Image is of Elon Musk giving the Nazi salute a week or so ago.

I didn’t really want to keep spotlighting American domestic events as I had assumed that shit would calm down pretty quickly, but it appears that the Trump administration, including Musk, are determined to bring down the empire from the inside.

One of the most important lessons of ruling a country - and especially an empire - is to never, ever believe your own propaganda; and yet now we have neo-Nazi failsons disrupting parts of the imperial apparatus and causing general government mayhem because they actually seem to believe in libertarianism; that the state and the capitalists are somehow in opposition, rather than working in lockstep to maximise profit and boost American hegemony around the world.

I’m not so optimistic as to believe that a national collapse is FOUR DAYS AWAY, like those weird anti-China cranks often speculate - the US has at least a decade or two left even under these conditions. But consider the damage being inflicted in these past couple weeks, and extrapolate that over the next four years. Does any living American political figure possess the competency to halt - or even meaningfully slow - the already ongoing decline? And could they achieve power (or even be allowed to do so) after Trump’s term is done?

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.

  • sempersigh [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    57·
    11 hours ago

    FT

    Donald Trump wants Ukrainian rare earths deal in return for US military support US proposal appears to align with President Zelenskyy’s strategy to keep Washington onside

    President Donald Trump on Monday said he wanted a deal granting the US access to Ukraine’s rare earths resources in exchange for continued military and economic aid to Kyiv as it struggles to halt Russia’s invasion. The proposal appears to align with a strategy Ukraine has been developing to deepen ties with the Trump administration by allowing the US access to critical minerals used in high-tech industries. Speaking at the White House, Trump reiterated complaints that Washington had provided more support to Ukraine than its European allies. “We’re looking to do a deal where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things,” he said of Ukraine. Trump suggested Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government was open to it. “We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars,” said Trump. “They have great rare earth. And I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it.” A person close to Zelenskyy told the Financial Times that Trump’s remarks “seem to align with the ‘victory plan’ presented to him in the fall”. The person said Ukraine had offered Trump “special terms” for co-operation on key resources, stressing the need to protect them from Russia and Iran. “Of course, we are ready to work with America,” the person added. Zelenskyy presented an outline of the plan to Trump in New York last September during the US election campaign. It includes the sharing of critical natural resources with western partners, replacing US troops in Europe with Ukrainian forces and offering Trump investment screening powers to block Chinese business interests in Ukraine. Kyiv holds vast reserves of titanium, iron ore and coal, as well as about 500,000 tonnes of untapped lithium, collectively estimated to be worth tens of trillions of dollars. Some of these resources are at risk of being lost to Russia’s advancing forces in Ukraine’s east, or have already fallen under Russian occupation. “Control over mineral resources has become a part of the war,” said Mustafa Nayyem, the former head of Ukraine’s state agency for restoration and infrastructure development. The country is not only fighting for its territory, he added, “but also for the right to manage its strategic wealth, which could be a crucial factor in its recovery”. Trump has vowed to bring a swift end to Russia’s war against Ukraine. He previously said his administration had held “very serious” talks with Russia over the war. “We made a lot of progress on Russia, Ukraine,” Trump said on Monday. “We’ll see what happens. We’re going to stop that ridiculous war.” While supportive of Trump’s enthusiasm to bring the three-year war to an end, the American leader’s suggestion that he had formulated part of a plan with Russia without Ukraine has irked leaders in Kyiv. Speaking to the Associated Press on Saturday, Zelenskyy said his team had engaged with Trump’s advisers and expected in-person meetings soon. “They may have their own relations, but talking about Ukraine without us — it is dangerous for everyone,” Zelenskyy said.