September 26th's update is here! TLDR? Here's the summary.
Next thread here. Sorry, the threads start breaking down at above 1000 comments.
edit: I've found a number of sources to use, mostly based on analysis rather than purely event reporting. I've kept some of the better mainstream sources, but I decided that I was gonna cut the six most aggravating sources out entirely: NYT, WaPo, Bloomberg, Forbes, Business Insider, and Politico. I'm not yet sure if I have enough for fully fledged updates (or maybe eventhe new material is too much) so I will do tomorrow's update with what I've found so far, and if I think I need more, I will add more. Unless I managed to get it just right the first time, I think I will end up iterating over the next week towards the best balance of lots of good sources that don't take too much time to sift through.
Links and Stuff
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists, for the “buh Zeleski is a jew?!?!” people.
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can, thank you.
Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map, who is an independent youtuber with a mostly neutral viewpoint.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have good analysis (though also a couple bad takes here and there)
Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict and, unlike most western analysts, has some degree of understanding on how war works. He is a reactionary, however.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent journalist reporting in the Ukrainian warzones.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ Gleb Bazov, banned from Twitter, referenced pretty heavily in what remains of pro-Russian Twitter.
https://t.me/asbmil ~ ASB Military News, banned from Twitter.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday Patrick Lancaster - crowd-funded U.S journalist, mostly pro-Russian, works on the ground near warzones to report news and talk to locals.
https://t.me/riafan_everywhere ~ Think it's a government news org or Federal News Agency? Russian language.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ Front news coverage. Russian langauge.
https://t.me/rybar ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine
With the entire western media sphere being overwhelming pro-Ukraine already, you shouldn't really need more, but:
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.
Last week's discussion post.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel: "The "Yes" vote won. Justice has been done. Approving the family code is doing justice. It is paying off a debt with several generations of Cuban men and women, whose family projects have been waiting for this Law for years. Starting today, we will be a better nation. Love is already law.
:diaz-canel-troll:
This pipeline shit is unreal. Happens deep under the sea, where only anyone with highly technical navy experience would be able to access. Deep in the territory of the western hegemony. Russia loses its leverage, EU is committed to its doom without any exit now. Reagan had the same plan in the 80s, and we literally have Biden on tape saying they'll blow up the fuckin thing if Russia invades... and the twitterati are falling over themselves speculating how if it's not Russia it must be Iran or some shit.
it's funny seeing on reddit everyone saying "wow, it makes no sense for Russia to blow up the pipeline, wonder why they did it anyways, just goes to show how stupid and irrational they are".
CNN: US warned European allies this summer that Nord Stream pipelines could be attacked
The warnings were based on US intelligence assessments, but they were vague, the people said – it was not clear from the warnings who might be responsible for any attacks on the pipelines or when they might occur.
The CIA declined to comment.
The US definitely did it.
Former Polish Foreign Minister, MEP Radoslaw Sikorski removed from Twitter his statement thanking the United States for damaging the pipes of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines.
:what-the-hell:
It's probably already been mentioned here, but all the Xi conspiracy stuff was started because he wasn't in public for ten days - the ten days immediately following SCO, as is standard COVID protocol for China.
Americans cannot convince of this and assume his demise. Death to America, of courseI think there is one suspect who could have blown open the pipeline that few have considered.
What Nord Stream 1 and 2's removal means is that Ukraine, which has gas pipelines running through it - some of which that, if I recall correctly, Ukraine has disabled - has more power over gas getting into Europe. And Ukraine has previously offered up some of its gas reserves to Germany, but this requires that Ukraine be a functional state for the foreseeable future. Of course, Ukraine itself doesn't have the ability to do this - aside from one man. One semi-mythical individual who has always come to Ukraine's aid. That's right - the Ghost of Kiev.
Cuba Ratifies Family Code
Cuba’s Código de las Familias (‘Families Code’) has been ratified by the population in Sunday’s referendum, receiving 66% of the ‘Yes’ vote according to preliminary figures reported by the Consejo Electoral Nacional (National Electoral Council – CEN).
The president of the CEN, Alina Balseiro Gutiérrez, reported that the Family Code was ratified by the Cuban people, providing preliminary results of the vote abroad and in Cuba.
She indicated that 6,251,786 voters went to the polls, representing 74.01% participation in the referendum. 8,447,467 voters were eligible to vote.
The ‘Yes’ option received 3,936,790 (66.87%) of the vote while the ‘No’ option received 1,950,090 (33.13%) of votes cast.
Meanwhile, Balseiro Gutiérrez affirmed that although the count remains pending in some constituencies of three provinces, the CEN validates these results as valid and irreversible. Final results will be announced later but the electoral authority has said that it can already be confirmed that the Family Code has been ratified.
HUGE W for lgbtq+ and minorities in Cuba. Common W for Miguel Diaz-Canel and the cuban people. :diaz-canel-troll:
Libs and Chuds seething and coping by saying that Cuba is "a pro-putin authoritarian dictatorial state that you can't buy a car and own a store" lol
Westerns will keep losing their rights while they sit around and complain about other countries :wojak-nooo:
This is very good news. I know the new law is a great move forward for LGBTQ rights but I don't know exactly what the details of it are. Anyone care to give a brief overview of the changes?
Until 2019, Article 36 of the Constitution of Cuba (most recently amended in 1992) defined marriage as "the voluntary union established between a man and a woman". As such, the wording constitutionally prohibited same-sex marriage.
On 4 May 2018, Mariela Castro (Raul's Daughter) said that she would propose a reform of the constitution and introduce a complementary measure to legalize same-sex marriage, since the constitutional reform process was expected to begin in July 2018.
Among the main aspects of the preliminary draft of the Family Code are:
- It protects all expressions of family diversity and the right of each person to form a family in coherence with the Constitution of the Republic and its principles of equality, non-discrimination and human dignity.
- Strengthens family responsibility from the emotional, educational, training and economic point of view in the care of its members. It places love, affection, solidarity and responsibility at the top of family values. Updates and perfects family legal institutions: a) kinship, b) the obligation to provide support, c) marriage, d) de facto union, e) filiation whatever its origin, f) parental relationships; and other custody and protection institutions.
- Promotes gender equality in the family space. It expands the variants of the economic regime of marriage to achieve greater autonomy of the spouses in the decision that is most favorable to their interests.
- It protects motherhood and fatherhood and the promotion of their responsible development in synergy with respect for the rights of children and adolescents in the family environment.
- It recognizes the right of grandmothers, grandfathers and other blood relatives, related and of another nature and of children and adolescents to a harmonious and close communication between them in the family environment.
- It promotes self-determination, preferences and equal opportunities in family life for older adults and those with disabilities.
- It expresses the right to a family life free of violence in any of its manifestations and presents protective formulas against these situations.
- Develops the possibilities of harmonious conflict resolution. It reinforces the guarantee formulas for people in any situation of disadvantage or vulnerability in the family space. Provides solutions to transnational conflicts arising from migration or relations between Cubans and foreigners.
- Strengthens the role of the Courts in family disputes; the powers of the Prosecutor's Office, the presence of these matters in the notarial field and the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice in the defense and protection of people in a situation of vulnerability in the family sphere. It makes its content compatible with international treaties on this matter ratified by the Republic of Cuba.
It legalizes same-sex marriage and union, adoption by same-sex couples, polyamorous relationships and more protection laws towards transsexuals people.
It sounds like lots of good stuff. I think the legal recognition of poly relationships is probably unique in the world outside of a traditional Islamic context.
How has public discourse about the new law been? What were the arguments a for and against and who opposed or supported it?
And polyam people too, gotta be happy about that even if some of them are (looks both ways, leans in close to whisper conspiratorially) straight
Destination vacation poly weddings to stimulate Cuba's economy are praxis
ASB says...
The “sabotage” on the NS 1 & NS 2 pipelines:
We’ve studied this for the last 14 hours.
There are 3 things you need to understand about these pipelines:
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These pipelines were Russia’s leverage over Europe. Massive leverage. Russia doing this is effectively political self-destruction. Not only in terms of economic profit, but in terms of strategic leverage over the EU bloc amid the conflict in Ukraine.
-
These pipes are built with concrete reinforced steel. They are made to withstand an impact from aircraft carrier anchors. They are basically indestructible without explosive charges.
-
The only realistic way this could have been carried out is via submarine/ship launched underwater drones.
There are only 3 countries that actively use this technology: USA, Russia & possibly China.
This means that there are gonna be fragments in the area, fragments of the explosives / drones used to destroy those pipelines.
US Navy warships and submarine were active in those exact areas a few days ago.
Spiegel reports that in summer, USA notified Germany about a possible Ukrainian attack on the NS pipelines.
There’s currently no evidence against the US, Russia nor — Ukraine (Ukraine does not have the capability to carry out such an operation)
Make your own conclusion
(Obviously it was the Dutch)
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Hurricane Update: I lived, birches.
Seriously, though, things are bad here. Power lines are down everywhere, no one has running water, and phone signals are touch and go. My place got flooded, so I'm staying with my parents right now. They have a generator, so things could be worse.
Thanks for all you do here, you’re basically running a news site inside this one. It’s awesome, and it’s inspirational that you’re still improving. :solidarity:
Russia to boycott Oscars as cultural isolation deepens
Pretty fucking rich that they're putting this "cultural isolation" on Russia given it was the West that started tearing down Soviet war memorials, banning the works of Russian authors from the 19th century and putting literal content warnings on TV shows that featured Russians being portrayed as anything other than subhuman barbarians. Mind numbing propaganda from Britain's leading "progressive" newspaper once again.
NATO condemns Russian annexation of Ukrainian territory, but alliance is not party to conflict - NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg
edit:
Now we cannot accept Ukraine into NATO - Stoltenberg
Holy shit, sanity prevails, at least for today. I hope.
It looks like the discussion is about the pipelines. Then it moved onto a short discussion about what NATO is doing to help Ukraine and stop Putler after some dipshit from the WSJ asked Stoltenberg a question, I kinda zoned out tbh. The press conference is now over.
Personally, I don't think it would be fair to say that NATO has blinked in response to the annexations, they haven't reduced their escalation, they just aren't increasing it.
