Image is of thousands of Cubans gathering in 2026 to honor José Martí.
After the Soviet Union fell, in the 1990s, Cuba entered a period (known as the Special Period) of extreme economic pressure, losing almost all of its international trade and fuel imports. Caloric intake almost halved, and electricity was mostly unavailable for much of the day. In response, Cuba undertook Option Zero, in which the country prioritized distributing resources to the most vulnerable, and rationed what little was available as fairly as possible. During this time, the threat of total collapse led to experiments and innovations, and, paradoxically to those on the outside, Cuba’s population came together under pressure, rather than shattering. The collective understanding that their suffering resulted from abroad rather than from internal inefficiencies and corruption meant that Cuba’s government, and thus their sovereignty, survived.
As the American Empire contracts in the wake of multipolarity and can now no longer tolerate sovereignty in the Western Hemisphere, we are seeing a return to the time of the Special Period, with the illegal blockade being dramatically worsened - among other measures, the US is preventing all fuel from entering the island, a strategy made more viable with Venezuela’s fuel exports now restricted. Imperialist supporters are predicting an imminent collapse, after which American mining corporations would descend on Cuba’s massive nickel and cobalt reserves.
While it’s absolutely possible that this time Cuba’s government could collapse, it’s important to note four things: 1) as noted, Cuba has been in a situation like this before and survived; 2) the geopolitical situation is quite different to how it was in the 1990s, with China and other powers increasing in power and influence compared to the USSR’s incompetent final leaders leaving the lane wide open to American exploitation; 3) there has been a concerted effort to transition to renewable energy sources recently, with solar panels being imported from China and making up an increasing amount of the energy supply; and 4) Cuba’s government is taking this threat very seriously, and beginning rationing efforts immediately.
Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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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 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.
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.
From CBC: 10 dead, including suspect, after mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., Canada
This happened in a very small town (>3000 people) in a remote corner of BC. The high school in this town has 160 students spanning grades 7 to 12.
Venezuela debunks new fake news from Bloomberg about alleged crude oil shipments to Israel
article text
On the afternoon of Tuesday, February 10, the Vice President for Communication and Culture of Venezuela, Miguel Pérez Pirela , through his Telegram channel, denied a new fake news from Bloomberg about an alleged shipment of crude oil destined for Israel.
“Venezuela sends its first shipment of crude oil to Israel in years after Maduro’s capture ,” highlights the headline of the Bloomberg news agency , also noting that, supposedly, "the shipment will be processed by the Bazan Group refinery . "
Following the dissemination of this news story, which lacks official sources and evidence, Venezuela’s Minister of Communication refuted the information with a screenshot of the article marked with a red “FAKE” label . In this context, Venezuela is seeking to curb the spread of unsubstantiated news that compromises the stability, sovereignty, and peace of the South American nation.
Hmm. Which part is fake? That the shipment is happening, or that it’s the first in years (or that it’s crude, but I doubt it’s this one)?
please read the (extremely short!) article and use some common sense. enemy media are known for spreading lies for the purpose of demoralization
The article doesn’t actually answer his question. The article just relays that a Venezuelan official posted the screenshot with the red “fake” overlayed on his Telegram.
aww, come on! the venezuelan source is quite clear in stating that the claim about there being shipments of venezuelan oil to israel is untrue.
which side do you trust more, the country that has been showcasing relatively steadfast solidarity with palestine for decades, or the zionist western propaganda rag that has a ridiculously long history of lying and openly admits to having based its report on anonymous sources?
please dont fall for enemy propaganda. never trust a western narative until confirmed by non-western sources. you are smarter than this.
You’re missing the point, we aren’t distrusting the Venezuelan source. The question remains, if the news is fake, which part? That’s what Ziggurter was asking about. The only thing the source is doing is denying the entire claim without any clarification.
There is really only one detail to refute, an unnamed source claiming that there was a shipment enroute to a company based in Israel, why would they be saying any other specific detail was fake?
Because that could be false in a few different ways, as Ziggurter said.
Old news from last month, but Nicaragua also released political prisoners under US pressure, few of which were Evangelical leaders and priests. They’re going to be a bigger pain now that they’re free and allowed to continue with their victim complex.
The Evangelical blocs are among the worst in Central America. Name nearly every bad policy in the last 20 years and it goes back to them.
Never release political prisoners to placate protestors.
Addendum: or to placate imperialist aggressors
The Evangelical blocs are among the worst in Central America. Name nearly every bad policy in the last 20 years and it goes back to them.
This is valid for all of LatAm tbh, it’s really fucking weird how reactionary protestants/evangelicals are in LatAm. At very least we got some evangelical with leftists brainworms who support Petro and Maduro, and are anti-Israel and US.
I see that kind of Evangelical more in other countries than in Central America tbh. Isn’t AMLO an Evangelical?
Us Military buildup against Iran update: the tempo of the airlift operations of presumed air defences, ammunition, supplies and supporting equipment has seen a noticeable uptick over the last 24 hours. 24x C-17 Globemaster III and 6x C-5M Super Galaxy aircraft participated in airlift operations towards the Middle East in the past 24 hours, the other 4x C-17s are for US Vice President JD Vance’s visits to Armenia and Azerbaijan.
For the other climate doom nerds like me: A single C-17 Globemaster III flight over the Atlantic releases the equivalent CO2 as >50 cars do in a year.
That calculation is also an underestimate because I’ve had a crap day and can’t be bothered to even do napkin math.
Considering the fuel flow of the 4 PW2000 engines and using a ratio of 3.15/1 for CO2 vs fuel burned, it’s around 24 000kg of C02 per hour of flight at cruising altitude. Google says the average car emitts 4 600kg of C02 a year. So that’s over 5 cars per hour, so that’s over 50 cars for 10 hours of flight at cruising altitude.
Pretty accurate napkin math.
Thanks Marmite, it’s what I get paid to do so I ought to be good at it
Edit: Oh I think you were referring to your own math and my ego read it as a compliment. My brain is fried today lol
It’s a compliment, my figures are the similar to yours.
My neurodivergence strikes again
Posted translations of two junge Welt articles:
First one about a PdL (“The Left” party) supported speaker, Evelyn Deller, running cover for Azov-Nazis: https://hexbear.net/post/7620661
Second one about the state of the Russia-Ukraine war, and how it can be seen through the lense of Cybernetics: https://hexbear.net/post/7620823
Morgenthau apology form: I didn’t know how much Germans love genocide.
I am seeing some Venezuelan sources say this is fake news.
Keep considering this as psyop shit until new notice
People having a struggle session over shit from Bloomberg
Does anyone have a source for this claim that is not a US imperialist propaganda organ, like Bloomberg?
Here is a key quote from that piece:
“people with knowledge of the deal said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public”
Hahaha! So this is all according to yet another totally “anonymous source”… And the “source” can not even acknowledge who they work for (most likely, the US White House).
By the way, the piratical US imperialists just illegally seized another Venezuelan oil tanker in the Indian Ocean yesterday (presumably while trying to deliver oil to India). If Washington really “owns” Venezuela as the White House claims, then why would they need to do that?
I am interested to see what will happen to the Communes. Under Maduro the Communards grew in power significantly and were even appointed a ministerial position. Maduro was pushing for the inclusion of the communes in the constitution. If they are not dismantled by the new governments or faded into irrelevancy by a lack of economic pressure from the US I could see the communes as a way to keep the socialist project growing until a time when the US is much weaker.
Holy shit was it just a plot to maintain the Zionist entity’s supply?
Mostly it was a plot to divert Venezuela’s oil away from Cuba/China and to India, to pull India away from Russia. Complete and total imperialist victory here, Venezuela going out with a whimper and betraying Cuba (many Cubans died for Maduro and this is their repayment) and India being pulled out of the BRICS orbit.
I hate to say it but Trump’s imperialist policy of bullying his way and using perfidy is working extremely well. Nobody is calling the bluff, everyone is folding.
The only people calling the bluff are China, but they’re only calling the bluff in relation to China unfortunately (as is expected).
they should intentionally go through bab al mandab and get kidnapped by yemen on purpose
Let that be a lesson to future revolutions, never let your economy hinge on one export industry!
There is an argument to be made that this war was lost almost 20 years ago when Venezuela failed to diversify its economy before the oil crash, or that it was at least a major lynchpin.
Can we end the cope about Venezuela’s revolution continuing? It’s over unless the people rise up and overthrow these compradors
Either they sell their oil according to US conditions or they don’t sell it at all. If Maduro was still in power he would be facing the same exact problem.
So it’s purely a coincidence that Venezuela was defying the US under Maduro and then once he’s gone they immediately capitulate?
Better that Venezuela sell it to nobody then sell it to Israel and India tbh. The oil would be better in the ground than being used to further imperialism. Selling oil is not an inherent good (in fact, it’s an inherent bad as it destroys the planet). We only tolerated it as the proceeds were going to better the people’s conditions. Now that that’s no longer the case, it should stay in the ground.
Maduro was offering this exact concession to the US in exchange for ending the sanctions.
Then the “revolution” was even more kayfabe and farcical
lmk how your revolution goes so I can throw stones from the sidelines without knowing very much about it, too
Well now I’m not gonna do it!
If a nation capitulates to imperialists, gives imperialists control over all their natural resources and then resumes trade with the fascists how exactly is that a “revolution”? It’s not, no more than Rojava was a revolution. You can’t be an imperialist proxy and lapdog and be a revolution.
Is it purely a coincidence that Maduro was kidnapped right when Venezuela had run out of oil storage space?
As I said, if their “revolution” can only continue by giving their sovereign wealth to a US controlled fund and selling their resources to Israel then it’s dead. They are functionally identical to an American imperialist proxy or resource colony now.
People say lots of things about ‘AES’ but part of ‘actually running’ a country is that you have to, you know, look out for your people. The truth is that Latin American countries are weak. The US doesn’t want to nor does it need to engage in military occupation to break us. Venezuela has been under hybrid warfare for 20 years. It doesn’t share a border with China, Russia or anyone in a position to aid it. And at the end of the day nobody becomes Yemen or Palestine out of choice and you’d be kidding yourself if you think any revolutionary project would choose that position.
Both Venezuela and Cuba had been angling for a China style deal since Obama 1. Those initiatives didn’t work and now, after decades of hybrid warfare, Venezuela became a tributary. They fought the hybrid war and they lost it. Maduro’s kidnapping was just the final bang. They ran a revolutionary country for 20 years and did everything they could. Calling that farcical is just romanticism.
Reading this did not help my depressive mood surrounding our (Latin America) current situation but it’s a necessary read for anyone thinking every country in the global south will immediately become 60’s Vietnam, Palestine, or Yemen overnight. It was a long and grueling process to reach those stages.
Nobody wants to sacrifice their lives unless they feel there is no other choice.
It was farcical by the end to pretend it wasn’t over when it was over. I agree the revolution was genuine originally and Venezuela lost to decades of hybrid warfare. But a loss is a loss. Why cant people here accept that fact? Because they are coping. Just like they were with Hezbollah and Syria.
You should go to Venezeula and start an insurgency. Show them how it’s done.
Real smart comment. You should move to North Korea if you love communism so much! You should move to Palestine if you love Hamas so much! Why don’t you go and fight against Israel?!
It’s easy to be a revolutionary in paradise isn’t it?
You really don’t like it when people point out that obvious and observe the failure of a revolution do you? The number one source of delusion in these threads is perpetual cope and inability to see losses as losses adequately. The point of this thread is analysis. You saying “why dont you go fight in the revolution?!?” is not analysis is brain dead cope
You don’t like it when Venezuela doesn’t fight to the last Venezuelan for your ego, do you?
Fight at all would be nice, but at the end of the day i’m not in control of Venezuela. I’m calling balls and strikes, and Venezuela just struck out and lost the game without even taking a swing. Decades of work and sacrifice by millions of Venezuelans thrown out the window for nothing. Absolute betrayal of the revolution and the people.
I don’t think that’s possible before March, or even necessary. Of current deployments, the USS George Washington is in port in Japan, so it can’t be moved. The USS Abraham Lincoln is already near Iran. The USS Gerald Ford is near Venezuela and already crossed the Atlantic once before on it’s current deployment, the US really don’t want to send it back across the Atlantic. The USS George H.W Bush is weeks/over a month away from deployment. The US military can move a bunch of tactical fighters, cruise missiles and air defence systems to the Middle East and essentially “create an aircraft carrier strike group on land”, which I think they’ll do in Jordan. Such is a large logistical undertaking compared to an aircraft carrier strike group, which comes with that all integrated in one group of ships, which is why it’s such a prized asset in the US military.
If the US intends to actually deploy another aircraft carrier, that means weeks of more military buildup at minimum.
They could move the Roosevelt and leave the Eastern Pacific without a deployed carrier strike group.
My guess is that they send the Ford back across the Atlantic and run the blockade of Cuba with smaller ships, since the air portion can be done from Florida.
Roosevelt is not currently deployed and is multiple months from deployment, the carrier in the Pacific currently is the USS George Washington in anchor at Japan. The US won’t move it. I don’t think the Ford can cross the Atlantic again, it might not be physically able to without maintenance, it’s been deployed for close to 10 months now.
My pet theory is that some general explained to Trump that they are “building an aircraft carrier strike group on land” as an analogy because the US can’t deploy a carrier right now, and Trump took it to mean an actual carrier is being deployed, and now they all have to pretend he’s serious. Trump is the same guy that calls the B-21 bomber the new B-2, referred to F/A-XX as a twin engined F-35 for the Navy, called the planned upgrades (EOTS, stealth drop tanks, upgraded radar) for the F-22 the F-22 Super, and said that carriers are going back to steam. His military knowledge is not that high level to say the least.
Huh, I guess the site I was using to look at deployments was out of date.
I could see your pet theory being true. I could also see this admin ignoring maintenance schedules and needs and either having a ship deploy before it’s ready or extending the Ford’s deployment. They are brazen and strike me as the type who think maintenance schedules are something nerds and lazy people make up.
That’s also true, then they’ll probably send the USS George HW Bush before it’s completed its COMPTUEX (Composite Training Unit Exercise) if they want to deploy an aircraft carrier. Still weeks away I imagine.
More weeks of this buildup and fake negotiations will be terrible to watch, if the US actually makes the decision to do so.
Blackwater founder Erik Prince reportedly taken captive by M23 in Eastern DRC
Sources say that when a coalition of forces fighting alongside the DRC government re-entered Uvira last month—after M23 had withdrawn from the city—foreign mercenaries under Prince’s leadership were among those accompanying the coalition. These mercenaries have reportedly been seen for some time in ongoing fighting in the surrounding highland areas.
The same sources allege that Prince was arrested at a hotel in the Muchepe area, together with soldiers assigned to his security, before being taken to an undisclosed location.
As of now, the AFC/M23 coalition has neither confirmed nor denied the reported detention of Erik Prince.
When questioned by journalists on Friday about the claims, AFC/M23 deputy spokesperson Dr. Oscar Balinda said that the matter falls under the responsibility of the group’s military spokesperson, Lt. Col. Willy Ngoma.
Hoping for a
party for this guy soontbh if M23 has him, I bet they will try to trade him with the US for something rather than execute him, even if that is exactly what that mercenary fuck deserves
Aren’t M23 dogs of Rwanda, who are dogs of the US empire? He’ll probably be fine.
This guy is such a piece of shit, please let him get his comeuppance
Please let this be true
Today is the day that Jose Martí international airport in Havana, Cuba, is expected to run out of jet A1 aviation grade fuel due to the US oil blockade on Cuba. This has already had an effect on commercial aviation to Cuba. Turkish Airlines flight THY221/TK221, hex:4BB19A flew from Istanbul, Turkey, to Havana, Cuba this morning. Already as they started their flight this morning, they were aware of En Route Alternatives (ERA) to refuel their aircraft with a minimal disruption to the planned flight path, an aerodrome (airport) located en route. The SITA Mission Watch automatically informed them that runway 9/27 at Boston Logan International Airport, an ERA, was closed, a 7000ft runway that a Boeing 787 would be very unlikely to use outside of an emergency, especially at Boston which has 10 000ft runways available. But being automatically informed about NOTAMs at ERAs shows that the pilots of THY221 were fully aware of the fuel situation in Cuba.
ACARS messages:
Flight path over Boston:
In the end, THY221 flew directly from Istanbul to Havana. But on the return trip to Istanbul, they were unable to go direct from Havana to Istanbul. Now flight THY222, they had to divert to Cancun, Mexico to refuel, where they are now, as they cannot refuel at Havana, Cuba, because there is no fuel available. They will presumably fly back to Istanbul from Mexico once refueled.
ADSBx flight tracking of this aircraft
With commercial aviation having to reroute flights as expected to refuel elsewhere, the effects of the US oil blockade on Cuba are already starting to show. This will increase costs for airlines and have an effect on tourism revenues in Cuba.
Air canada has already cancelled flights to Havana citing fuel issues
Yeah a lot of airlines are not going to want to absorb the increased costs and time of diverting and refueling in Mexico or elsewhere, and passengers are not going to want to absorb those costs and increased flight time either. There’s also the possibility of being stranded in Cuba if fuel is too low.
The airlines that will be least affected are those flying from Florida, it’s close enough to load the aircraft with enough fuel to fly to Cuba and back without diversions or needing to refuel in Cuba or elsewhere. Still an increase in costs, but not as much, and no increase in flight time.
Emmanuel Macron: "Now is the time for the EU to launch a common borrowing capacity, through eurobonds. https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2026/02/10/emmanuel-macron-c-est-le-moment-pour-l-union-europeenne-de-lancer-une-capacite-commune-d-endettement-via-des-eurobonds_6666101_3234.html Challenging the dollar hegemony? I’ll believe it when I see it
Well, I guess anything that solves the financial contradictions of the common market is a challenge to US finance. The real problem here is that its France and Macron who make these calls to ‘Federalize Europe’. The french state will just say whatever it perceives will net it the most social capital and prestige abroad. Macron will just say whatever, period. So, yeah, I’ll believe it when I see (a broad swathe of countries as diverse as, say, Spain to Hungary making this call to action).
The Germans and the exporters won’t like it.
Whether it’s borrowing or spending itself is complicated. Because EU itself making bonds would mean member countries will have to tax more (depending on who are taxed, it’ll be bad for members’ growth), provide EU with Euros to pay the debt (politically difficult), also will mean high interest rates (considering there is no lender of last resort).
Or ECB could buy the debt instead but then certain members will complain. Neither works well.
(considering there is no lender of last resort).
I kinda assumed* this is a part of the eurobond scheme. To eventually Trojan Horse the ECB into acting like a proper central bank for EU member states, stabilizing government spending even among the deficitary economies and subsidizing consumption along the periphery. That should be good for the exporters, even if the industrial centers’ taxes become part of the accounting that sustains the common EU financial system. At that point I’d imagine that the Germans still wouldn’t like it, not because they are made poorer but because of Merkel Era bullshit like ‘the Greeks are using Our Deutschmark and not cutting their spending!’
At some point Europe has to become a proper country. You can’t permanently contract every economy in the EU until countries settle into a best case scenario like Ireland becoming the canary wharf for US multinationals or whatever it is that Spain did. You run too high a risk of turning either Italy or France into Greece instead.
*I do realize making assumptions is a dumb thing to do.
Israel used weapons in Gaza that made thousands of Palestinians evaporate
English article about Al Jazeera Arabic’s investigation of the use of US-made thermobaric and thermal bombs.
I don’t know why people are so weird about fuel-air bombs specifically, but I figure it’s something to do with the Russians having more of them earlier than the Americans. They’re bombs. They kill people by exploding. They’re not any more or less horrific than any other bomb, they just have more explosive (and less fragmentation) for the same weight. They don’t kill by suffocation or evaporation or any other nonsense, and I’m not aware of any international treaties banning their use.
The horror here is more that they used so many bombs that they “had” to use their expensive thermobarics, even though they were probably less effective at their intended purpose of slaughtering civilians in the open. (Although it seems like the weapons in question might be high-explosive incendiaries, not thermobarics?)
Very simplistically, an explosion is when something burns faster than the speed of sound. For anything to burn it needs heat, fuel, and oxygen.
If you just burn a pile of fuel in air the flame can never move faster than the speed of sound, as that’s the maximum speed at which the air can move to provide more oxygen to the flame.
Normal high explosives work by decomposing into their own oxidizer, allowing them to create a flame front that outruns the atmosphere.
Thermobaric explosives work by dispersing fuel into the air and igniting it all at once with the heat of a high explosive ignitor. Since the expanding gasses are compressed into each other in all directions, they build up to create a supersonic shockwave.
The primary benefit of thermobarics is that carrying fuel AND oxidizer is heavier than carrying just fuel (even if the oxidizer is chemically bonded to the fuel in a high explosive), so you get a bigger hotter explosion for the same weight of munition. The downsides are the complexity, the risk of a fizzle, and the fact that you can’t physically contain the explosion in a shell and so get essentially no fragmentation effect. Fragmentation is the primary way bombs kill, but fragmentation is stopped by cover and explosive overpressure in an enclosed space is incredibly deadly, so thermobarics have a military niche.
This is not to excuse any of the massacres committed by Israel. However, I think facts are important.
None of the explosives/munitions listed in the Al Jazeera article are thermobaric/fuel air explosive weapons. Al Jazeera has got this wrong. Al Jazeera has also misunderstood this quote by Vasily Fatigarov:
“To prolong the burning time, powders of aluminium, magnesium and titanium are added to the chemical mixture,” Fatigarov said. “This raises the temperature of the explosion to between 2,500 and 3,000 degrees Celsius [4,532F to 5,432F].”
To mean:
these weapons disperse a cloud of fuel that ignites to create an enormous fireball and a vacuum effect.
These are two very different things. Adding additional material to TNT and plastic bonded explosives to increase their explosive power and thus the heat output is not the same as a thermobaric weapon. Most conventional explosives use a pre-mix of fuel and oxygen to produce the explosive effect. Tritonal uses TNT as the self oxidising explosive, with additional aluminium as fuel to increase the heat output and explosive power. Plastic bonded explosive mixtures do similar, usually using RDX as the self oxidising explosive, with additional sources of fuel and/or oxygen mixed in and all held together using the bonding agent. These are the explosives mentioned in the Al Jazeera article, and are not thermobaric/fuel air explosives. A thermobaric weapon is very different. Thermobaric weapons consist of only fuel and rely on oxygen from the surrounding air/atmosphere to produce an explosion once the fuel mix has been dispersed and ignited. Hence the erroneous term “vacuum bomb”, as it uses/sucks up the surrounding oxygen. This is also why it’s very deadly in enclosed spaces.
As for the most likely thermobaric weapon that Israel has used in Gaza, the AGM-114N MAC Hellfire missile is the most likely. This uses a conventional explosive to disperse a cloud of Teflon coated aluminium, which is then ignited to produce the thermobaric explosion. No oxidiser involved, oxygen from the atmosphere is used. And the aluminium is not used to increase the power of a conventional explosive, the conventional explosive is used to disperse the aluminium which is then ignited. Israel has widely used the AGM-114 in Gaza. However the AGM-114N MAC is a specific variant and it’s not known if that specific variant has been used.
Another potential weapon is the BLU-118/B or BLU-118/S 2000lb bomb. This is a BLU-109 body/external casing filled with a thermobaric explosive mix, used on the entrances of tunnels/caves/bunkers. This is how fuel air explosives look when used, if there is any footage like this from Gaza that would be a starting point for an investigation. Israel has widely used the BLU-109 (mentioned in the Al Jazeera article) and it’s externally similar to the BLU-118.
Thanks for the clarification, as someone who doesn’t know shit about bombs and weapons, I appreciate it a lot!
Trump threatens to block opening of new bridge between Ontario and Michigan . I’m sure it’s a total coincidence that a close political ally/donor owns the existing competing tolled bridge.
But it gets better. In the same truth/social/whateverthefuckitscalled post, he claimed that if Canada/China trade deals happen, “The first thing China will do is terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada, and permanently eliminate The Stanley Cup”.
Sure that’s why the only Chinese KHL team just had a massive revamp with a new name, new jersey, new coach, and are promoting exhibition games in China. they hate hockey for some unspecified reason 🙄
Side note the Shanghai Dragons’ new tarps look sick
Love the Dragons, they’re my second favourite KHL team (
ура локомотив! )!Lokomotiv & the Dragons are actually playing right now, Lokomotiv is leading 1-0 at the end of the second period!
Edit: Lokomotiv won 2-0!
ice is now illegal
“I prefer my ice crushed!”
“Say no more”
“The first thing China will do is terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada, and permanently eliminate The Stanley Cup”.
Real ‘Cicero claiming Catiline wants to kill all Romans and eradicate all life on earth’ type shit
A Canadian team hasn’t even won the cup since the early nineties, fucking Bettman is a bigger threat to hockey than China ever would be
Leafs fans would probably welcome the sweet release at this point lol
I’d make fun of the leafs but neither NHL team I follow has won the cup since before I was born so I’d be tempted to join them lol
At least my KHL team won the Gagarin Cup last year and they’ve been doing pretty good this year too. Lokomotiv for the cup!
Same T_T but tbf I only started watching a few years ago. I don’t follow the KHL though I kinda want to get into it
I’m definitely what you would call a casual fan of the NHL, I’ve always joked that if hockey is a religion then I’m the type to go to church on Easter and Christmas haha. And as soon as all the Canadian teams are out of the finals I don’t care anymore
I follow the KHL as much as I can, but the time difference doesn’t always make watching live easy & I don’t have a way to record games so most of the time I have to make do with play-by-plays and highlights posted on YouTube
I’ve started following PWHL this year and the games have been really fun to go to watch live, highly recommend
DPRK produces a domestic version of 불닭 (buldak) in 라선시 (Rason). Some are sold in the PRC.
yo, buldak is fire
It is! Literally, means fire chicken.
If by fire, you mean your asshole is on fire when it comes time to shit it out
shit is delicious though
If you figure out where go buy some I’ll absolutely order some to try
I’ll see what I can find! They say “라선령선 매운김치맛” (Rasonryong-son Meun-kimchimat, or “Rasonryong-son Spicy Kimchi Flavor” from what I can tell with my broken Korean) on them, seeing what that brings up.
I figure it’d be easier to snag one if you knew the Chinese characters for them and poked around one of their major market sites for it but I know about as much Chinese as I know Czech.
Almost certainly, I agree. Looking it up just brings up news articles from ROK outlets, and a few from the DPRK.
Yup I can almost imagine the kind of slop the rok ones are saying, probably that it’s made with sawdust and bugs and in the process of its creation the evil north executed a whole elementary school because some kid mentioned the fake existence of South Korean ramyun, who’s creation was from the result of the great God Kim il sung plucking a hair from his head and bringing into existence fried noodles.
From what I can tell it’s largely slop about the “regime” not respecting copyright, and “failing to create their own goods” and other such liberal brainworms.
What a bunch of libs, when IP gets threatened they throw out the fantasy elements of their storytelling to baldface state its bad to make knock-off items even though you can literally go to the store and buy knock-off shit like Walmart doctor thunder instead of IP copyrighted doctor pepper?
Where’s all the aircraft cannons?
My current suspicion is that Venezuela, Cuba, Greenland and Iran are Trump putting all the cards on the table expecting the worlds to just fold in response. To use another metaphor, he’s blowing his load leaving nothing in the chamber. This feels very demoralizing right now, but if one middle power joins mexico in their attempt to call americans bluff and penetrate the blockade I genuinly thing the world order might shift.
Greenland is not in the same category as the other three. There were no serious US plans to invade, blockade or bomb Greenland. The US was doing joint military exercises in Greenland while Trump was waffling, and they already have a military base there. No one is fighting the US over Greenland.
Mexico is not going to violate the fuel blockade. The US will let Mexico send humanitarian aid, they’re not going to let Mexico send Cuba oil until some sort of concession is made by the Cuban government. No “middle power” is going to ship fuel to Cuba.
I view it as a global version of Steve Bannon’s “flooding the zone” strategy. If you just keep throwing new bullshit at your enemies, your enemies have to drop your previous load of bullshit and investigate the new load of bullshit. Leaves enemies in constant panic if nothing else.
Does this really work against an enemy with more mapower than you? China can simply assign more people to each event than the USA can.
Well tbh I don’t think it’s really working all that well even without a Chinese intervention. Trump wants little wins all over the world, and to feel like a winner all the time.
The more thorough foreign policy decisions are crafted by people like Marco Rubio, and I don’t think he really got the result he wanted in Venezuela. The Cuba blockade is a revision of what the USA really wanted, which was regime change in Venezuela.
Similar stories elsewhere, like the Iran strikes. The drawback of flooding the zone is you can’t control what the water is doing.
but “the zone” has grown to encompass the whole earth. “flood the earth” — wait they’re already doing that.
I stated it last time when the US was gearing up to bomb Iran, but I think that China mobilizing it’s military seemingly in preparation for an invasion of Taiwan would basically cause the US to abort any Iran operation. I don’t think we have the capability to fight those two wars plus whatever it is we are doing in Ukraine.
China mobilizing it’s military seemingly in preparation for an invasion of Taiwan
they aren’t and never will
Famous words said before the invasion of Ukraine.
I firmly believe that the US has switched their Taiwan policy from deterrence to deliberate provocation of war a la Ukraine. The US will not be directly involved in the fighting. That will be outsourced to Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines.
In other words, there would be minimal reaction from the US, and I don’t think it would affect the Iran situation.
Fighting in Taiwan, if it breaks out, cant be outsourced to Taiwan, Japan, SK or whatever combination of nations you can imagine. Without immediate and major US intervention Taiwan falls within weeks or at worst a couple of months and China brushes off anything any US dog can throw at them at the particular theater. Hell these countries cant throw anything of significance that or cant be placed in an american military base on their soil. Ukraine comparison make no sense. Ukraine is a huge ass country with a larger standing army and more hardware than most of EUrope combained, land borders with their allies and a frothing anti-russian nationalism and an abundance of poorer people that either want to be grinded to rince meat killing russians or can be forced to. There is no “Taiwan quagmire” to be had. Without US intervention China blockades Taiwan from energy inputs and if they are more vicious, food and medicine, and Taiwan folds relatively quickly. Way way way quicker than any economic or trade pain the US can inflict upon China. Japan or SK wont challenge the blockade on behalf of the US and literaly cant challenge the blockade it without the US actively doing so as well.
I made the Ukraine comparison as an example of intentional provocation of war. I don’t really expect Taiwan to become a quagmire itself. Their job will be to fire off volleys of missiles targeting the Chinese navy and high-value economic targets along the coastline.
On the other hand, I do think Japan and the Philippines could become quagmires. What is China going to do? Invade and/or blockade all of their zillions of little islands? And the US would likely provide logistical support for them despite the war, using the threat of nuclear escalation as a shield.
I also think there is a good chance that the US wants to provoke China into their own quagmire, but I don’t think the US wants that right now. Taiwan is still integral to chip manufacturing, and I don’t think the US is ready to support the logistical requirements necessary to accomplish their goals, which is why I think China mobilizing now would make the US pause what it’s doing. The US is not ready to have to fight on someone else’s timeline at the moment.
They’ve been trying to provoke China into it for years. It was really intense a year or two ago under Biden. Eased off slightly under Trump
Is there any chance of China actually launching an offensive on taiwan? Would it even be necessary?
I dunno much about taiwan politics but from what I heard, anti china politics are losing power. even current dpp government supporters think curent government is too aggresive against china and dpp seems to lose to more pro-china party kmt next election. I don’t think china will do any military act before next election
Right now? No. But there are opportunities that will present themselves in the coming years.
Most likely not anytime soon. I also think they would be more inclined to do some sort of embargo and/or blockade first to show Taiwan what life without the mainland is actually like.
I have said no until today, but with Japan wanting to remilitarise I would no longer rule it out as something China would do in preparation for conflict with Japan.
How did I forget japan electing a fashie that wants to kamikaze the entire country against china smh
I don’t think she’s up for it, you guys aren’t taking into account that the US is telling countries what to do, or else they get the stick. Trump recently said SK wasn’t doing their part against China. This is a CLEAR tell that these countries aren’t acting on their own accord.
I don’t think China will allow them to remilitarise. I believe China would go to war with Japan pre-emptively to stop it. And before they do that, they would want to secure Taiwan first.
I don’t think this is even a controversial take, there is NO WAY China is allowing Japan to build up again into the kind of country that did what it did to China last time. They absolutely will not allow it.
Japan is militarized. the constitution is a rag for the US to wipe its ass with.
and if i had a grain for every militaristic escalation against China the CPC did not answer with war i’d have like, 4 heaps by now
Purchasing 147 * F35s is in a completely different league to what Japan currently is and that’s just as a start.
There is always a chance, yes. Especially if Taiwan or the United States make any concrete moves against the One China policy. The PRC is mostly content with the status quo regarding Taiwan, but if the status quo changes (which seems to have in recent months!) that likelihood goes up.
That is true. Hoping it doesn’t get to that if anything the libs are gonna be insufferable about it.
