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.
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You certainly are malding on Hexbear. Did the South African case upset you that much, Nazi?
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South Africa already got a ruling that Israel has been illegally occupying Gaza and the West Bank. Please, mald some more lol.
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Please, continue to call the international courts and African nations Nazis. Your malding is very funny lol
“no no South Africa bringing a suit against Israel in the ICJ is exactly the same as the Nazis perpetuating the Holocaust” surely amounts to some form of Holocaust denial, no? Statements of the absolutely deranged.
@[email protected] is absolutely doing Holocaust denial, yes.
And yet the ICJ has not dismissed the case, and ruled it has standing to go ahead. If the case had no merit, it would be dismissed outright. And yet it wasn’t. Curious, no?
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It did have merit though. Like, it’s a valid question/case that’s not patently ridiculous. Just because I (and presumably you) disagree on the outcome of that case it had “merit” to stand, it wasn’t just like me suing somebody for something they are very obviously not doing, which would never stand in court at all.
Zionism will destroy itself. Even if it somehow killed every single Arab and had all the lebensraum it could want, the death cult would have to feed of their own.
But it’s killing its economy faster than that, alienating the vast majority of the world and eviscerating any notion that there any international rules to follow. Good luck to the entire west keeping the treats coming.
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Holy shit it’s ousted sex pest Alexander Reid Ross! How have you been?
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conflating judaism with zionism is antisemitic but go off
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Zionism is antisemitism.
The desire to expel Jewish people from Europe.
Zionism is antisemitic. Jewish people are Europeans. It’s an ethnic group with roughly 80% European, mostly German and Slavic, ancestry. Rejecting them as Europeans, excluding them from “whiteness” on the basis of religion and tradition, and wanting to expel them from “the west” where they “don’t belong”, absolutely is antisemitic.
Lil bro just really mad Tony Hinchcliffe is in trouble, y’all. Give him a break.
Nazi fuck
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All Zionists are anti-Semitic, so any Zionist Jew is a self-hating anti-semite
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Soccer goals actually have wheels on them, so you can roll them around. No need to carry anything.
on hexbear malding
We don’t support the Hannibal directive here
The only thing that’s going to destroy Israel is Israel. Its inability to contain its settler bloodlust has already doomed the state to collapse, just like South Africa decades before it. We’re in the bestial lashing out phase, where Israel in its madness lashes out and starts wars it can no longer possibly win. Hows the “special military operation” in Lebanon going? Have the rockets stopped raining down on the north? How about Gaza? Has Hamas been neutralized yet? No? How about the escalations with Iran? Is that going well, has Iran’s military capabilities been meaningfully dented? Has Israel made the Middle East safer and more prosperous for itself?
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You sowing:
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You reaping:
Me during Operation True Promise 3:
To live without a soul is not a living
Zionism is antisemetic.
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Is this supposed to be trolling? You’re really bad at it lmao
Pretty sad
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mad*
dumbass
You’re spending this much time and energy doing this and you can’t even compare to a fraction of what the John Kerry spammers accomplished.
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I A realistic analysis will show that the fate of Israel is tied up with that of the US empire, as Israel is an extension of the empire and it’s unsinkable aircraft carrier in the region. It is ultimately through this that it is doomed, not immediately, but long term given the changing balance of the world.