Image is of smoke rising after Iranian missiles impact a US military site in Bahrain.
My weekly preamble is in spoiler tags below.
preamble
After a few weeks of both diplomatic and military manuevering - mostly over Iranian control of Hormuz - we have hit the hottest phase of military exchanges since at least the MoU period began. The US has generally focussed on striking southern Iran, although they have also sporadically hit transportation infrastructure elsewhere, which was repaired in less than 24 hours. Meanwhile, Iran has struck a wide range of targets, with an interesting focus on Jordan, but has, up to the time of me writing this, so far relented on striking the Zionist entity. The US and Iran have had little periods of mutual military strikes during the “ceasefire” before, and so it’s hard to tell for sure whether this yet another temporary spat or if it represents a full return to the pre-ceasefire conflict.
A complicating factor in this conflict is that Ansarallah has become increasingly active, and seems eager to start to break the siege it has been put under by threatening to attack Saudi Arabia and Saudi-aligned forces. This has put Iran in a somewhat awkward spot. On the one hand, it has greatly helped Ansarallah resist foreign attackers and has even recently sent civilian airplanes into Sana’a to begin to break the siege. On the other hand, Iran has, with China’s help, generally desired to improve its relationship with the Saudis over the years. While in this latest war there have been a major dispute between them over whether Iran is “allowed” to strike US military infrastructure located in Saudi Arabia, the Saudis strike me as considerably less anti-Iran as the UAE, let alone the Zionists, and did send a delegation to Khamenei’s funeral. I guess we’ll just have to see what happens next, but I strongly suspect that Iran is going to help Yemen over the Saudis.
And finally, Lindsay Graham has died of a sudden heart attack a suspiciously short time after visiting Ukraine. He was a true enemy of civilian populations all the way to the end of his life, and he seemed to particularly despise children. He advocated for using nukes against Gaza and the total annihilation of anybody and everybody who had even the meekest criticism of Zionism. If God (and, more pertinently in this case, Satan) does exist, I hope Graham is extended the exact same level of courtesy and respect in the afterlife that Graham extended to all Palestinians.
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 Yemeni Armed Forces declare a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of “an eye for an eye,” effective immediately upon the issuance of this statement.
Anti-government protests in India
My take: The Government tried controlled opposition psyop with the CJP thing, that’s why there was little state repression against them in the beginning, the state mostly accommodated. Favorable coverage from corporate-state media.
That was until today, when the movement turned out to be less controllable. The state has increased the repression, police beating up protesters, barricades around Gov buildings etc. So, back to being treated like how the farmers and protesters generally are treated like in India under the fascist regime.
I will no longer be able to give my opinions on the war.
Mahmoud Khalil is attempting to sue Zionist groups and Trump officials
⭕️ Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia graduate whose March 2025 arrest made him the face of Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protest, filed a lawsuit Tuesdays saying administration officials and pro-Israel groups conspired to strip him of his constitutional rights, the AP reported.
The suit, in Manhattan federal court, names the Heritage Foundation as the alleged architect, along with pro-Israel groups Canary Mission and Betar and Trump officials including Marco Rubio and Stephen Miller.
Khalil’s lawyers say the groups “nominated” activists whom federal agents then “nearly automatically” moved to arrest and deport, and that the coordination may violate the Ku Klux Klan Act, a Reconstruction-era law barring government collusion with vigilante groups, per CNN.
Hours ago, the child-killing U.S. military, having failed to learn from its repeated defeats, encouraged several vessels to attempt passage through an illegal route. Two offending supertankers, deceived by the United States, switched off their navigation systems and ignored repeated warnings from the Strait of Hormuz Maritime Security Control Center. By choosing to cross through a mined route and endangering navigation, both vessels were struck and disabled.
The IRGC Navy warns that cooperating with an aggressive enemy that has come from thousands of kilometers away to violate the rights of the region’s people, and attempting passage through a mined route, will result only in regret, damage, delays in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and a global energy crisis.
Bulgaria’s new left-populist government is ending all of the country’s financial and military support to the Kiev regime:
https://www.rt.com/news/643041-radev-bulgaria-out-coalition-ukraine/
I swear this is a totally new and different war trust me bro.
Imagine if anything else worked that way.
“Our hands are tied, he’s following the rules and we actually love bombing Iran”
One of the ships (Bulk Carrier Luni) that took advantage of US escorts in the Omani route of the SoH yesterday.
https://xcancel.com/lukeisamazing/status/2076682855380312207
De Beers is shuttering its South African diamond mine for two years in order to save costs, while the industry faces plunging prices and an extreme glut
China crashing the blood diamond industry is such a great story, really brings a tear to my eye
I’m not the resident Hexbear oil understander, but I don’t think you need to go very deep to understand that there’s something wrong going on. Look at this picture:
The SPR is at its lowest levels since the 80’s, and keeps falling, although at a lower rate. From what I could gather, there’s a legal limit of 250MMBbl, which means that, effectively, the current 319MMBbl in the SPR is actually 69MMBbl (nice).
However, anything below 300MMBBl is uncharted territory, since there are structural concerns that start coming into play once you draw down to these levels. The salt caves start having structural integrity issues, and problems will start way before you reach the physical limit of 100MMBbl, under which there’s no way to remove the oil from the underground salt caverns, kind of like the leftover hand soap below the tip of the tube of a soap dispenser.
One of the problems is that crude is like Turkish coffee, in that the sludge at the bottom is undrinkable. This means flow and quality are increasingly compromised the lower the SPR goes. The previous drawdown was, on average, 6MMBbl, but last week it was 3MMBbl.
Demand is probably on the rise with the recently increased military activity in Iran, which consumes a metric fuckton of jet fuel. There’s also a push to lower gas prices in the US artificially. Crude oil prices are shooting up again. All of these factors seem to me like they would suggest that the drawdown should increase, not decrease. Are we going to see the SPR hitting a practical, real-life tank bottom sooner than expected?
Reuters: Trump says the US should control the Strait of Hormuz and get paid for it
President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States would probably take over the Strait of Hormuz and should be reimbursed for controlling the vital waterway.
“We’re going to keep the strait, and we’ll probably run it. We’ll become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we’ll call it the guardian angel of the strait. And we should be reimbursed for that,” he said in a phone interview on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” program.
President Donald Trump made unintelligible gurgling noises on Monday in a fresh attempt to waste your time and mine.
never pay attention to sources that use “President Donald Trump”
shibboleths are so exhausting. who keeps making new shibboleths?
Unit 67
Iran wants to charge 1-2% of the cargo value, Trump is proposing 20%!
There could be different tiers of passage. Regular Passage - you get the minimum. Just the minimum. Nothing more. So maybe pay more? Paying more is good. Premium Passage. Premium is better because it’s higher than Regular but still not as good as it could be. There is better. GOLD Passage. Best level of protect. TOP CLASS protect. And you want best protect for your tanker. Tankers are big (very big!) and you don’t want something to happen to your tanker and its precious cargo. If it gets hit - you lose a lotta money. And you get what you pay for. So get GOLD. GOLD best.
So demoncrats angry angry. [He uses his “I’m doing an impression” voice] The president is bypassing congress. There are no reasons to use Grand Cayman Bank in his passage system. And he is engaged in blah blah blah. I have many good reasons. The US has many stupid laws and regulations. And so sloooooow. The Strait is critical so speed is important. Companies want their tankers to go fast. Countries want their oil fast. Speed good. Slow bad. Very, very bad. And I’m a deal genius. Genius deals.
I know the Grand Cayman Bank CEO guy - Mar-a-Lago member. Best top guy. His bank fast-fast-fast. And best bank in the world. I told him about my plan and he called me back one hour later! Mr. President, sir - we can make your plan operational the day you give us the go ahead. See!? Same day! Fast-fast-fast. Impossible impossible impossible in the US. Not only stupid laws and regulations but also very, very stupid and awful (Awful awful people!) demoncrats. The oil must flow.
The Democrats would say we need a bipartisan commission to oversee the letters of marquee
Folks, with gold, we will take your biggest ships and make them unsinkable. You want the gold, a lot of people have the gold and they are verry happy, but really a lot of people have the gold. We want gold.
I am proud to announce today the opening of the Trump Strait Guardian Angel Program! Iran has been DEALT WITH. There are no more Iranians, no matter what the losers at CNN (very “unpopular”) tell you. There’s so much beautiful oil worth MILLIONS of dollars, and China says they’re going to pay up BIG to Trump for the use of my Strait. It’s going to be the fastest and safest and biggest lane for oil tankers anyone’s ever seen, your all going to see!
PRAISE BE TO ALLAH AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!
Army Group Steiner will control the strait
MS NOW: President Trump’s speech on Thursday is slated to address newly declassified intelligence reports that reveal plans by foreign nations to interfere in the 2020 presidential election
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Breaking news Trump considering shoving US military personnel directly into a wood chipper
BREAKING: Trump is looking to expand US military operations in Iran by not only bombing energy sites and power plants starting next week, but also sending US ground forces to fully seize Kharg Island and other Iranian islands along the Strait of Hormuz and bombing the deepest and most fortified mountain in Iran, the Pickaxe Mountain nuclear-linked tunnel complex, per WSJ.
Trump held a Situation Room meeting Tuesday evening to discuss the seizure of Kharg Island and other territory along the Strait using US ground troops including Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb. He also said “We’re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain.”
Every ice agent should be thrown into a blender and then buried in lyme and their name erased from all documentation. They must be eradicated from the physical and psychic worlds absolutely, leaving no trace of their existence.
