Due to American cluster bombing campaigns advised by Kissinger during the Vietnam War to damage supply lines, over 2 million tonnes of ordinance were dropped on Laos over about a decade, averaging a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes. Laos is thus the most bombed country on the planet up to this point. 80 million bombs failed to explode - the cleanup operation is expected to take centuries, and 25,000 people have been killed and injured by bombs in the last 50 years. About 50 people are killed or injured every year to this day.
After the United States withdrew from Laos, the Pathet Lao took power and abolished the monarchy. Kaysone Phomvihane became a dominant figure in Laotian politics, keeping the course on Marxism-Leninism and implementing the first Five Year Plan in 1981. The second Five Year Plan in 1986 was modelled on Lenin’s NEP, and this doubled rice production and significantly increased sugar production. After the fall of the USSR, Laos allowed a small capitalist class to exist, with similar control over them as in China. Laos maintains a 48-hour work week with paid sick leave, vacation time, and maternity leave, and workers are well-represented in trade unions. They faired relatively well during coronavirus from a social standpoint due to quick and efficient action to lock down the country, experiencing ~750 deaths out of a population of over 7 million.
There is hope even after utter destruction by genocidal oppressors.
The weekly update is here on the website.
Your Tuesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Wednesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Thursday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Friday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
The Country of the Week is Laos! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week’s thread is here.
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 daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
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.
I’ve been quite busy with random annoying life problems recently, so I haven’t exactly had time to devote to the beloved cuck n chad power rankings. We’re back baby. Russia vs Ukraine still gets the top row out of respect for our god ordained traditions.
| Gigachad | Chad | Neutral | Beta (Fe)Male | Virgin Cuck |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Putin (top spot for the first time, he has taken full control of the situation and slowly heading for the ultimate W) | Shoigu (he has redeemed himself, can’t deny the Ws anymore) | Western media (I respect the audacity of just dumping all your anti-Ukraine material as soon shit turned around) | Zaluzhny (he’s super cringe sometimes, but he might accidentally collapse the Ukraine state) | Zelensky (it’s so over for our actor boy) |
| Hamas, PIJ, Qassam and all resistance groups in Gaza (literally Allah’s bravest soliders) | Hezbollah (causing a headache for the occupier on the whole northern front) | Qatar (horrible track record when it comes to most issues, but they made the ceasefire possible) | Israeli “leftists” (bros heading for olympic medals in mental gymnastics) | dead IDF soliders (semen extracted?) |
| The people of Gaza (bravest people ever) | Iraqi and Yemeni resistance (ultimate respects for these chads) | Venezuela (don’t know what’s happening and war is bad, but I trust mustache boy Maduro) | Saudi Arabia and UAE (as an Arab, I feel a strong urge to spit in the face of every Saudi and Emirati) | Iranian diaspora (forever the worst diaspora, but reaching new levels of derangement recently) |
| Motaz Azaiza (this gigachad has gone through absolute hell and still delivers real journalism) | Gustavo Petro (I respect him so much, an average Latin American leader is more based than the best European) | Piers Morgan (his thirst for views keeps platforming great pro-Palestine voices) | George Santos (took a massive L this week, but this is not the end for our entertaining boy) | Olaf Scholz (this man will not stop sucking Israeli dick if there’s one Israeli dick left unsucked) |
don’t know what’s happening and war is bad, but I trust mustache boy Maduro
I’ve been furiously trying to work this one out and so far I’ve got
- region is massively underdeveloped, meaning very poor and a lack of education or employment - even by the standards of the lower middle income nation of Guyana
- Guyana’s claim to the region isn’t very strong on grounds of international law but has been the de facto status quo for over a century
- the region has long been “claimed” by the respective sovereigns of both countries for literally hundreds of years going back to the age of empires but hasn’t really been ruled by anyone in the sense of having the people provided for in a meaningful sense. It’s always been a place where resources are extracted and where you trade with the indigenous communities who mostly mind their own business
- the nation of Guyana is populated almost entirely by the descendants of African slaves and Indians who were brought in by the British and Dutch during the slaver era. This is overwhelmingly the bulk of the population who overwhelmingly live not in this region but along the eastern border and in Georgetown on the coast
- the disputed region is roughly 10-15% of the total population and is where the indigenous minority live, the indigenous minority making up about 10% of the population of Guyana
- I’ve seen it asserted by Venezuelan politicians that this indigenous minority feel a “kinship” with Venezuela but I don’t really understand what this claim is based on, and I’ve completely failed to find any kind of polling. I have found a couple of anecdotes from indigenous Guyanese saying they didn’t feel a connection with Georgetown that’s the closest I’ve found to a guide to actual sentiment of the local population so I consider the self determination of the resident population of the region an open question that is surprisingly difficult to answer
- Venezuelans definitely see the region as part of Venezuela
- the main opposition leader was against the referendum but the issue is so popular in Venezuela that he didn’t make it a party line and members of the main opposition were given a “conscience vote” and allowed to decide their position on an individual basis
- roughly half the opposition seem to be in favor of it, with the more hardline opposition calling this group sellouts
- there doesn’t seem to be evidence of an imminent invasion
- the referendum was a consultative one meaning it is more like an opinion poll to decide government policy. It has some vaguely defined legal force but it’s more like a tool to establish a political mandate for a policy choice rather than mandating specific actions or outcomes
That’s the background I’ve managed to put together, I would appreciate corrections and additions
The conflict itself
- basically it’s the Britishes fault
- in 1899 the USA “represented Venezuelas interests” treating Venezuela as a protectorate under the Monroe doctrine and “negotiating on their behalf” with the British empire, ceding about 90% of the territory to British Guyana
- Venezuela protested then but couldn’t do anything about it
- in the 1960s they officially repudiated the deal and the dispute reopened in the legal sense but nothing really happened.
- the outcome of the 1960s was a vague agreement that both sides agree to negotiate and if they can’t make a deal then it goes to the Sec Gen of the UN to decide
- nothing was agreed and it didn’t go to the Sec Gen, it just kind of stalled at this point in the 60s
- basically Guyana has no reason to negotiate because the status quo has them holding almost all of it so any deal would entail a loss of territory hence no deal
- Chavez basically ignored the issue, apparently on the advice of Fidel to not stir shit up but towards the end of his time in office he started to stir some shit up about it but basically the status quo remained in place
- the reason why things have changed now is that Guyana recently became very oil rich and a significant minor portion of this oil is in the sea shelf off the coasts of Guyana and Venezuela
- Guyana applied to have these sea shelf’s recognized as their EEZ which triggered a protest from Venezuela and so the issue of the EEZ has not been decided since that decision is predicated on no ongoing border disputes
- Guyana made some deals with ExxonMobil anyway which is forcing Venezuela’s hand here, so it’s not as simple as a cash grab (although probably that plays a role) but Guyana is forcing the issue by treating the area as its sovereign territory (in the past it was easy to let the issue lie dormant since nothing much was happening here aside from impoverish indigenous village life)
- Guyana has referred to the 1960s agreement and sought a border dispute from the Sec Gen of the UN who deferred the decision to the ICJ
- Venezuela says 80 years of bad faith from Guyana made that void since there were no good faith negotiations, and also claims that by moving forward with economic exploitation and claiming the EEZ before settling the dispute is bad faith that invalidates the agreement which makes requesting a decision from the Sec Gen and thus the ICJ invalid
My take so far is that the claims of “rightful sovereignty” are all colonial era shit anyway on both sides - who gives a shit if the Dutch or the Spanish got there first 400 years ago it wasn’t theirs to begin with - and what matters to my thinking is the rights and desires of the indigenous people who live there but that’s the one thing I just cannot find any guide on, aside from statements by the Venezuelan government (who I don’t assume to be lying but obviously that’s not sufficient) and I can only find several anecdotes shared to journalists (which isn’t an adequate substitute and only indicated a sense of profound disconnection from Guyana rather than a sense of connection with Venezuela.)
The best proxy for this I have is the very clear sense among Venezuelans that they have a connection to this land and so I assume there is probably some connection in fact existing between the indigenous groups on both sides of the border but I just cannot find much at all about the opinions of indigenous Guyanese.
Also it would be an L for US power in the region.
One funny part of this is that Exxon is dealing with both sides, making deals to further develop Venezuelan oil deposits while also working with Guyana despite the existence of a recognized EEZ so Exxon are W’ing no matter what, which might be sufficient to keep Uncle Sam from getting involved. I wonder too if the timing of it coinciding with a geopolitical detente between Venezuela and the US means Venezuela has some tacit green light from the state department which would make it eerily similar to the start of the first Iraq war.
In summary I don’t know what’s going on either but venceremos.
Sending in Olaf Scholz to suck the cum out of dead Israeli soldiers as part of the Israeli Cum Brigades. For some reason he also insists on licking their charred boots, he can’t go one hour without the taste of boot leather in his mouth and I guess it’s even better when properly roasted
