Image is of Brazilian chuds storming the National Congress building in opposition to Lula winning the election, on January 8th, 2023, in their remarkably even shittier version of the January 6th events in America.
Bolsonaro, who is in the tragic category of pro-US South American leaders who are so awful and uncharismatic that even they can't get the US to help them overthrow a democratically elected left-ish government, has recently been facing that most elusive of things in this current world order: consequences for his actions. Bolsonaro and his friends have been under investigation by the police, and his passport has now been seized, meaning he is unable to leave the country. Alongside the man himself, the leader of the Liberal Party, Valdemar Costa Neto, has been caught up in searches and investigations. Brazilian Army Colonel Bernardo Correa Neto, a former aide to Bolsonaro, was very recently arrested upon his return to Brazil from the US, as well as another colonel.
From the Hexbear South American correspondent (a position I just made up), @Redcuban1959@hexbear.net:
Lol, they are really fucked. Iirc, this is a municipal election year in Brazil, Bolsonaro can't campaign publicly, he can't promote his candidates. The leader of his party is currently in prison. And even if he is released from prison, they are forbidden to communicate with each other. The high-ranking members of the Liberal Party are pretty much fucked because they can't communicate with each other and getting support from Bolsonaro could be very bad, as left-wing candidates will exploit the fact that Bolsonaro will probably be imprisoned for planning a coup.
The FBI seems to have concluded its investigation into Bolsonaro's money laundering scheme in the US and handed over its findings to the Brazilian Federal Police, I don't think Bolsonaro can even go to the US anymore, or any other country. And it could get even funnier, there is a very small chance of the Liberal Party being banned and all its seats in congress and the senate being transferred to other politicians, many of whom, even if they are conservative, will be much more favorable to Lula's social and economic reforms, as it has been proven that Bolsonaro used the party to finance the coup.
The Country of the Week is Brazil! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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 daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
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.
lol Germany announced their plans to combat the rise of the far right
they aren't banning AfD
As I read this I had to look at this plan. So here is the link(of course in German).
Anyway this is the relevant part:
7. Remove enemies of the constitution from the public serviceWe must protect our democracy – also from within. The reform of federal disciplinary law is an important building block in making our constitutional state more resilient and in clearly showing that the public service does not tolerate extremists in its own ranks.
In order to significantly speed up the procedures, all disciplinary measures, including status-related removals and other status-relevant disciplinary measures, will in future be imposed by disciplinary order. The lengthy disciplinary action procedure, in which the employer had to apply to the court for status-relevant disciplinary measures, is no longer necessary.
A standard example of a serious official offense is also being introduced in the event of membership in a party declared unconstitutional by the Federal Constitutional Court or in an incontestably banned association or a substitute organization for such a party or association.
Furthermore, the range of duties for political civil servants will be expanded to the extent that they must commit themselves to the free democratic basic order in the sense of the Basic Law through their entire behavior, even during their temporary retirement.
The second situation report “Right-wing extremists, ‘Reich citizens’ and ‘self-administrators’ in security authorities” was presented in mid-May 2022. This report draws a comprehensive picture of suspected cases in the federal and state security authorities regarding activities from the right-wing extremist or “Reichsbürger” and “self-administrator” milieu. The management report is updated regularly and gradually expanded.
Next Steps: • The reform of federal disciplinary law will come into force on April 1, 2024 and must then be applied consistently. • The next situation report will include the phenomenon of delegitimization of the state relevant to constitutional protection. Its release is scheduled for the second quarter of 2024.
Interestingly in all the other chapters it's pretty clearly formulated against right wing extremism. But this chapter that deals with dismissal of public service employees they only mention one study they did in the end, but otherwise don't explicitly say right wing extremist and only refer to the both sidesy "extremist", "enemies of the constitution, "party declared unconstitutional" or "incontestably banned association".
Pretty sus.
Why do I mention this? Well because Germany already did something similar with the so called Radikalenerlass:
Sometimes when I think of what a hellhole the world is, I wonder if we actually live in one of the better timelines. Sure, the United States is awful in ways that would take an entire academic career to scratch the surface of. But aside from France's crumbling African situation there aren't really any European military empires anymore. Fascism certainly wasn't defeated after WW2 but at least European fascism has been largely confined to Europe.
Interesting train of thought, although I have to disagree. I mean of course it could be worse, but it could've also been so much better.
The reason for my thinking is I sometimes have to think about what could've been if only the reformist ideas of people like Bernstein and Kautsky don't become dominant in the SPD preceding WW1 and they follow the line Luxemburg and Liebknecht followed, history could've turned out completely different.
The possibilities, revolution in Germany(Europe generally), no WW1 and WW2 possibly, USSR and Germany allies not enemies, no purges like they happened, no forced resettlements, no 1930s famine maybe, endless positive potentials not realized because of goddamn sucdems, truly maddening...
So because of all that I have to disagree.
Oh certainly fair enough. Mostly just doing idle speculation, it's not really a formal stance I feel the need to defend. Currently enduring the worst cold I've ever had (I suspect COVID but good luck getting a proper test) and have some brain fog and am generally pessimistic.
No worries, I just love harping on about how shit the SPD is. Sorry lol
I'm in the same boat, fortunately not Covid though, but still laboring on a cough that seems to want to stay rather than go.
Anyways speedy recovery to you
And a speedy recovery to you too comrade.