Image is of the drying Canelon Grande Reservoir in Uruguay as the country battles three consecutive years of drought, its worst in nearly a century.
Quoting every country and region that is currently suffering under unprecedented climatic conditions and posting every graph showing extremely concerning things happening would make this preamble way too long, so I’m gonna keep it short and merely say that, holy shit, the consequences of fossil fuel executives’ actions are looking real fucking bad.
Hundreds of millions of people, if not billions, are currently enduring higher than average temperatures sometimes reaching up 48 degrees Celsius or 120 degrees Fahrenheit or even beyond. Drought is putting pressure on water supplies basically everywhere around the world. And El Nino is activating, which will only do further damage.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
Here is the archive of important pieces of analysis from throughout the war that we’ve collected.
This week’s first update is here in the comments.
This week’s second and third update have done the Dragonball Z fusion dance and created this long-ass thing that took me… a while to get done.
Links and Stuff
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can, thank you.
Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. I recommend their map more than the channel at this point, as an increasing subscriber count has greatly diminished their quality.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have decent analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources. Beware of chuddery.
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.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent journalist reporting in the warzone.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
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 still quite reactionary in terms of gender and sexuality and race, so beware). 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 ~ Another 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’s army.
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
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.
Last week’s discussion post.
Anyone have anything about the snipers during maidan? I seem to remember a lot of sus things about them potentially being members of the fascist groups but my recollection of it is quite vague for me now and I don’t have bookmarks.
I’m not familiar with this study. This is interesting. Need to have a thorough read.
I was going to post this research paper too. A lot of the supporting evidence and publicly available citations, including ones added after publication, are pretty convincing that at least some of the shots that killed protestors came from Maidan-controlled buildings. Obviously this doesn’t discount that many of the Maidan dead were killed members of the police units.
This video appendix is short and easily digestible, focusing specifically on the sniper or snipers shooting from the Hotel Ukraina.
In trying to find these again it seems the author has also added an updated and much more detailed video presentation of the paper’s findings but it’s over an hour long and I haven’t done more than skip through it yet.
(It’s late, but I can’t sleep, so this is becoming an effort-post I guess - Edit: had some trouble posting this yesterday, so have broken it into two.)
Nearly all the reporting, including from mainstream NATO-country sources, seems to at least acknowledge the shootings from the Maidan controlled buildings like the Music Conservatory and the Hotel Ukraina until at least 2016, albiet without directly apportioning blame or drawing conclusions that there may have also been Maidan/Maidan-disguised snipers. This one from the BBC for example mostly promotes the post-Maidan Interior Ministry’s narrative, but still acknowledges reports and evidence of potential opposition shooters at the Hotel Ukraina in passing. The fact that some of these, like the BBC article someone posted below, have been pulled (despite only acknowledging evidence and not even making any claims) much later is definitely suspect.
Even more suspect (sometimes absurd) is a lot of the claims from the Maidan government/newly instanlled SBU after the regime change that there were no snipers or gunmen of any kind in Music Conservatory or the Hotel Ukraina despite footage and photographs from multiple news sources showing it. It’s such an obviously provable lie and seemingly just a blanket denial so they don’t have to talk about it at all.
Even StopFake.org - the ‘Snopes’ for Ukraine that mysteriously sprung up in 2014 - doesn’t go that far. Despite running countless articles defending the likes of Right Sector and Azov, while seemingly everything branding everything other than the post-2014 party line as Russian disinfo, even they obsfucate by debunking easily disprovable and obviously false images from online memes etc like this one without actually focusing on or addressing the larger, more important claims like ‘Why was Right Sector occupying a floor of the Hotel Ukraina where BBC footage shows sniper fire?’. Instead just going, actually the photo used in this social media post was Right Sector leaving a different hotel, so everything is Russian disinfo.
Just for good measure, I took a look at who runs the day to day operations of StopFake.org, which wasn’t hard as they put their resumés on the about us section. The co-founder and editor in chief is connected to numerous American universities, including the ‘Media at Risk’ think tank which has only Ukrainian visiting scholars on it’s books.. The deputy editor in chief is a regular speaker on infomation warfare at NATO conferences and her ‘Learn to Discern’ project is funded exclusively by the Ukrainian, American, & British governments. And the executive director was literally the editor for the Ukrainian version of US state-funded propaganda outlet Voice of America.
Strange then that even mainstream NATO country media from the time is full of open admissions that there were both snipers in the Hotel Ukraina and that it was also full of Right Sector. For example, I’ve included an interesting quote and snippet from this very conventional reporting by the Guardian in 2014 on the sniper killings.
Borisy, 22, a rightwing nationalist activist, also claimed there were snipers in the area of the hotel. Three middle-aged Svoboda party officials armed with pistols prowled the stairs and the upper floors of the hotel looking for police snipers. Borisy said his colleagues had found five empty crates of Kalashnikov bullets, 870 in each one. He offered a lid from one of the boxes as evidence.
So the post-2014 government, SBU, and associated party media/disinfo puppets either flatly deny or refuse to address and obfuscate the presence of snipers and the likes of Right Sector in the hotel (and music conservatory) despite the fact that there’s plenty of footage, testimonials, and quotes from the time that prove it - even from the likes of the BBC and the Guardian.
Why go with such an absurd lie, instead something more believable like like an undercover Berkut officer amongst their ranks? Unless your only goal is to try and insist that no one ever looks into those particular buildings at all and that any attempt to do so is Russian disinfo.
https://www.rt.com/russia/579602-big-lie-behind-modern-ukraine/
First link in the article:
https://brill.com/view/journals/rupo/8/2/article-p181_5.xml
BBC has deleted their linked article lol
BBC has deleted their linked article lol
Very sussy https://archive.is/cjHkh
Damn that’s messed up. As an American there was a disconnect with the mainstream reporting at the time. they said protesters had shot police with rifles and then got mad when the state cracked down, because this just, DBP or death by police in the US
New education standards signed into law by Meatball Ron under the Stop WOKE Act to teach Florida children that the Minions from Despicable Me, not African slaves, we’re largely responsible for picking cotton in the south
Seems like today is the beginning of something big.
The TL;DR of the past few months is Russia set up their defences in the south in preperation of the Ukrainian offensive while simultaniously(suring the siege of Bakhmut over the past 6 months) they’ve built a sizeable army in the eastern border towards Liman.
The reports is right now they have over 100k troops and 900+ tanks.
So the big news is it seems the Russians are timidly launching their own summer offensive. Timid because we don’t know obviously the complete details but it is rare to get simultanious reports from all the the usual channels saying the same thing.
Weeb Union - RUAF 100k Offensive BEGINS | AFU Devastating Losses 23/07/23(start from 3:00)
google translation
The development of the offensive of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the Svatovo direction continues.
So, it is reported that our unit was able to successfully cross the Stallion River and occupy a number of heights on the other side, thereby expanding and deepening the bridgehead with an area of 5 by 7 km . At the same time, there are good trends towards the development of a further offensive in this sector.
In addition, according to a number of data, developing attacks from Karmazinovka , assault units of three motorized rifle brigades captured several strongholds of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Sources in the Armed Forces of Ukraine also state that the units of the Russian Armed Forces also have success in the forests near Kremennaya, where they managed to knock out the enemy from a number of oporniks and take control of the forest belts, gradually moving towards key heights controlled by the Ukrainian army.
Admission by DeepstateUA(biggest? pro-Ukrainian maps
google translation
Over the past three days, the enemy began pumping up his bridgehead near Karmazynivka under the cover of unlimited artillery shells
Katsap climbed from Karmazynivka , this section against the background of the rest was always calm and this significantly affected the events. An important role in this success of the enemy was played by a colossal advantage in artillery. The enemy “turned on the hail” even if he saw a couple of our fighters. Based on the situation, some units had to withdraw.
Currently, the Defense Forces are carrying out stabilization measures: a reserve has been introduced, and artillery is firing on targets near the crossing.
That’s all we can report for now. Wait for official comments.
In order to reduce speculation about events from channels that have no idea what’s going on, but regularly leak insiders, we will comment on changes on the map more often in the form of publications.
I should remind people that if you followed the Bahkmut saga you’ll remember all the usual commentators were calling it weeks in advance, specialy when Russia was able to get close to the supply roads leaving only one escape/supply route for the Ukrainians.
It was known for months that the Russians were gathering forces and there was obvious frustration and perhaps some naive wishes for “big arrow” offensives. They preferred to wait until they Ukrainians became desperate it seems.
This may not lead to anything but it is unusual reporting IMO, as I said, it is very rare to see everyone basicaly saying the same thing.
In more happier news, 125 years ago, on July 17, 1918, the autocratic and bloodthirsty Romanov dynasty ceased to exist thanks to Bolshevik bullets.
To be honest even the silly news of random children getting shot in the face/back while “trespassing” the wrong backyard in some dipshit American southern city, I think westerners in reality don’t seem to care much about the “children” unless its for a soundbite.
Also something something US “debating” school meals and such and libs doing literaly nothing to stop the children quite literaly next to them from starving…
Not sure if anybody saw that semi-recent Vsauce video on selfies or something like that where he goes into how one of the Tsar’s daughters was an avid photographer and then goes totally deadpan like “She was then murdered after being gunned down by the Bolsheviks.” I was just like “Man, the Bill Gates money has gotten to all the epic youtube learning guys, hasn’t it?” and never watched any of them again
The decree “On the use of special economic measures in foreign trade” is extended for two years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin extended until December 31, 2025, the validity of trade restrictions against non-friendly countries in response to Western sanctions.
The previous version of the decree “On the use of special economic measures in foreign trade” was initially issued on March 8, 2022, and was to be in effect until December 31, 2023.
The new document is now available on the official website of the Russian government for legal information.
The decree introduced restrictions on imports and exports of specific goods and raw materials, except those carried by individuals for personal use.
Such restrictions include process casings, telecommunications, and medical equipment previously imported into Russia, as well as motor vehicles, agricultural machinery, and electrical equipment.
Exports of certain types of timber, fertilizers, chemical raw materials, grain crops, and other items were also restricted.
The Russian countermeasure came after a group of nations imposed unilateral coercive measures against Moscow following its special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022.
