Bulletins and News Discussion from October 14th to October 20th, 2024 - Paper Tigers
Bulletins and News Discussion from October 14th to October 20th, 2024 - Paper Tigers
Image is a frame taken from this video of Iranian missiles raining down on Israel without interception due to a weak and depleted air defense system after a year of war and genocide.
Mao, 1956:
Now U.S. imperialism is quite powerful, but in reality it isn't. It is very weak politically because it is divorced from the masses of the people and is disliked by everybody and by the American people too. In appearance it is very powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of, it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain. I believe the United States is nothing but a paper tiger.
When we say U.S. imperialism is a paper tiger, we are speaking in terms of strategy. Regarding it as a whole, we must despise it. But regarding each part, we must take it seriously. It has claws and fangs. We have to destroy it piecemeal. For instance, if it has ten fangs, knock off one the first time, and there will be nine left, knock off another, and there will be eight left. When all the fangs are gone, it will still have claws. If we deal with it step by step and in earnest, we will certainly succeed in the end.
Strategically, we must utterly despise U.S. imperialism. Tactically, we must take it seriously. In struggling against it, we must take each battle, each encounter, seriously. At present, the United States is powerful, but when looked at in a broader perspective, as a whole and from a long-term viewpoint, it has no popular support, its policies are disliked by the people, because it oppresses and exploits them. For this reason, the tiger is doomed. Therefore, it is nothing to be afraid of and can be despised. But today the United States still has strength, turning out more than 100 million tons of steel a year and hitting out everywhere. That is why we must continue to wage struggles against it, fight it with all our might and wrest one position after another from it. And that takes time.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
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.
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Dozens of soon-to-be-retired Australian Abrams tanks will be sent to Ukraine under a $245 million military support package.
[...]
More than a year after Kyiv first expressed interest in the aging M1A1 fleet, and months after Australia rejected a request to donate its grounded Taipan helicopters, the Albanese government has confirmed it will now gift 49 of the American-made tanks.
The Taipan helicopters that kept crashing lol
"One of the unique elements of the Australian tanks is that they're in reasonably good working order. The fact the Ukrainians already have some M1A1s in theatre from the allies suggests there's a good logistics chain there as well as some training," he told the ABC.
yeah because they don't get used. As long as the government keeps buying american tanks right? The article mentions they had to get permission to send them to ukraine too. sovereign borders and social cohesion, oh yeah.
And then there's this tidbit:
"We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine in their fight against Russia's illegal invasion," Mr Conroy.
fascinating stuff, let me just quickly google the honourable ministers press releases:
Further humanitarian assistance to Occupied Palestinian Territories and the region
Joint media release with:
Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs
16 January 2024
Australia will provide an additional $21.5 million in humanitarian assistance to the Middle East, including in response to the urgent and ongoing humanitarian needs resulting from the Hamas-Israel conflict.
wow look at those numbers! You wont believe me if I tell you that measly amount went directly to NGOs, wow!
here's more recent one
Humanitarian Assistance to Lebanon
Joint media release with:
Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs 28 September 2024
Australia will provide $2 million in humanitarian assistance to support civilians in Lebanon, impacted by the escalation of conflict.
protip: don't look at the news before bed 🤢
Another one about ukraine from may confirms the aus govt has provided over 1billion aud this year. Maybe I'll still be mad in the morning and I'll make a graph.
"One of the unique elements of the Australian tanks is that they're in reasonably good working order
Just how unique is that compared to other tanks in ukraine?
The tanks being given from Europe were often in extremely bad condition, I don't have an article at hand but they were having to be renovated to get them mobile. They were basically abandoned hulks that had been scavenged for parts and left to rust.
A couple of months ago or so there was a story about a "donation" of Danish tanks to Kiev. The tanks had been decommissioned back in the noughties and since then they had been sitting in what sounds like a glorified junkyard in Germany. Even after they had been "refurbished" the Kiev regime refused to accept most of them due to their condition.
The empire is strong! If you sacrifice your nation for them they will give you their cast-off trash. Ready to kill an entire generation for the glory of the west, Taiwan??
Only 1 generation? Sounds like a bargain. usa is pushing ukraine to start conscripting 18 year olds
Grading on a curve, most of the tanks in Ukraine have been returned to nature, so I guess these are good
Does Ukraine not realize or just not care that they're being fleeced. How do you pay hundreds of millions of dollars for something somebody had to pull out of storage with a big sign that says "scrap metal" on it and not get pissed.
That's a problem for Future Ukraine, that shortsided bastard. Current Ukraine doesn't need to worry about that stuff, they've got a war to lose right now.
These arent even junk, australia is just obligated to buy even more tanks they wont use from uncle sam
The article mentions they had to get permission to send them to ukraine too. sovereign borders and social cohesion, oh yeah.
If you’re interested in learning more about this, it’s mandated under the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) (NATOpedia link), specifically the “Restrictions on retransfer” subsection.
Thank you!
More than a year after Kyiv first expressed interest in the aging M1A1 fleet, and months after Australia rejected a request to donate its grounded Taipan helicopters, the Albanese government has confirmed it will now gift 49 of the American-made tanks.
I can never not make a joke in my head about Albanian Australia.
How have I never thought of this?