He’s a business guy doing business in China; he always posts his sources that he’s highlighting. Almost all of his sources are either mainstream western publications or publications for traders and business insiders. You can interrogate his sources and see if he is misinterpreting the findings. I don’t even know that this guy is a leftist; he’s just very pro-business and believes China is making strong and measurable business moves to maintain their markets, and he showcases how western business interests are being outmanuvered by China’s business interests.

His reports are rooted in international trade activity, and he draws what I think are logical conclusions based on that international trade activity. If antimony is required for the construction of weapons and China is being hyper-restrictive on its exports of antimony, then it stands to reason that the restocking of those weapons is going to take a hit as they run down their own supply backstock. Antimony isn’t the only critical mineral that China is restricting; magnets are suffering a similar situation.

From the WSJ article in the first link:

Western companies say they are receiving barely enough magnets for their factories and have little visibility of future supplies. Firms are waiting weeks as Chinese authorities scrutinize their applications—only to be rejected in some cases. And applications for raw rare earths, which are used to make magnets, are rarely granted.

As a result, Western companies are concerned that the shortages could soon affect manufacturing. Companies are so desperate for magnets that they are opting for expensive airfreight whenever licenses are granted to prevent costly production shutdowns. Some manufacturers are experimenting with workarounds that would allow them to make their products without the most powerful magnets.

The drone company he mentened, ePropelled, just announced a partnership with USA Rare Earth; except on the company’s own website, it’s very clear that this is a new venture, not an established venture looking for more contracts. Time will tell on the quality and the actual output this entity is capable of, but undoubtably the US and the West broadly are going to need more facilities like this, and they simply don’t have them yet.

Even if NATO is sending less than what Ukraine can produce domestically, both will be subject to these restrictions from China, and it at a minimum will slow their production. If the resupply rate drops below the utilization rate, that’s an issue; that’s just basic math. That’s simply an objective perspective on the landscape. I don’t think it’s propaganda to point out that Ukraine and NATO are using weapons and that the manufacturing industry is already sweating over supply chains to keep up with production, which will be bad for NATO and Ukraine. If they were in a conflict anywhere else, the math equation would still be the same; Ukraine is likely still the largest active conflict NATO and the West are supporting at this time, that is, unless Iran or Syria become more active again, in which case the problem only becomes worse.

Honestly, I’m not sure were going to see eye to eye here. You’re effectively arguing that my highly critical perspective on NATO isn’t valid or justified, while acknowledging that my highly critical perspective on israel is vaid and justified, to the point that NYT isn’t on the site (which I’m fine with, especially after this recent article they published). When both perspectives are rooted in anti-imperialist views, in historical materialist views, in analysis that accurately places the US at the center of both these conflicts (with NATO as the lapdog in the Ukraine conflict).

With everything the US has been doing to facilitate and aid in the genocide of Palestinians, is it that hard to imagine that they would put another country is a dire position to support their own geopolitical ends? That they would engineer conditions in Ukraine that would goad and provoke Russia into a conflict? I mean Lindsey Graham was quoted saying:

“We are destroying the Russian army without losing a single American soldier… In 18 months, the Ukrainian people regained half of their territories and not a single American died. The Russian economy is falling apart. The Russian Army has been destroyed. This is a good investment by the American people.”

He says the quite part out loud. These are the words of racketeers, not allies. The US State department, in collaboration with Israel are genociding Palestinians, and in collaboration with NATO pushing Ukrainians into the meat grinder of war. This doesn’t even touch other active conflicts they engineer, like the one in the DRC, which has never gotten the same level of press.

There is no good way out of this for Ukraine, NATO and the US state department do not care about what’s best for them. They will hang them out to dry and squeeze every last drop of value out of their people and their land. It won’t end with Ukraine either. NATO has it’s sights on China, they will do the same thing to Taiwan, and any other small nation in China’s vicinity.

I’m not sure at this point that NATO would even allow it to end. They would have Zelensky killed and replaced if necessary. It’s not outside of the US playbook.

I’m not necessarily asking these questions to start a debate with you, if you don’t want to be in one, you don’t have to answer if you would rather just agree to disagree type of thing.

Currently, I don’t have the time or the energy to get into a back and forth about the Russia/Ukraine conflict, respectfully. However, I’ll say this:

Russia is an oligarchical power at war. They’ll do things that an oligarchical power at war will do, which is my nuts and bolts assessment most of the time. That doesn’t change my perspective on NATO, however, and the history leading up to these events. It would seem to me that the conditions inside Ukraine are a byproduct (deliberate or otherwise) of NATO meddling in the country. The conditions for the current conflict developed out of both the 2004 and 2010 elections in the country and the eventual “Maidan Revolution” in 2014, which the US clearly wanted to happen, considering how many US officials flew over there. Neither of us could say what the state of things would be if Yanukovych was allowed to govern independently.

ejecting any source the instant it says something good about Russia.

See, I’m not seeking information that says “good” things about Russia. I definitely do not think there is anything “good” happening in Russia. What I do think though is that Russia being squeezed between NATO aggression and its long-standing partnership with China causes Russia to align itself in an anti-imperialist fashion. Internally, the country is still extremely reactionary, and seeing the progress the CPRF makes gives me hope one day it can shake off this reactionary moment in history and strive for something better again. This idea that anti-imperialists like myself think that Russia is “good” really misses the forest for the trees. BRICs is objectively good, for example, and something that aligns more with China’s outlook on world cooperation than Russia’s even though it’s involved with the project. Russia doesn’t have the same kind of leverage the West has financially, and as such, their international loans have been historically more favorable than ones that come out of the IMF, for example, to be competitive (one of the reasons behind the 2014 Maidan Revolution).

This definitely isn’t a neocon source. Neocons like America (or at least the military-industrial complex segment of it), they take Israel’s side, they don’t like Jeremy Corbyn (or wouldn’t if they knew who he was), etc etc.

I mean, this should make you wonder what their angle is, then, shouldn’t it? Why would a publication that seems to earnestly embrace working-class politics and their representatives, like Corbyn, also have this perspective about the Russia/Ukraine conflict that we’re discussing? Ultimately, a bayonet is a weapon with a worker at both ends.

Yeah, the comments are a real mixed bag, and it does make me wonder if they’re doing proper moderation.

There is a strange and unfortunate alignment between anti-imperialists and neocons regarding Russia that causes this. Anti-Imperialists understand that the Russian Federation is an oligarchy but that there is a historical aggressor in the NATO alliance that still exists today. In many ways, the conflict between NATO and the Russian Federation is like a shambling zombie, resurrected from the end of the Cold War, and Ukraine continues to be used as a wedge against Russia, as it had been used historically. Somehow, despite NATO winning the conflict with the USSR, they continue to press on east with their aliance, against all previous agreements and current demands of the Russian Federation. Anti-Imperialists see Russia “standing against imperialism” but know that it’s not out of some ideological commitment but due to historical forces that are still playing out today. Russia would want nothing more than to be like the imperialists of Europe and America, but those imperialists stand in its way. My hope, as an anti-imperialist, is for an end to the conflict and NATO (and Russian) expansionism.

Neocons are hoping the conflict with NATO and Russia with Ukraine at the center will lead to a weakening of both and that the US can leverage this into getting each to align themselves with US intrists against China. The war has already created a market for US oil in Europe and has already committed NATO to increasing its defense spending (which will likely mean increased spending within the US military industry). It’s a daring gamble, one that isn’t exactly paying off. There are just too many external forces playing around the doller-dominated world market and finding new avenues for trade. The Neocons care nothing about Palistinians; they are fine to conflate Jewdism and Zionism, because that conflict is just another angle of attack on the same target. It’s all in service of paving the road to war with China. The neocons are a big tent as well, which is why you get these pro-Russia, anti-Isreal (read antisemitic), Christian extremist types in the comments of publications.

The content of the reading doesn’t seem strange to me; I, personally, know people who hold the kind of opinions the piece is talking about; I’ve had those same conversations with them about there needing to be an end to the conflict in Ukraine, and that (from my estimation, based on how these negotiations have been going) NATO keeps injecting itself into negotiations in ways that stall and prolong the conflict. This obviously has negative outcomes for Ukraine, which grows more reactionary by the month, driving all kinds of enlistment campaigns to drag more of its able-bodied people onto the battle field. It does have the potential to cause a wider conflict, one I think Russia isn’t interested in (otherwise we’d be in a wider conflict already), and one I would almost expect NATO to manufacture an inciting incident for.

I’ve done a skim of the other content on this substack, and it doesn’t scream “antisemite in sheep’s clothing,” which is something I’m always trying to avoid. I’ve reported the clearly antisemitic comments on that post, and we should keep an eye on them to see if they’re removed. If they don’t remove those comments, I’m fine with removing the feed. I’ll bookmark that post and check in on it between today and tomorrow.

In terms of the content of the reading, it aligns with my views; however, I don’t subscribe to the notion of “brainwashing” and think it’s a flawed means to describe why people hold beliefs or align themselves politically. It has its roots in CIA propaganda during the Korean War to explain away the confessions of war crimes by returned POW-war crimes we know now really happened. In terms of production, the AI voice reading of paid content is “fine,” in my opinion (but I will accept others find it off-putting). I will often use something like “Piper” to turn articles into audio to listen to while driving. This sounds like it could be a Piper model if I had to guess, and it’s also not difficult to make a model of yourself to automate the reading of your own work if you desired to do so (no idea if that’s what they’re doing, however).

@PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au looks like were syncing now!

just trying to force this community to sync.

I wonder if BT blocks VPS IP ranges. I bet that’s it.

I appreciate your perspective. As for ML at a minimum I know they are trying to combat Sinophobia which is a rampant and pervasive issue, but we don’t need to rehash that stuff. I agree with you about the lying stuff. NYT has a long history of doing just that. Post 9/11 they were the primary pusher of the fake WMD story. I guess for me, I have to at a minimum entertain the anti-west perspective when people here will defend the NYT and the BBC as objective and principled journalism, while they regularly manufacture consent for Israel. It makes you wonder what else are they are covering for and what other stories your not hearing.

Also, I’m not sure what might be happening but not a single thread from the sub has synchronized with ml. Same with lefty stacks. Hard to know on whose end the issue is manifesting. At least my comments seem to sync.

The broken RSS is odd, I’ve tested them in miniflux and they seem fine. Not a huge deal really. Maybe its because they’re substacks attached to a domain instead of the substack domain? The subdomain versions just redirect back to their respective domains.

I find your position on adding value fair regarding Caitlin Johnstone. She is a bit of an agitator, and at times its more cathartic to read her posts because she’s often saying how I might feel, even if I couldn’t express it at the time. Her posts as news though have less value I’d say. It’s more commentary then anything.

As for the comments on propaganda, I find the word has lost a lot of its meaning, and is often used as “something I won’t investigate/will dismiss out of hand” (I’m not saying you are doing that either.) Instead I tend to focus on bias. Everyone has a bias, and all news has a bias. Some people are aware and even admit their bias, some have never bothered to confront their bias. The same is true with news/media.

Geopolitical Economy Report has a bias and its rooted in the works of Radhika Desai, who wrote “Geopolitical Economy” (a very interesting analysis of geopolitics focusing on the US and its monetary policy over the decades). I think they have great insights into world geopolitical affairs, which are rooted in critical theory.

I did see your post about the NYT and you had already removed it by then. I’m fine with the editorial choices you make ultimately, it is your time and money at the end of the day, so I’ll respect your choices. MintPress has a similar bias to Geopolitical Economy Report, in that they take a critical position on geopolitics. I don’t read them as often, but I felt they had good coverage regarding the US TikTok ban when that was in the news. The NYT has a bias as well, as we both know, and I think as long as we are aware of the bias, then its fine.

I think instead of focusing on not spreading ‘propaganda’ it might be more productive to be upfront about a publication’s known bias and encourage readers to read it critically.

But that’s just my outlook on news and bias. Again, I’ll defer to your judgment, since you keep the lights on.

Thanks again for the community to manage. I’ll leave a comment after this so you can mod me (waiting on posts to federate). I did see the instructions for adding feeds. Seems easy, I’m familiar with command line style interactions.

No other thoughts at the moment.

Thanks for the reply! I’ll take you up on that community, that’s a very cool idea. I’ll double check stuff before I add anything and see how many posts per week a feed generates and open a thread here if the volume seems high so we can discuss it. We can call it lefty_news, that works fine for me.

I’m not sure if smbc is hosted somewhere else or not, but now that you mention it, it sound familiar. I’ll search around for that one.

Thanks again!

As an aside, I had this thought about the instance and was curious what your opinion was.

Does it make more sense to have each post locked, to encourage cross posting to local communities?

That’s how I engage with the instance, but not sure about others.