Image is from this SCMP article.
Much of the analysis below is sourced from Michael Roberts' great website.
Japan's ruling parliamentary coalition, consisting of the LDP (purple) and it's junior coalition partner Komeito (in light pink) have lost their ruling majority. They have ruled post-war Japan for almost its entire history. The LDP is currently led by Shigeru Ishiba after Kishida stood down due to a corruption scandal, and ties to the Unification Church.
While geopolitical factors (over the cold war between the US and China, etc) may have played a role, by far the biggest reason for this result in the poor economic conditions over the past few years. Inflation has risen and real wages have fallen, with little relief for the working class via things like tax reductions. While inequality in Japan is not as extreme as in America, it is still profound, with the top 10% possessing 60% of the wealth, while the bottom 50% possess just 5%.
Shinzo Abe previously tried to boost economic performance through monetary easing and fiscal deficits, while Kishida ran on a "new capitalism" which rejected Abe's neoliberalism and promised to reduce inequality. Nothing substantial has resulted from all this, however, other than increasing corporate wealth. Innovation continues to fall, and domestic profitability is low, resulting in decreasing investment at home by Japanese corporations. Labour productivity growth has only slightly picked up since the mid-2000s and is falling again. The rate of profit has fallen by half since the 1960s, and Japan has been in a manufacturing recession - or very close to it - since late 2022. In essence: there is no choice but between stagnation or decline.
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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.
can someone explain to me how isn't there a revolution in Egypt yet? like not even some unrest, literally just sitting there no life yet no sanctions
The Egyptian security state is in full overdrive and media blackout, the smallest gatherings are meet with mass deployments of police and army, thousands have been arrested
For instance a few months ago there was some pro-Palestine graffiti painted in a Cairo neighborhood, the state responded in the hour by disconnecting the entire electrical system for that part of the city and deploying hundreds of police to scour the neighborhood
Egypt is a fuckin pressure cooker right now
so the answer is that they send them behind the sun
egypt is one of those post colonial countries under an aggressive occupation by its own armed forces, whose members own and control everything. i don't see a revolution happening unless the egyptian economy spirals and the west just forgoes any sort of 'prop up financing'. at that point the army cadres would be stepping aside and letting the revolution happen.
it's already spiraling
think about it this way:
the stated goal of US hybrid war against Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and so on is to so impoverish and destroy these populations so much that they rise up against their governments. cruelty is not just the point, its the means.
the most basic criticism you can make is really simple. do the impoverished, sick, and starving populations of a country under sanctions have the energy to organize a revolution? no, they are focused on survival. at most you can have engineer societal collapse there, but not an organized revolution.
that is because revolutions are born of contradictions that go all the way up to the ruling classes. the french revolution saw even wealthy members of the third estate in hunger. the russian revolution was borne out of the catastrophe of WW1 and the inability of the tsarist state to deliver even for the lower nobility that did all the administrative work. likewise with an egyptian revolution its not enough for the country to spiral. the military caste that rules the country needs to be spiraling as well. thats where junior officer coups come from.
we could be seeing the final days of a regime that is only as strong as glass. but we could also be seeing business as usual for a political regime that builds itself a versailles in the desert while cairo turns into a mismanaged slum.
I think Vincent Bevins’ last book explains it. Al-sisi managed to build a strong autocratic state post Muslim Brotherhood period with the help of the US and by extension Israel.
Crazy how all the althistory people won't do a video on what would have happened if the brotherhood won in Egypt. (Answer: Global depression and US boots on the ground in Cairo)
How would it lead to a global depression?
...shutting down the suez canal right after a global pandemic and war in Eastern Europe, plus tensions with China and a credit crisis is obviously going to lead to a global depression. Oil would shoot up in that scenario
Because hamas was affiliated with the Muslim brotherhood. Many sympathizers have already been purged.
Much obliged, watching it right now.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
because their economy would severely contract without western support.