There's way too much going on right now for me to really focus on any one country this week. The aftermath of the fall of the Nepal government has, somewhat surprisingly, reverberated around the world, and not only in countries that are enemies to the West as you'd expect; for example, Morocco's government battle fiercely with Egypt's and Jordan's to be first in line to lick the dogshit off the boots of Zionists, and yet Morocco is currently embroiled in a large protest wave based primarily around a youth unemployment crisis (though their population is also remarkably pro-Palestinian, which generates additional friction). We're also seeing similar protests in Madagascar, Peru, and Paraguay, and perhaps more will come. I'm personally fairly doubtful in the potential for meaningful economic results from these protests (the current imperialist system seems too deeply embedded for a movement that isn't explicitly communist and anti-imperialist to alter conditions), but it is quite possible for new political results at least.
Outside of the developing world, it appears that the unpopularity of western leaders, such as in the UK, France, and Italy, is creating new levels of unrest. In Britain, the political system has become so utterly moribund that even the artificial democracy of a two-party system (more-or-less; the Lib Dems do exist I suppose) no longer suffices, with both Conservatives and Labour gradually sinking. The Reform party appears like it may become the new standard-bearer of the capitalists and petit-bourgeois - that is, the historical wellspring of fascism - and the Left Party (whatever name they eventually choose) may or may not rise to meet the occasion. In France, they're on their fifth Prime Minister in two years, after Lecornu lasted about a month, attempting the liberal classic: promising change, and then appointing the exact same people who have ruled for the last few decades. And pro-Palestinian protests and general strikes have erupted in Italy, in defiance of their rightwing government under Meloni.
While there's plenty of other events (e.g. continuing aggression against Venezuela that might soon erupt into a war) it would be remise of me not to mention the very much ongoing events vis-a-vis Palestine and a potential peace deal there, seemingly supported to some degree by Trump. It could be legitimate, and it could be some big act (very likely the latter, IMO). Both Trump and Netanyahu seem to believe that they're very talented political masterminds, producing manoeuvres and feints that would make Machiavelli blush. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I trust the militant organizations inside Palestine to outplay these American failsons. Hamas and similar groups are not nearly as gullible as the Iranian reformist faction - though few people are!
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.
The Zionist Entity'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.
performing directly for a state event, paid for by the crown, is a bit different than just existing and working inside the US. The comparison would be if a non-American comedian came to the USA and did a Republican Party event paid for by Trump.
Monarchy rules in SA, capital rules in USA, performing in a private venue in the US isnt that different to me
the laugh factory didn't cut people apart with bonesaws in a basement of an embassy
Maybe it did, I wasn't watching them all day.
It however spread propaganda that ultimately justified the murder of millions of people. Wich is much worse.
some random comedy club in the US did that? Damn
Magoobys Joke House was hired as a part of the PR campaign which spread the rumor that Iraq was pulling babies out of incubators in Kuwait
Ok and did Bill Burr perform at Magooby's Joke House?
Like we're painting with so wide of brushes here with the collective punishment that i don't even know what we're discussing anymore.
Bill Burr is Magooby himself
I disavow
Bill Burr has repeatedly been in US TV hasn't he? This whitewashes the image of the propaganda manufacturing apparatus of the worst empire of the century.
Should we just ban comedy then?
Would you accept a comedian performing in "Israeli" public TV or an "Israeli" venue?
Should people just isolate from life in America and become recluses? I don't get this
No, but yanks shouldn't have any expectations from mainstream art production stemming from the empire
Analyzing 900+ films + TV from 1896–2000 90%+ of Arab/Muslim characters were depicted as terrorists, bombers, or violent extremists. Even in non-political films.
USA is directly tied to these film industries which dehumanize people like me everyday so where is the outrage?
To be noted the muslim coding since the 50s upwards was significantly based on Palestinian resistance fighters, especially in the 70-90s due to western allies of the Palestinian cause doing adventurism.
Of course its pretty obvious why that was the case.
Palestine Good ,West Bad
Yes
🫡
Racism that is terrible but seems completely non-sequitor to the topic at hand. These are comedians that perform stand-up or on podcasts. Not film producers, writers, directors, etc.
Its imperialism that is being used to justify the racism. USA is the empire that is currently cucking the world. Not SA who are their lapdog.
Pretty sure most people in those industry in position of power are zionist.
Saudi arabia is literally bombing and trying to enforce their puppet regime on yemen, they also do cultural imperialism with their variant of islam, which erases other indigenous forms of faith expression Muslim or otherwise.
They can get screwed along with the yanks.
And they wouldn't be able to do any of that without the support of the US.
Can you link the research?
https://z-library.sk/book/2550098/dc743a/reel-bad-arabs-how-hollywood-vilifies-a-people.html
No lib: confirmed
This is exactly it. If the comedy festival were merely taking place in Saudi Arabia, organized by an independent event production company, then there wouldn’t be the same reaction. The problem that comedy fans are seeing is that the festival is being directly orchestrated and funded by and for the Saudi royal family. Further, the Saudis are paying disproportionately large sums to the comedians because this is first and foremost a blatant PR exercise. They’re not just booking comedians, they’re buying compliance. That is a qualitatively different thing from these comedians merely taking money to do a festival.
I’m neither defending nor criticizing the comedians on any moral level, just supporting your thesis. The backlash is about the specific individuals involved, and the motivations behind this festival. It’s not weird that a lot of people are fine with American comedians doing comedy within the normal parameters of the comedy industry, but take issue when those comedians take suspiciously large checks to do PR for the Saudi royal family. One could argue that there isn’t much difference between taking Saudi money vs getting paid by the comedy ecosystem more broadly (I would disagree, fwiw), but even so, that simply isn’t the issue here, and we’re all smart enough to understand why people would see the difference.
Point being, this isn’t about whether Saudi Arabia is more problematic than the US. Everyone responding as if that’s the issue is either intentionally or unintentionally misunderstanding the situation.
Or if they've done a USO tour, which a lot of them have done.
Eh - pretty sure Bill making some Saudis chuckle is less problematic than the labor I exert keeping businesses afloat in the US.
Bill is paying taxes in the US though, so he is cancelled.
Yeah you are right there’s no moral difference between an American janitor that pays taxes on their income and a PR campaign for the Saudi royal family.
Like what are we talking about here people lmao
Not sure why you are willing to exclude the empire itself just to heckle its allies.
you seem to be having trouble distinguishing between the concepts of the governments and the population of the nation