Image is from this article, showing a march by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela Youth. The preamble's information came from a few sources, such as here, here, and here.
Over the last few weeks, pressure on Venezuela from the US has mounted as their newest proxy, Gonzalez, lost the election to Maduro. The Trump administration now alleges that Maduro is the mastermind behind the "Cartel of Suns," raised the bounty on Maduro's head from $25 million to $50 million, and is working to deploy troops and naval assets to the region.
While I would not consider myself an expert, I believe an explicit boots-on-the-ground campaign by the US in Venezuela would be, at best, implausible, though the administration has not explicitly denied it (and even if it did deny it, denials by the US are merely confirmations that are being delayed). What seems much more likely is an intensification of a subversive campaign against Venezuela which seeks to further isolate it, with intelligence from the US given to whatever groups and individuals exist inside the country. There are certainly some parallels in regard to recent US belligerence towards Mexico, with both countries being implicitly or explicitly threatened with military force under the guise of "preventing drug trafficking" - and, of course, spreading drugs is one of America's greatest specialities.
Will this work? I don't know, though I am optimistic about Venezuela's chances. The Venezuelan government does seem to be taking this threat with a refreshing degree of seriousness - with over 4 million militia members being activated across the country as of August 18th, as well as a call from Maduro to the armed forces to be on high alert. The socialist youth of Venezuela are being mobilized in defense of the revolution.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
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.
Tiniest hit of all time:
If Russia wanted to hit it they would use a missile and half the building would be gone. This is a couple broken windows and a little fire.
My money is on malfunctioning Ukrainian AD or random debris. Maybe a stray drone. Russia has shown zero interest in targeting Kiev government buildings so far.
If the Russians ever do change their mind on that policy, remember that Ukraine already tried to hit the Kremlin with drones. You don't get to cry about someone else doing the same to you.
It looks like it was started inside. Very little outside damage or a very percise
mobiltov cocktail.
Why does his palace look like a cheap "luxury" rental?
Lol, it doesn't and this isn't "his palace". This is a Stalin era government building. It doesn't belong to Zelensky, it's the cabinet of ministers building, it's not the presidential palace.
It's sad to see it damaged because it is a historical treasure built with the labor of the Soviet people, but it is equally sad to see it in the hands of a Nazi government.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Office_Building_(Kyiv)
built in the 30s on the foundations of a building from the 1870s, its classical, a palace for the people, I love this stuff
Stalin era architecture is just incredible.
Even later buildings in this style still look amazing. Everyone with an interest in architecture knows the most famous examples of this style in Moscow, the "Seven Sisters", and Kiev also has a bunch of it, but there are some cool ones outside of the former USSR too. Some of my favorites:
The Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland:
(Unfortunately they took away the Joseph Stalin part during destalinization, and tragically nowadays it's surrounded by some ugly modern skyscrapers...)
And Casa Scânteii, "House of the Spark", in Bucharest, Romania:
Named after one of the main newspapers in communist Romania, Scânteia, which was itself named after Lenin's famous Iskra publication.
(They ruined this one too of course, they removed the Lenin statue, renamed it to "House of the Free Press" and put a bunch of ads on it... 🤮)
Why are you puppy-guarding this thread? Are you the missile strike truther? Is this your thing?
Rethink your attitude please.
I don't understand what you're trying to say.
I'm just stating an opinion based on the available evidence and historical precedent.
Why are you speaking to someone like this, who is bringing insight to the news thread?
Oh no, they've hit the Führerbunker.
They should hit it again to show its not a one-off fluke
No they shouldn't, and i highly doubt that it was a deliberate strike.
There is very little military value in hitting it, and the government buildings in Kiev are historical architecture built by Soviet hands that needs to be liberated from the hands of these Nazis.
Russia seems to agree as they have so far been very careful to avoid damaging historical Russian architecture such as in Odessa and central Kiev.