Image is from this article, of a Chilean copper quarry.
Title is a reference to Trump’s social media post about copper, which was, as usual, mostly deranged.
Trying to follow Trump’s administration is pretty difficult, but as of right now, he is threatening 30% tariffs on Mexico and the EU starting on August 1st, as well as new tariff announcements on a bunch of other countries (including, bizarrely, a 50% tariff on Brazil), and also apparently a 50% tariff on copper, which the US imports half its supply of and is, of course, a very important metal in many applications.
I’m not sure what the plan is to bring back domestic copper production beyond hoping that it just sorta works out, but prominent copper producers, such as Chile and Canada, seem both concerned and confused. Reuters had a line that made me chuckle:
Boric said he was awaiting official communication from the U.S. government, including whether the tariffs would include copper cathodes, and questioned “whether this will actually be implemented or not.”
Big mood, Boric.
Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
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.
Like I have said before, some folks act like even hearing doubt or what they perceive as doubt is going to cause everything around them to crumble. The kneejerk pushback and labeling of “doomer” is a thought-terminating cliche. It is not even people saying “China is going to collapse” or “Putin is abandoning Iran”, it is any and all questions of “why is this thing not being done?” or actual analysis like “these defenses provably did not get replaced and now there are consequences”, and that is somehow going to make the whole left collapse and become defeatist.
No one even wants to discuss and convince anyone, people just want to accuse one another of giving up at the drop of a hat. As if admitting or feeling that things are dire is an unforgivable sin.
Yeah, while I do fundamentally disagree with the final conclusions of some of the “doomer” posters, I hate how dismissive that term is in light of the useful analysis they provide on subjects where knowledge in the thread is otherwise lacking. I think XHS is wrong about the prospects of the “neoliberal trade order” and dedollarization, but they aren’t just spitting downer shit for fun. They’re providing a lot of very useful information on China’s internal contradictions and their analysis is off as a matter of emphasis (imo), not fact. And they are always comradely in their communication, so what exactly is the problem with them? It’s absolutely not acceptable to act like that in what should be a comradely environment where disagreement can lead to productive synthesis, not shit-flinging.
And frankly, it’s just stupid and short-sighted - how often do we as western leftists get to have direct personal communication with a Chinese communist? Quit being an asshole to them or they will leave.
I don’t know if OP is talking about xiaohongshu specifically, I do agree that they are usually very good at presenting the info and discussing it in a comradely manner. Edit: nevermind, they are talking about xiaohongshu specifically per a comment below.
Especially compared to the people who come to mind with OPs post who are very aggressively saying stuff like “China is basically the US now because they didn’t get go to war with Israel for Iran.” Most users here with that type of perspective ignore the people they claim to defend, and allege to speak for them anyway. Iran didn’t ask for help and didn’t need it at that moment, why should we assert that China needed to do something when Iran itself wouldn’t assert it? One example of many
How is someone seriously suggesting the world’s third largest nuclear power defending Iran is a bad outcome simply because Iran didn’t bother asking, when literally the point is Iran getting their own nukes to defend themselves. Either Chinese or Russian umbrella would have seriously changed the calculation overnight.
The point made is Iran is China’s major trading partner not the US. There is nothing to ignore here other than the fact China is the one getting fucked if they lose Iranian oil. You’re asking us to justify why China wont act out of material self interest as if its an own. China is the one that constantly boasts about win-win relationships. I guess Iran is winning when they get bombed and China watches… respectfully obviously.
When the Palestinians call for a global revolution or global resistance to zionism that does not include Beijing either, clearly because Hamas didn’t send a delegation to Beijing asking for a Chinese liberation force? Deeply unserious.
I think this is a great example of the type of rhetoric that attempts to seem like material analysis but is really just idealist nonsense.
Let’s look at it more closely:
A good sign of idealist nonsense is saying things that aren’t true as if they are true. I didn’t suggest that China defending Iran would be a bad outcome, I said people demanding China to do such a thing when Iran itself isn’t a consenting party is nonsense.
You are apparently one of these people, so you’ve decided to attempt to refute my points by initiating your critique with a thing you made up. This is peak idealism, things you made up in your head to justify your emotionally driven perspective, devoid of materialist analysis but full of really aggressive language which does well to fire up other idealist nonsense believers.
A great tactic for twitter or something but not a material analysis. It’s all vibes.
the need for nuclear deterrence is existential compared to self defense via conventional military weaponry, something China is indeed supplying Iran with.
China has done a lot to defend Iran, internet strategists might not appreciate it unless they can see a PLA pilot shooting Israeli jets out of Iranian airspace but internet strategists are also typically absolute losers who have no experience in anything they talk about.
I think this one really shores up my previous statement about pretending one knows what another nation should do, as a random person on the internet who actually doesn’t know anything about what they are talking about. China is certainly acting out of its own self interest at all times, if anything this is precisely why they aren’t intervening in more obtuse and flagrant ways, which is what most people criticizing them are actually asking them to do. To want China to do more than they are currently doing is to ask them to go against their own national self interest and very likely against the well being of their billion plus citizens. Now you are saying they are going against their self interest by not doing that, a real contradiction isn’t it? Does www.hexbear.net user BynarsAreOk know about China’s self interest more than China? Time will tell.
Can you find me some statements from Palestinian resistance organizations against China? Maybe one of these 14 groups that went to Beijing last year to sign the Beijing Declaration:
Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine Palestinian People’s Party Palestinian Popular Struggle Front Palestinian National Initiative Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command Palestinian Democratic Union Palestinian Liberation Front Arab Liberation Front Palestinian Arab Front Vanguard for the Popular Liberation War - Lightning Forces (As-Sa’iqa)
Are you a representative for one of these orgs? Are you a member, did you express criticism to your organization’s leadership for going to Beijing to meet with these other orgs and come to a unified position? Did you say, “Hey Musa Abu Marzouk, what the hell are you doing? Don’t you know China is the real enemy here?”
Also, did Iran even need help? It seems like they forced the US and Israel to a stalemate, which for the defensive nation is essentially a victory.
I really don’t think so. Iran is one of the longest continuous civilizations on Earth, they have a lot of pride in their ability as a nation and aren’t likely to go running to all their allies to fight their battles for them unless the situation is very dire. This was the first real direct back and forth and Iran made Israel look very weak all on their own. Israel had to expose their spies and agents and use all the tricks up their sleeve to catch Iran off guard, years of work to set that up and it could be very difficult for them to get away with it again. Vijay Prashad did a good interview on The China Report about this
Yeah. A trend that I’ve found myself getting frustrated about is the antagonizing against/for “doomers” and “nothing ever happens” posts. Its the kind of post that someone makes, granted only by the benefit of hindsight, where they celebrate themself for having the right take and throwing shade at other people. It’s like an “I told you so 😏” kind of post that comes off as nothing more than antagonistic and like you said thought-terminating. It kind of insults people for responding to the news as it unfolds
As if we aren’t all reading the same deeply fucked up news cycles, experiencing mental/emotional ups and downs about it, and doing what we can to make sense of how fucked up it all is.