Bulletins and News Discussion from October 28th to November 3rd, 2024 - LDP Falls Flat / Yet Neoliberalism / Rampages Onward - COTW: Japan
Bulletins and News Discussion from October 28th to November 3rd, 2024 - LDP Falls Flat / Yet Neoliberalism / Rampages Onward - COTW: Japan
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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First it was Hamas that was going to destroy Israel, then that didn’t happen and you all stopped talking about it, then it was Hezbollah that was going to destroy Israel, now that that’s not happening you’re going to slowly stop talking about it. I guess it’s Yemen’s turn to destroy Israel now, but who’s it going to be after they fail too? Is Russia going to destroy Israel next? You should pick something funnier, like Serbia.
In 50 years you’ll all be in hospice care yelling at the nurses about how this time the end of Israel really is imminent! Sure Mr. Jewslayer Ilovehitler, the lawyer will be here in a few minutes to go over your will.
You certainly are malding on Hexbear. Did the South African case upset you that much, Nazi?
The South African “case”? Sure, of course. Anyone can sue anyone for anything. Hope this clears things up!
South Africa already got a ruling that Israel has been illegally occupying Gaza and the West Bank. Please, mald some more lol.
“Have you considered that the German Peoples’ Court has ruled that Jews are subhuman?”
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.
@HexbearMalding@thelemmy.club 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?
“If Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization 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.
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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.
Me waiting for this to happen:
Zzzzzzzzzzzz
Holy shit it's ousted sex pest Alexander Reid Ross! How have you been?
“Kill the Jew!”
-you
conflating judaism with zionism is antisemitic but go off
Here comes the gentile lecturing everyone else about what is and isn’t antisemitic! 90% of Jews worldwide are Zionists. Are they all antisemites? How hard did you get dropped on the head as an infant?
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.
90% of Jews worldwide are Zionists
Lil bro just really mad Tony Hinchcliffe is in trouble, y'all. Give him a break.
Nazi fuck
Most people would keep what they think of themselves in a personal journal they leave at home, but I guess this works too.
All Zionists are anti-Semitic, so any Zionist Jew is a self-hating anti-semite
Notice how "being a Zionist" is not antisemitic. There's nothing inherently antisemitic about being a Zionist. Conflating Zionism with Judaism is antisemitic, because not all Jews are Zionists.
Do you need back surgery from carrying that goalpost around? You people literally said, “Zionism is antisemitic”. You trying to salvage your argument as it falls apart in real time is very sad.
I said over 90% of Jews are Zionists, meaning some aren’t. I’m not “conflating” anything. They should’ve kept you in first grade until your reading comprehension matured.
Soccer goals actually have wheels on them, so you can roll them around. No need to carry anything.
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on hexbear malding
We don’t support the Hannibal directive here
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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?
Me waiting for this to happen:
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You sowing:
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You reaping:
Me during Operation True Promise 3:
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To live without a soul is not a living
Zionism is antisemetic.
TIL 90% of Jews worldwide are antisemites.
Is this supposed to be trolling? You're really bad at it lmao
Pretty sad
You aren’t made, you’re actually laughing!
mad*
you aren’t made
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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Is this supposed to upset me?
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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.
The Palestinian people have, since the Balfour Declaration during the First World War, been the victim of a colonization project by a foreign population, who reserve for them the fate of the Native Americans, whether one acknowledges it or pretends to be ignorant of it. This project has always had the unconditional support of the dominant imperialist power in the region (yesterday Great Britain, today the United States), because the foreign state in the region formed by that project can only be the unconditional ally, in turn, of the interventions required to force the Arab Middle East to submit to the domination of imperialist capitalism.
Today to accept the implementation of the Israeli project in progress is to ratify the abolition of the primary right of peoples: the right to exist. This is the supreme crime against humanity. The accusation of “anti-Semitism” addressed to those who reject this crime is only a means for appalling blackmail.
