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Bulletins and News Discussion from February 3rd to February 9th, 2025 - Fuhrer Failsons

Image is of Elon Musk giving the Nazi salute a week or so ago.

I didn't really want to keep spotlighting American domestic events as I had assumed that shit would calm down pretty quickly, but it appears that the Trump administration, including Musk, are determined to bring down the empire from the inside.

One of the most important lessons of ruling a country - and especially an empire - is to never, ever believe your own propaganda; and yet now we have neo-Nazi failsons disrupting parts of the imperial apparatus and causing general government mayhem because they actually seem to believe in libertarianism; that the state and the capitalists are somehow in opposition, rather than working in lockstep to maximise profit and boost American hegemony around the world.

I'm not so optimistic as to believe that a national collapse is FOUR DAYS AWAY, like those weird anti-China cranks often speculate - the US has at least a decade or two left even under these conditions. But consider the damage being inflicted in these past couple weeks, and extrapolate that over the next four years. Does any living American political figure possess the competency to halt - or even meaningfully slow - the already ongoing decline? And could they achieve power (or even be allowed to do so) after Trump's term is done?

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

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1.1K comments

  • Assalamu Aleykum to the good people of Hexbearistan. Finally back from my Iraq trip with my wife and the kid. Absolute top tier travel destination, would recommend for sure if you're thinking about doing a lil Middle East trip one day. Here are some little notes on the trip:

    • Flew from my city to Istanbul, spent a few miserable hours in Istanbul's expensive ass airport, then flew to Baghdad. My kid was surprisingly chill during almost the whole trip, no extended periods of crying or anything. The plane from Istanbul to Baghdad was filled with non-Arab foreigners, which was quite surprising honestly. Lots of Chinese people for some reason, which usually leads to new schools and ports spawning in any country that the Chinese visit.
    • Baghdad Airport is functional but quite rundown. I went in with my Lebanese passport which technically needs a paid visa on arrival, but the guy on the counter waived the fee for me and just said welcome. My wife's uncle was waiting for us outside and we were on the highways of Baghdad after a few kisses and hugs. The first few kilometers must be a shock for every new visitor to Baghdad, as it is filled with posters of Qassem Soleimani, Yahya Sinwar and Hassan Nasrallah. Iraq is still a very anti-imperialist country, you will finds flags of Yemen, Palestine and Lebanon in every corner. I thought it was super cool that one could find posters of the Houthis on billboards and shops selling Hezbollah memorabilia.
    • Baghdad as a city has recovered well from the American invasion and occupation. New roads and bridges spawning everywhere, barely any armed military presence, new and shiny malls and restaurants everywhere, massive international schools and it's just alive in a way that only Beirut can reach. The biggest problem is the traffic congestion, which the new Baghdad Metro project hopefully solves in a few years. The trash situation is also annoying, Baghdad is a quite dirty city, the people are as responsible as the government there honestly.
    • The food was fucking amazing, but I've gained a few extra kilos from all the fatty foods. Some of the new restaurants are insanely good, and white people will never understand the appeal of a nice proper cafe with hot tea, diabetes-inducing sweets and hookah. Internet was decent, but this website barely loaded without a VPN for some reason. I paid around $10 for a week of unlimited 4G data.
    • Made a quick one-day trip to Erbil, capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan. Took a smooth four hour drive there and crossing the inofficial "border" was pretty straightforward. Very beautiful city with great markets and more good food. Lots of new exciting construction projects in Erbil and it's cleaner than Baghdad, but same traffic issues. It's a good intro city for someone that wants an authentic Middle Eastern city, but not too "complicated", nor too artificial like the Gulf cities.
    • Finished the trip with a Shia Islam religious pilgrimage megatour with my wife's family. We started in Baghdad and visited the Shrine of Imam Musa bin Jafar Al Kazim, then we drove around two hours to Karbala and visited the Shrine of Imam Hussain and Imam Abbas, then another hour to Najaf and visited the shrine of the greatest Muslim to ever live, Imam Ali bin Abu Talib. Was a great trip even if I'm not really the strongest believer out there. The shrines were magnificent, definitely something I'd recommend to everyone here.
    • Overall summary is that Iraq is worth visiting, especially if you want to give your tourist dollars to a country that 100% doesn't use them to murder Palestinians or buy American senators. It will be a culture shock for sure, but Baghdad is a nice and historic city, with the added bonus of having top tier food. I'll upload some pics if I figure out how to do it in a non-doxxing manner.

  • Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says that the freezing of USAID funds has plunged entire NGOs, media outlets and journalism (🤣) around the world into chaos. They readily pronounce that much of the world's “journalism” is paid for by Washington's dollars.

    “In Ukraine, 9 out of 10 media outlets rely on USAID funding” USAID programs funds US interest media in more than 30 countries The agency funds at least 6,200 journalists, 707 “news outlets” and 279 media-sector “civil society organizations”. Any sovereign country has already prohibited this.

    The best part is that RSF's director came out, pearls clutched, to say that the foreign aid industry IS in fact very much in line with U.S. interests.

  • It’s so fucking funny that the cia is being declawed and yet trump is posturing to project American imperialism simultaneously like they are so fucking stupid and lost. It’s like they have the instincts of the Israeli right but imagine if the Israeli right decided the mossad was bad but for incoherent reasons and fucked it over leading to them fucking themselves over

  • Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei: 'Negotiations with the United States are useless, and will not benefit the country in any way' In his speech today, the Supreme Leader once again emphasized that negotiating with the U.S. is not of any benefit to the Iranian nation:

    "For some time now, you have been hearing, in newspapers, in cyberspace, and in the words of various people, that there is discussion about negotiations with America. They mention the word 'negotiation', saying, 'Sir, negotiation is a good thing,' as if someone is opposed to the goodness of negotiation. Today, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is one of the busiest foreign ministries globally. That is its job, after all. It negotiates with countries around the world — Eastern, Western, all kinds — it travels back and forth, speaks, and signs agreements."

    "The exception that exists is America. Of course, I do not mention the Zionist regime because it is not a real country. The Zionist regime is a gang of criminals who came and occupied a land and are committing crimes. That is not a subject of discussion. The exception is America. Why is it an exception? What is the reason? Negotiating with America has no effect on solving the country's problems. We must understand this. They should not make it seem as if sitting at the table with that government will solve this or that problem. No, not at all."

    "No problem is solved through negotiations with America. The reason? Experience. In the 2010's, we sat down and negotiated with America for about two years. A treaty was formed with them (JCPOA). Our government sat down and negotiated. They went, came, sat, stood, negotiated, talked, laughed, shook hands, became friends — they did everything. A treaty was formed. In this treaty, the Iranian side was very generous. It gave many concessions to the other side. But the Americans did not implement the treaty."

    "The very person who is now in office [Trump] tore up this treaty. He said, 'I will tear it up,' and he did. Even before he came, those with whom this treaty was signed did not implement it. The treaty was meant to lift U.S. sanctions. The U.S. sanctions were not lifted at all. We should learn from this experience. We gave concessions, we negotiated, we compromised, but we did not achieve any result. That is what happened. Even this treaty, with all the concessions we gave, was still undermined, violated, and torn apart by the other side."

    "Negotiating with such a government should not be done. Negotiation with them is neither wise, nor intelligent, nor honorable. We must solve our problems internally, not relying on outside factors. As for the Americans, they comment on us, they talk, they express their opinions, they issue threats. If they threaten us, we will threaten them. If they carry out their threat, we will carry out our threat as well. If they violate the security of our nation, we will undoubtedly violate their security as well. This is our duty.'"

  • CIA sends ‘buyout’ offers to entire workforce

    The Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday became the first major national security agency to offer so-called buyouts to its entire workforce, a CIA spokesperson and two other sources familiar with the offer said, part of President Donald Trump’s broad effort to shrink the federal government and shape it to his agenda.

    Trump and his allies have claimed at different points that intelligence officers at the CIA have been part of a “deep state” determined to undermine him, and some critics have described the deferred resignation program as a purge – something Trump officials have denied. Some national security officials in Trump’s orbit believe that the CIA in recent years has become too heavily weighted towards analysis at the expense of clandestinely collecting intelligence and carrying out covert operations – functions of the agency’s much smaller Directorate of Operations. Ratcliffe during his confirmation hearing vowed to reinvest in both. “To the brave CIA officers listening all around the world, if all of this sounds like what you signed up for, then buckle up and get ready to make a difference,” he said in his opening statement. “If it doesn’t, then it’s time to find a new line of work.”

    Every day a frightening new development of fascism, but also every day, more of the empire apparatus getting hollowed out. I wonder where the critical point is for this to collapse and reform into a new state.

  • A spokesperson for Netanyahu’s party just tried to defend the plan to deport Gazans to Jordan and Egypt by comparing it to the establishment of the state of Israel after WW2. Literally comparing themselves to the Nazis

    Was on BBC NewsHour so no link

  • Cows Have Been Infected With a Second Form of Bird Flu (NYT)

    Dairy cows in Nevada have been infected with a new form of bird flu that is distinct from the version that has been spreading through herds over the last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Wednesday.

    The finding indicates that the virus, known as H5N1, has spilled from birds into cows at least twice — leading to these two sets of infections — and that it could continue to do so. It also suggests that the virus may pose a persistent risk to cows and to the people who work closely with them.

    Before last year, scientists did not know that cows were susceptible to this type of influenza.

    “This is not what anyone wanted to see,” said Louise Moncla, an evolutionary biologist who studies avian influenza at the University of Pennsylvania. “We need to now consider the possibility that cows are more broadly susceptible to these viruses than we initially thought.”

  • I don't want to get all "muh constitution" but if the president can just unilaterally decide to eliminate federal departments there really isn't a constitution at that point is there? Like that's so far out of bounds of what's legal in any way. Looks like it's just going to happen?

    I also don't understand any of the reporting or statements regarding being denied access to the buildings either. Every report I have read (and I have gone intentionally searching for this) has said that they were told no. It does not specify who told them no, the democrats are not specifying who is telling them no. The closest I have been able to find is an article The Hill saying the dems were stopped by "security forces". WHO ARE THOSE PEOPLE? Is anyone going to ask who the fuck they are working for or under whose authority? What answer could they possibly give you that would be acceptable to pack up and leave?

    If I drop you off at a gas station and 20 seconds later you came back and said "they said no." I would be like "who said no? What did they say? And you just keep repeating "they said no" I would get actually pissed at you! Yet that's what were getting for some reason?

    There was this story in the guardian

    • “They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: ‘Get out of my way,’ and they’re looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,” said Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa official who is now a fellow at the University of New Hampshire. “They will have access to the entire computer system, a lot of which is confidential information.”

    What is even going on here?!?! If you walked into where I work and were like "hey were taking over?" I would be like "who the fuck are you? what the hell is going on?". Even if I don't give a shit about my job I'm not just going to leave my post because some goofball told me to. Could I actually just walk into any federal building and say I'm with doge and they just let me in? Because that's legitimately what it feels like here!

    So we have people we know nothing about, closing down federal office buildings, locking everyone out and nobody cares who is doing that? Do they have names? Are they security for the agency? Who gave them the orders? Are they just random people? I feel like these are kind of important questions that are being completely glossed over!

  • Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, said that cocaine is no worse than whiskey, “it's just illegal”. Petro also said that the illegality of Cocaine only exists because it is “a product of Latin America” and that US drugs, such as fentanyl, are not subject to the same ban.

    • Telegram

  • Half a billion dollars in USAID funding was allocated for coup efforts in Venezuela in 2017-2019, much of which filled the pockets of the Guaido opposition and other fraudsters, including NGOs. Through money laundering operations like NGO, Venezuelan opposition figures working with Guaido have been able to purchase high-end condominiums in Madrid, Miami and Bogotá, in cooperation with Colombian paramilitaries.

  • Gotta give Trump some credit now, his dumbass instincts seem to have accidentally stopped any chance for Saudi-Israel normalisation. Official Saudi media sources are absolutely livid after the latest comments by Trump and Satanyahu and are weirdly enough using resistance-like lingo in describing the Israeli state, which I haven't seen in a more than a decade now. It would be so funny if Trump manages to unite the Arab position just by being an imbecile like always.

  • Is capital falling back to the ethnic nation, nationalism and colonial acquisition (greenland, canada, panama) because pinkwashing and moral authority failed as a means of doing imperialism?

    For decades they used, successfully I might add, moral authority of spreading "western values" as the tool of justifying their wars on the middle east while elsewhere they used anti-communism. These collapsed, as we've seen with support for Palestine, opposition to Israel, and even support for Iran.

    If the "western values" and pinkwashing and superior moral authority are no longer effective tools of waging conflict. Falling back to the previous tools makes sense, the ethnic "nation", my land my people, and religion, which all worked for far far longer than the changed attempt to wage western superiority over everyone else on the basis that it was uniquely better.

    I've been thinking about why "the west has fallen" is so prevalent and the reverse course towards religious, patriarchal and ethnic "values" happened. It was a conscious decision made by people that want the population in their society thinking in a certain way in order to use it for specific purposes but the exact reasons for it are rarely discussed in terms of this set of thought being a means to an end. Even in marxists circles it's only vaguely referred to as "threatening capital" and "pillars holding up capital" without specificity of what it materially gives them. This also has to be painted and analysed in the sense that the small group of billionaires that are pushing it all understand climate change and climate migration as an incoming threat.

  • Update on military action on the US - México border/deportation flights situation: México gives more concessions to the USA, Belize accepts a US military aircraft directly, first removal/deportation flights to Guantanamo Bay, India and potentially El Salvador, Colombia continues to send their own military planes for repatriation flights, more flights to Guatemala.

    Overall it's quite a depressing update, to be honest I really didn't want to make it, but I feel as if I had to, otherwise this information just sits in aviation geek or chud circles with brainless losers cheering it on.

  • I don't know if anyone else here has posted about this yet, but in more 'pulling the copper wiring out of the wall' news, the Boer has decided to take down several important data from the CDC and Census websites. These include, but are not limited to, data from CDC PLACES (Population Level Analysis and Community Estimates), the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), and the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST). This data is very important for a lot of research and long term planning. I was still able to access CDC PLACES data by using a direct link to the download page, so it is not yet entirely gone. It seams from this article that CDC employees think that the data will eventually return, after it has been altered to become 'politically correct', but I think it would be best to expect them to never return. Much of the data is also still available from 3rd party data conglomeration, although at an extremely high cost for personal use.

  • To nobody’s surprise, the Qassam brigades are inducting new recruits at speed

    “🇵🇸🇵🇸 The Al-Qassam Brigades has recruited thousands of new fighters since the beginning of the ceasefire. The fighters swear that they will confront the occupation with everything they have, and will continue the path of resistance until the complete liberation of Palestine, no matter the sacrifices.”

    https://streamable.com/lfmnu0

    Source: telegram

  • I haven’t been posting because frankly there’s too much, but the abductions, beatings, and killings have continued of any minority from supposed alawites and assadists to supposed queer people. While the zionist president travels the region, his merry men continue their rampage across Syria

  • CW: SA, child prostitution

    "You've never been with a daddy?"

    The public prosecutor's office found that this message was sent to a child prostitute by a portuguese Far-Right local MP before asking the boy's age, to which he said 15. After having sex with the boy he paid him 20 euros. He tried for a second encounter but was rejected.

    This one is far more serious than the national MP that was stealing bags from airports and selling them on Vinted.com that was revealed a few weeks ago, especially from a party where members call LGBT people "pedophiles".

    I'd like to think it would have some electoral repercussions since this type of criminality is not the usual scandals the far-right here get caught up in, but we'll see.

  • Not certain if news worthy or not (re. Trump's executive orders and US government contractors)

    Just got a message from CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) about how all contractors and employees are to cease using anything related to gender in our files, documents, contracts, etc in order to defend against 'gender ideology'. Only the use of 'He', 'She', and 'Sex' are allowed. We must remove any terms related to 'gender ideology' such as: Gender, Transgender, Inclusivity, and Nonbinary.

    This is part of Trump's Executive Order 14168. Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government (Defending Women). Also in this document is a mention that CMS won't be sending a national message about their compliance with this executive order.

  • Apparently the President of Brazil, Lula da Silva, recently appeared wearing a cap that read “Brazil belongs to Brazilians”. Clearly inspired by the MAGA cap. But for some reason, this angered the Brazilian right, since the right-wing in Latin America only serves to support the United States, It's quite funny to see these people having a meltdown over a cap.

    Tweet with the Video

    Old Pic of Lula using a Hip Hop cap

  • Some images of the removal and taping up of USAID signage at Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington D.C. Comrades, I don't think we'll get more poetic imagery than this of the death of contemporary globalised neoliberal capital:

    Which brings me to the point of discussion, what comes afterwards? More barbarity? Isolation? Protectionism? The fall of empire? I encourage any analysis or reply, no matter how brief or detailed.

    As for me, the enternal pessimist, I think we're entering a new phase of the US empire, not a fall or decline but a shift in tactics, and the current focus appears to be around shipping lanes and freedom of navigation. If we look at the current targets of the US administration's aggressive rhetoric, in Panama, Canada, México, Greenland, Egypt, Iran and China, and even South Africa, a picture emerges: that is drawn on the USA controlling the world's shipping. With Panama we have the Panama canal as an obvious flashpoint, México with the Gulf of México, then with Egypt we have the Suez, Iran is about the Strait of Hormuz and the oil trade with China, with China itself it's about the South China Sea, with Canada and Greenland there's the Arctic shipping lanes such as the North West Passage, and with South Africa there's the Cape of Good Hope and Durban. It really looks as if Trump and his advisors are playing the board game "Risk" here, and looking to exert influence or directly control key points in this regard. If manufacturing can't be brought back to the United States, the consolation prize is to control the flow of goods and the world's oceans.

    What Iran and Yemen demonstrated over the past year and a half in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden is scary for whoever seeks to control the world's oceans. Which brings me to the topic of Yemen, Trump has been scarily quiet here, with regards to Ansarallah/the Houthis. Aside from designating them as a terrorist organisation, he hasn't said much. When the right hand is moving, you must watch what the left is doing. Trump's first call to a foreign leader after taking power was to Saudi Arabia's MBS. Yes, even before Netanyahu. There was been increased US and French reconnaissance flights around Yemen. And despite all the cuts to USAID and various other three letter organisations, rumours are that the US has increased contact with the opposition/internationally recognised government in Yemen. If I were in the position of Ansarallah, I'd be preparing for for engagements with the United States.

  • China announces retaliatory tariffs on the United States, including export controls on certain rare earth minerals used for the aerospace, advanced technology and solar energy industries.

    • Telegram

  • FT

    Donald Trump wants Ukrainian rare earths deal in return for US military support US proposal appears to align with President Zelenskyy’s strategy to keep Washington onside

    President Donald Trump on Monday said he wanted a deal granting the US access to Ukraine’s rare earths resources in exchange for continued military and economic aid to Kyiv as it struggles to halt Russia’s invasion. The proposal appears to align with a strategy Ukraine has been developing to deepen ties with the Trump administration by allowing the US access to critical minerals used in high-tech industries. Speaking at the White House, Trump reiterated complaints that Washington had provided more support to Ukraine than its European allies. “We’re looking to do a deal where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things,” he said of Ukraine. Trump suggested Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government was open to it. “We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars,” said Trump. “They have great rare earth. And I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it.” A person close to Zelenskyy told the Financial Times that Trump’s remarks “seem to align with the ‘victory plan’ presented to him in the fall”. The person said Ukraine had offered Trump “special terms” for co-operation on key resources, stressing the need to protect them from Russia and Iran. “Of course, we are ready to work with America,” the person added. Zelenskyy presented an outline of the plan to Trump in New York last September during the US election campaign. It includes the sharing of critical natural resources with western partners, replacing US troops in Europe with Ukrainian forces and offering Trump investment screening powers to block Chinese business interests in Ukraine. Kyiv holds vast reserves of titanium, iron ore and coal, as well as about 500,000 tonnes of untapped lithium, collectively estimated to be worth tens of trillions of dollars. Some of these resources are at risk of being lost to Russia’s advancing forces in Ukraine’s east, or have already fallen under Russian occupation. “Control over mineral resources has become a part of the war,” said Mustafa Nayyem, the former head of Ukraine’s state agency for restoration and infrastructure development. The country is not only fighting for its territory, he added, “but also for the right to manage its strategic wealth, which could be a crucial factor in its recovery”. Trump has vowed to bring a swift end to Russia’s war against Ukraine. He previously said his administration had held “very serious” talks with Russia over the war. “We made a lot of progress on Russia, Ukraine,” Trump said on Monday. “We’ll see what happens. We’re going to stop that ridiculous war.” While supportive of Trump’s enthusiasm to bring the three-year war to an end, the American leader’s suggestion that he had formulated part of a plan with Russia without Ukraine has irked leaders in Kyiv. Speaking to the Associated Press on Saturday, Zelenskyy said his team had engaged with Trump’s advisers and expected in-person meetings soon. “They may have their own relations, but talking about Ukraine without us — it is dangerous for everyone,” Zelenskyy said.

  • Made the horrible mistake of looking into a r/Europe post about how the Brazilian goverment banned X and froze Elon Musk's assets in Brazil, and Elon had to back down, and how Europe could learn from that. Besides the people explaining the situation better and some people thinking it's ok, since Elon broke the law in Brazil.

    There are a lot of Americans and America Bootlickers saying stuff like: Lula is a communist dictator, He's Putler friend so he's evil, Freedom of speech, and other weird shit. How the fuck is Lula a dictator when he was elected after being released from jail, holy shit, these people literally cannot comprehend that the US law isn't valid in other countries and that other countries simply do not have absolute freedom of speech, racism and xenophobia are literal crimes in Brazil.

  • Reports from Panama of arrests and home raids against student leader participants of the anti-Marco Rubio protests held in the Panamanian capital.

    Even the liberal media have been reporting protests against the US in Panama, something very rare given that Panama is one of the US's closest allies in Latin America. Picture of Rubio in Nazi Uniform Burning.

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