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.
Let me just say first off that i agree with you about the microstates issue, and i do think that you are right about it being beneficial for countries to unite together to better resist imperialism and colonialism. That being said, the idea of present day Romania absorbing Moldova is deeply horrifying to me, it would be a catastrophe for the people of Moldova as they would immediately become NATO's new front line in the war against Russia. So long as Romania is a loyal vassal of Brussels and Washington and so long as its ruling class is top to bottom Atlanticist, russophobic compradors who do nothing but worship American and German boots any sort of unification is unacceptable and should be prevented at all costs.
If any kind of reunification is to take place there it should be with Russia so that Moldova can join the Eurasian sphere which is where the future is and where the most economic development will be happening going forward. That way Russia can help them like they are helping the liberated Donbass now to start to recover from the economic devastation of the last 30+ years since the destruction of socialism. Because its only future with the "West" and "Europe" is as yet another neocolony to be exploited and drained of everything of value by the big western European powers while being turned into a militarized NATO outpost like so many other eastern European states that were absorbed into the neoliberal EU abomination.
Romania and Poland are well on their way to becoming second and third Ukraines after the West has used up all the Ukrainians, why on earth would any sane Moldovan want to enter into this suicide pact? I think the whole discussion about whether or not Romanians and Moldovans are "one people" is irrelevant. That may even be the case, i grew up hearing that my whole childhood so the thought is hard to shake, but i really have no interest in having a whole ethno-linguistic debate about national identity, because regardless it does NOT justify unification under a Western puppet state that is currently locked without any foreseeable hope of escape in the neoliberal, totalitarian prison of the EU and being increasingly occupied and militarized by NATO.
Why would you want to doom the poor Moldovans to that fate? At least now they still have a hope of kicking out their US installed comprador government, even if they'd need a little help from Russia to do it. If they are our brothers then let's be happy for them that they have not yet been swallowed up by the Leviathan like we have.
P.S. I think the point where you are most wrong is the idea that Romania could just decide to turn away from the West once it has gotten what it wants from them. That's not how neocolonialism and imperial vassalage works. Point me to one instance where that has worked, where a country could just freely decide to exit US vassalage after its entire institutions and elite were captured and remade in the West's image. You think you're being clever bending the knee to the empire because you can opportunistically benefit from it but in the end it is always the empire that wins and you lose, and once they have you they won't ever willingly let go. For Romania to escape the EU and NATO at this point would take an all out war of decolonization.
Yeah,Im reconsidering my words, because god damn,after taking a second look I sound practically the same as a pro NATO polack
I guess it was a mix of ingrained chauvinism paired with some hope that maybe we could find a future together,but no, you're right
In an ideal world we'd have something like the Union State and we'd begin to reconcile,but this isn't that world
Now,for my verdict on whether or not the referendum will pass,I'm sorry to say,but I definitely think it will
Unless we see a similar SMO happen there,I believe the US and the EU have them by the gonads and this is the last twist before their subordination
Hopefully Transnistria and Gagauzia can peel away in the chaos,but the way I see it,the rot runs deep and they're on track to becoming a shittier Romania
I dunno,I just wanted to hope that we didn't sell our souls to Brussels for nothing and that at least we'd be reunited with Moldova
Edit:That was me having a vain hope that we could pull the same trick we did during our history,duping and playing empires against each other for our benefit,but you're right,the US is no Porte and there's no equivalent to Tzarist Russia or Austria now to use to our leverage just yet
God its depressing to think the fucking phanariots had more agency then our current ruling class does
I wouldn't even make that comparison. Romania was never integrated with the Ottoman empire anywhere near to the extent that it is today in the Western imperialist system. Now the political, media and educational institutions are all so thoroughly captured in a way that the Ottomans never in their wildest dreams could have imagined doing. The reason why even the very idea of such "leverage" is nonsense is because to the empire, to Washington and Brussels, the notion of neutrality is anathema. They cannot and will not abide it, they are the blob, they will either absorb or destroy you.
We saw what they did to Ukraine when Yanukovich tried to play both sides and remain in the middle. Even a country as powerful as Turkey can only occasionally manage to demonstrate some semblance of opportunistic autonomy and that's only because they got lucky and even though they offered themselves up on a platter, the Europeans were still too racist to let them into the EU which would have meant complete subjugation.
Depressing but it is an important realization to come to. It is the starting point for a realistic understanding of the current situation that Romania finds itself in, and only once we understand how things are can we begin to formulate a plan to change them. When you understand what needs to be done is where the revolutionary optimism begins, so don't lose hope!
In a different world things might be different, yes. I understand your sentiments, i even partly share them to some extent, but we can't just ignore the reality of present geopolitical conditions and act like this is something that would be happening in a vacuum. We can't just say "if reality was not what it is, then this and that would be the ideal course of action" - that is idealism and it gets us nowhere - at least nowhere good.
Unfortunately i think that we have done just that, and we have not yet seen the worst of the consequences of that disastrous deal with the devil, or if you'll pardon me bringing out a proverb from my grandma: "nu se fură tămâie de la dracu", you're never going to come out on top selling your soul even if you think you're being clever. This unification may very well happen and you may get your wish but i hope for both Moldova and Romania's sake that it doesn't, that the Moldovans will rise up to resist it, because otherwise it will only further entrench the power of Brussels and Washington over our two peoples while putting Romania on the front line of WWIII.