Image is of Colombian President Gustavo Petro giving a speech at the UN in 2022.


Trump has arrived in office with the force of an avalanche; ending slowing a genocide on the one hand, while simultaneously promising a total nightmare for minorities and the poor throughout and outside the United States on the other hand. [edited for clarity; I do not actually think Trump has ended the Palestinian genocide obviously, I was making a joke - but the ceasefire is a genuine improvement in conditions for millions of people right now who are on the edge of death, so it cannot be dismissed]

It’s still far too early to truly compare and contrast his imperial strategy with Biden’s, but initial signs show that there does appear to be somewhat of a reorientation. Biden was famous for being two-faced; ostensibly offering aid and stability, while also blowing up your pipeline to ensure you did not actually have an alternative to his idea. Trump, meanwhile, seems only really capable of aggression, threatening several “allied” nations with what may as well be sanctions because of the economic harm they’d do. I suspect we’ll be debating for a long time how much of this can be attributed to the specific characteristics of Trump, or whether he merely embodies the zeitgeist of imperial decline - a wounded empire lashing out with extreme violence to try and convince everybody, including themselves, that they can still be the world imperialist hegemon.

I’ll admit it: I did not believe that Trump would actually try and go ahead with putting tariffs on basically anybody who annoys him. And while the threat could still be empty in regards to countries like China and Canada, Colombia is the first indication of the potential of his strategy. Despite some fiery words from President Petro, after Trump’s administration revealed the punishment if Colombia did not agree, it appears that Colombia will in fact be accepting deported migrants after all. It’s funny how that works.


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.


  • vovchik_ilich [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 hours ago

    Explosion in Rheinmetall weapons factory in Spain (southeastern Spain, Autonomous Community of Murcia, not to be confused with 'Murica) (archive link from a Spanish news website). Translating from Spanish:

    Six workers have been harmed by the explosion, which happened in an ammo storage facility, with one of the workers being gravely wounded. Rheinmetall has a total of 7 factories in Spain. In August 2023 Rheinmetall bought the Spanish weapons firm “Expal Systems” for $1.3bn. The company, now named “Expal Munitions”, is specialized in the manufacture of bombs, mortar ammunition, and mid-distance projectiles, as well as rocket propulsion systems and 155mm artillery projectiles, delivered to both other countries in the EU and to Ukraine. AFAIK, the causes of the explosions are still unknown (or at least unpublished).

    Unemployment is high and salaries are low in general in southern Spain, so I find it hard to rejoice on the harm to the workers. That said: unlimited explosions in western military industrial factories.

  • gay_king_prince_charles [she/her, he/him]@hexbear.net
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    3 hours ago

    Rationalist (Silicon Valley tech worshiping) adjacent, possibly vegan, possibly trans, death cult kills landlord and (Washington State) border patrol officer. I wish I was editorializing here, but weird things are happening in the tech sphere.

    True Anon (intro into rationalism and what is going on) - https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/zizian-murder-cult-1

    Newsweek (summary of both murders) - https://www.newsweek.com/death-cult-linked-two-murders-zizians-2023563

    AP (Youngblut’s arrest) - https://apnews.com/article/vermont-border-patrol-shooting-youngblut-72c1b68aeb3d52cccb05b6b850d83450

    Apollo Mojave (I cannot vouch for the integrity of this source) - https://web.archive.org/web/20250130033312/https://zizians.info/

    Open Vallejo (Case overview) - https://openvallejo.org/2025/01/27/suspects-in-killings-of-vallejo-witness-vermont-border-patrol-agent-connected-by-marriage-license-extreme-ideology/

    SF Gate (Another case overview) - https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/bay-area-death-cult-zizian-murders-20064333.php

    Key Figures:

    • Ziz LeSota (née Jack): Leader of the “Zizians”
    • Milo Yongblut (né Theresa Yongblut): Alleged killer of Mayland. In custody.
    • Ophelia Bauckhol (née Felix Bauckhol): Partner of Milo. Deceased.
    • Curtis Lind: Landlord. Deceased.
    • David Mayland: Border patrol officer. Deceased.
    • Maximillian Snyder: Alleged killer of Lind. In custody.

    Note that deadnames of individuals have been included for ease of research. Very few news outlets are using the chosen names of Zizian-related individuals, so their commonly used names have been included.

    It is getting late, and I’m going to stop researching this before hallucinations set in, because this is very strange.

  • Alaskaball [comrade/them]@hexbear.netM
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    if anyone’s bored I’m showing one of Stalin’s favorite movies on hexbear live right now

    the kids movies are on, if I’m still around after they finish I’ll probably try to finish my mover

  • smokeppb [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    11 hours ago

    AP - Staffing was ‘not normal’ in the air traffic control tower at Washington’s Reagan National Airport

    That’s according to a report by the Federal Aviation Administration that was obtained by The Associated Press.

    The report says one air traffic controller was working two positions at the time of the crash.

    “The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the report says.

    We already knew it, but now it’s confirmed.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]@hexbear.net
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    In an interview with Breno Altman for the Brazilian news portal Opera Mundi, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said, “With Brazil, there was no crisis, there is no crisis, and there will be no crisis.” “There are simply differences between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, differences with advisors; from there, from here. The duty of President Lula and President Nicolás Maduro is to understand each other for our countries, turn the page.”

    “The new scenario of world geopolitics, the situation of Our America, and prioritize relations between Brazil and Venezuela, peaceful relations, cooperation, brotherhood, and economic progress.”

  • sempersigh [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    13 hours ago

    via FT

    Donald Trump lashes out at Federal Reserve after central bank keeps rates steady

    US president had called on the central bank to sharply reduce borrowing costs

    Donald Trump sharply criticised the Federal Reserve just hours after the US central bank defied the president’s calls for deep reductions in borrowing costs and left interest rates on hold. The central bank on Wednesday kept its main interest rate at 4.25 per cent to 4.5 per cent and indicated it was now on pause, with Fed chair Jay Powell saying US rate-setters “do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance”. Trump railed against the central bank on his Truth Social messaging platform, saying, “If the Fed had spent less time on [diversity, equity and inclusion], gender ideology, ‘green’ energy, and fake climate change, Inflation would never have been a problem”. The Fed’s unanimous decision on Wednesday to hold interest rates came just days after Trump insisted borrowing costs should fall “a lot” and vowed to “let it be known” if he disagreed with the central bank’s decision. The Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank’s policy-setting panel, said in its decision that US inflation remained “somewhat elevated” and removed an earlier reference noting “progress” towards hitting its 2 per cent goal. Powell later clarified the changes reflected a “cleaning-up exercise” rather than a shift in policy. The Fed’s statement “tilts a little bit hawkish”, said Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo. “This is a Fed that is less worried about the state of the labour market.”

    The pause followed three consecutive cuts — including a 0.5 percentage point move in September — that took the federal funds target range down from a 23-year high of 5.25 per cent to 5.5 per cent. Powell signalled interest rates would remain on hold until the committee had more time to assess how Trump’s pledges to raise trade barriers, slash taxes and red tape, and undertake mass deportations would affect its efforts to cool inflation. The Fed chair said the new administration’s policies were “not for us to criticise, or to praise”. He also refused to react to Trump’s calls for the Fed to reduce borrowing costs significantly, saying he was “not going to have any response or comment on what the president said” and that there had been no contact between him and the White House since the new president took office. Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University, said: “This rate decision, which was really the only viable choice the Fed had at this juncture, will cue the political pressure. The coming months will be extraordinarily challenging for the Fed if inflation stays sticky above its target level even as Trump piles on intense pressure to cut rates and bring down borrowing costs.” US markets broadly took the Fed’s decision in stride, with government bonds coming under moderate selling pressure. The policy-sensitive two-year Treasury yield was 0.03 percentage points higher at 4.23 per cent by the late afternoon in New York, while the benchmark 10-year yield was flat at 4.55 per cent. Yields rise as prices fall. In equity markets, the S&P 500 was 0.5 per cent lower. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down by a similar margin, after trimming some of its losses during Powell’s press conference.

  • edge [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    15 hours ago

    Average senate confirmation hearing:

    Democrat: “You’ve been on this person’s show 8 times, he has ties with neo-Nazis.”

    Sen. Norm Respectable (R-MT): “He already had my vote, you didn’t need to convince me more.”

  • xiaohongshu [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    Each new interview Putin gives to Pavel Zarubin (he’s been giving them a lot) becomes longer and less clear.

    Imagine the Soviet command in 1945, to whom the Wehrmacht command says: “We won’t sign anything with a gun to our temple, pull the army away from Berlin.” And Stalin is like: zer gut, bitte schön, I’m leaving-leaving-leaving. Can you imagine?

    And now imagine Stalin saying: I won’t sign anything with Keitel and Jodl, they are illegitimate, they didn’t go through democratic elections, they haven’t had elections there since 1933, they can refuse to sign at any time, and then what, go to war again or something. Can you imagine?

    Am I the only one who thinks I’m in a madhouse?..

    This is the state of Russian diplomacy right now lol.

    Putin will fold to Trump, once again deceived for the nth time.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]@hexbear.net
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    The US Secretary of the Interior, Kristi Noem, has announced that the agency has revoked the extension of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans who have fled Nicolas Maduro’s regime. As a result, Venezuelans can be deported.

    If it is not possible to apply for another visa, Venezuelans, now without protection status, could be deported, according to Donald Trump’s new migration policy. The TPS had been renewed on January 17 by Joe Biden, but now that it has been revoked, it will not be extended.

    • Telegram