Bulletins and News Discussion from January 13th to January 19th, 2025 - From Mar-A-Lago to Nuuk - COTW: Denmark (including Greenland)
Bulletins and News Discussion from January 13th to January 19th, 2025 - From Mar-A-Lago to Nuuk - COTW: Denmark (including Greenland)
The imperial core is continuing the process of self-cannibalization as the interimperial wars between Europe and the US over resource and territorial control continue. Greenland, populated with less than a hundred thousand heavily exploited people, is the newest territory to fall under Trump's gaze. The main draw is the mineral resources present there, of which it boasts nickel, copper, cobalt, and platinum, and much more than remains unexplored under the ice. But the ice is melting, and profit must be made. There is an additional element of wanting Arctic territory to counter Chinese and especially Russian interests and aims; Russia is increasingly eyeing the northern Arctic route as an alternative to more vulnerable routes through the Suez Canal or around Africa, and is investing heavily in icebreakers for that purpose.
However, even if Europe possessed the desire to resist American annexations - and they absolutely do not, at the end of the day - they do not even have the ability. Denmark may, to a lesser or greater extent, make angry sounds and talk about national honour or some such, but their military would be trampled underfoot by even the New York Police Department, let alone a concerted military effort by the US. If Trump wants Greenland, he will have it. This will naturally increase the grumbling in Europe about reconsidering the Transatlantic alliance, and that grumbling may, in the medium-term future, as the American Empire continues its decline, lead to meaningful results. But in the short term, Europe shall have to bear whatever Trump throws at them, for they obviously cannot now ally with Russia, who was the natural counterweight to American interests for decades before 2022.
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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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Hey news nerds, I'm disappearing for a longer period now due to travel and certain life things that need to be addressed. I'll of course pop in here if something funny or cool happens, but expect a very light posting schedule until spring at least. Before I go, I need help on a few things from you nerds:
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My kid is starting to be fascinated by screens and I feel that we're quickly approaching the cartoon age. I don't want him to watch any brainrot-inducing fascist Cocomelon or make the same mistake that my dad did by accidentally making young kid me watch the American bombing of Iraq on Al Jazeera, so please recommend any communist cartoons for kids.
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Is there any good books on the Arabs of Latin America and West Africa? I've been quite fascinated recently about random Arabs in Latin America and all those Lebanese families in West Africa.
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Another book-question. Any good books about connections between sports and politics? I recently read Angels with Dirty Faces about Argentinian football and politics which was pretty good. I would love some recommendations of similar books.
Idk any communist cartoons, but the vibe I get from all my comrades and other friends with kids is that Bluey is the best mainstream cartoon right now. It’s no Paw Patrol fascist propaganda
whoa dont be dissin Paw patrol like that. Paw patrol is about helping people, teamwork. The mayor and leader of the paw patrol is a black lesbian. The villain is literally a capitalist caricature.
The mayor and leader of the paw patrol is a black lesbian.
No paw patrol is about the privatization of the police, fire department and rescue services.
And all that merchandising.
I don’t have kids or watch their cartoons. All I know is it’s about cops that are dogs.
Aren't there firefighters and medics as well?. And Ryder is exploiting them all for clout (allegedly).
The only actually communist cartoon I’m aware of is Squirrel and Hedgehog out of the DPRK; never actually seen it myself.
But as a parent who is hopefully raising little commies, my current favorite show for them is Elinor Wonders Why (originally in English but maybe there’s Arabic dubs?). The characters just sort of observe the world around them, notice interesting things, then develop hypotheses and test them out. It’s not exactly dialectical materialism but it does feel kinda close to that.
Soyuzmultfilm (the soviet cartoon studio) has their stuff free on YouTube. I would recommend check it out. I’m not sure if any of it is dubbed however.
- Bluey I guess
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- Inverting the Pyramid, a bit more football than politics, but there is some intersection
The original Digimon series is available in Arabic and is a great show+teaches the power of teamwork, collaboration and shows other kids going through different and difficult struggles within their lives that they overcome
- There is this book about the lebanese in México but its on spanish
https://ru.iis.sociales.unam.mx/bitstream/IIS/6045/2/libaneses_hechos_imaginario.pdf
Saw Soccer in Sun and Shadow recced in lefty spaces years ago. iirc it has a few stray brainworms about "totalitarian regimes"/Mao/Stalin (don't remember what it was exactly) but it's a light and enjoyable read overall.
(doesn't go deep into politics but does talk a lot about historical context)
Karl Marx anime
If you can ignore the bits of monarchist stuff like princesses "my little pony: make your mark" is about different types of pony that have lived in closed off ethnostates for a long time working through their internal biases and coming together to defeat a supremacist villain through collaboration.
Multiple times I've been pleasantly surprised by small interactions in the show that certainly help with emotional maturity.
Example: One character was imprisoned as a servant of the main villain in earlier seasons. During a very important moment this character tells the leader "i can't do it." The leader pony begins a motivational talk about how they believe in the other but it's interrupted by "no i can't face her again"
The leader immediately says "you don't have to" and finds a task that's still helpful but doesn't trigger their trauma. This one moment put the cherry on top for me that I approve of this show for my kid.
Edit: it's on Netflix which is why i felt the need to justify it so hard
Masha and the bear is a very funny cartoon
It's basically Russian brainrot please no
If you want Russian cartoons then the old Smeshariki is kind of good. New ones suck ass.
Oh I was thinking of grizzly and lemmings. It's another bear and little critters show so I got them confused. I think grizz is Canadian made (Quebec maybe?)
Star Trek Prodigy is both made for children and is a legitimately good Star Trek show
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