Imagine a terrifying world where we are all ruled by monsters of every stripe. And not hot ones like werewolves, but instead decaying zombies and mummies who are both insensitive to, and actively benefit from the immense suffering they cause on a daily basis. The top echelon of society, filled with profit-seeking, bloodsucking vampires. And the worst of it is that they repeat on a daily basis that what they are doing is not only just, but there is no other possible way to do it.
Pretty spooky, right? What if I told you that this world... was our own?
Happy Halloween!
Friendly reminder: when commenting about a news event, especially something that just happened, please provide a source of some kind. While ideally this would be on nitter or archived, any source is preferable to none at all given.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
The Country of the Week is Lebanon! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
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.
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.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
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/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/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.
The Brazilian Air Force will transport the humanitarian aid cargo, which consists of corn and powdered milk.
On Monday, the Brazilian Foreign Affairs Ministry announced that it will send two tons of food to the Gaza Strip. Previously, this South American country sent a shipment of water purifiers and medicines that are already in Egypt.
The new shipment of humanitarian aid consists of corn and powdered milk donated by the Landless Movement (MST), a left-wing peasant organization that has historically expressed its solidarity with Palestine.
The cargo will be transported by a Brazilian Air Force plane to Egypt, on whose border with the Gaza Strip humanitarian aid sent by dozens of countries is concentrated and which enters the Palestinian territory in dribs and drabs.
Entry is through the Egyptian Rafah crossing to the Awja crossing, where loads are inspected before entering the Gaza Strip. These procedures occur despite the serious deterioration of the humanitarian and health situation in the Palestinian enclave.
Currently, some 30 Brazilians and thousands of citizens of other countries are trapped in the Palestinian territory waiting for an agreement to allow their departure to Egypt.
The offensive launched by the Israeli occupation forces, however, has prevented the formation of a humanitarian corridor that allows the departure of people from Gaza, a Palestinian territory that remains under incessant Israeli bombardment.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Lebanese militias attacked an Israeli occupation army position on the border with Lebanon. The operation did not generate casualties on any of the fighting sides.
Imagine you are a Zionist. You see who is supporting the Palestinians. An outpouring of love and support from people who have so little but give what they can. You see hundreds of thousands of people all over the world - a huge diversity of people who frankly all seem pretty cool - all protesting against you. You see incredible people like Nelson Mandela (when he was alive) support the Palestinians. Pretty much anyone who has empathy or compassion supports the Palestinians.
Then you look around and see the only people who support you. Decrepit, 110 year old eldritch politicians. A bunch of poindexter-ass Euro nerds in Brussels. Cops and cop-adjacent MOLON LABE assholes. Fucking American Evangelicals who even the Zionists can stand but need their support. Henry Kissinger and Hillary Clinton.
I hope it this all makes their lives just a little worse.
Then you look around and see the only people who support you
And these people aren't supporting you because they like you. They are only doing so because they see you as nothing more than a tool for their imperialism in the Middle East.