A week ago, the Bolivian left-wing party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), currently led by Luis Arce, decisively lost the round of elections against the right-wing. This comes after a prolonged period of "infighting" between Arce, and Morales, who previously led the MAS prior to the 2019 coup which briefly installed Jeanine Anez.
I put infighting in quotes because despite the nominal similarities between Arce and Morales, it is clear that this is not merely a counterproductive battle between two men - instead, the Bolivian left has arrived at a time of unavoidable conflict between two competing strategies. The electoral strategy is represented by Arce, who has aligned himself with a more middle-class-oriented campaign that is more economically liberal, whereas Morales represents a more working-class-oriented campaign that seeks to go further than tepid reform.
Such a conflict between electoralism and revolutionary action is inevitable in any and every developing country that 1) possesses a functioning left-wing party or organization, and 2) is under internal and/or external pressure by capitalists. This crisis must be resolved eventually - and this electoral failure is how such a crisis is manifesting right now. So while the Bolivian left has indeed lost the election, it is not yet defeated. The revolutionary campaign can, if it is willing, still ultimately stand triumphant. But what must be done is a real movement towards socialism, which goes beyond technocrats reforming from above, and instead transforms the state into a full political project of the working class, in which their movements, organizations, and protests are genuinely empowered. Such a project will involve repression by the forces of reaction, not least by the United States, but it is the only road left to take.
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Israel'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 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.
https://archive.ph/kfBAA
By 2050 the USAF will be doing calculations on how many F-35s they would need to brute force a tail chase against a J-36 or J-50 like how the PLAAF in the late 90s/early 00s was deducing they would need 8 J-8s to take down 1 F-22 by having the first 7 make it exhaust its missiles and the last survivor using its higher top speed to hit it as it returns to rearm.
the PLA's gonna have Armored Cores by 2050
The F-22 can carry ordinance certified for release at Mach 2.5, like the GBU-39 SDB. Highly doubt that a stretched MiG 21 could manage that. The F-22 can also super cruise, flying without afterburner, at Mach 1.7+.
Isn't this, from what we can tell right now, a "stealth Tu-22 concept" in essence. A fast bomber designed to hold US carrier strike groups at risk with high speed long range anti ship missiles. The pictures released of the prototype show side by side seating with two visible HUDs, and a massive aircraft the size of a B-21. Sure China could put air to air missiles on it to make it an all round aircraft, but that's something the US is also talking about.
That's more interesting as far as a 5.5/6th gen fighter concept goes, visible Electro Optical Targeting System similar to the F-35 and the latest J-20 variants and J-35, 2D stealthy thrust vectoring nozzles similar to the F-22, single seat and tailless/flying wing design, and movable control surfaces on the wingtips. In many ways it looks like a tailless F-22 rebuilt with more modern technologies that weren't available during the 1990s.
Well no one knew the actual top speed at the time, and the J-8 could hit Mach 2+ and if the F-22 needs to turn around it needs to bleed a lot of speed. The main point was if you can't hit them with semact R-27s cause of the stealth you can at least try to get close enough for IR missiles to work on the exhaust.
I don't want to speculate anything on the new sixth gen aircraft at this point which is why I included both as an example. Allegedly there's a third private design also being explored?
With regards to the third aircraft, some people state that it's an unmanned aerial vehicle with no cockpit. Do you have any clear photos of it?
That's what I've heard too, likely a ucav meant to be used alongside a manned fighter, but again all speculation. Anything I've been able to find on it has been blurry phone pics so you've likely seen them already.
Ahh damn. Maybe we'll see it at the upcoming military parade.
Got any links to where I can read about that?
Nope, fully anecdotal and I doubt the pla would publish it. I actually first heard about this from an uncle who was an AA gunner in the PLA, but stumbled on it again on some niche defense forum years ago so someone must have spread it.