Image is of Elon Musk giving the Nazi salute a week or so ago.

I didn’t really want to keep spotlighting American domestic events as I had assumed that shit would calm down pretty quickly, but it appears that the Trump administration, including Musk, are determined to bring down the empire from the inside.

One of the most important lessons of ruling a country - and especially an empire - is to never, ever believe your own propaganda; and yet now we have neo-Nazi failsons disrupting parts of the imperial apparatus and causing general government mayhem because they actually seem to believe in libertarianism; that the state and the capitalists are somehow in opposition, rather than working in lockstep to maximise profit and boost American hegemony around the world.

I’m not so optimistic as to believe that a national collapse is FOUR DAYS AWAY, like those weird anti-China cranks often speculate - the US has at least a decade or two left even under these conditions. But consider the damage being inflicted in these past couple weeks, and extrapolate that over the next four years. Does any living American political figure possess the competency to halt - or even meaningfully slow - the already ongoing decline? And could they achieve power (or even be allowed to do so) after Trump’s term is done?

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

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

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.

  • xiaohongshu [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    34·
    5 hours ago

    What we know about China’s retaliatory measures against the US

    As we reported earlier, China’s Finance Ministry has slapped tariffs on certain American items in retaliation for the Trump administration’s 10 percent tariff on all Chinese goods entering the US.

    Here are more details on China’s tit for tat levies:

    • Starting on February 10, China will impose levies of 15 percent for US coal and LNG and 10% for crude oil, farm equipment and some autos.
    • China’s Commerce Ministry and its Customs Administration said the country is also imposing export controls on tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum and ruthenium-related items to “safeguard national security interests”.
    • China’s anti-monopoly regulator has also announced it is launching an investigation into Google, without offering details. Google products, including its search engine, are blocked in China, but it works with local partners, including advertisers, in the country.
    • KuroXppi [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      11·
      4 hours ago

      tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum and ruthenium-related

      I’m not a mineral-head but some of those sound made up. They should ban exports of unobtanium just to really rub it in

      • Coolkidbozzy [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        1·
        23 minutes ago

        wait until you hear about the Chinese monopoly on dysprosium, terbium, and praseodymium

        I swear someone keeps adding fake elements to the lanthanide row when nobody is looking. The only real element is neodymium, the crazy magnet element

  • VILenin [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    43·
    8 hours ago

    lol all that Canadian defiance and “we will never retreat!!!” was just piss in the wind, just as everybody already knew

    • niph [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      40·
      6 hours ago

      I don’t understand why everyone seems to be buying Trump’s propaganda that Canada and Mexico are caving in, when it seems obvious that they’ve just successfully fobbed him off with bs promises that cost them very little

      • TheLastHero [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        9·
        3 hours ago

        the Mexican border guard postings might as well be a domestic jobs program. that’s not even a real concession, usually nations pay to get foreign militaries away from borderlands. I think Sheinbaum or her team really got one over on trump/rubio there. The Canadian deal is just “drugs are terrorism” policies to mask civil repression, which is something they were already doing. And the opportunity to create a new alphabet agency for “counterterrorism” is like Christmas day for feds of all nationalities.

        Actually these “deals” are so cheap I feel trump has to be trying to come back for more in a month

        • CTHlurker [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          3·
          43 minutes ago

          I seem to recall a WTYP episode about the Train Maya, where the mexican guest-host talked about the Mexican Army having quite a lot of influence on Mexican politics, and that AMLO was kind of afraid of potentially getting couped by the army, which was why his reforms couldn’t fundamentally touch the main points of corruption/sidedealing within the army. Some of that might have been cope that AMLO wasn’t as radical as some people hoped for, but it was probably also true to an extent, particularly given that previous links between the Mexican army and the US.

    • TheModerateTankie [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      42·
      7 hours ago

      Canada agreed to implement a plan they already agreed to under Biden

      Public Safety is coordinating the $1.3-billion effort to further strengthen the border, and disrupt illegal cross-border activity.

      January 15, 2025

      Basically giving Trump a propaganda victory to get him to shut up for a month.

      • VILenin [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        16·
        4 hours ago

        So Canada had already caved to the US, then pretended to put up resistance for a few days, then went back to doing their usual business. Still really dumb of the libs to have thought that they were every going to seriously defy the US though

  • sempersigh [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    48·
    9 hours ago

    FT

    Donald Trump wants Ukrainian rare earths deal in return for US military support US proposal appears to align with President Zelenskyy’s strategy to keep Washington onside

    President Donald Trump on Monday said he wanted a deal granting the US access to Ukraine’s rare earths resources in exchange for continued military and economic aid to Kyiv as it struggles to halt Russia’s invasion. The proposal appears to align with a strategy Ukraine has been developing to deepen ties with the Trump administration by allowing the US access to critical minerals used in high-tech industries. Speaking at the White House, Trump reiterated complaints that Washington had provided more support to Ukraine than its European allies. “We’re looking to do a deal where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things,” he said of Ukraine. Trump suggested Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government was open to it. “We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars,” said Trump. “They have great rare earth. And I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it.” A person close to Zelenskyy told the Financial Times that Trump’s remarks “seem to align with the ‘victory plan’ presented to him in the fall”. The person said Ukraine had offered Trump “special terms” for co-operation on key resources, stressing the need to protect them from Russia and Iran. “Of course, we are ready to work with America,” the person added. Zelenskyy presented an outline of the plan to Trump in New York last September during the US election campaign. It includes the sharing of critical natural resources with western partners, replacing US troops in Europe with Ukrainian forces and offering Trump investment screening powers to block Chinese business interests in Ukraine. Kyiv holds vast reserves of titanium, iron ore and coal, as well as about 500,000 tonnes of untapped lithium, collectively estimated to be worth tens of trillions of dollars. Some of these resources are at risk of being lost to Russia’s advancing forces in Ukraine’s east, or have already fallen under Russian occupation. “Control over mineral resources has become a part of the war,” said Mustafa Nayyem, the former head of Ukraine’s state agency for restoration and infrastructure development. The country is not only fighting for its territory, he added, “but also for the right to manage its strategic wealth, which could be a crucial factor in its recovery”. Trump has vowed to bring a swift end to Russia’s war against Ukraine. He previously said his administration had held “very serious” talks with Russia over the war. “We made a lot of progress on Russia, Ukraine,” Trump said on Monday. “We’ll see what happens. We’re going to stop that ridiculous war.” While supportive of Trump’s enthusiasm to bring the three-year war to an end, the American leader’s suggestion that he had formulated part of a plan with Russia without Ukraine has irked leaders in Kyiv. Speaking to the Associated Press on Saturday, Zelenskyy said his team had engaged with Trump’s advisers and expected in-person meetings soon. “They may have their own relations, but talking about Ukraine without us — it is dangerous for everyone,” Zelenskyy said.

  • xiaohongshu [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    53·
    9 hours ago

    Trump to speak with China’s Xi after hiking tariffs, White House says

    The call will be Trump and Xi’s first known talks since Trump took office on Jan. 20. They previously spoke before Trump’s inauguration.

    “It’ll happen in the next couple of days,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said of the latest call.

    …

    “China hopefully is going to stop sending us fentanyl, and if they’re not, the tariffs are going to go substantially higher,” said Trump. “China will be dealt with,” he added.

    China, which has long called tariffs counterproductive, offered relatively muted criticism of the tariffs and signaled an openness to talks.

    The country’s government appeared poised to seek a deal with Trump that could delay or stop tariffs, according to a person familiar with the matter.

    The U.S. dollar hit a record high against the Chinese yuan traded offshore and was hovering near those levels on Monday.

    Here comes the main show. The others are just side shows, sorry.

    • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      36·
      9 hours ago

      I’ve been focussing elsewhere so I’m not up to date on the whole China fentanyl thing; is this something the US made up as a casus belli to tariff China or is it just “China makes everything so they also make fentanyl and it finds its way to the US”?

      either way, I’m assuming that China will fold on whatever Trump wants here

      • Sulv [he/him, undecided]@hexbear.netEnglish
        21·
        6 hours ago

        China has acknowledged the issue and made steps to prevent it

        The Justice Department acknowledges the efforts of the People’s Republic of China, Ministry of Public Security. The following companies are out of operation now: Jiangsu Jiyi Chemical, Tianjin Furuntongda Tech Co. Ltd, Wuhan Jinshang Import & Export Trading Co. Ltd., Hubei Shanglin Trading Co., and Wuhan Mingyue Information Technology.

        In addition, DEA Administrator Milgram said, “I would also like to recognize the work done by the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Public Security in taking action to schedule protonitazene, piperidone, and 1-BOC-4-AP, which were not scheduled at the time of these investigations, but have now been scheduled.”

        Specific instances

        Guangzhou Tengyue Chemical Co. Ltd., based in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China, was charged with attempted importation of protonitazene, along with Chinese national Xiaojun Huang, who allegedly maintained a Bitcoin wallet for the remittance of payments for illicit synthetic opioids on the company’s behalf.

        Hubei Shanglin Trading Co., based in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, was charged with attempted international money laundering, along with Chinese national Zhihan Wang, who was the alleged registered owner of a Bitcoin wallet associated with the company utilized to complete the sale of fentanyl precursors.

        Jiangsu Jiyi Chemical, based in Beijing, Hebei Province, China, was charged with attempted importation of protonitazene, along with Ji Zhaohui, a Chinese national, who was the alleged holder of the Bitcoin wallet associated with the company.

        Tianjin Furuntongda Tech Co. Ltd, based in Tianjin, Hebei Province, China, was charged with attempted importation of fentanyl precursors, along with Wenxing Gao, a Chinese national, who was the alleged registered agent of Tianjin Furuntongda and the owner of a cryptocurrency wallet associated with the company.

        Wuhan Jinshang Import & Export Trading Co. Ltd., based in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, was charged with attempted importation of protonitazene, attempted importation of a fentanyl precursor, and attempted international money laundering, along with Wenying Nie, a Chinese national, who was the alleged holder of a Bitcoin wallet associated with the company.

        Wuhan Mingyue Information Technology, based in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, was charged with attempted importation of fentanyl precursors and attempted international money laundering, along with Chinese national Huanhuan Song, who was the alleged recipient of funds via Western Union on the company’s behalf and the alleged holder of a cryptocurrency wallet associated with the company.

        Henan Oumeng Trade Co. Ltd., based in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China, was charged with attempted importation of protonitazene and attempted international money laundering, along with Yinxia Zhao, a Chinese national, who was the alleged holder of the Bitcoin wallet associated with the company.

        Shanghai Senria New Materials Co. Ltd. doing business as Shanghai Senria Biotechnology Co. Ltd., based in the Fengxian District of Shanghai, China, was charged with attempted importation of protonitazene and attempted international money laundering, along with Zhenbo Han, a Chinese national, who was the alleged holder of the Bitcoin wallet associated with the company.

      • junebug2 [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
        29·
        8 hours ago

        The Fox News-tier story that’s been pushed around for the last few years is that Communist Triads (yes, seriously) are sending fentanyl one step away from being synthesized over seas, and the last step is done in Mexico or Canada. This dodges all customs, and furthers the nefarious plot to undermine our sacred and precious democracy. This explains a little why China, Mexico, and Canada are all part of the fentanyl thing in Trump’s mind. Warning for The New York Post, but it’s a good brainworm sample.

        In reality, China has the largest chemical industry in the world, and makes most every precursor chemical used in USamerica. This includes chemicals used by pharmaceutical companies, and maybe savvy consumers, to make fentanyl and carfentanyl. Most precursors are some type of piperidone, and most of those are already List 1 chemicals. If you have the knowledge and equipment, you can synthesize fentanyl without using any of those precursors. You could also make your own piperidone the long way from black pepper. Is this a thing Trump will bring up and threaten about? Yes. There isn’t really a reality to the narrative though, so idk how China can fold towards the fantasy story.

      • xiaohongshu [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
        34·
        9 hours ago

        Trump’s logic is “China has been robbing us for so long” which is the exact opposite from what has been happening: that America has been getting free goods and services made from hardworking Chinese labor for years. That was the excuse last time. I don’t know about the fentanyl but he made up any excuse he wanted last time to commence a trade war with China.

        We simply have to wait and see what the negotiations look like, which could take months and over many rounds, just like last time. Trump has also said that he will visit China in the first 100 days, so this could be a preliminary step towards that.

        In any case, out of all the countries Trump has threatened, China is the only one that has the capacity to fight back. So it will be interesting to see what Trump actually wants here, and how much he is willing to offer/negotiate.

        I’d expect some kind of win-win agreement coming out of this, but Trump is also known to be very inconsistent so who knows how much China is going to trust his words.

    • DefinitelyNotAPhone [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      8·
      4 hours ago

      I wonder if the uptick in actual human opinions in that comment section represents a shift in online spaces now that the usual propaganda arms are being gutted. Good on people for ripping into him for this bullshit.

    • MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      39·
      8 hours ago

      The libs are in full defeat and cope mode. And the more Trump comes up with “wins” to the media and his supporters, the worse the libs are going to get. I don’t think the libs understand just how badly they’ve lost/failed yet. Two thirds of US citizens support the deportation of illegal immigrants now, nearly three quarters of Americans support a ban on puberty blockers for transgender minors. It’s a really bad situation and I don’t think that the libs grasp this reality. The Democrat-NGO-media complex has been an abject failure in the advocacy of people’s human rights.

      • TheModerateTankie [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
        20·
        7 hours ago

        When the cost of living goes up, and people can’t find housing, immigrants are an easy scapegoat. This current fascist swing is largely a result of Dems letting billionaires rob us blind and refusing to do a damn thing about it. Trump and Elon are guaranteeing more economic strife so we will have four more years of this bullshit at the very least. In the end the “centrist” position will be “of course I agree with immigrant slavery, but the slave camps should be run humanely!”

      • Boise_Idaho [null/void, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
        24·
        8 hours ago

        The Democrat-NGO-media complex has been an abject failure in the advocacy of people’s human rights.

        I think pinkwashing has outlived its usefulness, partly due to how pinkwashing is so closely tied to the Zionist entity which has no international credibility at this point. Whatever progress people think has been made for queer rights will be unceremoniously rolled back, including gay marriage. We have reached the point where people can point to a color revolution by counting the number of visibly queer people and rainbow flags found within a protest and queerphobia gets rolled into an incredibly vulgar form of anti-imperialism.

        • Lemister [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
          3·
          1 hour ago

          Also this. People are turning more reactionary, the elite never was “woke” in the first place nor were 98% of the hollywood/media darlings. Any sense of anti-establishment faux-progressive language hold, should have died when the CIA used it in their PR career video.

      • VILenin [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        25·
        8 hours ago

        The Democrat-NGO-media complex has never had the advocacy of human rights as one of its goals. They’re probably overcome with joy at the prospect of the next four years of fundraising.

      • Cammy [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
        29·
        6 hours ago

        The cracks were there from the beginning, but I was still disappointed he gave credibility to blaming China for covid.

  • MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    46·
    9 hours ago

    There had been more US military activity around México. A United States Air Force RC-135V “Rivet Joint” Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft flew right up the Gulf of California/Sea of Cortez, likely spying on communications inside México by the military and cartels and even civilians if they want to. While US military aircraft have flown on the west side of the Baja California coastline before, this is the first time in recent years, to my knowledge, that a US military aircraft has flown within the Gulf of California itself.

    Now did this US military aircraft enter Mexican airspace? There are many misinformed accounts on social media that will say yes, but the truth is, technically and legally, no, this US military aircraft did not enter Mexican airspace. A state’s territorial sea extends up to 12 nmi (22 km; 14 mi) from it’s baseline. This sea, including the airspace above it, is the sovereign territory of that nation. Anything outside of that is technically international waters (and airspace). I’ll post an image here showing the territorial airspace and seas of Mexico.

    Many misinformed social media accounts have confused the concepts of Flight Information Regions (FIR) and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) with a nation’s territorial/sovereign waters and airspace. I think the source of this misinformation is because AI LLMs like Google AI, Gork, and ChatGPT also confuse this concept, so OSINT social media accounts using these LLMs to do research just blindly believed their output. Please do not believe everything AI models say, they are often incorrect.

    The RC-135V aircraft made sure to stay clear of this 12 nautical mile border/demarcation, and U-turned before entering Mexican sovereign territory under international law. But the USA has now exercised freedom of navigation rights with a military aircraft in the Gulf of California, in the context of recent events.

    • Torenico [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      23·
      8 hours ago

      Wow damn that’s an insane provocation regardless if the SIGINT aircraft entered Mexico’s airspace or not. They clearly have bellicose intentions, it matters little if they’re flying over international waters or just outright neutral territory.

      Risky shit, they must be cooking something or maybe they’re doing this to put pressure on Mexico. Dangerous times indeed.

    • edge [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      34·
      9 hours ago

      Reminder that Taiwan (and the US on its behalf) gets pissy whenever China flies a military aircraft over a zone that has more mainland Chinese land than all Taiwanese land.

      • MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        26·
        9 hours ago

        That has to do with their Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) and the median line, which is not sovereign /territorial Taiwanese airspace. ADIZs are not recognised by any international treaties or bodies. Here’s a graphic that shows the difference. The dotted line around Taiwan is their territorial airspace. China does not violate this territorial airspace or waters, they enter the ADIZ to continually exercise their freedom of navigation right recognised by international law, in the same way that countries like the USA and Russia do. The US has gone to war over freedom of navigation before, just research all the incidents with Libya around the Gulf of Sidra.

    • CleverOleg [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      15·
      7 hours ago

      The benefit to Trump would be that this fund would presumably be under the control of the executive, so he’d be getting a slush fund worth potentially trillions. He’s currently limited in that Congress unambiguously controls the purse strings. Use your own imagination as to the possibilities for corruption or ideological warfare.

      For ghouls like Bessent and the capitalists, it seems they are thinking of taking the federal government’s real assets that are not currently on their balance sheet (think Yosemite National Park) and financializing them. Maybe selling them (which probably requires congressional involvement now but if it’s instead in this fund maybe Trump actually could sell it with the stroke of a pen), maybe just moving things like income from drilling rights out of the Treasury and over to this fund.

      The doomsday scenario - which I am not saying plausible, but just taking this to a logical extreme - is that the executive branch ends up with a huge pile of assets generating income or can borrowed against, that would allow a president to do whatever they want, basically forming its own government within a government, so to speak.

    • JohnBrownsBussy2 [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      40·
      11 hours ago

      To me, this seems like a way to go around congress when it comes to funding allocation: move tariff revenues and “cost-savings” from federal fund impoundment to a fund and then use it to pay for presidential priorities/graft.

      • mkultrawide [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
        21·
        9 hours ago

        I think it’s more a way for him to go around the Fed than Congress, but the initial money is going to have to come from somewhere, and until the fund is collecting interest, only Congress is going to be able to do that. There’s definitely a constitutional question over whether or not any revenue generated falls under the control of Congress

  • Redcuban1959 [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    60·
    12 hours ago

    Reports from Panama of arrests and home raids against student leader participants of the anti-Marco Rubio protests held in the Panamanian capital.

    Even the liberal media have been reporting protests against the US in Panama, something very rare given that Panama is one of the US’s closest allies in Latin America. Picture of Rubio in Nazi Uniform Burning.