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.
hmmm interesting. If I understand the story, bin Mahram Kufi had a camel renting business. al-Rashid would just show up and take whatever camels he required for his Hajj. Assuming he returned alive, he would then pay the market fee for the use of the camels. Therefor, bin Mahram Kufi was in the position of hoping for the healthy return of al-Rashid although (I infer) he was considered to be a bad dude between these friends. I guess, absent the hostage camels, they’d be hoping the whole party fell into a ditch and was never heard from again? Is there some value in preventing a bad dude going on Hajj? I’m of the impression that every Muslim goes on Hajj and I’ve never heard of anyone being barred from it.
In he rest of the story, included in the link, bin Mahram Kufi responded to this by ditching all his camels. He ?pretended to be too old to run a camel business. But al-Rashid saw through the pretense and knew he was under the influence of the bleeding heart lib Ibn Ja’far. And says that if they weren’t such good buds he’d be in deep shit. the end
Obviously I am missing lots of context. I see how it is related. Especially when I search for Surah Hud 11:113 and found a slightly different translation
I find the overall story to be a bit equivocal because it is only the prior relationship (of providing the camels) that saves bin Mahram Kufi. If indeed it saved him at all; narrative just stops. What ought he have done the first time al-Rashid requisitioned use of the camels?
But point taken anyway. Do not incline to the unjust.
Imam Jafar as-Sadiq (as) is the 7th Imamiyya Shia Imam and extremely highly regarded by many other groups of Muslims as well.
Harun al-Rashid was the 5th Abbasid caliph. While there was an Islamic golden age during his rule, in both Shia and Sufi traditions he is portrayed as somewhat of a greedy tyrant. He ended up imprisoning and poisoning Jafar as-Sadiq’s (as) son, the 8th Imam Imam Musa al-Kazim (as).
Safwan was a devoted companion/follower of the two Imams (as), so describing them as friends is not really correct. Also the remainder of the story where al-Rashid threatens Safwan is to evidence more of Al-Rashid’s nepotism and brutal tendencies I suppose. I don’t know much about him though sorry.
I share your interpretation. The takeaway being that what al-Rashid was using the camels for is considered to be irrelevant because he is an oppressor. If you want an oppressor to live long enough to pay you then you want them to continue to live. If you want them to continue to live then you want them to continue oppressing.
I personally appreciate this strong moral/ethical position.
What do you mean by this?