Image is from @Parsani@hexbear.net, who got it from @RNAi@hexbear.net, who got it from Discord.
Thread update: Prigozhin’s fucking dead.
The BRICS summit will begin on Tuesday and end on Thursday, with various world leaders, politicians, and representatives meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa.
America’s anxiety about the summit has been obvious. They have been complicating the event by pushing for the arrest warrant for Putin to be upheld if he steps foot in the country. While this is a remarkably dangerous and unhinged thing to do - even by America’s standards - to the leader of a nuclear superpower who could end the world within an hour, it does betray their desperation. Unfortunately, for those of us who wanted to see Putin surrounded by an army of security guards fending off people holding handcuffs, he has sent his Foreign Minister, Lavrov, in his place. Additionally, America has likely been spreading rumors about the lack of interest in gaining new members in the organization.
With apparently 20 countries formally seeking membership and another 20 informally doing so, the bloc has been elevated, whether they like it or not, to the position of the international vanguard of the non-western world. It is extremely important to say that this is not the same as it becoming an anti-American bloc, and many of them (including original members Brazil and India) wish to keep a friendly relationship with the United States. Nonetheless, with the United States’ policy of “if you are not with us, you are against us,” and as the US seeks to weaken China, in coming years many of them might find themselves under hostile pressure.
BRICS has to try and solve many problems if they are going to chip away at America’s stranglehold of the world economy. These problems - like mitigating the dollar’s status as a global reserve currency, and America’s dominant role in the world economy - are extremely complicated, and will takes years, even decades, to be overcome. Therefore, one should temper their expectations and excitement for this summit. It took tens of millions of deaths in cataclysmic wars, and then several more decades, for America to reach its current position. I see no reason to believe why its downfall will be any less bloody and elongated.
To end on a less depressing note, I’ve been searching for appropriate anagrams given the list of countries that seek to join BRICS. Obviously not all of them will make it in, but even so. The best I’ve come up with is HIBISCUS EMANCIPATES BBBBKKRVV.
(also, “bulletins and news discussion” can be rearranged to “libidinous newsstands uncles”.)
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
This week’s first update is here in the comments.
This week’s second update is here in the comments.
Links and Stuff
The bulletins site is down.
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can.
Resources For Understanding The War
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.
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.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
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
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.
Last week’s discussion post.
This item is of little consequence but it speaks to the sorry state of the western left:
The Red-Greens, the farthest left you can get in Danish parliamentary politics, has picked a new political leader as the previous leader is resigning due to term limits and maternity leave. The new leader is Pelle Dragsted and you can say lots of positive things about him, he’s well-spoken and clearly intelligent. In his youth he was a communist, he beat up Nazis, got arrested several times and was imprisoned for “vandalizing” a refugee detention center.
But then he grew older and softer and transformed into a “real politician”. He is seen as one of the chief architects behind the Red-Greens’ rightwards turn towards “being responsible” and “making compromises”. This includes turning the traditionally anti-militarist party from opponents of NATO and onto a “there’s no alternative to NATO and we’re too spineless to hold an unpopular opinion”-line. He is also so cucked that he’s publicly regretting his antifascist past
I was angry at capitalism, the police and the Nazis. I also took part in things I today think were stupid. It was an environment on which violence was accepted because you thought it was a kind of self defense against for instance the neo-nazis.
…
But as I was saying: I see things different today. I still want to change the world and make Denmark a fairer place but only with peaceful and democratic means.
In the press conference today he made the following statement that perfectly encapsulates how opportunism and ideological decay had turned the western left into a bunch of impotent reactionary succdems:
I love Denmark. I love the society and the form of society we have developed for the last century.
The good Vladimir Ilyich would have had him shot.
Sorry guys, it’s my first day working the S-300. Please forgive me 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Estonian PM Kaja Kallas urged to clarify husband’s Russian business ties
Opposition politicians seek resignation of Baltic leader, who had called on EU companies to refrain from trade with Moscow
Horde of chihuahuas barking at each other competing for the title of most loyal servant to their American masters
Lmao “Kajakas” gets IRL PPBd
Brazil’s Supreme Court rules that homophobia is now punishable by prison.
Hate speech is punishable by prison terms of 2 to 5 years in Brazil.
Another lula w
Russian opinions on various leaders of Russia/USSR throughout history:
Interesting notes for people that can’t read Cyrillic:
Peter the Great is clear number 1, Catherine the Great is 2nd.
Stalin comes in at 3rd place, with 65% having a positive view and only 20% having a negative view
Brezhnev is in 4th place, and Lenin is sadly in 6th place :(
Dead last is Yeltsin of course, and 2nd last is Gorbachev of course, with nearly 2/3 of the population openly hating them, once again confirming how much of a tragedy the dissolution of the USSR was
Alhamdullilah Gorbachev finally died lmao rip in piss bozo
Google translated:
The Cuban Ministry of Public Health received this Wednesday in Havana a donation of 26 tons of medicines, medical supplies and equipment for emergencies with funds from the Russian Federation , through the World Health Organization, as part of the technical cooperation of the Pan American Health Organization.
In the warehouses of the EMSUME Medical Supplies Trading Company, the official delivery ceremony was held with the presence of Mr. Sergei Obóznov, charge d’affaires of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Cuba, Dr. José Moya Medina, representative in Cuba from the Pan American Health Organization and Dr. José Armando Larronte, from the Ministry of Public Health.
The donation of four 40-foot containers includes broad-spectrum antibiotics, medications for diabetes mellitus and heart disease; analgesics, anti-inflammatory and antihypertensive.
It also contains expendable material, sutures, surgical sets, instruments, disinfectant solutions, syringes, and equipment such as stethoscopes, glucometers, and oximeters, among others.
“Without a doubt, the medical equipment that we deliver today will contribute to the health and well-being of the fraternal Cuban people. Given the current complex situation, Russia is always ready to extend its hand to its friends,” said Sergei Obóznov, during the delivery ceremony of the cargo.
According to the Ministry of Public Health, the supply will help provide necessary medical care to at least 10,000 people in different regions of the country.
Last year, Moscow delivered more than 80 tons of medicines and medical supplies to the largest of the Antilles.
Reading articles like this gives me a much clearer view as to why so many people support Russia in the current conflict. Since when has Ukraine, NATO, or the United States done anything but harm and deprive Cuba? Yet here Russia is sending literal tons of lifesaving medical equipment for free.
Russian truly based move.
