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.
australia puts another target on its back, asks you don't look at the target
The Department of Defence has confirmed Australia provided support for the US strikes on underground bunkers used by Yemen's Houthi rebels "through access and overflight for US aircraft in northern Australia".
The ABC understands air-to-air refuelling aircraft were part of the mission, although the defence department has declined to confirm.
"We obviously are part of a global effort to make sure that terrorists are not able to interdict free trade, are not able also to threaten the lives of Australians or indeed Australia's interest around the world," he said.
"So of course we work with our allies and our partners to achieve that aim."
Mr Gosling said there are "no deliberate messages being sent from Australia, other than we are in lock-step with our allies in order to uphold a rules-based order upon which Australia's security and prosperity is so dependent".
In October 2022, Four Corners revealed that the US Air Force would build a "squadron operations facility" at RAAF Tindal air base, south of Darwin.
Two US B-2 bombers landed at Amberley Air Force Base near Brisbane in August, according to a post on X from an account calling itself the Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.
Whiteman is where the US Air Force bases its fleet of B-2 bombers, which is believed to number 19 operational warplanes, according to the New York Times.
then they wouldn't bomb them at all lol. i think this just indicates a rash and poorly planned operation because someone demanded bombing yemen in this way without giving any time to put the bombers in a better place beforehand. or that the rest of the air fleet closer to the theater are committed to watching/attacking Iran so they used pacific assets
I'm not sure I understand - bombing Yemen won't stop the blockade, but it has gotten other nations included in the blockade. The blockade will continue, but now Australia is "officially" part of the opposition to Yemen and Yemen will likely begin targeting any Australian connected ships within range.
Australia was already an active participant in the 'prosperity guardian' operation against yemen. it just isn't a big deal for them since most of their trade is in the pacific
I don't know about about airspace norms but flying from Australia lets them avoid overflying any other nations on the way to Yemen. It's straight shot across the Indian ocean.
on doing more reading, B2s very rarely are deployed outside Missouri and will often fly with several in flight refuels from there around the world, so in this case it was actually more normal unless they reactivate the bases in england or diego garcia that have hosted them before. i severely underestimated how tightly controlled they are.