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.
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.
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.
Yemen strikes the zionist cancer’s Ben Gurion airport. 6+ settlers wounded.
Reported footage of the strike
LETS FUCKING GOOOOO
Isreal and America dont have the Ability to defend their airspace relaible against single fired Ballistic Missiles
and thats THAAD…
Well, the Palestine-2 is a (Maneuverable Re-entry Vehicle) MaRV equipped ballistic missile, and if it has parts from the Fattah-1 MaRV, it contains a thrust vector control rocket motor on the MaRV itself, allowing for midcourse trajectory changes while exoatmospheric (to evade midcourse interception systems like Arrow-3 and SM-3) and improved flight performance in the glide phases.
THAAD is the only system Israel have that’s capable of plugging the holes in the defence and intercepting these MaRVs if or when they evade midcourse interception systems
A 100% interception rate is obviously impossible. So far, Yemen has launched 27 ballistic missiles at Israel (of various types, some MaRV equipped, some not), with 2 direct hits, and some debris landing in Israel from interceptions. That’s around a 92.5% interception rate (partial or full interception), and on the flipside, a 7.5% direct hit rate. However this with only one or two missiles being fired at a time, if a sufficient number of missiles is fired in a volley (like Iran did in Operation True Promise II), a lot more direct hits will occur, even with THAAD in the picture now. Accuracy is still the main issue with Iranian designed Medium Range Ballistic Missiles, this one landed over 500m away from any potential target at the airport.
In support of the oppressed Palestinian people and their mujahideen, and in rejection of the crime of genocide perpetrated by the Zionist enemy against our people in the Gaza Strip.
The missile force of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a military operation targeting Ben Gurion Airport in the occupied region of Yaffa using a hypersonic ballistic missile.
The missile successfully hit its target, thanks be to Allah.
The included results of the operation were as follows:
The Yemeni Armed Forces hereby reiterate their warning to all international airlines against continuing their flights to Ben Gurion Airport, as it has become unsafe for air traffic.
Earlier yesterday evening, the UAV force of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a military operation targeting a vital Israeli enemy target in the occupied area of Ashkelon using a Yaffa drone.
Yemen, its people, leadership, and army, with Allah’s help, reliance on Allah, and confidence in Allah’s victory, will continue to remain steadfast and resolute in the face of American aggression. They will not abandon their religious, moral, and humanitarian duty toward the oppressed Palestinian people, regardless of the repercussions, until the aggression against Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.
Sana’a, Dhu al-Qi’dah 6, 1446 AH May 4, 2025 AD
Issued by the Yemeni Armed Forces
http://t.me/army21ye
Let the oppressors of the world never have a moment of peace.