Image is sourced from this People’s Dispatch article, depicting communists attending the 2023 funeral of Communist Party President Guillermo Teillier, who was tortured for years under Pinochet’s regime and helped rebuild the Communist Party while under a fascist dictatorship.
We had the Six Day War in 1967, we had the Nineteen Day War (Yom Kippur) in 1973, and now we’ve had the Twelve Day War. I wonder how many more very short wars will plague the region until Palestine is freed?
However, moving on from Western Asia from a little while, we have some interesting news from Chile - the former labor minister and communist, Jeannette Jara, has won the primary election for the left-wing bloc in a landslide (~60% of the vote), as the current President, Gabriel Boric, is term-limited. Her achievements include a minimum wage increase and a reduction of the work week to 40 hours.
In November, Jara will face down the contenders from other parties, including José Antonio Kast, who is analogous to Brazil’s Bolsonaro. Unfortunately, Jara is now the lead figure of a party that has been taking quite a few Ls under Boric’s leadership. Ostensibly a Democratic Socialist, he ruled as - you guessed it - a neoliberal, bending the knee to the US and EU. He not only failed to overthrow the Pinochet-era constitution, he actually allowed the right-wing to turn the proposed new constitution into something worse, and had to settle for campaigning against the new one and keeping the old one. And he had very little solidarity with other left-leaning leaders on the continent, like Maduro, Lula, Petro, or Castillo.
With this in mind, I cannot help but look at Argentina’s very recent history and feel a little dread - but if anybody can save Chile at this point, it can only be a communist.
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.
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 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.
Protests against surging mass tourism in Mexico City end in vandalism, harassment of tourists AP
Tension had been mounting in the city since U.S. “digital nomads” flocked to Mexico City in 2020, many to escape coronavirus lockdowns in the U.S. or to take advantage of cheaper rent prices in the Latin American city.
Since then, rents have soared and locals have increasingly gotten pushed out of their neighborhoods, particularly areas like Condesa and Roma, lush areas packed with coffee shops and restaurants.
Michelle Castro, a 19-year-old college student, was among the flocks of people protesting. She said that she’s from the city’s working class city center, and that she’s watched slowly as apartment buildings have been turned into housing for tourists.
“Mexico City is going through a transformation,” she said. “There are a lot of foreigners, namely Americans, coming to live here. Many say it’s xenophobia, but it’s not. It’s just that so many foreigners come here, rents are skyrocketing because of Airbnb. Rents are so high that some people can’t even pay anymore.”
The Mexico City protest follows others in European cities like Barcelona, Madrid, Paris and Rome against mass tourism.
Interesting development. It used to be that developing countries want to attract as many foreigners as possible to stimulate the local economy with their strong currencies, now people are even fed up with American tourists.
Doesn’t look very welcoming for those who want to flee from Trump as well.
504,000 people attended the concert of ustashe nazi sympathiser Thompson in Zagreb, Croatia. 13% of the entire country.
‘Fantastic Four’ and ‘Nip/Tuck’ star Julian McMahon dead at 56. Actor Julian McMahon, one of the two leads of seminal FX television series “Nip/Tuck” who also played Dr. Doom in the “Fantastic Four” movies from the 2000s, has died. He was reportedly 56.
The news was confirmed by a statement on the official “Nip/Tuck” Facebook page, and an additional statement from his wife Kelly McMahon who told Deadline on Friday that her husband “died peacefully this week after a valiant effort to overcome cancer.”
McMahon starred opposite Dylan Walsh in the Ryan Murphy-created “Nip/Tuck” following two upscale plastic surgeons and their exploits. The series ran for six seasons between 2003 and 2010, and was nominated for 18 Primetime Emmys, winning one for best prosthetic makeup. Concurrently, he played Dr. Victor Von Doom in the “Fantastic Four” movies costarring Jessica Alba and Chris Evans from 2005 and 2007. (Dr. Doom is the villain soon to be portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. in the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday.”)
Some interesting stats on Zionist losses from the recent conflict that Tel Aviv started and lost versus Iran:
“The West diligently propagates how many Iranian scientists and officers were eliminated. The Israelis remain silent about their own losses. Iranian sources report the following: An Israeli security website had been hacked. Information about Israel’s losses was provided there as follows: 6 high-ranking generals; 32 Mossad agents; 78 Shin Bet (domestic intelligence) personnel; 27 naval officers; 198 air force officers; 462 soldiers. We have not been able to verify this information, but it does not seem implausible.”
[…]
“What’s more, Israel has been shot out: credible sources told us that the Israelis have practically run out of ammunition. In those 12 days of war, Israel used up as many defensive missiles as the US can produce in two years. So not only does the system not work as advertised, but its production capacity means that it cannot be used sustainably.”
https://sonar21.com/findings-on-an-illegal-war-that-the-west-enthusiastically-waged-and-lost/
Content created with artificial intelligence is in the public domain: SCJN (Mexico’s Supreme Court) Hexbear Post
The Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico (SCJN) has issued a groundbreaking ruling: works generated exclusively by artificial intelligence (AI) cannot be considered copyrightable in Mexico. Therefore, such content is considered public domain, as it is not human-made.
Chiefs in Alberta and Ontario are condemning the premiers of those provinces for asking the federal government not to reintroduce First Nations safe drinking water legislation. Hexbear Post
The head of the Chiefs of Ontario (COO) has blunt words for Ontario and Alberta, who this week called on the federal government to not reintroduce legislation that would mandate safe drinking water in First Nation communities.
“Ontario and Alberta’s opposition to Bill C-61 is not only disappointing, it is a direct attack on the rights, health, and safety of First Nations,” COO Regional Chief Abram Benedict told APTN News in a statement.
Tucker announced that his next interview is with THE PRESIDENT OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Elon Musk Forms a New Political Party to Challenge Trump and the Republicans
Say what you will about
but at least when he has an idea, he goes all out even if its the dumbest idea ever conceivedToday is Algerian independence day. Photos are from July 5, 1962. Over a million Algerians were killed by the french during the war of national liberation from french settler colonialism.
May the french and all the colonialist powers continue to be humiliated. May Allah protect the honorable and steadfast people of Algeria.
Supporters of banned Palestine Action group arrested at London protest
“Officers have arrested more than 20 people on suspicion of offences under the Terrorism Act 2000. They have been taken into custody. Palestine Action is a proscribed group and officers will act where criminal offences are committed,” the Metropolitan Police wrote on X on Saturday.
Apparently there are some rumors that soldiers from Laos will go to Kursk to help with demining. Obviously they have a lot of experience with that…
The source is “Ukrainian intelligence”, so take with a huge grain of salt. I almost wonder if there was some telephone game situation, because “Laos” is used as a euphemism by Russians when discussing failures of their military.
To Understand the Economy, This Fed President Is Ditching His Desk WSJ
When the conversation turned to inflation, the Richmond Fed president extracted an uncomfortably honest answer about how President Trump’s tariffs have some firms thinking about their power to raise prices.
“You can probably appreciate this from your McKinsey background: We’re raising prices where we can,” said Jim Datin, a Chapel Hill-based life-sciences executive and partner at a private-equity firm.
And what convinced Datin his company still had pricing power, Barkin asked, when conventional wisdom said it had evaporated?
“Some of it’s opportunistic with the supply chain right now,” Datin offered.
“In other words, tariffs,” Barkin said, translating the corporate-speak. Then the management consultant-turned-central banker cut to the chase: Are those price increases for tariff-related costs or are his businesses using “tariff noise” as “air cover to raise prices”?
“It’s both,” said Datin. “And I feel a little guilty saying that.” A regional banker chimed in: Some of his customers were reporting the same thing.
It’s this kind of candor that is keeping Barkin on edge—businesses raising prices not because they have to, but because they think they can get away with it. For Fed officials who fought hard to bring inflation down, such admissions make them uneasy.
There you have it, folks. Tariffs are not inherently inflationary, especially since the US runs on a free-floating exchange rate system.
The price hikes come from businesses thinking they can get away with it, not because they have to.
Bold of them to admit it.
US won 2-1 over Guatemala. We have truly become Guatepeor.
Suprised to not see anyone’s thought’s on the BBB passing.
NetPol, a policing watchdog network that provides legal support to protesters, has received reports that even clothing with “Free Palestine” is being interpreted by some cops as a “potential breach of the proscription order”.
This isnt surprising to anyone here, but it goes without saying that the cops were never going to treat this order the same way they would fascists. It would be like telling someone with a union jack tshirt that they may be showing support for Nation Front!
These cops are obviously lying or misinformed of the law. Anything they do will absolutely not hold up to decent scrutiny by a judge - it is intimidation or stupidity. Even in the hellworld of TERF island.
I think the “official” guidance (even from cool orgs like NetPol) will essentially amount to hiding slogans, following police orders, and avoiding arrest where possible. I personally disagree, and believe we need to challenge cops on this when and where possible.
If you dont use your limited civil liberties to question the authority of the police to intimidate/repress anyone outside the strictest definition of “support for Palestine Action and its cause” we will essentially be obeying in advance for the ultimate goal of total illegalisation of Palestinian existence.
