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

Bulletins and News Discussion from January 27th to February 2nd, 2025 - Tariffs in Trump's Imperium - COTW: Colombia

Image is of Colombian President Gustavo Petro giving a speech at the UN in 2022.

Trump has arrived in office with the force of an avalanche; ending slowing a genocide on the one hand, while simultaneously promising a total nightmare for minorities and the poor throughout and outside the United States on the other hand. [edited for clarity; I do not actually think Trump has ended the Palestinian genocide obviously, I was making a joke - but the ceasefire is a genuine improvement in conditions for millions of people right now who are on the edge of death, so it cannot be dismissed]

It's still far too early to truly compare and contrast his imperial strategy with Biden's, but initial signs show that there does appear to be somewhat of a reorientation. Biden was famous for being two-faced; ostensibly offering aid and stability, while also blowing up your pipeline to ensure you did not actually have an alternative to his idea. Trump, meanwhile, seems only really capable of aggression, threatening several "allied" nations with what may as well be sanctions because of the economic harm they'd do. I suspect we'll be debating for a long time how much of this can be attributed to the specific characteristics of Trump, or whether he merely embodies the zeitgeist of imperial decline - a wounded empire lashing out with extreme violence to try and convince everybody, including themselves, that they can still be the world imperialist hegemon.

I'll admit it: I did not believe that Trump would actually try and go ahead with putting tariffs on basically anybody who annoys him. And while the threat could still be empty in regards to countries like China and Canada, Colombia is the first indication of the potential of his strategy. Despite some fiery words from President Petro, after Trump's administration revealed the punishment if Colombia did not agree, it appears that Colombia will in fact be accepting deported migrants after all. It's funny how that works.

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

Please check out the HexAtlas!

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

1.1K comments

  • The worst guy you know, Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, made a good point:

    "Most governments don’t want USAID funds flowing into their countries because they understand where much of that money actually ends up.

    While marketed as support for development, democracy, and human rights, the majority of these funds are funneled into opposition groups, NGOs with political agendas, and destabilizing movements.

    At best, maybe 10% of the money reaches real projects that help people in need (there are such cases), but the rest is used to fuel dissent, finance protests, and undermine administrations that refuse to align with the globalist agenda.

    Cutting this so-called aid isn’t just beneficial for the United States; it’s also a big win for the rest of the world."

    He posted this along with that meme of that guy standing up.

    I guess USAID was backing anti-bukele guys in El Salvador or something, I imagine he could've gotten rid of that by sucking up to trump but maybe he's just happy to be rid of that all together.

    Now that I think about it I guess the cuban government has less annoyances to deal with since a lot of USAID money must've gone into astroturfing shit on the island

  • Sheinbaum orders tariffs against the USA in response to Trump; "categorically" rejects criminal alliances

    Sheinbaum ordered the Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, to implement tariff and non-tariff measures for defenders of Mexican interests, after the United States imposed widespread tariffs on Mexican products.

    The President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, said this Wednesday that she does not believe that this week US President Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on the country and its neighbor Canada will come true.

    President Claudia Sheinbaum ordered Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard to implement tariff and non-tariff measures to defend Mexico's interests, after the United States imposed widespread tariffs on Mexican products.

    The president also "categorically rejected the White House's slander against the Government of Mexico of having alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any interventionist intention in our territory," responding to Washington's statement that Mexican drug trafficking organizations have a "intolerable alliance" with the Government of Mexico.

  • What’s with all the “price of eggs” jokes I see from American liberals? They’re all over any Trump-related news articles. Somehow I missed this being a sticking point or culture war issue if it ever was one to begin with.

  • Canada has announced 25% tariffs on $155 billion in U.S. goods in response to President Trump's 25% tariff on Canadian exports. This includes immediate tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods. Additionally, Trudeau stated that Canada is exploring 'non-tariff measures' related to minerals, energy, and partnerships with the U.S., and encouraged Canadians to buy local products and spend holidays within the country.

    • Telegram

  • ‘Make Argentina Gay Again’: Argentines hold anti-fascist pride march

    (Clever use of the MAGA slogan)

    The queer community’s call to march against Javier Milei’s Davos speech received international support

    Argentines hit the streets on Saturday afternoon for the Federal Anti-Racist and Anti-Fascist Pride March. Rivers of demonstrators clutching rainbow fans, waving smoke flares, and dancing on protest trucks flowed through the streets of Buenos Aires, Tucumán, and more than 100 other towns and cities countrywide and major cities across the world.

    The protest was spearheaded by the country’s LGBTQIA+ community, but it was explicitly intersectional, encompassing marginalized groups from all walks of life. The march was a response to President Javier Milei’s speech at the 2025 World Economic Forum, in which he equated queer people with child abuse, claiming that femicide put women’s lives over men’s and accusing migrants in Europe of crime.

    Micaela Pérez, from La Matanza, is an activist with travesti-trans activist group, Las Históricas. (Unlike its direct English translation, the Argentine word travesti is a gender identity worn with pride.) Pérez survived the dictatorship and has fought for LGBTQIA rights, despite being jailed several times. She recalled that the travesti-trans community was long denied access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, and equitable access to jobs. Now, she believes, the queer community will consider seeking support from international rights institutions, if necessary.

    “This is an anti-rights, homophobic state that is playing cheap politics with our laws,” she said. “We are living memory. That’s why we’ll go out [to march] as much as we have to.”

    ‘Nunca Musk’

    Milei’s statements were just the latest in a series of comments that senior figures in Milei’s La Libertad Avanza government have made against the rights of women, queer people, immigrants, and other groups. He spoke just days after U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Milei attended the ceremony, at which Trump likewise made comments against trans people, migrants, and other marginalized groups.

    Many signs at the protest rejected — or poked fun at — Trump and Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X and Tesla who is now heading up Trump’s newly-created Department of Government Efficiency. Trump allies have indicated that he drew inspiration in part from Milei’s austerity agenda. Milei, for his part, vociferously defended Musk in an X post after he was accused of performing two consecutive Nazi salutes on inauguration day.

    Some people wore pink baseball caps that read “Make Argentina Gay Again,” a slogan that was scrawled on banners and posters dotted throughout the procession. One sign, written in the font of the important post-dictatorship rights report Nunca Más (Never Again), read Nunca Musk (Never Musk).

    Carola Escolar, a queer English teacher at the University of Buenos Aires, marched with her union. “There were a lot of people in our union’s group,” she said. “The anti-fascist, anti-racist and LGBTQA+ cause really moves people […] It gives you energy to see people react. When you hear the president’s comments at Davos, they don’t just stay at home.” Protester Ale Bravío voiced concern that undoing progress in Argentina could have a ripple effect across the region. “Argentina has always been a beacon of LGBTQ+ rights, since the Equal Marriage law and the gender identity law,” she said. “We can’t go back 15, 25 years, because that means paving the way for other governments to take protections away from their people.”

    Demonstrations took place throughout Argentina and several other countries, including Mexico, Spain, Italy, the UK, and the Netherlands. In Buenos Aires, demonstrators were scheduled to march from Congress to Plaza de Mayo at 4 p.m. — but started to gather shortly after midday. In Tucumán, a huge march began in Plaza Urquiza. At around 7 p.m., demonstrators marched towards Plaza Independencia, where the Governor’s House is located, led by leaders of the local queer community, as well as social leaders and left-wing activists. There were chants against Milei, comparing him to the dictatorship, as well as Governor Osvaldo Jaldo, a Peronist politician who has been cooperative with Milei since he took office.

    An assembly that ballooned

    “I hope this march will be a celebration, a collective cry against fascism, and a turning point to push back against this political project that is trying to exterminate us because life is at risk, but we are alive, organized, and ready to defend it,” said Alejandra Rodríguez, a transfeminist activist of the Buenos Aires City LGBTQIA+ Antifascist Assembly, ahead of the march. The protest was decided by popular vote a week earlier at an open anti-fascist LGBTQIA+ assembly in Parque Lezama. Assemblies held simultaneously across the country put their own February 1 protests on the calendar.

    Rodríguez told the Herald organizers were surprised by the magnitude of the response, explaining that it started with a small meeting of friends and activists in Parque Lezama on the day of Milei’s speech and quickly ballooned to thousands in the same spot just two days later. “There were health workers, students, scientists, sex workers, artists, teachers, retirees, workers of memory and human rights sites, a whole range of struggles and conflicts that said ‘Enough, Milei!’” she said.

    “The fight for our anti-fascist and anti-racist LGBTQIA+ pride march is also for society as a whole, this march that has the support and participation of a huge breadth of affected social sectors.” Speakers at the assembly emphasized intersectionality and called for a broad coalition to combat fascism. Many groups and human rights organizations had, in turn, shown support for Saturday’s march.

    “We call on people to hit the streets to condemn this government that starves, represses, offends, lays off, indebts and hands over sovereignty,” said the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in a communiqué. “To defend our jobs, salaries, freedom, and the right to food, health, and free sexual orientation.” Author and activist Marlene Wayar urged people to attend in an interview on radio station Futurock: “This is the time to be anti-fascist and go. Go! Ultimately, all these little speeches will be lost and will be summarized in an aerial photo that tells the world: where is Argentina going? Towards fascist sh*t or not? This is the time for antifascist pride.”

    I unfortunately was unable to attend to this protest. None of my friends called me and I was left pretty much alone and going alone to a protest sucks and is also dangerous, plus I work on saturdays which sucks. Lots of people showed up despite the terrible weather, nevertheless the unrelenting heat will not stop the anti-fascists.

    death to milei and death to "israel" too.

  • So Al-Qassam Brigades is the armed wing of Hamas and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is the armed wing of Fatah? I keep mixing up the two for some reason.

  • Rabbi Yoel Alter, a prominent leader of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish cult 'Lev Tahor' ('Pure Heart' in Hebrew) was arrested in Guatemala following an operation led by Interpol The 35 year old Jewish cult leader was apprehended after an official request for extradition was submitted by Mexico, where he faces human trafficking charges.

    Founded in Israel in 1988, the Jewish 'Lev Tahor' cult has been under scrutiny for serious crimes, including child abuse, human trafficking, and forced marriages of minors. In December 2024, Guatemalan authorities rescued 160 children and 40 women from the clutches of this evil cult.

    • Telegram

  • Pentagon decides to restrict access to journalists from Politico, The New York Times and NBC News, forcing them to vacate spaces in the press committee inside the building. Spaces are to be given to the New York Post, OANN, Breitbart and Huffington Post, which are considered more conservative outlets.

    • Telegram

  • Update on the deportation flights situation: Perú becomes another country to accept US military deportation flights, military deportation flights continue to Honduras, México still holding out, no updates on any other nations involved.

    There were two US military deportation flights that took place since the last update, and these are the 7th and 8th total. Flights RCH116 and RCH686 both flew from Harlingen, Texas, United States; to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. RCH116 then proceeded to return home to Harlingen, United States; while RCH686 continued on from San Pedro Sula, Honduras; to Lima, Perú; before returning to the United States. This (RCH686) becomes the first US military deportation flight to Perú and the first two legged flight outside of US airspace. All flights continued to avoid México's airspace.

  • The University of Michigan has suspended a pro-Palestinian group for 2 years

    Boycott University of Michigan. They have a Huge college football presense. Blue and Gold.

    Let it be known the University of Michgan is a ZIONAZI fascist organization that atands with genocide, aparthied, racism and bigotry. They used false anti semitism to shield their own fascist involvement and behavior.

    Do not enroll. Do not watch their games. Do not buy their merch or themed merch.

    Idk how to get a recall going but perhaps we can recall the board members and regents who are highly paid gifting zionazis. They are a public institution. They should be held accountable.

  • A small plane crashed near the Roosevelt shopping center in Philadelphia. The aircraft was a Learjet 55, used for medical transportation, and had taken off from Philadelphia bound for Missouri. About 30 seconds after take-off, it lost lift and crashed.

    Witnesses reported that the plane was already on fire before the collision, resulting in a large explosion. Mayor Cherelle Parker confirmed that emergency crews were immediately called to contain the fire and search for possible survivors. The exact number of victims has not yet been officially confirmed. The US Federal Aviation Administration reported that there were two people on board, while other sources indicate that there were six occupants: four crew members, a pediatric patient and a companion.

    • Telegram

  • So I "get" that Trump wants tariffs on Mexico and China for "productive" reasons (even though they'll do more harm than good), but why Canada though? Apart from a stupid ass poltical struggle between Trump and Canada and the evil Trudeauite Communists, is Canada invading the US market with cheap products or something?

    Death to "israel" btw

  • President Nicolas Maduro receives Donald Trump's special envoy, Richard Grenell, and raises “zero agenda” with the U.S. Trump envoy Ric Grenell is returning to the US with six US nationals who were in prison in Venezuela. More details on their identities as we find out government.

    First reactions are out. The Venezuelan government issued a statement reporting on today's meeting with Trump envoy Ric Grenell. Caracas reports that the topics included migration, sanctions, US citizens currently detained in Venezuela and the need to revamp relations

    It's Edmundover ALREADY?

  • President Nicolas Maduro receives President Donald Trump's special envoy and presents Agenda Zero, which allows for the opening of a new chapter in the bilateral relations and the defense of the inalienable rights and interests of Venezuela.

    • Kawsachuan News

  • The military government of Myanmar is losing to the Rebel Groups, and badly. https://www.voanews.com/a/myanmar-s-rebels-closing-in-around-junta-into-fifth-year-of-civil-war-/7958145.html

    somethings really afoot though, news about myanmar from western outlets and channels have suddenly all remembered myanmar exists and written quite a lot about them in the last few days. Its suspicious, it could be capitalists trying to signal their want for US involvement in the civil war. It could also be a targeted propaganda campaign already pre planned in order to make sure people are clued into the conflict.

    I think this seems to be another Assad situation. The Military government is pretty unpopular domestically and is losing quite a bit of ground. I would be surprised if they lasted to 2027. Supplied by both Russia and China, theyve been able to keep some flow of weapons, but are suffering a lot from manpower issues. Conscription has been enacted, but conscripts are a poor replacement for trained soldiers. According to reports, they only hold about 21% of the land and are losing lots of territory. They also have extended their emergency rule for another 6 months, throwing doubt on the ability to follow through with their 2025 election. They've lost large amounts of territory, thousands of soldiers, and 2 regional commands. They're not dead yet though, as they have some ability to retake some territory and win some battles, but again 21%. Rebels currently are making steady progress towards the second largest city in the country.

    while I don't like the rebels, they are western aligned, they have popular support and are allied to many of Myanmar's ethnic minority defence groups. Im wondering who really has the power in this situation though, since many of the gains seem to be made by the Ethnic armies, not the NUG. This revolutionary energy could be fueled to establish a socialist federation, but won't, and the popular revolutionary energy is fueled toward the NUG. It'll probably be another pro-west bourgeoisie democracy. It will probably then turn against the ethnic rebels and we'll end up basically where myanmar was pre coup. Probably will have a strong military influence on politics as well, since the rebel forces seem to be made up of officers and very little political groups. By then, people will be extremely tired of war and more likely to accept any conflict resolution than another civil war. In the midst of "It Happened" stands a stronger, unmovable "nothing ever happens". Would be neat if the Communist Party of Burma could somehow come out on top, but they have only around 1000 soldiers and don't control a large amount of territory.

    China's interests in the region are still secure, but siding with the Junta is a bad idea, one I understand though. China doesn't want a western aligned power to take over a china aligned state, and is trying to make sure their economic investments in the area are protected and their mineral income is continued. They have deep ties with many Ethnic Minority states, especially on their border, and the NUG forces, mostly again to protect infrastructure investments and keep the minerals flowing. They might flip back to the NUG as the Junta starts collapsing over the next year or so, especially since the new US administration seems to be really cutting back on foreign aid. The General in charge of the rebel government forces complained quite a bit about how much aid ukraine got and how much he wanted that aid. He was basically begging for anti aircraft systems "like in ukraine" lol. China could definitely swoop in and back the rebels, which while hurting their reputation, is probably the best move long term. China's only interest is to keep Myanmar from being pro-west, keep control of Myanmar's mineral flow, and protect other investments in the area.

  • Italy has blocked the Chinese chatbot DeepSeek, Reuters reports. DeepSeek is blocked in the Apple and Google app stores.

    The blocking comes after local authorities decided to investigate how exactly DeepSeek uses users' personal data. The regulator is demanding explanations about what data is collected, for what purpose and whether it is stored in China.

    Companies linked to DeepSeek have until February 17 to respond to the Italian watchdog's requests. If found to be in breach of privacy laws, the chatbot could face significant fines or restrictions.

    ChatGPT also collects data and sends to Sam Altman and Elon Musk.

  • Hebrew media reports that IDF soldiers came under gunfire in Quneitra, Syria. A newly formed Islamic Resistance group (possibly Iran-backed) has taken responsibility for the attack on IDF forces in Quneitra, Syria

    The group, calling itself the 'Islamic Resistance Front in Syria', likely consisting of Syrian Shiites, uploaded the following statement: 'The clashes between the resistance fighters and the enemy forces that penetrated the village of 'Tarnajah' in the northern Quneitra countryside have stopped, and they withdrew from the area under supportive fire cover and reconnaissance aircraft. The resistance fighters withdrew to their positions safely and victoriously with the help and grace of God.'

    ALMA, an Israeli military think tank, seems to agree that the group is, in fact, real. It was likely formed as an armed off-shoot of the SSNP and other former Syrian government loyalists, in addition to Syrian Shia Muslims.

    • Telegram
1097 comments