Image is a frame taken from this video of Iranian missiles raining down on Israel without interception due to a weak and depleted air defense system after a year of war and genocide.
Mao, 1956:
Now U.S. imperialism is quite powerful, but in reality it isn't. It is very weak politically because it is divorced from the masses of the people and is disliked by everybody and by the American people too. In appearance it is very powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of, it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain. I believe the United States is nothing but a paper tiger.
When we say U.S. imperialism is a paper tiger, we are speaking in terms of strategy. Regarding it as a whole, we must despise it. But regarding each part, we must take it seriously. It has claws and fangs. We have to destroy it piecemeal. For instance, if it has ten fangs, knock off one the first time, and there will be nine left, knock off another, and there will be eight left. When all the fangs are gone, it will still have claws. If we deal with it step by step and in earnest, we will certainly succeed in the end.
Strategically, we must utterly despise U.S. imperialism. Tactically, we must take it seriously. In struggling against it, we must take each battle, each encounter, seriously. At present, the United States is powerful, but when looked at in a broader perspective, as a whole and from a long-term viewpoint, it has no popular support, its policies are disliked by the people, because it oppresses and exploits them. For this reason, the tiger is doomed. Therefore, it is nothing to be afraid of and can be despised. But today the United States still has strength, turning out more than 100 million tons of steel a year and hitting out everywhere. That is why we must continue to wage struggles against it, fight it with all our might and wrest one position after another from it. And that takes time.
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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.
This article is written from the perspective that the US is not actively planning to start a war with China in 2027.
When you put that in the equation you can't possibly make statements like "balance its relationships with both Russia and the West". China is not doing that, they are not so naive.
There is not going to be a conventional war with China. The US military plus all its allies simply do not have the military capacity to do so. The military escalations from the US should be seen as part of its strategy to reshape the global geopolitical landscape to the image that it wants.
The article literally quoted a lib (and there are many others I assure you) who think Russia will lose in Ukraine lol. These are the kind of people we’re dealing with.
The US navy is openly planning war under the operation name "Project 33" https://www.navy.mil/Portals/1/CNO/NAVPLAN2024/Files/CNO_NAVPLAN_2024_50Sat.pdf
Yes, but it’s not going to happen. You have to learn to read the intentions of the US imperialist strategy here.
Just like how a lot of people mistook Biden’s tariffs on Chinese EVs and solar panels as indication of US wanting to protect its own industries and compete with China on green technology, when the actual intention was to scare the Chinese libs into opening up their capital markets. This is already happening, and the Chinese libs fell for it hook, line and sinker. The US empire is never going to re-industrialize, it’s dominance and exploitation on the Global South until the end.
Similarly, there is no way that the US can defeat China or Russia in a conventional war. This is why they are sending in outdated equipments to Ukraine for them to be blown up. None of that was a serious attempt at fighting Russia, but it was good for the US economy because of how GDP is calculated (which affects the strength of its currency) and how capital can flow into the defense industry every time a piece of military equipment is blown up.
The battle line between US and China is going to be fought on the financial front, and if the US cannot win this fight, escalates into a hot war. That can only mean a nuclear war. This is the only shot the US can temporarily get out of its predicament before crumbling under the weights of its own contradictions.
Wasn't the further opening up the capital markets directive published in early April with Biden's tariffs coming in May?
(Not that this impacts your argument, if I remember the sequence correctly - continuing on opening up after the slap in the face from the US still adds weight to your point)
Actually, one more thing.
What is your basis for the claim that that was untrue, especially considering that NATO's engineers did seem to conclude that the PRC would have significantly hurt their manufacturers if not stopped in this manner? On what basis do you conclude that the tariffs do not help NATO's domestic manufacturers?
Do I have news for you
Holy shit America. You've done nothing but lose wars against tiny countries for the last few decades and you still think you can take on a Superpower? During an economic crash? While army recruitment is at an all time low?! While you're funding multiple proxy wars?!?!
How can one country be so dumb?!