Image is of Colombian President Gustavo Petro giving a speech at the UN in 2022.
Trump has arrived in office with the force of an avalanche; ending slowing a genocide on the one hand, while simultaneously promising a total nightmare for minorities and the poor throughout and outside the United States on the other hand. [edited for clarity; I do not actually think Trump has ended the Palestinian genocide obviously, I was making a joke - but the ceasefire is a genuine improvement in conditions for millions of people right now who are on the edge of death, so it cannot be dismissed]
It’s still far too early to truly compare and contrast his imperial strategy with Biden’s, but initial signs show that there does appear to be somewhat of a reorientation. Biden was famous for being two-faced; ostensibly offering aid and stability, while also blowing up your pipeline to ensure you did not actually have an alternative to his idea. Trump, meanwhile, seems only really capable of aggression, threatening several “allied” nations with what may as well be sanctions because of the economic harm they’d do. I suspect we’ll be debating for a long time how much of this can be attributed to the specific characteristics of Trump, or whether he merely embodies the zeitgeist of imperial decline - a wounded empire lashing out with extreme violence to try and convince everybody, including themselves, that they can still be the world imperialist hegemon.
I’ll admit it: I did not believe that Trump would actually try and go ahead with putting tariffs on basically anybody who annoys him. And while the threat could still be empty in regards to countries like China and Canada, Colombia is the first indication of the potential of his strategy. Despite some fiery words from President Petro, after Trump’s administration revealed the punishment if Colombia did not agree, it appears that Colombia will in fact be accepting deported migrants after all. It’s funny how that works.
Last week’s thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
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.
CIA agents in hell watching trump thinking USAID is purely government handouts.
Canada has announced 25% tariffs on $155 billion in U.S. goods in response to President Trump’s 25% tariff on Canadian exports. This includes immediate tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods. Additionally, Trudeau stated that Canada is exploring ‘non-tariff measures’ related to minerals, energy, and partnerships with the U.S., and encouraged Canadians to buy local products and spend holidays within the country.
- Telegram
Truckers be like: we support Trump’s border policies but we don’t like that you’re hurting our jobs and making our treats more expensive! Please re-consider!
So Al-Qassam Brigades is the armed wing of Hamas and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is the armed wing of Fatah? I keep mixing up the two for some reason.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/us/politics/elon-musk-doge-federal-payments-system.html
Elon Musk’s Team [DOGE] Now Has Access to Treasury’s Payments System
article
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency full access to the federal payment system late on Friday, according to three people familiar with the change, handing Elon Musk and the team he is leading a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending.
The new authority follows a standoff this week with a top Treasury official who had resisted allowing Mr. Musk’s lieutenants into the department’s payment system, which sends out money on behalf of the entire federal government. The official, a career civil servant named David Lebryk, was put on leave and then suddenly retired on Friday after the dispute, according to people familiar with his exit.
The system could give the Trump administration another mechanism to attempt to unilaterally restrict disbursement of money approved for specific purposes by Congress, a push that has faced legal roadblocks.
Mr. Musk, who has been given wide latitude by President Trump to find ways to slash government spending, has recently fixated on Treasury’s payment processes, criticizing the department in a social media post on Saturday for not rejecting more payments as fraudulent or improper.
It is not clear whether the team led by Mr. Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, has blocked any payments since gaining access to the system.
The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is not a government department, but a team within the administration. It was put together at Mr. Trump’s direction by Mr. Musk to fan out across federal agencies seeking ways to cut spending, reduce the size of the federal work force and bring more efficiency to the bureaucracy. Most of those working on the initiative were recruited by Mr. Musk and his aides.
Similar DOGE teams have begun demanding access to data and systems at other federal agencies, but none of those agencies control the flow of money in the way the Treasury Department does.
Mr. Bessent granted access to the payments system to a handful of staff members affiliated with DOGE, including Tom Krause, the chief executive of a Silicon Valley company, Cloud Software Group, according to one of the people familiar with the change. Access to the system has historically been closely held because it includes sensitive personal information about the millions of Americans who receive Social Security checks, tax refunds and other payments from the federal government.
A Treasury Department spokesman, a spokeswoman for DOGE and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a process typically run by civil servants, the Treasury Department carries out payments submitted by agencies across the government, disbursing more than $5 trillion in fiscal year 2023.
Former officials said the onus was on individual agencies to ensure their payments are proper, not the relatively small staff at the Treasury Department, which is responsible for making more than one billion payments per year.
Mr. Lebryk, the career Treasury official who retired on Friday, had resisted requests from members of Mr. Trump’s transition team for access to the data last month. After Mr. Trump took office, the White House indicated that he should be removed from the job and, according to a person familiar with the matter, Mr. Bessent suggested putting him on leave.
Democrats raised alarm this week that the Trump administration and Mr. Bessent, who was just confirmed by the Senate this week, were compromising the federal government’s payments system.
“To put it bluntly, these payment systems simply cannot fail, and any politically motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy,” Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, wrote in a letter to Mr. Bessent on Friday. “I can think of no good reason why political operators who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law would need access to these sensitive, mission-critical systems.”
Mr. Wyden followed up on Saturday to express concern that access to the payment system had already been granted and pointed to Mr. Musk’s potential conflicts of interest.
“Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk’s own companies. All of it,” he wrote on social media.
During the transition, Mr. Musk vocally opposed Mr. Bessent being picked as Mr. Trump’s Treasury secretary. Mr. Musk, then just an empowered adviser to Mr. Trump, went public with his opinion that he preferred Howard Lutnick, a Wall Street executive, for the role because Mr. Bessent was “a business-as-usual choice.” Mr. Lutnick became Mr. Trump’s choice for Commerce secretary.
‘Make Argentina Gay Again’: Argentines hold anti-fascist pride march
(Clever use of the MAGA slogan)
The queer community’s call to march against Javier Milei’s Davos speech received international support
Argentines hit the streets on Saturday afternoon for the Federal Anti-Racist and Anti-Fascist Pride March. Rivers of demonstrators clutching rainbow fans, waving smoke flares, and dancing on protest trucks flowed through the streets of Buenos Aires, Tucumán, and more than 100 other towns and cities countrywide and major cities across the world.
The protest was spearheaded by the country’s LGBTQIA+ community, but it was explicitly intersectional, encompassing marginalized groups from all walks of life. The march was a response to President Javier Milei’s speech at the 2025 World Economic Forum, in which he equated queer people with child abuse, claiming that femicide put women’s lives over men’s and accusing migrants in Europe of crime.
Micaela Pérez, from La Matanza, is an activist with travesti-trans activist group, Las Históricas. (Unlike its direct English translation, the Argentine word travesti is a gender identity worn with pride.) Pérez survived the dictatorship and has fought for LGBTQIA rights, despite being jailed several times. She recalled that the travesti-trans community was long denied access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, and equitable access to jobs. Now, she believes, the queer community will consider seeking support from international rights institutions, if necessary.
“This is an anti-rights, homophobic state that is playing cheap politics with our laws,” she said. “We are living memory. That’s why we’ll go out [to march] as much as we have to.”
‘Nunca Musk’
Milei’s statements were just the latest in a series of comments that senior figures in Milei’s La Libertad Avanza government have made against the rights of women, queer people, immigrants, and other groups. He spoke just days after U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Milei attended the ceremony, at which Trump likewise made comments against trans people, migrants, and other marginalized groups.
Many signs at the protest rejected — or poked fun at — Trump and Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X and Tesla who is now heading up Trump’s newly-created Department of Government Efficiency. Trump allies have indicated that he drew inspiration in part from Milei’s austerity agenda. Milei, for his part, vociferously defended Musk in an X post after he was accused of performing two consecutive Nazi salutes on inauguration day.
Some people wore pink baseball caps that read “Make Argentina Gay Again,” a slogan that was scrawled on banners and posters dotted throughout the procession. One sign, written in the font of the important post-dictatorship rights report Nunca Más (Never Again), read Nunca Musk (Never Musk).
Carola Escolar, a queer English teacher at the University of Buenos Aires, marched with her union. “There were a lot of people in our union’s group,” she said. “The anti-fascist, anti-racist and LGBTQA+ cause really moves people […] It gives you energy to see people react. When you hear the president’s comments at Davos, they don’t just stay at home.” Protester Ale Bravío voiced concern that undoing progress in Argentina could have a ripple effect across the region. “Argentina has always been a beacon of LGBTQ+ rights, since the Equal Marriage law and the gender identity law,” she said. “We can’t go back 15, 25 years, because that means paving the way for other governments to take protections away from their people.”
Demonstrations took place throughout Argentina and several other countries, including Mexico, Spain, Italy, the UK, and the Netherlands. In Buenos Aires, demonstrators were scheduled to march from Congress to Plaza de Mayo at 4 p.m. — but started to gather shortly after midday. In Tucumán, a huge march began in Plaza Urquiza. At around 7 p.m., demonstrators marched towards Plaza Independencia, where the Governor’s House is located, led by leaders of the local queer community, as well as social leaders and left-wing activists. There were chants against Milei, comparing him to the dictatorship, as well as Governor Osvaldo Jaldo, a Peronist politician who has been cooperative with Milei since he took office.
An assembly that ballooned
“I hope this march will be a celebration, a collective cry against fascism, and a turning point to push back against this political project that is trying to exterminate us because life is at risk, but we are alive, organized, and ready to defend it,” said Alejandra Rodríguez, a transfeminist activist of the Buenos Aires City LGBTQIA+ Antifascist Assembly, ahead of the march. The protest was decided by popular vote a week earlier at an open anti-fascist LGBTQIA+ assembly in Parque Lezama. Assemblies held simultaneously across the country put their own February 1 protests on the calendar.
Rodríguez told the Herald organizers were surprised by the magnitude of the response, explaining that it started with a small meeting of friends and activists in Parque Lezama on the day of Milei’s speech and quickly ballooned to thousands in the same spot just two days later. “There were health workers, students, scientists, sex workers, artists, teachers, retirees, workers of memory and human rights sites, a whole range of struggles and conflicts that said ‘Enough, Milei!’” she said.
“The fight for our anti-fascist and anti-racist LGBTQIA+ pride march is also for society as a whole, this march that has the support and participation of a huge breadth of affected social sectors.” Speakers at the assembly emphasized intersectionality and called for a broad coalition to combat fascism. Many groups and human rights organizations had, in turn, shown support for Saturday’s march.
“We call on people to hit the streets to condemn this government that starves, represses, offends, lays off, indebts and hands over sovereignty,” said the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in a communiqué. “To defend our jobs, salaries, freedom, and the right to food, health, and free sexual orientation.” Author and activist Marlene Wayar urged people to attend in an interview on radio station Futurock: “This is the time to be anti-fascist and go. Go! Ultimately, all these little speeches will be lost and will be summarized in an aerial photo that tells the world: where is Argentina going? Towards fascist sh*t or not? This is the time for antifascist pride.”
I unfortunately was unable to attend to this protest. None of my friends called me and I was left pretty much alone and going alone to a protest sucks and is also dangerous, plus I work on saturdays which sucks. Lots of people showed up despite the terrible weather, nevertheless the unrelenting heat will not stop the anti-fascists.
death to milei and death to “israel” too.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-tariffs-canada-february-1-1.7447829
Canada announces retaliatory tariffs against the USA. Initial tariffs will be 25% of $30 billion as of Tuesday, followed by 25% of $125 billion in three weeks
Part of me thinks these tariffs from the US will remain until the next election and the Cons are elected. Trump will then drop the tariffs and the Cons can take it as a victory and claim they saved Canada
Update on the deportation flights situation: Perú becomes another country to accept US military deportation flights, military deportation flights continue to Honduras, México still holding out, no updates on any other nations involved.
There were two US military deportation flights that took place since the last update, and these are the 7th and 8th total. Flights RCH116 and RCH686 both flew from Harlingen, Texas, United States; to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. RCH116 then proceeded to return home to Harlingen, United States; while RCH686 continued on from San Pedro Sula, Honduras; to Lima, Perú; before returning to the United States. This (RCH686) becomes the first US military deportation flight to Perú and the first two legged flight outside of US airspace. All flights continued to avoid México’s airspace.
overall update:
Countries that have allowed the United States to conduct deportation flights to them directly using US military aircraft:
- Guatemala.
- Ecuador.
- Honduras.
- Perú.
Countries that allow the United States to use their airspace to conduct deportations using US military aircraft to other countries, but have not accepted US military deportation flights themselves:
- Costa Rica.
- Nicaragua.
- Belize.
Countries that put up resistance to deportation flights using US military aircraft and turned them away ( and used their own planes for repatriating their citizens), however the United States says that they will accept military deportation flights in future (no such flights have taken place as of 1st February 2025, remains to be seen if/when any will take place):
- Colombia.
Countries that do not allow the United States to use their airspace for US military aircraft deportation flights and have not accepted US military aircraft deportation flights themselves, but do allow the United States to use their airspace for civilian aircraft deportation flights to other countries:
- México.
Canada, Mexico and China should simply increase trade between themselves, leave the US in the dust. Build a belt and road around the US
This seems fine :)
Looks like the tariffs are ON
Rabbi Yoel Alter, a prominent leader of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish cult ‘Lev Tahor’ (‘Pure Heart’ in Hebrew) was arrested in Guatemala following an operation led by Interpol The 35 year old Jewish cult leader was apprehended after an official request for extradition was submitted by Mexico, where he faces human trafficking charges.
Founded in Israel in 1988, the Jewish ‘Lev Tahor’ cult has been under scrutiny for serious crimes, including child abuse, human trafficking, and forced marriages of minors. In December 2024, Guatemalan authorities rescued 160 children and 40 women from the clutches of this evil cult.
- Telegram
Pentagon decides to restrict access to journalists from Politico, The New York Times and NBC News, forcing them to vacate spaces in the press committee inside the building. Spaces are to be given to the New York Post, OANN, Breitbart and Huffington Post, which are considered more conservative outlets.
- Telegram
A small plane crashed near the Roosevelt shopping center in Philadelphia. The aircraft was a Learjet 55, used for medical transportation, and had taken off from Philadelphia bound for Missouri. About 30 seconds after take-off, it lost lift and crashed.
Witnesses reported that the plane was already on fire before the collision, resulting in a large explosion. Mayor Cherelle Parker confirmed that emergency crews were immediately called to contain the fire and search for possible survivors. The exact number of victims has not yet been officially confirmed. The US Federal Aviation Administration reported that there were two people on board, while other sources indicate that there were six occupants: four crew members, a pediatric patient and a companion.
- Telegram
US President Donald Trump has authorized a series of strikes on ISIS terrorist group assets in Somalia.
- Telegram
