Image, sourced from this article, is of George Bush in 2002 meeting with María Corina Machado, who was even then being trained as a figure to oppose Venezuelan socialism, and very briefly succeeded with the Carmona Decree. Now the latest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, she has begged the Zionist entity to drop bombs on the Venezuelan people.
As of me writing these sentences, it appears that the ceasefire in Gaza is underway. Zionist ceasefires are, of course, an oxymoron - not only in the grand sense that their work to continue genocidal atrocities against others locally and regionally will not cease until the Zionist entity’s occupation of Palestine is overthrown and Palestinians can resume the governance of their territory - but also in the literal sense; that bombings and shootings are often only merely reduced, and rarely cease entirely (as was/is the case on their northern border with Lebanon). Nonetheless, hopefully the population can receive some aid, and the long process of rebuilding can begin.
On the other side of the world, it seems increasingly likely that a new war is set to begin. Because the US is eschewing the usual process of generating pro-war propaganda and casus bellis (aside from a laughably transparent Nobel Peace Prize award) and seems content to just skip straight to the “bomb and depose” step, it’s quite hard to predict what precisely they want to do. Anything seems to be on the table - from freely striking Venezuelan territory where “drug dealers” are to try and prompt a Venezuelan response, to assassinating Maduro and/or his generals and hoping a power vacuum can be filled with compradors, to attempting to outright invade Venezuela and establish direct American control over important government sites. All appear to be possibilities, though as of right now, the most drastic measures seem unlikely due to their difficulty.
We know that the US has almost totally abandoned diplomatic communication with Venezuela, and that the US has deployed warships, a nuclear submarine, F-35s, surveillance planes, and at least 4,000 military personnel to the Caribbean, with some sources putting the numbers higher. Some people have suggested that the point is to try and force Maduro into a situation where he must begin hostilities, or be seen as weak and perhaps overthrown from within. It is at least encouraging that Maduro is not like Allende in Chile, and is taking this situation extraordinarily seriously; the masses are being trained and mobilized in the event of an invasion, and military drills are ongoing. Venezuela has no real capacity to stop the US from attacking and bombing them, but it is much more possible to prevent a West-friendly puppet from gaining meaningful control of the country. A comprador might be able to make a brief statement or decree in a Venezuelan city saying that Chavismo is over, but actual power will hopefully prove very elusive.
2020, and particularly 2022, has clearly become a turning point for the Western imperial system, in which increasingly aggressive and reckless moves are required to keep the system functional (stability is, at this point, out of the question). Unfortunately, this has also resulted in the deaths of many long-lasting, inspiring figures, such as Nasrallah, and many more will certainly die before the empire collapses. If Maduro is assassinated - and I’m having trouble imagining how he won’t be doggedly pursued in the days. weeks, and months to come - I have hope that a successor will rise to continue to lead the Bolivarian Revolution.
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.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. 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.
Not looking good for plant-based protein supplements. Not sure whether there’s a scientific explanation behind peas protein retaining more heavy metals or if plant-based protein powder producers just do not care.
Let’s say I’m happy I stopped taking daily prot supplement 2 years ago for muscle building, since I’m vegan these probably were not great for me.
Edit: I know EU has regulations in place for heavy metals I wonder if the same results appear here too (as I’m living in Europe)
It should be the other way around, heavy metals build up as you go up the food chain. My guess it’s something in the refinement process concentrates the lead along with the proteins.
There is a section way at the bottom “How Heavy Metals Get Into Protein Powder” which is as speculative as this thread. Except CR also speculates it might be China’s fault.
I find it implausible that nobody knows where the lead comes from.
Yeah that section just left even more questions open than answers. They say it comes from the ground-soil maybe because plants uptake lead from contaminated soil which fair enough that’s true. But they also say it could come during the processing stage due to machinery which is a big “huh wtf?” from me. Because like how? Are the machines handing and grinding this stuff made of lead themselves? Are the floors? Do they lube them with lead? How the fuck is all this lead supposedly getting in from machinery? Most machinery is made of steel, iron, aluminum, titanium, etc with some plastic involved at points. Now if that plastic is a certain kind of PVT/poly-vinyl there are processes that use lead in the mix when making it but if so there should also probably be mention of microplastics present.
It’s the same with articles on lead in chocolate. I understand the principles of contaminated soil from leaded gas, industry, smog, illegal dumping, etc and how plants uptake that. But as with this in the case of chocolate they mention the possibility of contamination during processing which leaves me with the same questions about how lead is used and occurs in anything resembling a modern industrial site made in the last 80 years. Are they using lead pipes for piping the product from one part to another? Like get some experts in and speculate about the actual mechanism otherwise it all seems like covering all their bases theorizing about remote possibilities.
I doubt it is coming from the processing machinery itself. It may be coming from the process itself. The plants, on their own, don’t contain that much lead, but at some point in the process the protein from the plants is concentrated, and that process also concentrates the lead. Could have something to do with the chemical or physical filtration process, and it may be the case that it needs to go through an additional filtration process to either reduce or eliminate the lead (or they are unable to do so at this point in time).
Whatever the case, adding processes is extremely expensive, often exponentially depending on how many lines you are running (multiple lines going down to do the same kind of retrofit means that you are probably hiring contractors and not making money while you are doing that). Without regulation and punitive measures, firms will slow-roll this kind of thing as long as they can get away with selling it.
Its probably a mix of our soils being fucked by years of abuse, something about the pea protein production process that can’t eliminate heavy metals or concentrates them further, and finally the companies not caring about it.
My brand of whey (Kirkland) isn’t on here, but judging from this whey powders seem to be fine.
I really doubt that plant-based protein producers care any less than any other industrial agribusiness (none of them care). my guess is that plants do more metal uptake as they grow, which is reflected in the character and metal content of protein they make. animal based protein like whey has an additional step where plant based material is eaten and digested by cows before it is converted into whey that is used for protein powder. My guess is that there’s opportunity for metals to be ejected from the cow with urine/feces or for metals to stay in the cow’s flesh somehow instead of going out with the milk and reporting to the whey. I’m speculating though, I don’t know.
That’s pretty much what wondering else was saying in the other thread. But we’re all just random Internet people so who really knows