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.
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.
"the empathy I expressed was counterfeit and a cynical deception"
IT WAS A DEBATE! 😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣 IT WAS A DEBATE!🤣🤣🤣😂 IT WAS A DEBATE, THE WHOLE REASON- LITERALLY IT WAS A DEBATE 😂😂😂😂 IT WAS CALLED A DEBATE, 😂 AND WE WOULD TRAVEL TO THE DEBATE, 😂 AND THERE WERE JOURNALISTS THERE COVERING THE DEBATE, 🤣 WHERE THERE WOULD BE A DEBATE 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
she believes in nothing except her own advancement
"Vice President Himmler's advisers say the empathy he has expressed for the Chinese should not be confused with any willingness to break from German foreign policy toward Japan as a candidate for chancellor."
This is the shit that's driving me mad, they're not even pretending anymore. No "Well Israel has a right to defend itself from terrorists." They are openly stating they do not care. "Yeah they're getting killed, we will continue to support the people killing them." Literal fucking "We see you, we hear you".
Fuck Kamala and anyone who supports her for any reason.
That's the thing that's so maddening about liberals. They want to do all the evil shit the fash wants to but they also want you the teacher to give them a gold star and you to love them for being off so good and nice and progressive.
At least the fash is more honest about being assholes.
Up until now, I have said that Harris/Biden and Trump are equally bad for Palestine, there is no harm reduction option. But ngl, I am now starting to wonder if that’s actually true anymore and Harris might actually be worse. She is able to make a statement like this - “just so you know, I REALLY love Israel, make sure everyone knows just how much I love them and what they do” - in the face of a very unambiguous genocide; and she clearly feels she needs to prove how “tough” she is. Trump might use worse language but I don’t know, I could almost see him getting squeamish at this level of horror, idk.
With Trump presiding over the genocide there would at least be an incentive for western liberals to oppose it for purely partisan and performative reasons. Like how some of them claimed to be sad about the kids in cages or even paid lip service to Black Lives Matter.
Democrats can dress atrocity in just enough respectability to placate libs. Sure, there are terrible things happening in the world, but the Leader is so sad about it, so it must be that the terrible things are unavoidable and therefore everything is as okay as they can possibly be.
Trump, enacting the same policies but also revelling in their cruelly would make steam come out of a lib's ears.