Image is of protestors in Nigeria in 2024.
As I’m sure everybody is aware by now, Trump’s accusation that Nigerian armed groups are unfairly persecuting Christians in the country is a rather bizarre lie, seeking a justification to go in, to quote Trump, “guns-a-blazing”. Whether this is likely to actually occur or is merely a threat, who can really say nowadays? But Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province are targeting people in Nigeria fairly indiscriminately; insomuch that there is a target, it is farmers whose land is being raided and taken in resource conflicts, and their religious affiliation is not usually questioned by those groups before they are pillaged and/or murdered from what I can tell.
The President of Nigeria, Tinubu, has no small responsibility for this state of affairs - enacting IMF “reforms” which have exacerbated hunger, poverty, and unemployment in the service of Western financial institutions. Those who have protested against this state of affairs have faced repression by state security forces. Meanwhile, Tinubu allegedly has strong connections to the DEA, paying large amounts of money to avoid a trial for his actions; the DEA released this statement: “We oppose the full… release of the DEA’s Bola Tinubu heroin trafficking investigation records,” which is certainly not concerning at all - followed by “While Nigerians have a right to be informed about what their government is up to, they do not have a right to know what their president is up to.”
It must be a shame for him that such a loyal subject of empire is facing such scrutiny, and it likely has everything to do with Nigeria’s inexorably growing connections to China (just like pretty much every country on the planet), especially in relation to Nigeria’s massive mineral deposits. It could also perhaps be retribution for Nigeria’s failure to adequately oppose the growing independence of the Sahel.
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.
Newsheads, please give your opinions.
Are we finally reaching the point where the superprofits of imperialism are no longer going to be able to sustain collapsing western capitalism?
the market is down 2% and all the leftists come out like the Great Satan is mortally wounded. c’mon folks you know better
All the AI stuff is fake, “the market” has nothing to do with reality. IMO the real economy is much more fragile than it appears from GDP statistics.
yes i agree completely but we’ve been diverged from reality for years already. besides, even though the AI stuff is fake i think leftists cope hard wishing for a market crash like that would solve anything. porky will buy the dip while “middle class” americans lose their shirt. it’s a hollow victory
Yes, but it’s a cycle that cannot last forever. The falling rate of profit still exists, even with exploitation of the third world. Eventually, capitalism will become impossible to sustain and something will have to change. It’s just a question of when that will happen and what “something” will be.
You know that means a major war, right?
\
NATO is already gearing up for a major escalation with Russia and China in the next five years, they have pretty much said so publicly.
Of course it does. We’re talking about the imperialists, everything always means a major war.
again, you and i are in agreement. perhaps i am just grumpy and ready for the weekend but the timing of your post made it feel like yet more leftist cheering of the stock market going down like it’s some sportsball game.
also, the cycle can last for a lot longer still. America is dying but the idea that a new Great Depression caused by the AI bubble will happen is wishful thinking imo
I mean im just having a smile at the idea that removed is having a bad day.
the real economy will be fine imho. People still need to buy stuff to live. But investment will be off for a while like in 2008. Crapitalism is crashing the economy more often than not for the last decades.
Western capitalism? Maybe, I don’t think we can say for sure either way, capitalism has shown a remarkable ability to adapt and extend its life. We were looking at a similar crisis of profitability in the 1970s, and neoliberalism emerged to save capitalism and extend its life.
I do believe that neoliberal capitalism is collapsing, absolutely. It was able to deliver profitability for decades but profit rates have been on a broadly declining trend for a while now. And you can see it in political movements across the global north: attacking neoliberalism (though usually from the right) has gained so much steam. AfD, Reform, FN… these were all either jokes or nonexistent merely years ago. They are now set to be leading governments in the near future. Obviously they don’t want to end capitalism, but it’s particular neoliberal variety is spent.
China can push for maintaining neoliberalism vis-a-vis international trade relations, but I hope they are prepared for the west tearing down that particular form of economic relationship, because that is definitely happening IMO and it does seem inevitable to me.
In europe yes, america is another case - they actually are gaining a lot of ground recently.
in what way?
Former European colonies, Syria, Southeast Asia, Latin America (for now). The whole Gen Z revolt is by the CIA and they are already trying to put down the AES via Benin and Nigeria.
The third world Governments are controlled by oligarchs and western aligned groups. All of them believe in neoliberal trash.
That’s not changing for some time. Most of the recent “revolutions” like Bangladesh, Nepal replaced neoliberal regimes with neoliberal regimes but worse (Eg. Bangladesh has a law and order problem since the fall of Hasina, price rose, unemployment is high).
Even countries which saw better Governments like Sri Lanka, haven’t been able to escape the grasp of neoliberalism.
Yes
I dunno, it seems like there’s still some life to be squeezed out of SE Asia in terms of manufacturing, and once that’s done they can move it to Africa and maybe MENA. The US is losing some of its power projection, especially compared to the 1990s and 2000s, but it’s still a major player. I think it’s gonna take a pretty long time before things get bad enough for a revolution or something.
But! Fascism has come a long way in the last decade. What’s true for white Americans may not be for the rest of the country. I would imagine we’ll get a Democrat sweep in 2028 (unless it’s Kamala again lol) and things will level off somewhat, but I’m very curious to see what 2032 holds.
:inshallah:
I hope so. At the very least make western influence greatly decrease worldwide.
Honestly I think everyone in the West except the US is going to be fine, and the US will eventually be ok because of how rich we already are. Europe has some cultural issues to work through to be sure, and there’s plenty of potential for violence to emerge, but it’s really only the US that is overly dependent on these super profits with a completely hollowed-out economy. The UK is kind of in the same position, but is already well into the process of collapse. The US has just kept growing on the parasitism and letting everything else atrophy and it’s going to be in for the biggest shock when the global economy shakes it loose.
BTW the Manufacturing makes up the same percentage of the economy in the UK as it does in Chad.
This is how I feel whenever I read US (and European) economic news, even (especially?) from corporate media lately.
Really just feels like we’re waiting for everyone else to collectively look down.
Feels like all the major institutions have been walking on air, know they’re walking on air, but have assumed if they keep walking and don’t look down, then they’ll reach the other side of the grand canyon.
Was thinking earlier today about the term “middle income trap”. Maybe its a real phenomenon, but after the last few years, it feels like a criticism from cloud-coo-coo-land levied at all those silly people who’s economy is built on the ground around producing real things and not in great big spreadsheets in the sky.
What else can I say but I hope so
Very likely.
The real question is what comes next.