My weekly preamble is in spoiler tags below.
preamble
For the weekend of August 1-2, Trump had once again promised major strikes on Iran, which would have included crossing the critical red line of striking their energy infrastructure. In response, Iran once again essentially promised to end the possibility of modern civilization as we know it throughout much of the Gulf States and, to a certain extent, the Zionist entity, with the economic impacts radiating outwards around the world from there. The frustrating part about these threats from Trump is that while he’s reneged on them before, the consequences of them actually occurring are so dire that it’s difficult to ignore them; rolling a dice with even a 5% chance for complete catastrophe will always be nerve-wracking.
Anyway, as we all know, these strikes did not occur, with the excuse this time being much the same as the previous times: our regional allies begged us not to (potentially true) and Iran called us and said they were willing to negotiate/surrender (untrue). The point of these threat displays is at least twofold: first, to see if Iran is genuinely going to flinch, or, at least, if internal elements that may or may not exist will be spooked into action against the IRGC; and second, to manipulate oil prices downwards by creating constant cycles of “relief” out of an otherwise relatively constant downward trend as Hormuz stays closed and oil reserves continue to ebb. I do say “relatively”, of course, given that Ansarallah now appears to be delivering a boot up the ass of Saudi Arabia by taking offline quite a lot of its refinery infrastructure.
It is into this situation that Ukraine seems to want in. For those out of the loop, the situation over in Ukraine has largely the same overall attritional dynamics as previous years, but with a few added wrinkles. Ukraine started striking Russian infrastructure a while ago, and while their effectiveness is hotly debated and I don’t want to dismiss them as totally ineffectual, it’s clear that the psychological effects - such as they are - are greater than the material effects. Russia’s retaliation strikes have been considerably more impactful, including strikes on Ukrainian Black Sea ports and vessels, and a campaign explicitly against gas stations across Ukraine, as well as some rather impressive and disruptive explosions at Ukrainian military fairs and production sites. Zelensky has admitted publicly that they are now basically out of Patriot missiles and that Russian missiles are now landing entirely unopposed (beforehand, they were just landing largely unopposed, given the lackluster performance of Western air defences in general). He seems to have considered a possible way out: linking together the Ukraine and Iran Wars to a united front against Russia and Iran, which would then grant Ukraine more munitions to keep fighting on.
Now, for all the fear I’ve seen of this occurring (and, don’t get me wrong, the US and Russia being in non-proxy, direct conflict is a genuinely frightening prospect for continued life on Earth) how linking together two wars which the West is quite decisively losing into a single war would help at all is beyond me. At this moment, at least, US military planners appear to agree with me. Ukraine hit a Caspian Sea vessel going to Iran a while ago, but then seems to have quickly apologised after being given a stern talking to by the US. This shows just how willing the US is to grant Ukraine more aid, as their own interceptor stockpile is running very low due to Iranian strikes. One would almost feel sympathy for Zelensky if is wasn’t for… well, everything that’s happened. The path of Ngô Đình Diệm is a tough one to walk.
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 the Zionists’ 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.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
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.
The Aldi Forces are currently on a Big Offensive and are Swooping South from their Bases in the Midwest. The Wallmart Superstores , once thought of as a line of unassailable Fortresses ,are now falling like the Tercios at Breitenfeld under the unrelening Low Price Artillery thats concentrated on Grocery Breaches , taking over more and more of Suburbia. Downtowns meanwhile are more and more locked down from Trader Joe and its ideoloically infused Urbanites.
Now what is facinating here is that ALDI & Traderjoes , isnt even the big Fish , basiclly they are like the ostrogoths & Visigoths , Desperate refugees pooring into the Empire because they are themself hunted and chased by the ominous LIDL.
Anecdotally in the Midwest, I noticed with increases in grocery prices the Aldi parkinglot has become a lot busier than the local town’s Walmart at about the same hour, Aldi’s generally runs cheaper on most things vs the local Walmart which still suffers from covid19-style shortages.
Walmart for a long time, after they ran out other businesses, had average prices. So now without competition for so long they have some high prices compared to others. Hell I doubt the company store credit aka worker discount helps anymore.
Its honestly shocking the cult of Walmart in the middle, west, and mid west US. Muskogee Oklahoma enite town shifted when the Walmart moved from one place to another.
My mother has worked at the hell store all my life. She hates it there. Yet its her first place she goes when needing to shop. By the time I grew up and moved basically the only place to get groceries was Walmart. Now there are some options coming in. Dollar General. Aldi. But I fear that when the inevitable oil crash happens my childhood home will be lost honestly. Though it’s probably for the best.
You can already see trends happening if you know where to look. As time goes on and the oil crash happens. We are going to see a massive shift to urban population centers the likes that have not been seen in a long time. If ever to be honest. In rural Oklahoma you are already seeing it. The small towns were always dying. But things and places that have existed for generations are gone. The kids of long time hold outs are moving to the nearest city. No one can afford 30 minutes (driving like a local) for groceries.
Not sure if my take is more or less optimistic. But I think truck culture would die before rural culture generally. Long before people flee to the city, they would logically try reducing fuel usage by carpooling/buses, fewer-but-larger shopping runs, and swapping for hybrids and EVs which are affordable when used — certainly more affordable than a bigass truck. Or frankly, there are hybrid trucks like the Ford Maverick which get decent fuel economy. Do you think this is too naive, maybe we are past that point?
I don’t think its naive. I actually think it goes with what I’m saying. But I should clarify when I say move, I meant closer to whatever city or town is nearby instead of living away from even the small towns. So in the case of Oklahoma like I brought up. People in say SE are more likely to move closer to Eufaula then move to Oklahoma city. I think you can already see this happening given that Eufaula was kind of dead to a revival that I didn’t think was possible.
As far as the vehicles for people who live down dirt roads and what not. A lot of them have switched to more fuel efficient trucks. However there is kind of a issue going on because most new trucks are the big variety and honestly they are absolute shit for a work truck. Sure they can haul and what not. But if you need them in the field and shit it can cause problems because of their size. With exceptions. A smaller truck is easier on the back and you don’t have to crawl into it. Though I did forget that people with money have switched to those weird farmer golf cart type things as a answer and if you have the money for those you probably could afford a electric one when they inevitably comes out.
Probably the biggest issue is dirt roads. Unless they go completely electric truck which is very difficult for these macho fucks to swallow. The dirt roads will probably wreck havoc on a electric car long term. Though I’m working on the assumption that anything to address this will not be done or embraced.
But all of this to say, I think it will be a factor but more towards local urban centers. But those will be rural in of themselves. But pockets of rural life, the places that were barely hanging on will probably die off for real this time.
Do they also do the “excotic weeks” in American Aldis ? … like shipping in a bunch of Greek stuff (oh you white beans in tomato sauce ) or Iberian (Chorico , Manchego ) or Italian stuff ? Hows their Wine selection ?
Not to long ago a friend of mine worked at an Aldi so here’s what I know between that and my own trips:
spoiler
They’ll rotate imports around with their seasonal stuff. Mostly the German things. Some of the imports are permanent fixtures. They also are good with tying in local-ish distributers (my friend mentioned having a section of Mexican brands and snack cakes you don’t usually see in other grocery stores around their area despite being in California)
But yeah I’ve seen some of their Iberian and Greek stuff in the mix, I think they do that around summer time here? Wouldn’t say it’s weekly, more like monthly IG.
I remember seeing a wine section at my own local Aldi and was surprised that it was like- a pretty sizable section of the store. Lots of the brands were semi-local regional stuff. Like they had Snoop Dogg wine. Didn’t know he made wine. They also had the Aldi Brand wines which were cheap and people apparently bought up like crazy. Had a the main beers and a couple of localish drafts too.
Think my friend even mentioned once that they’d get German tourists in every now and then and they were shocked at how identical the stores were in both countries.
The US stores are surprisingly still pretty competent. Feels about the same quality as any place else but the price just happens to be lower, and THEN you get in those monthly rotations or non-food goods that are surprisingly decent.
Because of their Market Power they are known here to sweep up a lot of Expansives wines in second sellings and they run a whole lot of undercover someliers and “black Label” wines ,where top wineries sell their access produce under another name. Aldi in germany was sort of a “must stop” for wine fans because of that and thereby avoided the “lower class” association. So i thought that would be how they take america as well -> cheap as European wine .
Check out if they have a Own Brand Rjoja there “lopez Murillio” its the Chad , they have giant storages so currently i enjoying a 2018er wine for 3,50€ .And if since they Import lots of german white wine look out for “Spätlese”
Funnyly , while your “Aldi” is “Aldi South” - and my aldi is Aldi North - your aldis look better then my , theres this distinct , Cute South german Catholic vs North german coldness and Bauhaus Brutalism divide in their store designs.
Wonderful added Aldi insights that gave me several audible "Huh!"s. Thank you.
They do, tbh idk how long the exotic weeks last, usually I see German, Italian or Californian (it is the midwest) frozen stuff when I roll around. Sometimes they have Mexican, Greek or generic Asian but those are rarer. The wine section is larger than the local Walmart, so I guess it isn’t too bad. They have seasonal offerings like spiced rum for the holidays, mock up champagne, tropic drinks for summer. I had their coconut wine a few years back for my birthday, that had a very unique flavor
So surreal seeing Brits and Americans talking about Aldi and LIDL in the last 5 years or so. I wonder how much of the assortment is shared.
Once was in the UK in some god forsaken Ryn air airport at a Busstop stranded. and there was a Lidl - so i went in and got myself a “perlenbacher” , and it really was ominously similar to our lidls . I even bought beer for minors then , because apperently - Drinking Beer in Puplic in the UK isnt okay thing to do there - unlike Monarchies and Empires - they will tell you - but you can bribe them with buying them perlenbacher as well…