Image is from the Britannica article on CECOT, known as the Terrorism Confinement Center in English.
This megathread’s topic is inspired by our lovely news regular, @Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net, who talks often about the conditions inside El Salvador and gives nuanced and informative takes.
As the Trump administration continues to make foreign policy blunders that would make even the staunchest anti-imperialist accelerationist blush - and we are barely three months in! - it’s interesting to compare and contrast his policies of incompetent imperialist and domestic management to the dictators in other countries.
Bukele is somewhat unique among fascists, in that he seems to not hide - and seems to even admit to - his evil, self-describing as the world’s “coolest dictator”. El Salvador has no particular shortage of prominent fascists in their history, but one major example is Maximiliano Martínez, who led the country over much of the 1930s and the early 1940s. He was responsible the deaths of many thousands of communists and indigneous people, and yet joined World War 2 on the side of the Allies and against the Nazis.
The comparisons between Martínez and Bukele - and, indeed, between Bukele and Trump - in terms of their impact on minority groups are slowly growing as world attention is being drawn to the country. The recent meeting between Bukele and Trump has shifted a spotlight onto El Salvador’s crime policy; the internal conditions of El Salvador’s prisons are genuinely monstrous. One gets a similar feeling as when reading descriptions of the conditions of Holocaust victims in German concentration camps. Trump has made statements to the effect that he want a similar crime crackdown inside the United States, and I certainly believe that he wants this (ICE is already just kidnapping people off the streets into vans), but his administration has been so chaotic and mismanaged that it’s difficult to determine whether this will be an interest he rapidly drops in favor of some other hair-brained scheme.
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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.
WSJ: The Russian Military Moves That Have Europe on Edge
In 2021, before the invasion, Russia made about 40 of its main battle tanks, the T-90M, according to Western intelligence estimates. Now it is producing nearly 300 a year. A senior Finnish military official said almost none are being sent to the front line in Ukraine, but are staying on Russian soil for later use.
Russia is tailoring its rearmament plans to meet the needs of the new troops to be stationed along its NATO border. Those units will get much of the new equipment. Most of what is being sent to the front line in Ukraine is old and refurbished Soviet-era arms.
The U.S. estimates that around 30,000 Russians are signing up each month, up from about 25,000 last summer. Some Eastern European intelligence officials say the ranks are now swelling by some 40,000 soldiers a month.
The article is written to push the narrative that Russia is inexplicably preparing to invade NATO, just because they can. Of course, Russia does need to remain prepared for war with NATO in the event of some serious provocation (say, something involving Kaliningrad).
That said, I think this information also fits my theory that Russia is basically preparing an entire separate, fresh, and modernized army to swiftly end the war in Ukraine, once the age of attrition is over.
I do wonder if we’ll see many more vehicles at the Victory Day parade this year.
The U.S. says that Iran continues to assist the Houthis with ‘crucial intelligence’ needed to bomb Israel and attack American aircraft carriers in the region, with satellite imagery showing Iranian military-affiliated ships, likely acting as IRGC Navy forward bases, anchored off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea. The Americans have previously threatened to sink these Iranian vessels if they continue to provide Ansarallah with intelligence that disrupts ‘international shipping’ and assists in the guidance of missiles headed for Israel or U.S. vessels.
- Telegram
Not sure that’s true, the last time Iranian vessels were spotted, they were at their home ports, and not in the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden. They could have returned to the Red Sea now though, given negotiations between the USA and Iran have stalled.
We finally have 2 real videos of DPRK troops with Russian troops
C919 is going to take a few more years before European approval
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3308546/chinas-c919-stuck-tarmac-europe-certification-timeline-extendedHe said a crucial test will be for the C919 to fly inside Europe in “extreme” weather such as storms or high heat. “It’s too early to talk about market share,” Lin said. “There are just a handful of C919s out there now.” Engine certification does take time, Patel said, hypothesising the European safety agency will need a longer period to size up the engines, the configuration of other aircraft parts and the flame resistance of materials on board. The relatively small number of C919s in service now gives Europe few “data points” to work from, Patel added. “It’s not just in-service operation, they’ve got to look at emergency evacuation, even the material of the cushions in the cabin,” he said. “It goes through a stringent process.”
I mentioned this in a previous comment. The small number of C919s in service makes it difficult to get data. Also on the engine issue, there are none flying with the Chinese engines yet, only with the American LEAP 1C engines. So regulators cannot certify what doesn’t exist.
I’m sure the eu officials have perfectly good reasons to delay the C919 approval process other than the giant wads of cash they receive from Airbus.
There is genuinely no reason for them to hurry up when their biggest competitor shot themselves in the foot so thoroughly. They effectively have a monopoly now.
U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth: ‘Message to IRAN: We see your LETHAL support to the Houthis. We know exactly what you are doing. You know very well what the U.S. military is capable of — and you were warned. You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing.’
- Telegram
The US-Iran negotiations set for today have also been cancelled now. Not good…
Ah yes, open up more fronts. This is a smart strategy.
I’d be more happy about this kind shit if the death throes of the empire aren’t going to be insanely violent.
Ah yes, open up more fronts. This is a smart strategy.
I think the plan is to tie up the Ukraine front before opening up a potential Iranian front.
Ukraine has demonstrated a strong centrally controlled military that would never continue to fight after the President tells them to stop, so this plan will work perfectly!
I mean, they’re also Sabrerattling at so many other countries as well, especially China.
We see your LETHAL support to the Zionazis. We know exactly what you are doing. You know very well what Iranian Revolutionary Guard is capable of - and you were warned. You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing.
Wholesome content: Vietnamese kids reenact the liberation of Saigon
https://xcancel.com/CarlZha/status/1917558597615247819Every time I see @CarlZha’s pfp from a distance it begins to look like Starfire from Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans
H.R. 867—a bill that would punish Americans for supporting boycotts of Israel—has been removed from this week’s US House of Representatives schedule.
https://xcancel.com/DropSiteNews/status/1919195123360948346
related to this https://hexbear.net/post/4804836
The Houthis appear to have struck Israel’s Ben Gurion airport with a missile.
The missile launched from Yemen by the Houthi armed group has struck about 550 metres (1,804ft) from the main control tower of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport and about 650 metres (2,132ft) from the nearest aircraft parking area, according to Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit, Sanad.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/03/us/ohio-rodney-hinton-jr-arrest-hnk Cincinnati police fatally shot an armed 18-year-old. The next day, his father killed a sheriff’s deputy, authorities say
Estonia increased its military spending to 5.4% of GDP from 3.4% (an increase of €750M).
This is enough money to provide a significant amount of funding to Rail Baltica, further improve public transport, or even build a nuclear power plant that can make Estonia self-suffifient in complementary renewables/nuclear energy (or even make Estonia an energy exporter).
But you know,
sounds of the Riigikogu collectively chowing down beet and onion slop and polishing horse cocks
It’s looking like US GDP decline in Q1 was in part due to tariff frontrunning (since imports reduce GDP Growth, exports increase it).
It’ll be worse when consumption and investments starts declining. Combine that with low government spending, it’s not good.
it’s not good.
That entirely depends on whether you’re rooting for the collapse of the amerikan empire or not. Can’t do genocide if you collapse.
Yea I should’ve said “it’s not looking good [for the U.S.]”
Can’t do genocide if you collapse.
Can’t do overseas genocide. Plenty of opportunity for domestic genocide.
The only thing the empire will continue to spend more money on is weapons
Clothes are coming off. One day someone will notice
Well shit. That’s why we haven’t heard from Medhurst in a while. They nabbed him (a second time) in Austria, and have stolen all his equipment and data and kept legal cases open against him in both countries to silence his journalism.
Evidence mounts suggesting COVID-19 may have originated in the U.S. | CGTN
investigate Fort Detrick folks, you’re hearing it more and more… more and more people are saying it
Trump is sending his Sanctions Coordinator, David Gramble, to Brazil on Monday to negotiate “punishment” for one of Brazil’s 11 Supreme Court Justices, Alexandre de Moraes. People like Trump & Greenwald accuse Moraes of censorship but sanctioning a judge IS a form of censorship.
Moreas oversaw the criminal investigation of Trump’s buddy Jair Bolsonaro. When sanctions are levied against a foreign judge as a direct response to their rulings, they function as a tool of censorship by seeking to control or punish judicial speech (i.e., legal decisions). Moraes is also the Supreme Court Justice behind the temporary ban of Trump overlord Elon Musk’s X platform, when it failed to abide by local laws.
According to Brazilian journalist Paulo Capelli, the Trump administration is thinking of barring Moraes from visiting the US (as if he cares), and freezing any US assets (of which he doesn’t have any).
Silicon Valley technofash and their puppet-journalists have wasted so much effort pushing the false, Moraes as dictator narrative, they don’t seem to realize that if he were deposed tomorrow, it wouldn’t affect Bolsonaro’s trial. Only 2 Justices are expected to vote ‘not guilty’.
