Bulletins and News Discussion from February 12th to February 18th, 2024 - The Prodigal Failson - COTW: Brazil
Bulletins and News Discussion from February 12th to February 18th, 2024 - The Prodigal Failson - COTW: Brazil
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.
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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 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.
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Egyptian authorities are enclosing a vast area of the Sinai Desert spanning over 20 square kilometers with large concrete walls.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Egypt is building a large concrete wall on its border with the Gaza Strip to contain a potential influx of Palestinians fleeing Israeli bombings.
Egyptian authorities are enclosing a vast area of the Sinai Desert spanning over 20 square kilometers with large concrete walls near the Gaza border, the newspaper asserts, citing Egyptian officials and security analysts as sources.
It is described as a massive new complex to bolster the country's security in the event that "a large number of Gaza residents manage to enter" if an Israeli offensive erupts in the southern part of the Strip, in the border city of Rafah.
Egypt has already been trying to bolster security along the border in recent months to keep Palestinians away, deploying soldiers and armored vehicles and reinforcing fences.
The Wall Street Journal published satellite photographs taken by the company Planet Labs PBC showing earth movements in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, next to Gaza, within an area designated as a walled enclosure for the possible location of a Palestinian refugee camp.
Over 100,000 people could be housed in the camp, which is surrounded by concrete walls and far from any Egyptian settlement. A large number of tents have been delivered to the site.
The construction of this wall comes as Israel continues its military offensive along the Gaza Strip, and fears increase that the country will launch an attack on Rafah.
Thousands of Palestinians living in Gaza have moved to Rafah to protect themselves from Israeli attacks that began in the north of that territory but have spread throughout the Strip.
Jesus fucking christ. Egypt really going all-in on being genocide partners with the Zionists.
Nothing awful should surprise me at this point, but here we are.
I hope there's a movement among the working class in Egypt who'll monkey wrench this shit, but I suspect that's a very distant possibility.
Not to defend Egypt here as I hate Sisi so much you have no idea, but they are in a very impossible situation. They can't really let all the Palestinians in as refugees either because then they are aiding Israel in ethnic cleansing of Palestine, allowing the entire population to be pushed out of their homeland and displaced.
So Egypt is damned if they do, damned if they don't because when Israel herds all the millions of Gazans into the Egyptian border they either have to repel them (monstrous) or allow them to enter (also monstrous). The only thing they could actually do that would be principled and non-genocidal is to attack Israel itself somewhere else and join the Axis of Resistance, which in its current geopolitical and domestic political configuration it simply cannot do.
Also monstrous: extending the concentration camp. Which this is.
They can't really let all the Palestinians in as refugees either because then they are aiding Israel in ethnic cleansing of Palestine, allowing the entire population to be pushed out of their homeland and displaced.
There is a more material reason for them not to do this as well - if they let in 2m Palestinians, some portion of Palestinians will continue taking violent action against Israel and aiding whatever resistance remains in Gaza and the west bank. Israel will then do airstrikes against Egypt the same way they do against Syria and Lebanon. Accepting Palestinian refugees en mass is a recipe for further military action against Egypt to create a security buffer zone in less than a decade.
Egyptians tend to be historical very religious and committed to their various faiths. Are they letting their government really do stuff like this?
"Let"
Egypt is a brutal police state where they openly abduct and torture anyone who voices any type of dissent publicly. People are scared and downtrodden and unable to connect with each other. Most people hate the zionists and support Palestine, and they know their government are zionist dogs.
This is idealism. Americans tend to be pretty Christian and committed to freedom, yet they nevertheless let their government support all kinds of genocides and wars. Do you see how silly that sounds?
Palestine reminds me of Bangladesh but without India's intervention, of course with support of the USSR as well.