be dismissed]

It's still far too early to truly compare and contrast his imperial strategy with Biden's, but initial signs show that there does appear to be somewhat of a reorientation. Biden was famous for being two-faced; ostensibly offering aid and stability, while also blowing up your pipeline to ensure you did not actually have an alternative to his idea. Trump, meanwhile, seems only really capable of aggression, threatening several "allied" nations with what may as well be sanctions because of the economic harm they'd do. I suspect we'll be debating for a long time how much of this can be attributed to the specific characteristics of Trump, or whether he merely embodies the zeitgeist of imperial decline - a wounded empire lashing out with extreme violence to try and convince everybody, including themselves, that they can still be the world imperialist hegemon.

I'll admit it: I did not believe that Trump would actually try and go ahead with putting tariffs on basically anybody who annoys him. And while the threat could still be empty in regards to countries like China and Canada, Colombia is the first indication of the potential of his strategy. Despite some fiery words from President Petro, after Trump's administration revealed the punishment if Colombia did not agree, it appears that Colombia will in fact be accepting deported migrants after all. It's funny how that works.


Last week's thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. 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.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

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.


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[-] Boise_Idaho@hexbear.net 70 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The merciless January counteroffensive against China watchers continues. Further thawing between India and China:
https://xcancel.com/MayadeenEnglish/status/1884149054914888088

India and China have tentatively agreed to restart direct flights between their countries, nearly five years after they were suspended due to the COVID19 pandemic and escalating political tensions.

The announcement on Monday came after India’s senior diplomat visited Beijing, suggesting a potential easing of strained relations between the two most populous nations in the world.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s visit to the Chinese capital is among the most significant official interactions since the deadly border clash in the Himalayas in 2020, which pushed relations to a breaking point.

India’s statement further noted that China had agreed to allow the resumption of pilgrimages to a revered shrine dedicated to the Hindu deity Krishna, a tradition that had been suspended since the start of the decade.

[-] FuckyWucky@hexbear.net 93 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

https://x.com/Sturgeons_Law/status/1884294162180362559

One of the criticism I see of Assads from pro-HTS clowns was that he "sold" Golan Heights to Israel. What is this then? Not even bothering with fighting for your territory.

[-] CascadeOfLight@hexbear.net 40 points 2 days ago

Whoa, that's crazy! I thought changing borders by military force was the absolute worst, most indefensible crime it was ever possible to commit! I thought it got you sanctioned and ejected from the international community, got your bank accounts frozen and your citizens shunned unless they disavow their home nation, got your leaders accused of megalomania, psychopathy, dementia, having brain cancer, etc. etc.

::: spoiler But I guess you're just allowed to do it after all! hypersus hypersus hypersus hypersus hypersus

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[-] Z_Poster365@hexbear.net 11 points 2 days ago

One of the criticism I see of Assads from pro-HTS clowns was that he "sold" Golan Heights to Israel.

This is made in purely bad faith. HTS are pro-Israel.

[-] bbnh69420@hexbear.net 59 points 2 days ago

Lmao at anyone who believed appeasing the Zionist entity would result in favorable treatment

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[-] vegeta1@hexbear.net 51 points 2 days ago

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/breaking-musk-takeover-of-federal-hr-office?ICID=ref_fark That the one country that can print money like its nothing still does this to itself is a testament to its greed

[-] MelaniaTrump@hexbear.net 34 points 2 days ago

Wired declined to publish the names of two of the people because of their age. One graduated from high school last summer.

"We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. [...] We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants."

I guess the top applicant was a big-brained Redditor.

[-] SoyViking@hexbear.net 60 points 2 days ago

Imperialist enforcer's feelings hurt after being subject of imperial coercion

The Speaker of the Denmark's rubber-stamp parliament, Søren Gade, felt a "wrench in the gut" when he heard Donald Trump's threats about wanting to take over Greenland.

He said this to Politiken.

Gade, who is a former head of the Liberal Party-controlled Ministry of Defence himself, finds it particularly unfortunate in light of Denmark's consistent support for American military violence across the globe.

"It hurts a bit when you have stood in the Pentagon and received praise for Denmark's efforts, the soldiers' efforts, and have been praised for punching above your weight, and whatever else has been said."

"The praise wasn't for me, it was for Denmark and our skilled soldiers. That's why I felt a little wrench in the gut when I heard it," he says.

When you dance with the devil, you don’t get to lead.

[-] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 17 points 2 days ago

All these motherfuckers think they're on the team

[-] anaesidemus@hexbear.net 21 points 2 days ago

Get boomeranged bucko pathetic

[-] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 72 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)
[-] Torenico@hexbear.net 29 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

why invest in expensive anti air defenses when you can just let the entire US Air Force disappear by itself by flying overpriced junk?

(do not follow my advice, do help the US in thinning out their F-35 fleet by investing in good and reliable AD systems)

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[-] Hohsia@hexbear.net 79 points 2 days ago

Really seems like Trump has no idea what the fuck he’s doing lmao

Reminds me of what my boss does when he’s trying to impress his boss

[-] Cunigulus@hexbear.net 57 points 2 days ago

There have been some details emerging about how he's running things, and TBF he's doing a lot more than he did when he entered in his first term. He's got a coterie of conservative think-tankers and lawyers calling the shots from outside the official bureaucracy. They're basically trying to sabotage the government as much as possible. He's turned it over to the craziest neoliberal ghouls and they're just trying to make as big a mess as they can.

I think this going to be the last gasp of neoliberalism because big capital is going to look at this fucking disaster and realize they need a different ideology to serve their interests. Or really the whole class will be forced into a series of ad-hoc interventions against this sabotage of the useful parts of the state, and create the perfect opening for a corporate democrat to step in to save them. Think FDR without all the labor-friendly populism.

[-] DefinitelyNotAPhone@hexbear.net 44 points 2 days ago

The problem is that there's no core bureaucracy capable of running an FDR-style state anymore, and everyone who would be lining up for the job are the same grifters and sycophants that have been running the show for the past 40 years. You can lean into neoliberalism real easily, but leaning back away from it requires rebuilding your entire state apparatus from scratch.

[-] Hexboare@hexbear.net 19 points 2 days ago

From industrial capital to finance capital, from finance capital to k-hole capital

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[-] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 90 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

One Republic became the first ever American band to perform on the CCTV New Year’s Gala (春晚), live from the Wuhan stage

Why? Because during Covid lockdown, frontman Ryan Tedder came out in support of Wuhan amidst waves of anti-China sentiment, livestreaming himself enjoying the Wuhan hot dry noodle, and promised that one day he would visit the city of Wuhan!

Wuhan hot dry noodle as imagined by Tedder using spaghetti noodles:

Wuhan (武汉) hot dry noodle tattoo:

He finally got his wish to perform in front of the entire nation today, straight from Wuhan itself!

Yes, this is news.

[-] VHS@hexbear.net 45 points 2 days ago

One (People's) Republic

[-] SamotsvetyVIA@hexbear.net 28 points 2 days ago

Because during Covid lockdown, frontman Ryan Tedder came out in support of Wuhan amidst waves of anti-China sentiment, livestreaming himself enjoying the Wuhan hot dry noodle, and promised that one day he would visit the city of Wuhan!

rockin in the free world

[-] bbnh69420@hexbear.net 41 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Counting Stars

  1. CPC
  2. Proletariat
  3. Peasants
  4. Petty bourgeoisie
  5. National bourgeoisie
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[-] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 52 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The Trouble With Tariffs: What You Think About Prices Matters to the Fed

When or whether the Fed resumes cuts rests in large part on the outlook for inflation which, in turn, could be shaped this year by whether Trump follows through on threats to raise tariffs. Last week, Trump said he was considering whether to impose higher duties on imports from Canada and Mexico by this Saturday.

Tariffs remain a key wild card for the Fed’s outlook because of concerns over how they could influence businesses’ and consumers’ expectations of future inflation.

I think this offers a key insight into why Trump is threatening tariffs on everyone. This is how the federal government can gain control over the Federal Reserve monetary policy. By forcing the market to anticipate inflation, the Fed is less likely to lower interest rates - Trump then controls the timing of rate cut by lowering the tariffs when he sees fit.

Most likely, Trump will use the interest rate as leverage in his negotiation with China. He’d said he would visit China in the first 100 days. As I have mentioned before, China desperately needs the Fed to lower the rate so they can refinance away their mounting local government debt. So this could be a very powerful leverage if used correctly.

[-] mkultrawide@hexbear.net 15 points 2 days ago

There's too many moving pieces for them to manage the fed through tarriffs. Consumer spending is already starting to cool, and if tariffs hit, companies are going to be a lot more willing now to pass it along than they were pre-pandemic, which is just going to cut spending further. That's without even considering how many US companies can afford the current interest rates given their capital structures, and what all of this will do to unemployment.

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[-] newmou@hexbear.net 70 points 2 days ago

Judge blocks Trump federal funding freeze on all public loans, grants and more aid

Well that was fast. I’m sure they saw this coming, what’s the play here? Get this to go up to the Supreme Court for them to validate executive dominion over legislative power for the future? Flood the system with over-the-top distractions for some percentage of that to be successful? Shooting the moon and intentionally failing in order to appease his base? Build a political mandate (illegal as it would be) for purging federal judges? Something else?

Seems like Trump knows that reaching the farthest he yet has and immediately getting shot down wouldn’t look good for him. But this is the obvious response, and yet it kind of feels like a trap. So what’s he thinking here

[-] Jabril@hexbear.net 55 points 2 days ago

Yes I think he is going to try to flood supreme Court with cases challenging every established rule possible knowing that at least some percentage is probably going to be overturned, since it's already been shown that SCOTUS is willing to side with him on a lot of things. Every success will make it that much easier to push other changes and put more of the state in private hands, and every failure will be another way to incite his base against the deepstate which is stopping Trump's glorious plan to save America.

I have seen a tendency among American leftists to think the bourgeoisie are inept but the thousands of lawyers and specialists they pay to design strategies are not inept. If they are inept we wouldn't be in this situation of living in a nation full of people who are happy to go against their own interest for the benefits of capitalists. They have spent billions over decades to do a lot of research on how to manipulate and control people and they use it incredibly well.

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[-] ziggurter@hexbear.net 56 points 2 days ago

Just a little (terminally?) online news to be aware of: Innuendo Studios is "back" after essentially a 4 year hiatus (gee, wonder why). Allegedly only to do a couple videos and then bow out of their online production entirely (🤞). Preaching to us for years about fascism and then coming back after saying not a word about 14 months of televised genocide in order to lecture us that we need to do something about Trump, and watch out for him insituting a Muslim registry.

I think it's just relevant to watch out for even baby leftists falling into the trap of joining this guy's fanclub and thinking he is a leftist. Beware in your broader social media and possibly even offline interactions for this dude's fandom. His preachy style makes people go absolutely gaga. Ugh.

[-] starkillerfish@hexbear.net 29 points 2 days ago

I think the biggest red flag is that his analysis of fascism is purely an analysis of rhetoric. And it got repetitive after a while since it all boiled down to "oh no the hypocrisy".

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[-] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 63 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Update on the deportation flights situation: The fourth deportation flight using a US military aircraft took place today, and to a different country than before. Flight RCH141, a C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft, left from El Paso, Texas; and landed in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The flight notably avoided Mexican airspace. Ecuador has become the lastest country to allow for the United States to conduct deportation flights using US military aircraft, and has given in to the US demands on this issue without any resistance.

So for a general overview of the situation, I'll break it down into four categories:

Countries that have allowed the United States to conduct deportation flights to them directly using US military aircraft without any resistance:

  • Guatemala
  • Ecuador

Countries that allow the United States to use their airspace to conduct deportations using US military aircraft to other countries, but have not accepted US military deportation flights themselves:

  • Costa Rica
  • Nicaragua
  • Honduras
  • Belize (on a return flight from Guatemala towards the United States)

Countries that put up resistance to deportation flights using US military aircraft, but appear to have given in to US demands on this issue according to the latest White House statement, though this remains to be seen:

  • Colombia

Countries that do not allow the United States to use their airspace for US military aircraft deportation flights and have not accepted US military aircraft deportation flights themselves, but do allow the United States to use their airspace for civilian aircraft deportation flights to other countries:

  • México.
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[-] Outdoor_Catgirl@hexbear.net 73 points 2 days ago
[-] JohnBrownsBussy2@hexbear.net 56 points 2 days ago

Well, it bans federal funds, but for many minors (and 18-year olds) yes.

Equally alarmingly, the EO instructs HHS to provide "evidence" to de-legitimize gender-affirming care, and as a whole the EO is laying the groundwork for trying to eliminate gender-affirming care for all Americans.

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[-] JohnBrownsBussy2@hexbear.net 71 points 2 days ago

Trump illegally fires NLRB and EEOC appointees: https://www.npr.org/2025/01/28/nx-s1-5277103/nlrb-trump-wilcox-abruzzo-democrats-labor

It really seems that the administration is going all in on unitary executive theory.

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[-] SoyViking@hexbear.net 34 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Danish Leader On Crisis Tour Of Europe Amid Trump-Greenland Crisis

Danish leader Mette Frederiksen spent Tuesday urgently touring European capitals to rally support against U.S. demands to annex Greenland, following threats from American supreme leader Donald Trump, who told reporters this Saturday that Danish refusal to hand over the island would be “a very unfriendly act.”

Meetings with German, French, and NATO leaders signalled common European support for border integrity. The French even offered to deploy troops to Greenland, although Denmark choose not to move forward with the idea.

Even as Frederiksen spoke worriedly of a new kind of relationship between the United States and Europe she regurgitated the American Trump regime's talking points about Russian and Chinese bogeymen in the Arctic and signaled plans to ramp up military spending closer to 5% of GDP to placate Washington.

This Sunday, in a similar display of unity, Frederiksen met with the leaders of Sweden, Norway and Finland in Copenhagen.

The diplomatic efforts are being extensively posted by the Danish regime's social media team with texts in both English and Danish, intended to quell criticism at home that the regime is not being firm enough in its response and to show international observers, especially in Washington, that Denmark is not alone.

The Danish regime is following a two-pronged approach of drumming up European solidarity to stand up to potential tariffs from Washington on one hand while groveling before their imperial overlords on the other hand, conceding to Washington's demands of exorbitant military spending in a hope that this will satiate the empire's hunger.

Despite showcasing European and Nordic unity, the crisis highlights Western Europe’s vulnerability due to overreliance on U.S. military and economic ties, underscoring the fragility of the European political elite's reliance on perpetual American benevolence.

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this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2025
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