Intelligence services turning a dial labeled “North Koreans” and constantly looking back at the audience for approval
this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2024
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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.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
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.
article on the uyghur think tank-industrial complex and its relationship to zionism/lack of support for palestine
However, there is an Islamic organisation that stands in solidarity with Israel, overlooking the history of Palestinian suffering and openly supporting Israel, the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), based in Germany’s Munich city. The WUC stated on October 9, 2023, condemning Operation Al-Aqsa Typhoon as a “terrorist attack”, just a couple of days after Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel. Omer Kanat, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the WUC and Executive Director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), went one step ahead and publicly condemned Hamas’s actions and expressed solidarity with the victims of the attacks.
Similarly, the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project (URAP), a Canada-based Uyghur rights group, issued a statement condemning “the barbaric attacks by Hamas terrorists on innocent Israelis.” Additionally, the “Campaign for Uyghurs”, affiliated with the WUC, while expressing solidarity with the victims of the attacks, stated that the organisation stands with the Jewish state.
However, in response to the humanitarian disaster caused by Israel’s military operations in Gaza, no Uyghur organisation has so far condemned the actions as genocide. The fact mentioned above contradicts the widespread assertion of Chinese action against Uyghurs in Xinjiang as genocide.
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France's Macron wins Moroccan cheers on Western Sahara
For France, this territory's present and future fall under Morocco's sovereignty," Macron said to a standing ovation from Moroccan lawmakers. "This position is what France will advocate to help Morocco in international organisations. "This position is hostile to no one," he added, referring to Algeria, which considers Morocco's presence in Western Sahara an occupation.
France, Morocco sign deals worth over €10 billion during Macron visit
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"IDF says military goals in Lebanon achieved, gov't can reach diplomatic resolution" - Jerusalem Post
:yea:
They're gonna stop the ground invasion because they're getting majorly owned but continue the bombing campaign like the cowards they are
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twelve meters inside the border: "my job here is done."
"but you didn't do anything!"
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Nearly 100 confirmed dead in an Israeli terror attack in Beit Lahiya. Dozens buried under the rubble.
Death to "Israel"
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ISW: Hezbollah’s Military Forces Are Failing in Lebanon
In case you weren't already convinced that ISW is a full-blown propaganda outlet.
The operation has so far successfully destroyed and disrupted many of the capabilities required for Hezbollah to threaten northern Israel
Aren't they still regularly launching rockets?
Hezbollah is attempting to present itself as a competent, confident military organization, but it has so far failed to effectively execute any major military campaign at scale
???
Hezbollah has also routinely claimed it “hits” Merkava tanks with anti-tank missiles but has yet to publish any evidence indicating that these “hits” knocked tanks out of action or slowed Israeli operations.[17] Hezbollah would presumably publish evidence of destroyed vehicles, given that it has a vested interest in portraying its “defensive” operations as effective.
Ukraine brain.
Criticisms directed at the IDF’s slow pace of operations ignore Israeli operational design and lessons learned in the Gaza Strip. Some Lebanese officials implied that the Israeli operation is failing because IDF forces have not penetrated deep into Lebanon.[18] The IDF’s slow movement is a deliberate choice designed to root out and destroy Hezbollah tunnel infrastructure methodically. This approach was presumably derived from a lesson learned in the Gaza Strip, where after a relatively rapid armored assault, the IDF slowed its pace of operations and began methodically reentering areas and ripping out subterranean and above-ground infrastructure.[19]
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@[email protected] I decided to also check and it seems like Brazil mostly buys weapons from Israel since the 2000's, they don't export arms to Israel.
The two nations enjoy a degree of arms cooperation, with Brazil recently announcing that it was going to produce the Israeli-made TAR-21 Assault Rifle under license. Brazil is a key buyer of Israeli weapons and military technology. In addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts signed with Israeli manufacturer Elbit since 2000, the Brazilian Air Force signed a $90 million, five-year lease for 12 Kfir aircraft, and Rafael-manufactured Derby missiles were purchased in 2006. Most recently, Israel Aircraft Industries signed a $350 million contract in November 2009 to supply drones to the Brazilian police - the largest such deal ever between Israel and Brazil.
Article (Translated)
Defense Minister José Mucio Monteiro Filho's criticism of the “ideological issues” that held up the purchase of 36 armored artillery vehicles from Israel once again sheds light on the ambiguous stance of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's (PT) government. On the one hand, the Israeli purchase was barred on the grounds of not sponsoring war in the Middle East, but on the other hand, Brazil increased its imports of Russian origin by 75%. These revenues help Moscow finance its war machine against Ukraine. The Lula government's trade retaliation against Israel was the subject of protests and harsh criticism from the opposition in the Senate on Wednesday (9).
A survey by Gazeta do Povo, based on data from the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services, shows a jump in Brazilian imports from Russia. In 2021, R$5.6 billion in Russian products were imported, while in 2023, a year after the war, this figure exceeded R$10 billion, an increase of around 75%.
Russia, like Israel, is also at war, but for different reasons. Moscow decided to invade a neighboring country and annex its territory and population. Israel has been defending itself against large-scale terrorist attacks by Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels, all trained and financed by Iran. “It's a double standard, all the more so because Russia invaded Ukraine. It violated a principle [of territorial integrity and political freedom of nations] that Itamaraty has historically always supposed to defend. [In the case of] Israel, we have to discuss whether it was committing a war crime or not, but Israel reacted to an attack it suffered: a terrorist attack by Hamas. So, yes, it's double standards [adopted by the Lula government],” says international relations professor Gunther Rudzit, from the Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM).
Israel has been fighting a war against the terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip for exactly one year. The conflict began after the extremist organization ordered a terrorist attack against Israel and claimed 1,200 victims. In Europe, on the other hand, the war was motivated by Russia. The country started a war in February 2022, when dictator Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. The Brazilian president, however, has adopted different tones to address the ongoing conflicts in the world. While he avoids criticizing Putin and has even made statements interpreted as support for the dictator, Lula has been critical of the Israeli counter-offensive and the damage caused to the Palestinian population living in Gaza.
On Tuesday (8), Múcio said that ideological tendencies on the part of the government had blocked Defense negotiations with Israel. “There has now been a competition, a tender, the people of Israel, have won. But, because of the war, Hamas, the political groups, we have this tender ready, but, for ideological reasons, we can't approve it,” he said.
Although he didn't give details of which tender he was referring to, the most recent case is linked to Elbit Systems, the Israeli company that won the tender to sell 36 howitzers - a type of armored artillery that fires at long range - to the Brazilian Army. Negotiations, however, have stalled.
This is not the first time, however, that Lula's administration has interfered in Defense Ministry negotiations. On Tuesday, while criticizing the Brazilian government's intervention in the purchase of Israeli howitzers, José Múcio Monteiro Filho also condemned the suspension of the sale of ammunition to Germany. “We have ammunition here in the Army that we don't use. Germany wanted to buy it. It's there, it's expensive to maintain this ammunition. We made a great deal. 'You're not going. Because if you don't, the Germans will send it to Ukraine, and Ukraine will use it against Russia and Russia will mess with our agreements,'” said the Defense Minister. The minister also didn't detail what the ammunition would be, but in January last year President Lula met with Múcio and commanders of the Armed Forces to study a request made by Germany: the country was asking for ammunition for the armored Gepard, of German origin.
Members of the Workers' Party (PT) and the government's top brass, including the president's special affairs advisor, Celso Amorim, have opposed the purchase of Israeli artillery. They believe that the deal could indirectly finance the war the country is facing against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “This [the Elbit process] is also a political issue. You're buying sensitive equipment from a country accused of genocide by the International Court,” Amorim told O Globo. Despite occupying an advisory post, Amorim was Lula's foreign minister and is seen as the figure responsible for foreign policy in Lula's third term.
The text also calls on governments to stop any commercial operation involving the supply of military equipment to the Israeli Armed Forces. Brazil's delegation voted in favor of the text, drafted by Pakistan with the help of Bolivia, Cuba and Palestine. The text also recommends that governments also stop any commercial operation with Israel involving military equipment. Brazil voted in favor of the measure.
According to the UN, five countries currently sell arms to Israel:
The United States, The United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia. Six other countries -- Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Japan and Canada -- also transferred arms or military equipment to Israel but suspended operations after the war in the Middle East began. The UN Human Rights Council is made up of representatives from 47 countries. In Friday's vote, 28 of them voted in favor of the resolution, including China, Luxembourg, Malaysia and South Africa, as well as Brazil.
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Pretty weird but apparently someone polled german journalists on which party they support and here is the breakdown by party
Nazi party of german nazis and fascists (Green Party): 41%
No party: 23%
SPD: 16%
CDU: 8%
Linke: 6%
FDP: 3%
Other parties (I guess this includes the AfD): 2%
BSW: 1%
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