Skip Navigation
news @hexbear.net
SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him] @hexbear.net

Bulletins and News Discussion from May 19th to May 25th, 2025 - The Beginning of the End of the Monroe Doctrine

Or perhaps the end of the beginning, if you're a little more pessimistic.

Image is from this Bloomberg article, from which I also gathered some of the information used in the preamble.

While Trump was off in the Middle East in an incompetent attempt to solve a geopolitical and humanitarian crisis, China has been doing something much more productive.

Chinese officials, including Xi Jinping, had a summit with CELAC (a community of 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries). There, he promised investment, various declarations of friendship, and visa-free entry for 30 days for citizens of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay. Lula signed over 30 agreements with China. Colombia is joining the New Development Bank and hopes to gain the money for a 120-kilometer railway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as an alternative route to the Panama Canal. Even Argentina, ruled by arch-libertarian and arch-dipshit (but I repeat myself) Milei, was uncharacteristically polite with China as he secured a currency swap renewal to shore up their international reserves.

It wouldn't really be correct to say that Latin America is "siding with China over the US" - leaders in the region will continue to make many deals with America for the foreseeable future, and even Trump's bizarre economic strongman routine won't make them break off economic and diplomatic relations. What's significant here is that despite increasing American pressure for those leaders to break off all ties with China, few appear to be listening - and given that China is perhaps the most important economy on the planet right now, that is a very predictable outcome.

As the current American empire takes actions to try and avoid their doom, those very actions only guarantee it. As Latin America grows ever more interconnected with China and continues to develop, America will grow ever more panicked and demanding, and this feedback loop will - eventually - result in the death of the Monroe Doctrine.

Last week's thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

792 comments

  • AI likely to cause rolling blackouts across USA

    With soaring summer temps ahead, AI data centers could strain electricity supplies in the Mid-Atlantic

    Forecasts for scorching temperatures across the Mid-Atlantic this summer could result in a higher-than-usual demand for electricity — at a time when federal regulators are warning that the margins between supply and demand are shrinking.

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s 2025 Summer Assessment of electricity reliability from June through September says while all areas of the country will have enough supply, regional electric grids could be stressed by rising temperatures and a demand that is expected to outpace the previous four summers.

    While FERC’s annual assessment anticipates an adequate supply of electricity under normal conditions, Chairman Mark Christie said the loss of available electricity is happening “at a pace that is not sustainable and we are not adding sufficient equivalent generation capacity.”

    The Mid-Atlantic grid operator PJM Interconnection, which coordinates the transmission of electricity for 67 million commercial and residential customers in all or parts of 13 states and Washington D.C., recently announced that while it expects to have enough supply to meet demand this summer, for the first time, its supply may fall short in an “extreme planning scenario.” The need for more than 166,000 megawatts of electricity would tip the balance, which is enough to power about 133 million homes.

    The biggest increase in demand comes from the enormous amount of energy required to power artificial intelligence and data centers, said Dave Souder, PJM Interconnection’s executive director of systems operations.

    “We’re seeing a lot of electrification and or data center loads, with all the AI and computer requirements,” Souder said. “We’re seeing less capacity. We’re seeing generators retire before we have enough replacement generation come online.”

    Souder said many of those retirements are coal plants. And while new solar and wind sources are increasing, they haven’t kept pace.

    Who could have seen this coming literally 20 years ago

  • Following the election that took place this Sunday, May 25 in Venezuela, the Venezuelan National Assembly will be composed of 82% of the Gran Polo Patriotico Simon Bolivar (Maduro's coalition) and 18% of the opposition. Chavismo achieve historic victory in Legislative and Regional Elections 2025 winning the governorship of 23 states out of 24.

  • Today is Resistance and Liberation Day in Lebanon, marking the 25th anniversary of the liberation of southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation by Hezbollah and allied forces, including the Amal Movement.

  • I find a bit funny this idea right-wingers have that if you boycott an election enough, that will mean the election will be invalid or something. But most South American Countries' Constitutions say that as long as someone voted, the election will be valid

  • So with China apparently experiencing the greatest surge in household consumption the world has ever seen over the last 1-2 decades and being the biggest consumer market in the world for most goods, already outperforming in per capita sales of goods any other remotely comperable in income level country, how much faster should consumption be growing for China to solve all those oh so terminal weak consumption problems? Should consumption have been growning at double the rate of gdp somehow? Should they, on a per capita basis, already be consuming near level of the average american somehow instead of idk 60% as much? Should they be eating more , buying more cars and smartphones? They are already the largest market by far of just about any product (cars, phones, appliances, furniture, luxury etc) so should they be that by multipliers of 2-3 or 5 already?

    Or should they aspire to spend similar amount of money on rent and healthcare on average to catch up ?After all Chinese household consumption numbers usualy come in at levels similar to retail sales, while household consumption in the US is ~2-3x retail sales. Thats because not only ar services (largely rent, healthcare and education) a much larger burden for the american and western consumer but they are also (mis)calculated completely differenty in the chinese national accounting system which is still of leninist origin leading to these numbers above been undercounts funnily enough for china, as are ultimetaly the usualy circulated very low numbers of consumption as a % of GDP. For that and other factors uniqe to China, apples-to-apples, China’s household consumption share is probably 50-55% of GDP, only a bit lower than world average.

    Even so ,Is the CPC neoliberaly holding down Chinese household consumption by having it grow only 2+ times as fast as any other country over the years instead of uhhh 4 times ? Where should and would those numbers in those graphs be if not for the missmanagement of Chinas consumer economy by the CPC? At 300% ? At what level should and chinese HH consumption be for it to become a "consumer country" or whatever ?

  • On an update to Russia's large scale air attacks on Ukraine, yesterday's attack was the largest of the entire war so far, 367 munitions used according to Ukraine, including 9 Iskander-M/Iskander-1000/KN-23 ballistic missiles, 55 Kh-101 and Kalibr subsonic cruise missiles (Kh-101 from Tu-95 and Tu-160 strategic bombers, Kalibr from ships in the Black Sea), 1 Kh-32/22 supersonic cruise missile from a Tu-22M3 bomber, 4 Kh-69 stealth cruise missiles from Su-57 stealth aircraft, and 298 Shahed/German type one way attack drones. The ballistic missile number appears to be an undercount in my view, there were at least 16 launches reported by Ukrainian air raid channels.

    Russia is continuing the attack for the third night in a row, there were over 100 Geran/Shahed one way attack drones simultaneously in Ukrainian airspace tonight at one point (currently 70), and 6 Tu-95M strategic bombers have carried out launch maneuvers for Kh-101 subsonic cruise missiles (unkown if simulated or real launches at this time). A lot of the Geran drones are heading towards the air base in Starokostyantyniv, which was suspected to be hit by an Iskander-1000 ballistic missile last night.

    The Kh-101 launches were real, multiple groups of them detected in Ukrainian airspace.

    The Kh-101s all targeted Starokostyantyniv air base, along with the majority of Geran drones. Now we'll see if any ballistic missiles are used to attack the same target. 5 impacts/explosions from the Kh-101s were reported. There were a total of 6 launched at the airbase, only one was shot down on it's way there.

    Ukrainian air raid monitoring telegram channel

    AMK mapping telegram channel, provides English translation of Ukrainian and Russian sources

  • Venezuela Elections Update: Good News!

    CNE press conference (finally!). The body's vice president Carlos Quintero reports, w/ 93% of stations tallied, a 42.6% turnout and a sweeping victory for the PSUV and allies: 82% of the votes. The remainder is split among the various opposition groupings.

    Quintero reported on the National Assembly seats that are already assigned, 34 for the PSUV+allies and 6 for opposition factions. The 24 governor races have been called, with the PSUV claiming 23 of them (Cojedes the lone exception)

    I guess the Venezuela Opposition boycotted it bc trump didn't give them enough money this time. Also the Anti-Maduro part of the PCV also boycotted it

  • I always see people asking why world leaders don’t speak up about Gaza, the Palestinian hostages, the WB, or the famine... The thing is, there is a leader who talks about all of that, and more, in great detail every single week. His name is Sayyed Abdulmalik Al-Houthi, the leader of Ansar Allah and the man leading Yemen’s fight against imperialism and Zionism.

    Y'all better start listening to him instead of complaining, and stop looking in the wrong place for guidance and support. Press TV dubs his speeches live each Thursday.

    (Tweet)

  • I spoke to some people working in executive positions for small to medium-sized Danish naval contractors recently. They told me that five years ago all the people from the industry were gathered by the navy for meetings on constructing new patrol ships. Many people drew large salaries for going to a lot of meetings. Nothing has been built yet. Now they're starting over from scratch, this time not just to build patrol ships but to build an entire new navy. Many people are drawing large salaries to go to a lot of meetings again.

    The regime wants to build the new navy domestically. However, and these executives were very aware of this, the capacity to build large ships doesn't exist in the west anymore. The large shipyards have all been closed down and converted to other uses and even though Denmark still has a capacity for maritime engineering, design and architecture, the skilled workers needed to actually build the ships are not there anymore. And even if they were, nobody would want to pay a couple of hundred of them the salaries they would have to. There's a reason why ship building was outsourced in the first place.

    The regime plans to get around this by letting a hundred subcontractors bloom, each building parts of the new ships in different locations. Then all the parts are going to be gathered in the harbour of Esbjerg and welded together there. The executives didn't think much of that idea. They thought that the way to get around having to employ 300 ship builders is to sprinkle the magic fairy dust of technology on the new naval shipyard, somehow using robotics and the line to reduce the number of workers to a hundred.

    I don't think their idea of robotic domestic shipyards is that much less delusional than the one-piece-at-the-time scheme imagined by the regime. As if Asian shipyards were not already using robotics where possible. Also, unlike the west, China and other Asian countries have an actual shipbuilding industry that can be leveraged to develop new fancy high-tech solutions, the west doesn't.

  • https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/05/21/748365/Israeli-forces-open-fire-on-diplomatic-delegation-visiting-Jenin-refugee-camp

    Israeli forces stationed at Jenin refugee camp have fired live ammunition at a diplomatic delegation as it was entering the camp to view the living conditions of the refugees.

    The diplomats that visited the camp on Wednesday were from Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, India, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Mexico Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Sri Lanka, Spain, Turkey, the EU, and the UK, along with representatives from several other countries and journalists accompanying them.

    The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates had organized the visit for the international community to witness the Israeli regime’s ongoing aggression against the Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank.

    The Ministry had arranged a similar visit to Tulkarem city and the refugee camp in the northern West Bank last week.

    WAFA news agency reported that the delegation wanted to enter the camp from the eastern gate, where the regime has installed an iron gate, when the soldiers fired live ammunition directly and heavily at the diplomats and their entourage.

    In a statement, the Ministry said, “This aggressive act constitutes a flagrant and serious violation of the provisions of international law and the most basic rules of diplomatic relations stipulated in the 1961 Vienna Convention, which guarantees protection and immunity for diplomatic missions and delegations.”

    After the incident, the delegation visited the Jenin Governorate headquarters and reviewed the situation in the camp and the city.

    The camp governor, Mohammed Jarrar, explained in detail the city's disastrous economic condition, the war's impact on its facilities, and the destruction of infrastructure.

    More importantly, he described the extremely inhumane circumstances under which 22,000 Palestinians have been forced to abandon their homes and live in the tyrannical conditions the Israeli regime has forced upon them.

    Later, the Ministry condemned the assault by the occupation forces on the diplomatic delegation invited by the Palestinian Authority.

    Since October 7, 2023, when the Israeli regime began its genocidal war against Gaza, the number of attacks by settlers and occupation forces on the Palestinians of the Occupied West Bank has increased dramatically.

    The Israeli regime has also killed at least 1,000 Palestinians and abducted 7,000 in the occupied West Bank.

    Israel's going to literally be firing on your fucking diplomats and you're still not going to back off from them. There's just absolutely no limit to anything they can do.

  • President Javier Milei has dissolved the Argentine government unit investigating the $LIBRA crypto scam, which he promoted in February.

    • Telegram

  • Russia just launched one of the largest large scale air attacks of the entire Ukraine war a few hours ago, after yesterday's attack involving 14 ballistic missiles (Iskander-M/KN-23) and 250 Geran/Shahed drones and decoys.

    Tonight's attack involved the use of 9 Tu-95M and 3 Tu-160 strategic bombers launching Kh-101 subsonic cruise missiles, Su-57 stealth aircraft launching Kh-69 stealth subsonic cruise missiles, ships in the black sea launching dozens of Kalibr cruise missiles, potentially dozens of Iskander M, Kn-23 and Iskander-1000 ground launched ballistic missiles, along with the usual Geran/Shahed drones and decoys. So a massive attack. No Kinzhal air launched ballistic missiles from MiG-31K aircraft, preliminary reports of long range ballistic missile strikes beyond the range of the usual Iskander M suggest that Iskander-1000 has taken up the role usually fulfilled by the Kinzhal.

    The air raid is still continuing, with Tu-22M3 bombers launching Kh-32/22 supersonic cruise missiles.

    There has been a large redeployment and repositioning of Russian Air Force and Ministry of Defence transport aircraft, flying away from Moscow during the Russian attack. Ukraine also launched a drone attack on Moscow, so it's likely to do with that.

    Amk mapping telegram, provides a good English translation of Russian and Ukrainian sources

  • Your average Twitter Deus vult tradcath will shit themselves to death when they learn about Pope Leo's maternal ancestry:
    https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/genealogists-trace-pope-leos-african-ancestry-to-new-orleans-and-haiti/3744882/

    "I looked into some of the birth certificates, death certificates, census records," Chicago-based genealogist Tony Burroughs said. “And sure enough, his ancestors were Black—listed as Black at some period.”

    Burroughs, who has spent decades researching African American genealogies, said the findings are both fascinating and not uncommon. "I was able to go back to the 1850s, and they were listed as mulattos in 1850, 1860, 1870. Then when you get to 1880, they were listed as white. When you get to 1900, they were listed as Black, and then after that, they were listed as white," he said.

    “While the Pope’s mother was born in 1911 up in Chicago, her six older sisters and her parents were all very much from New Orleans,” Honora said. “Them and their ancestors were fairly consistently listed as colored or mulatto or Black in census documents and in vital records.”

  • Ok maybe I'm speaking too soon but I kinda expected a bigger immediate fallout after the killing of the 2 zionist goons. We're hearing the expected condemnations from public officials, fascists yapping about rising antisemitism, but that's been it so far.

792 comments