A week ago, the Bolivian left-wing party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), currently led by Luis Arce, decisively lost the round of elections against the right-wing. This comes after a prolonged period of “infighting” between Arce, and Morales, who previously led the MAS prior to the 2019 coup which briefly installed Jeanine Anez.
I put infighting in quotes because despite the nominal similarities between Arce and Morales, it is clear that this is not merely a counterproductive battle between two men - instead, the Bolivian left has arrived at a time of unavoidable conflict between two competing strategies. The electoral strategy is represented by Arce, who has aligned himself with a more middle-class-oriented campaign that is more economically liberal, whereas Morales represents a more working-class-oriented campaign that seeks to go further than tepid reform.
Such a conflict between electoralism and revolutionary action is inevitable in any and every developing country that 1) possesses a functioning left-wing party or organization, and 2) is under internal and/or external pressure by capitalists. This crisis must be resolved eventually - and this electoral failure is how such a crisis is manifesting right now. So while the Bolivian left has indeed lost the election, it is not yet defeated. The revolutionary campaign can, if it is willing, still ultimately stand triumphant. But what must be done is a real movement towards socialism, which goes beyond technocrats reforming from above, and instead transforms the state into a full political project of the working class, in which their movements, organizations, and protests are genuinely empowered. Such a project will involve repression by the forces of reaction, not least by the United States, but it is the only road left to take.
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.
Israel'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 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.
The chief of Iraq’s Al-Sawa’ed tribe gifted Iranian news anchor, Sahar Emami, a gold necklace bearing the image of Ayatollah Khamenei, for her courageous live broadcast during the Israeli attack on the IRIB building.
@PressTV
In order to “thwart” “anti-semitic and anti-israel bias” the US government is requesting the user data of everyone on earth who edited Wikipedia since January 2023.
The US Navy and Marines deployment off of the coast of Venezuela has escalated in scope and assets. The only AN/APS-154 (Advanced Airborne Sensor) and MUOS (Satellite communications) dual equipped P-8A Poseidon aircraft has arrived in Puerto Rico. This specific P-8A is the only one in service with both upgrades, and joins two others (without them) already stationed at Puerto Rico. Think of it as an AWACS aircraft, but for surface targets. More US Navy vessels are also on the way, a guided missile cruiser and submarine.
Dems created a dark money PAC that was funnelling cash to pro-Dem influencers… all of them were already in the tank for the Dems anyway. And they aren’t trying to reach new people, they are all just running lib podcasts. Their quest to create a “liberal Joe Rogan” (=reward themselves and their friends & relatives) is going great! The only names I even recognize are David Pakman and Olivia Julianna. Oh, and also the person running the “Occupy Dems” account.
Miscellaneous news multipost:
Colorado chronic absenteeism has yet to recover from the pandemic with hundreds of thousands of kids frequently missing school last year. American education continues to decline and America’s fall in STEM has only started. — The Denver Post
continues to be a pedophile country with a senior Israeli official evading pre trial hearings on his child molestation case — Al Jazeera“Alligator Alcatraz” is emptying out and is likely to fully close shortly according to the concentration camp’s Rabbi, Mario Rojzman. — South China Morning Post
Did the chuds finally get their trans liberal mass shooter? They’ve been wishcasting it for so fucking long. I still don’t know that I fully believe it but I haven’t seen reliable evidence either way. Lot of the usual rumors circulating
Argentinian President Javier Milei had to be rushed out of a motorcade on Wednesday. According to local media, men threw stones and bottles at the Argentinian leader. A spokesperson said that no one was injured.
The motorcade was part of an event organized by Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances), in the city of Lomas de Zamora, south of Greater Buenos Aires. The president was accompanied by Congressman José Luis Espert, one of the leading candidates in October’s legislative elections. Images circulating on social media show Milei waving to people from the back of a pickup truck when a riot breaks out. Other videos show Espert leaving the scene on a motorcycle without a helmet.
Milei is currently experiencing a crisis in Argentina, with allegations of corruption. On August 22, the courts conducted searches as part of an investigation into an alleged kickback scheme involving high-ranking government officials and the president’s own sister, Karina Milei.
Amid the crisis, Milei is also preparing for the midterm elections in October, which are seen as a referendum on the president’s austerity agenda and market reforms. In recent months, Milei has suffered a series of defeats in Congress and even broke with Vice President Victoria Villarruel, who also presides over the Senate.
In July, the Senate approved, at the opposition’s initiative, increases in retirement and disability pensions. The government argued that the measure would compromise fiscal balance. Milei called Villarruel a “traitor” for allowing the session to take place. The vice president responded by saying that the president should “behave like an adult.”
In early August, Milei vetoed the approved increases. The House overturned the veto on funds for people with disabilities but upheld the presidential decision on pensions. Now, the final word will be up to the Senate.
Amid tensions with Congress, Milei’s approval rating fell eight percentage points in five weeks, reaching 41%. However, his party continues to lead voting intention polls for the legislative elections.
- Telegram
After they fired a couple hundred thousand federal workers they draped this banner over the department of labor building, lmao:
Don’t panic, things aren’t in greyscale and we don’t all have to wear matching uniforms or share the same spoon, so it’s not a dystopia 1984 yet.
Polizario footage showing the Moroccan military using donkeys and mules for logistics, and the liberation front using rocket artillary
https://xcancel.com/Milit1Polisario/status/1960050276863193379#m
sorry, I just wasn’t ready for my weapons to be used in, uh… a war? https://archive.ph/D8SGMKNDS Was Not Ready For Wartime Repairs, Delayed PzH 2000, Gepard Fixes by a Year
KNDS Deutschland admitted that the real war realities were far from its expectations, and establishing proper repairs of German weapons was delayed for a whole year — the main reason was conceptual. Criticism towards German defense manufacturers about their organization of heavy military equipment repairs dates back to at least 2022. Back then, up to half of all PzH 2000 self-propelled artillery systems could be waiting for or in repair instead of service, and the leadership could not tell where the repair hubs should be opened until they ultimately decided to set up the vital facilities right in Ukraine. First, Rheinmetall opened its service center in Ukraine, then KNDS Deutschland, the German offshoot of the international defense giant, followed suit. The process took an extra year, said Ralph Ketzel, CEO of KNDS Deutschland, and named the key reasons for such a delay in an interview with DW. The principal problem was that the German side did not fully understand how combat equipment is repaired during wartime, Ketzel admitted, and pointed at the PzH 2000 as a good example of that:
"I must admit that conceptually we are about a year behind [schedule] in terms of repairs. Why did this happen? Because we are used to the ground forces, unlike the aviation, treating their equipment as consumables. In other words, when we supplied the first systems in early 2023, we thought we would have to supply completely new self-propelled guns afterward, not repair them. About a year later, we visited Ukraine, and it became clear that the repairs carried out directly by the company are only the tip of the iceberg. Here, in Ukraine, a lot of work is taking place in the field conditions." Ketzel said they weren’t ready to provide field repairs in Ukraine. It would be fair to note, however, that setting up such services in another country is a lot of work. For one, to train specialists and stockpile spare parts on the spot. Here, it’s worth recalling that in 2022, the Germans had to cannibalize some of the PzH 2000 in order to get those spares. The aforementioned KNDS service hub in Ukraine, opened late January 2025, was primarily seeking to address the pressing matter of sustaining the Ukrainian fleet of Gepard mobile anti-air guns. Contrary to the statements of the Ukrainian government, over these past six months, the joint venture has repaired not three but actually more Gepard systems, according to Ketzel. Seven units were fixed right in the field.
“Now we have created a spare parts stockpile here and are moving on to the implementation stage. Not only will we save time on transportation, filling out declarations, etc. — it’s also about motivation and speed of work. In this regard, Ukrainian workers make a very strong impression, since they work with an unparalleled enthusiasm. These are people who know what they do it for.” The journalist asked if Ukraine’s bureaucracy was in the way of creating the service center — a callout from Rheinmetall chairman Armin Papperger who blamed paperwork for slowing down the opening of local ammunition plant. The KNDS Deutschland chief, however, disagreed: “Why, I don’t think that’s an argument at all. We’re not in the Wild West, we can’t work in a legal vacuum. There are rules in both Germany and Ukraine. Sometimes it takes time to reconcile them. People on both sides feel a great responsibility and want to do everything properly,” Ketzel replied.
cw: Islamophobia
Who is this for? Why would any Arabic speaking person care about Mosques in Europe?
This headline reads like a shitpost but I swear that it’s not. “F-35 pilot held 50-minute airborne conference call with engineers before fighter jet crashed in Alaska.” This is the consequence of totally outsourcing your entire military production to private companies with little to no state oversight. Turns out, not only does the F-35 not work in a thunderstorm, it also doesn’t work in the cold!
A US Air Force F-35 pilot spent 50 minutes on an airborne conference call with Lockheed Martin engineers trying to solve a problem with his fighter jet before he ejected and the plane plunged to the ground in Alaska earlier this year, an accident report released this week says. According to the report, after takeoff the pilot tried to retract the landing gear, but it would not do so completely. When lowering it again, it would not center, locking on an angle to the left. Attempts to fix the landing gear caused the fighter jet to think it was on the ground, ultimately leading to the crash. After going through system checklists in an attempt to remedy the problem, the pilot got on a conference call with engineers from the plane’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, as the plane flew near the air base. Five engineers participated in the call, including a senior software engineer, a flight safety engineer and three specialists in landing gear systems, the report said.
An inspection of the aircraft’s wreckage found that about one-third of the fluid in the hydraulic systems in both the nose and right main landing gears was water, when there should have been none. The investigation found a similar hydraulic icing problem in another F-35 at the same base during a flight nine days after the crash, but that aircraft was able to land without incident. The report notes Lockheed Martin had issued guidance on the problem the F-35’s sensors had in extreme cold weather in a maintenance newsletter in April 2024, about nine months before the crash. The problem could make it “difficult for the pilot to maintain control of the aircraft,” the guidance said. The temperature at the time of the crash was -1 degree Fahrenheit, the report said.
Per https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/27/us/alaska-f-35-crash-accident-report-hnk-ml
Still love the
truckplaneThis has nothing to do with the aircraft not being able to fly in the cold and everything to do with some grunt filling the hydraulic fluid with water. Literal litres of water in the hydraulic fluid, causing the landing gear to freeze in place. Any aircraft with it’s hydraulic systems full of water, would have them freeze when it gets cold enough. This caused the weight on wheels/squat sensors, first on the nose landing gear and then on the main landing gear after multiple touch and go landings, to think that the aircraft was on the ground. These touch and go landings are what caused the main landing gear sensors to think that the aircraft was on the ground. This caused the fly by wire system to think that the aircraft was on the ground once 3/5 sensors indicated such (one sensor for the nose wheel, and two per main landing gear wheel), and put the aircraft on ground control flight laws, which is obviously uncontrollable in the air.
This is nothing unique to the F-35. Any aircraft with a fly by wire system relies on the input of sensors to implement flight laws, and the first fighter with a full fly by wire system was the F-16A in the 1970s. The first Soviet aircraft was the Su-27 in the 1980s. Having a “conference call” with the manufacturer isn’t anything unique either, both in civil and military aviation. Everyone from Lockheed, to Boeing, to Airbus, to Sukhoi has someone on call to help troubleshoot if something goes wrong. This is modern aviation, and it’s the safest it’s ever been. No system is immune to a failure of basic maintenance, like filling the hydraulics with litres of water.
some grunt filling the hydraulic fluid with water
So in actuality, this is just a massive fuck up by the American mechanics?
Yes, it’s suspected that they used hydraulic fluid from barrels that sat exposed to the elements in Japan, and that said barrel had expired in April of 2024 and was 1/3 water.
Additionally, there was insufficient tracking of what hydraulic barrel(s) went on movements and whether said barrel(s) returned to Eielson AFB (Tab V-9.11). Information pertaining to barrel movement is not required to be tracked in depth, but HAZMAT records were incomplete and did not permit accurate tracing (Tabs V-9.11, BB-199-200). For example, information about at 354 FGS hydraulic fluid barrel that was transported to Kadena Air Base, Japan, in support of a Theater Security Package (TSP) was overwritten by a subsequent deployment to that Air Base (Tab BB- 199-200). This error made it impossible to track where the barrel had traveled upon completion of the exercise (Tab BB-199-200).
Because of incomplete records, there was insufficient information to confirm whether the barrel used to service hydraulic fluid the MA on 23 January 2025 was the same hydraulic barrel that was left outside in inclement weather at Kadena Air Base for at least six weeks (Tab BB-199-200). This was in direct violation of Air Force regulations, which require that hydraulic fluid be stored in a container tightly closed in a dry and well-ventilated place." in accordance with AFI 91-203 and OSHA Safety Data Sheets (Tab BB-14, 22)." “Additionally, the hydraulic barrel that was used to service the MA had been marked empty/consumed” in April 2024, but had not been disposed of (Tabs D-15, BB-199-200). Even so, it was in-use at the 355 FGS and, when tested, contained about 33 percent water (Tab J-13).
Or sabotage heheh
“Welcome to Lockheed Martin technical support. There are many customers calling about their F-35 right now. Please hold.”
elevator music plays
“welp, I finally bricked my F-35. How cooked am I?”
Attempts to fix the landing gear caused the fighter jet to think it was on the ground, ultimately leading to the crash
Y’know, you’d think a problem like that would be trivially solvable by, like, some kind of basic manual override. One would expect it to be intuitively pretty obvious how stupid it is to let your jet “think” anything without making sure you can overrule the automated system if it thinks something incorrect, like “I’m not actually flying even though multiple sensors should be saying I am”.
But anyway, glad to know that even though we may have missed the 2025 date, we may yet manage Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’s “entire Western military gets hacked and self-destructs” at some later point. Keep going, MIC folks, and put AI in everything, please!
That or actually doing preflights
If I paid trillions for a plane project it better start thinking
Yeah but if you add a basic manual override, then how does Lockheed Martin get its consulting fees for 24/7 tech support? Come on, think of the shareholders here.
“You’ll need to keep the aircraft airborne until our technicians are able to get out to your location. The next availability we have for one of our service crews is in March 2027. Would you like to schedule a service call?”
As much as I hate Lockheed Martin and would never work for them on principle, god would I love to have that tech support job just for the laughs
I’m having a really fun time reading this thread imagining the brain geniuses I went to uni with who interned there, assisting this pilot while the plane is going down, and the pilot is crashing out at them while they ask ChatGPT for help.
lol. lmao
I fucking love my state with all the wild and outlandish shit that keeps happening here
Here is a short speech I translated from one of the union leaders of the french metalworkers union regarding the 10.09 strike. This was made at an event from France Unbowed I believe
MintPress - ⭕️Donald Trump breaks the annual US record for airstrikes on Somalia
.
While advertising himself as an “anti-war” President that solves international conflict, he has already carried out 68 strikes on Somalia this year, surpassing the previous record of 63.
You have that, the genocide, the war with Russia , the wars with other weaker countries, the looming wars pretty much everywhere, the not just militarization but mobilization of the military at home… Did I get everything?
We could use a :trump-bush: emoji for this site.
Still needs to start WW3 to be qualified for the Nobel Peace prize. Times move on and standards for it are increasing, just drone striking a wedding won’t cut it anymore
I haven’t seen a lot of news regarding what is currently going on in France. I can do a more in depth dive if people are interested, but basically the neolib/fascist alliance currently in government is trying to pass yet another enormous austerity budget along with islamophobic laws. The most prominent far right party in France (National front) who was allowing the neolib to rule as long as they played ball with their racist agenda has said they will vote against the prime minister (They cannot afford to lose part of their white poor base as this part of their base is strongly opposed to the austerity .budget)
A popular movement has emerged with a call to a national strike starting on 10.09. Unions are starting to get behind it and Mélenchon from France Unbowed (radical left and biggest left party in France ~15-25% of the electorate depending on who you ask) has also come in support of the movement and called for a national strike.
At the same time Bayrou the prime minister will probably be ousted on the 8.09 on a vote of noconfidence.
It looks to me like France is the most likely big European state to avoid fascism by virtue of a having a powerful left movement in both the streets and elections. Do you think there’s a plausible path to victory there for the left on all fronts?
Yes France always had a strong left movements. There is a path of victory for the left but right now, it’s even hard to say whether the presidential elections will be in 2027 or if Macron will resign before (doubtful with his ego). In any case France Unbowed won’t be able to do shit even if elected if there are no strong social movements in the streets at the same time to push them even further left (like it happened in 1936 with the popular front).
There is a good chance that the right vote will get split enough to allow France Unbowed to access the second turn of the elections where it will probably be them vs National Front. In any case all of this is currently highly speculative.
Basically the electoralist factions I currently see are:
- “Radical” Left (France unbowed)
- Social liberalism/ Right of social democracy (Socialist Party, Greens, French Communist Party and allies)
- Neoliberalism (Macron party and allies)
- Sovereign Right (Villepin and people on the right, nostalgic of de Gaulle)
- Radical and Far right (Retailleau,Lepen,Zemmour)
Yes the French Communist Party is catastrophic and has been for many years. They are communists in name only (Roussel their current leader is reactionary) and in any case there have been many issues with the PCF all along their existence.
Yes the French Communist Party is catastrophic and has been for many years.
I don’t think a single legacy communist party in Europe is any good so no surprise there
