This week’s summary of the situation is in spoiler tags below:
preamble
Diplomacy between Iran and the US has begun in… perhaps not earnest, but it’s certainly started. Iran’s very reasonable requirement that the Zionist occupation stop ethnically cleansing Lebanon and withdraw has caused a great deal of consternation throughout their population, and several analysts have suggested that Netanyahu being forced to accept Trump’s (and therefore Iran’s) demands spells the end of his leadership in the coming elections; then, the occupation is expected to “mellow out” and the conflicts and genocides slow and stop. This view is only really impactful if you believe that, rather than the US and Zionists being in a strongly mutually beneficial relationship based on geopolitical, financial, and clandestine goals, that instead Netanyahu is a devious mastermind bending any and all in the US to his whims. I don’t believe this; and, if anything, the events of at least the last three years prove that he’s really quite stupid, with “Israel” being in its worst position in decades under his rule.
Nonetheless, Iran has made the issue of Lebanon a not-quite-red-line (an orange line?). It hasn’t stopped them from going to Switzerland and beginning negotiations, but they still want to strongly express their discontent by harnessing the newfound superweapon that is Hormuz. Similarly, threats by Trump and others to restart the war if Iran doesn’t bend to their whims have been met with formal stoppages of negotiations, but it appears technical teams are still talking to each other and working things out. Trump’s threats are fairly idle at this point because most in the US military must know that there’s essentially zero effective military actions left to them with their current munition stockpiles.
Trump let slip that the US has about 3-4 weeks of oil reserves left, which aligns moderately well with the projections of analysts like Yves at Naked Capitalism (it’s now expected in late July rather than early July as was originally forecasted months ago). This means that even if the negotiation process goes off without a hitch, that there’s going to be a period of at least a few weeks where the US is out of reserves but is waiting for new shipments of oil to physically traverse the distance between Hormuz and the US continent. And many analysts have pointed out that it’s going to be a long time - at least a few months, and perhaps more like 9 to 12 - before Hormuz flows pick up to pre-war levels, due to logistics companies and insurance companies wanting to be sure that their property isn’t going to be blown up mid-transit. Regardless, the fact that the timetable is now so tight could indicate that the Trump admin has finally realized that it cannot outbluff and outwait Iran, and will give them a good deal out of necessity, even if this means forcing their unsinkable aircraft carrier to stop bombing children for five consecutive minutes.
However, there is a palpable anxiety throughout Iran right now, especially due to controversy over the degree to which Khamenei actually agreed with the current course of events. This does seem to be confirmed by his wording (to paraphrase): “In principle, I took a different view, but allowed the President to proceed.” Many inside Iran now have more fear that their politicians will not push hard enough for a good deal than that they’ll return to war, with all that may imply. This isn’t an unfounded fear, especially given how suddenly the 12 Day War ended despite Iran’s strengths being medium-and-long-term attrition (now confirmed by this latest war). This is one of those events that reveals how the Supreme Leader in fact doesn’t have complete dictatorial power unlike how he’s conceived of in much of the West, and that even during existential wars, major concessions have to be made to democratically elected leaders. Though, this could also be a clever move to shift blame explicitly onto the Reformist elements if the deal collapses.
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.
The Zionist Entity'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 the Zionists’ 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.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
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.


Vulgar materialism? On my hexbear?
Sports teams winning major contests is not a non-materialist factor. The dopamine rushes created by sports as interpreted as a socio/religious phenomena has shown to have real material affects on the outlook, output and general ideology of a city. The Knicks winning has absolutely been a factor for galvanizing people with the idea that “anything is possible”, it is all over social media rn.
The fact that you think an election victory is a ‘win’ speaks to your level of historical political literacy involving ‘progressives’ and ‘democratic socialists’.
We will see what ends up coming out of it. I hope it is good! However, I doubt it will be anything but more hype, if Mamdani’s current trajectory is anything to go by.
Edit: And I am saying this as someone who doesn’t hate the DSA, I just have very little understanding of their overall motivations in the NY chapter when so many of their other chapters are much more radical in their beliefs and doctrine.
if you describe any and all phenomena in a register of material cause and effect, then you’ve trivially declared yourself a materialist. (was Marx’s issue with anarchists or utopian-socialists that they didn’t speak enough about dopamine rushes or serotonin levels?) there are accidents of history and there are deeper structural forces, and one would never certainly isolate a proximate cause. i don’t know the value of trying to do so, other than to be dismissive of a “non-win” – though it should be said that two Z-endorsees won by 20 points, so i find the, knicks-win-necessary thesis, lacking. (could a socialist muslim be elected to the mayoralty of the financial capital of Empire without the Knicks winning? am i supposed to believe any of these candidates winning more surprising?)
maybe the historically literate could educate those who would stand to benefit from emancipatory policies, and by the creation of durable institutions by which to effectuate such policies, and explain to them why efforts made to treat them with basic decency, to limit the predation thrust upon them, is a non-win, actually.
Assigning proximal causes of the thing you’re talking about (an election result) is the only reason to claim socdem wins are in any way attributable to the “left”. Was it The Knicks? Or was it liberals calling themselves socialists going out and canvassing for Zionists? Without proper self-criticism, electoralism will have you claiming the latter and thinking it’s actually more meaningful and insightful than the former.
I’m mostly seeing that that the excitement around Zohran had died down by this point, and that with the Knicks winning, it has been out in force throughout multiple aspects of NY society in a way that simply wasn’t the case prior.
And anarchists were not vulgar materialists, nor were the utopian socialists and that was not Marx’s problem with them.
I agree, if they are able to build durable institutions then this is unequivocally a win, but I have seen progressive politicians come and go without building anything durable. Perhaps this is different in that they have the level of larger support and material access that they need. I hope they are different.
You’re not gonna get thru to this clique, Benrie Sanders eating shit in 2020 bricked their minds, they’ve been on an extended six-year crash-out concerning the very concept of elections and now base their entire politics around the historical contingencies and conditionalities of 1917 and wince and whine at the mere notion the left could have a future in the west
They’re content to self-marginalize and daydream of peasant insurrections in the heart of modern empire, drawing up the most elaborate and incoherent pseudo-theories of why doing nothing in the west and waiting for China is actually cool and revolutionary
You want proof? Watch them take this bait hook, line and sinker
Pump the brakes on the vagueposting attacks on the community at large. From the sidebar:
We should probably consider giving electoralist users a place on this site to actually post about their W’s without being constantly attacked. As it stands any post about electoralist politics just turns into a shit slinging fest.
It’s exhausting to read through and just seems really disrespectful for comrades that have actually put the time to go and organize and try to improve material conditions and reach the masses.
The one true leftist critique used here seems more applicable to the anti electoralist users. The electoralist users can’t even have a little news thread about their victories without getting dunked on.
we did, it’s /c/electoralism. They just use it to crosspost and push their electoralist crap constantly in the other comms (chapotraphouse, politics, news, etc). Mods sometimes remove it, they usually don’t, and the users are never banned or punished so they keep doing it
Are you suggesting electoralists need a place to be free of criticism while electoralists in this very thread are promoting Zionists and Nazis?
The real victims here are the liberals who defend zionists, and the real crime is that their free speech is being impinged by mean tankie ultra doomers
Hep hem https://hexbear.net/c/electoralism
Frankly, most electoral news is not important enough in the grand scheme of things. We don’t need to devote time talking about gubernatorial elections, provincial elections, prefectural elections, mayoral elections, city council elections, party primaries etc. We don’t need to discuss about every single judicial election or every single sheriff election of every single county of every single province of every single country.
I say we should stick to elections of head of states, PMs, head of the legislature body, etc. Every other electoral news like school district superintendent or city dog pound director or deputy county sheriff can go to /c/electoralism.
/c/electoralism ?
From my experience on seeing c/electoralism posts most of them have been anti electoralist posts or the comments are just anti electoralist.
That would be the best place to do that but it seems difficult to moderate effectively. Also C/slop always is there for people that want to ruthlessly dunk on candidates
if they lose even on their home turf, maybe they should just give up and stop holding those opinions lmao
Alternatively people can just stop attacking each other, which would be my preferred outcome
Ah yes, Bernie Sanders is what ‘bricked my brain on electoralism’ and not seeing progressives and democratic socialists repeatedly eat shit by repeatedly backing down from overwhelmingly popular opinions to appease an electorate of powerful and wealthy centrists, and then pivoting their careers towards being seen and heard but materially, actively, opposing any kind of outside of the ballot box leftist organization.
As is typical of you, Cyborg, you are repeatedly exaggerating what me and ‘my clique’ (hilarious that having people agree with my analysis is a clique) are saying. I’m not even saying that ‘this is bad’ I am saying that ‘We will see if this turns out well, but historically speaking these movements have a tendency to have a lot of smoke and little fire, not actually building anything that lasts in this country.’
They are certainly doing more for any left-wing movement then I am, which I will happily admit.
I am not basing any of my analysis on Lenin or any of the previous Russian revolutionary failures that occured before the absolutely remote outside chance of revolutionary success actually succeeded, and then brought along 30 years of bloodshed. If anything, I am basing my analysis more on the successes and failures of the Milwaukee ‘Sewer Socialists’, as it is far more regionally and contemporarily relevant.
@[email protected] Where was I quote mining Lenin? Literally, point it out. Cite me.
I don’t know you, my comment (that I stand by) is general comment about a lot of online leftists, not specifically directed at you or anyone else.
If you want a piece of advice, don’t vague-post. It is a destructive practice. Be specific in your criticisms and direct in who you are addressing and why their specific quote doesn’t apply.
Otherwise, I will think you are full of shit.
Yes 2020-2022 sucked, but maybe you should join us in 2026 where the opposite is happening
Yes 1960 sucked, but maybe you should join us in 2026 where the opposite is happening
I mean if that’s how you feel, then I have no beef with you. But don’t pretend there isn’t a cadre of dogpiling ultra-doomers on this site who believe any participation in electoralism is tantamount to embracing American imperialism and Zionism
Well, given that you have literally defended, openly, liberal Zionists as a ‘lesser evil’, and the election of Graham Planter as ‘important news’, forgive me for not taking your political acumen on this topic very seriously. We’ve done the liberal Zionist thing, and 2026 is looking a hell of alot like 1960.
If anything it looks worse than 1960 because there isn’t even an ideologically coherent and extremely radical Civil Rights movement waiting in the wings to support these politicians in the streets. We aren’t even close to an LBJ, as fucked as he was.
If they organize themselves into such thing, I will change my opinion, but until then, I will continue to remain extremely skeptical of these electoral movements. And others are correct in doing so as well. And you are exaggerating their claims as well is my whole point. I rarely see people posting shit like, “All this is a waste of time, buy guns and plan with your cadre.” I, for the absolute most part, see people skeptical of the electoral promises of Demsocs running under the Democratic party, who have every right to be skeptical of those promises. Don’t misrepresent their opinions.
I said Lander is a useful idiot for the left, a shield against anti-Semitism accusations, and a bludgeon that has just been used to depose an actual genocidal zionist, Dan Goldman, poster boy of the DNC impeachment hearings during the Biden era. Now you can flatten all that into a mocking sneer about “defending lesser evilism” but I live in grounded material reality and am only concerned about the utilization of a politician to choke the zionist machine. Landers has fulfilled his role, and now he can go fuck himself
Yes, an ultra-Zionist losing a senate seat is important and if you don’t think so, then you’re either delusional or you don’t know anything about the American political system. The Senate is 50/50, any change in that equation creates an immense leverage point, which is why the zionists are pumping hundreds of millions into Maine of all places
Red scare at its height, Jim Crow still in the air, 500,000 troops tearing Vietnam apart, civil rights leaders and radicals assassinated and imprisoned regularly, Israel WINNING the wars it starts
The sixties were an era of defeat for the left and the height of American empire, take off the rose-tinted glasses
They just did; those victories were the Bat-Signal, or haven’t you noticed the hysterical panic among centrist and right-wing media today? And yet here you all are wallowing in “skepticism” as if it’s the job of socialists to be “convinced” by others, our job is to accumulate power by any means because there is only one viable national path open to us and that’s to keep stealing seats from the dems until they collapse or pull out the guns, by which time we’ll have acquired enough rudimentary power to leverage a national-level response and in the meantime we’d have inflicted some damage on the zionist war machine
The failure of Bernie Sanders and the genocide made too many of you timid and demoralized, when they should have made you ruthless and calculating
They hated Jesus because he told the truth.
Also quote-mining Lenin, who was also speaking to conditions in a time and place that could not be more foreign to the present-day United States.