this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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Bulletins and News Discussion from April 28th to May 4th, 2025 - Competent Fascism? - COTW: El Salvador
(hexbear.net)
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.
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With regards to the US-Ukraine natural resources extraction deal (referred to as the "minerals deal" in Western media):
After reading the statement by Ukraine's Minister of the Economy Yulia Svyrydenko, and comparing this statement to the draft proposal for the natural resources extraction deal from February 26 2025, it appears if Ukraine has just signed the February 26th agreement with little to no changes. A complete capitulation for Ukraine, Zelenskyy's temper tantrum in the White House accomplished nothing. Ukraine ended up signing onto basically the same agreement that was presented to Zelenskyy at the White House, just now months later at the last second, on the last day of April. (According to the leaked 100 day peace plan, work towards ending the war is to begin after April, so this was the last possible time for Ukraine to sign the natural resource extraction deal).
Yulia Svyrydenko statement
Xcancel mirror
Full text of February 26th draft proposal
Comparison of the two, click here to expand
For clarity, I'll put Svyrydenko's statements in quotation marks, and the 26 February agreement outside of them, like so:26 February agreement.
Let's look at it:
That was never up for debate, it's actually a part of the agreement. In fact, for the agreement to work, the Ukrainian government has to own (directly or indirectly) the resource extraction projects and manage them: The Fund will collect and reinvest revenues contributed to the Fund, minus expenses incurred by the Fund, and will earn income from the future monetization of all relevant Ukrainian Government-owned natural resource assets (whether owned directly or indirectly by the Ukrainian Government).
The February 26th agreement already states this, jointly managed fund, Ukraine 50%, and USA share the maximum amount permissible under US laws: The Fund will be jointly managed by representatives of the Government of Ukraine and the Government of the United States of America... The maximum percentage of ownership of the Fund’s equity and financial interests to be held by the Government of the United States of America and the decision-making authority of the representatives of the Government of the United States of America will be to the extent permissible under applicable United States laws...The Government of Ukraine will contribute to the Fund 50 percent of all revenues earned from the future monetization of all relevant Ukrainian Government-owned natural resource assets.
Again, this was already stated, current Ukrainian projects are not included: For the avoidance of doubt, such future sources of revenues do not include the current sources of revenues which are already part of the general budget revenues of Ukraine.
Debt obligations (such as the $500 billion clause or 2021 GDP match clause) were already removed prior to the 26 February agreement, at a cost to other areas. Also on co-operation and investment: The Fund, in its sole discretion, may credit or return to the Government of Ukraine actual expenses incurred by the newly developed projects from which the Fund receives revenues.
Word for word what is written in the 26 February agreement: In drafting the Fund Agreement, the Participants will strive to avoid conflicts with Ukraine’s obligations under its accession to the European Union or its obligations under arrangements with international financial institutions and other official creditors.
A rehash of point 3, and also already part of the February 26th agreement: The Government of Ukraine will contribute to the Fund 50 percent of all revenues earned from the future monetization of all relevant Ukrainian Government-owned natural resource assets (whether owned directly or indirectly by the Ukrainian Government), defined as deposits of minerals, hydrocarbons, oil, natural gas, and other extractable materials, and other infrastructure relevant to natural resource assets (such as liquified natural gas terminals and port infrastructure) as agreed by both Participants, as may be further described in the Fund Agreement. For the avoidance of doubt, such future sources of revenues do not include the current sources of revenues which are already part of the general budget revenues of Ukraine. Timeline, scope and sustainability of contributions will be further defined in the Fund Agreement.
The Fund agreement shall be ratified by the Parliament of Ukraine according to the Law of Ukraine "On International Treaties of Ukraine."... Contact persons responsible for preparing the Fund Agreement on the basis of this Bilateral Agreement are: from the Government of the United States of America: the Department of the Treasury; from the Government of Ukraine: Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Economy.
The Government of the United States of America and the Government of Ukraine intend that the investment process will lead to opportunities for distribution of additional funds and greater reinvestment, to ensure the sufficient supply of capital for the reconstruction of Ukraine as set out in the Fund Agreement... Further contributions may be comprised of funds, financial instruments, and other tangible and intangible assets critical for the reconstruction of Ukraine...The Fund Agreement will include appropriate representations and warranties, including those necessary to ensure that any obligations the Government of Ukraine may have to third parties, or such obligations that it may undertake in the future, do not sell, convey, transfer pledge, or otherwise encumber the Government of Ukraine’s contributions to the Fund or the assets from which such contributions are derived, or the Fund’s disposition of funds...The Fund Agreement will pay particular attention to the control mechanisms that make it impossible to weaken, violate or circumvent sanctions and other restrictive measures.
That's not a good thing if it's only revenue... Also: Neither Participant will sell, transfer or otherwise dispose of, directly or indirectly, any portion of its interest in the Fund without the prior written consent of the other Participant... The Fund will collect and reinvest revenues contributed to the Fund, minus expenses incurred by the Fund... The Fund, in its sole discretion, may credit or return to the Government of Ukraine actual expenses incurred by the newly developed projects from which the Fund receives revenues.
I guess sole discretion of the fund decided on tax free.
To promote the safety, security and prosperity of Ukraine...Further contributions may be comprised of funds, financial instruments, and other tangible and intangible assets critical for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
I just love that the Western liberal media bends over backwards pretending this is completely normal, and Ukraine is not a proxy but an equal.
The whole pretense was that the West is supplying Ukraine because of morality. Now that's out of the window.
Meanwhile Russia is still winning on the battleground.
Western media has been lying about the donbass genocide done by Ukrainians, the maidan coup, the nordstream 2 destruction, the azov brigade, the tactically advances backwards, etc…
Why should the resource deal be any different? Because the europeans got screwed over (again)
The "western liberal media" has resorted to straight up lying about the contents of the deal and previous drafts, after failing to actually read the drafts and getting played by Trump on the deal being a "minerals/rare earths" deal. They're too embarassed to admit that they got played by Trump, so they just lie about the past. The Western liberal media machine lives in the end of history Fukuyama mindset, where nothing exists except an endless present in which the neoliberals are always right. They know, of course, that the past is falsified, but it would never be possible for them to prove it, even when they did the falsification themselves:
BBC - Seven Key Takeaways from Ukraine Minerals Deal
This is a straight up lie by the BBC, as evidenced by the February 26th draft agreement containing multiple references to oil and gas. For instance:
Naked looting
USA making Ukraine pay it war reparations lmao
Ukraine kind of had it coming. They have been extending a war they can not win for years now. They've burnt their own manpower and sold their own country just for optics. Not too different form
sabotaging his own country and the Axis war effort for PR optics.
The best option for them by their own standards was to make peace with Russia last year when Biden was still president and join NATO and the EU immediately. Now they'll get none of it and are basically a colony of the US that too under Trump who gives zero shits about his reputation regarding Ukraine anymore because of Zelensky's tantrum.
They could have just followed minsk 2.0 and they wouldn’t have lost territory but they deluded themselves as equals to whitey and got greedy for crimea. Not to mention all the nazi brainworms.
Comparison part 2
So there's no actual endpoint to the deal, yikes. I've already covered the new projects part extensively, but for the additional contributions part: The Participants reserve the right to take such action as necessary to protect and maximize the value of their economic interests in the Fund.
Yes, this has already been stated many times: and other infrastructure relevant to natural resource assets (such as liquified natural gas terminals and port infrastructure) as agreed by both Participants... Contributions made to the Fund will be reinvested at least annually in Ukraine to promote the safety, security and prosperity of Ukraine... Subject to applicable United States law, the Government of the United States of America will maintain a long-term financial commitment to the development of a stable and economically prosperous Ukraine. Further contributions may be comprised of funds, financial instruments, and other tangible and intangible assets critical for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
WHEREAS the United States of America and Ukraine recognize the contribution that Ukraine has made to strengthening international peace and security by voluntarily abandoning the world's third largest arsenal of nuclear weapons