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

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

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.

  • CoralMarks [he/him]
    ·
    9 months ago

    Rule by pogrom
    India: Renewed repression against Muslims amid upcoming elections

    full article

    Repression against Muslims has increased in the run-up to India's elections in April and May. The scene of the latest violence against the country's largest minority is the northern state of Uttarakhand. It is ruled by the Indian People's Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is aiming to secure a third term in office in the upcoming vote.

    On Thursday last week, the administration of the city of Haldwani razed a mosque with an attached Koran school to the ground with bulldozers. Apparently it was built on state property despite the lack of approval. However, the legal issue is still being heard by the highest court in Uttarakhand. When angry residents tried to prevent the demolition, emergency services used live ammunition against them, leaving five people dead. A state of emergency was declared over Haldwani. Police entered Muslim homes, attacked family members, including women, demolished property, and captured several men.

    When a journalist from the news site Scroll.in visited Haldwani at the weekend, emergency services denied him access to the Muslim-inhabited Banbhoolpura district. Nevertheless, he went in and found locked houses and destroyed vehicles, while the residents no longer dared to go out on the streets. Many have already fled to other states.

    Bulldozing the mosque is not the only anti-Muslim move by the Uttarakhand government. According to dpa, a law was passed in the state one day before the mosque was demolished, which, on the one hand, makes the cohabitation of unmarried people dependent on whether they receive official approval. On the other hand, it does not prohibit polygamy, which was previously permitted for Indian Muslims, for other Indians. The thrust is clear: under the motto “equal rights for all” the aim is to create a mood against Muslims. At the same time, legal options are created to take action against them.

    This is not new in India. Rather, it has long been the recipe for success of Modi's Hindu nationalists, especially before elections, to turn the country's different population groups against each other and at the same time present themselves as defenders of the rights of the Hindu majority. This had already worked perfectly in 2002, when Modi was still Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat and allowed pogroms against Muslims to take place for weeks, whereupon he emerged as the radiant winner of the election at that time.

    However, a polarization of the population and depoliticization of the election campaign is urgently needed this year. Farmer protests are currently being revived in India, as they completely paralyzed the metropolis of Delhi a few years ago. In India, too, fueling so-called ethnic or religious conflicts is a proven means of defusing and diverting legitimate social protest.

    Does anybody know if there's any challenger to Modi in this election or will it be just another formality?

    • Azarova [they/them]
      ·
      9 months ago

      Radhika Desai mentioned in a recent Geopolitical Economy Hour that all the other parties have formed a coalition to beat Modi. If the coalition holds, the BJP lose. However, obviously they're going to try to prevent that by either trying to fragment the coalition or by engineering an emergency to postpone elections.

    • jackmarxist [any]
      ·
      9 months ago

      I'll personally vote for the CPIM but the BJP will win 100%. The people of india don't give a shit about anything except temples. The opposition is also just weak and the BJP owned media sways public opinion very easily.