Image is of Joseph Robinette Biden, who has stepped down and will not run against Trump in the 2024 election.

In the aftermath of Trump surviving an assassination attempt, many professional opinion-havers are now talking about the scourge of "political violence" that has overtaken, or will soon overtake America, and how we must not let chaos rule. This is, of course, patently absurd. The American government and its allies have been the greatest force of political violence on the planet since the beginning of colonialism, and the foundations of the country are made of corpses. Today, America commits political violence by forcing Ukrainians into the maw of Russian artillery instead of trying to reach a peaceful settlement, which Russia has repeatedly expressed interest in and offered Ukraine relatively favourable terms. They supply Israel with endless weaponry to destroy entire cities and populations, while Biden supporters insist that somehow things could be worse than daily massacres and mass starvation.

In May 1945, French police fired on protestors, causing retaliatory attacks on French settlers, killing about a hundred. In response, the French murdered 45,000 Algerians in a little under two months, in a frenzy of political violence called the Sétif and Guelma massacre. As the massacre was being completed, the International Court of Justice was established. It goes without saying that Algeria never benefited from the ICJ, and the War of Independence from 1954 to 1962 was made inevitable. Over a million Algerians were killed before France could bear the fighting no longer and gave up, and Algeria won itself a state. Comparisons to the ongoing war of independence and genocide in Palestine are obvious.

While the means of colonial violence have evolved over the centuries, the basic structure of it has not. As in Algeria, Vietnam, and Cuba, resistance groups in and around Palestine are fighting for a world with less political violence. The American government would drown every city in the developing world in blood to prevent peace.

The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Algeria! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

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.

  • Torenico [he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    ANOTHER DAY IN ancaptain , ANOTHER ancaptain BANGER

    Caputo confirms Argentina has moved some of its gold overseas

    The economy minister also said that Argentines would have to sell their U.S. dollars to pay taxes during an interview

    Economy Minister Luis Caputo has confirmed that Argentina’s Central Bank has moved at least part of its gold overseas after the leader of the bank workers’ union made a public information request on the matter. The minister also said that Argentines would have to sell their U.S. dollars to pay taxes.

    Sell your dollars, which provide a safeguard against inflation and is one of the few ways to save money today, TO PAY TAXES. THE LIBERTARIANS ARE SAYING WE SHOULD ELIMINATE OUR PERSONAL RESERVES TO PAY TAXES.

    “It is a very positive move by the Central Bank,” Caputo said in an interview with TV channel La Nación + on Friday. “Having gold in the Central Bank is like having real estate — you can’t use it for anything. If you have it overseas, you can get returns [on it].”

    (We don't know where our gold reserves went)

    Caputo did not specify how much gold had been sent, to which bank, or the kind of operation.

    Some who work in the financial and banking sectors say that the reserves were sent to the UK as some sort of "guarantee" to a loan we took years ago and never paid back.

    On Monday, the leader of the bank workers’ union, Sergio Palazzo, filed a public information request in response to rumors “regarding the outflow of gold from the Central Bank’s reserves destined for abroad,” as he posted on X. Palazzo, who is also a Peronist deputy, requested “public, clear, precise, complete and detailed” information from the Central Bank’s head, Santiago Bausili.

    Sources in the Central Bank did not provide further information to the Herald, adding that they would answer directly to Palazzo’s request.

    The Central Bank owns 61 tonnes of gold, valued at about US$4.5 billion.

    Argentina is facing international litigation in Europe for billions of dollars. Plaintiffs in those cases could not legally seize the gold overseas because the lawsuits are against the Republic of Argentina, rather than the Central Bank, legal specialists told the Herald. However, the hedge funds suing Argentina could file a legal request for the gold, even if it is not granted, a source said.

    It is not the first time gold has been sent abroad. During Mauricio Macri’s presidency in 2017, the Central Bank — then led by the current Deregulation Minister Federico Sturzenegger — sent US$462 million worth of gold to London. Part of it was brought back under Alberto Fernández’s administration in 2021.

    Selling dollars

    The day prior, Caputo made another controversial statement. He said that the government plans to make the peso “a strong currency” by stopping its issuance. “Reality will prove that soon people will have to sell dollars to pay taxes and the peso will be the strong currency!” the minister wrote in a post on X.

    Former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner questioned Caputo. “What did you say, Mr. Minister?” she asked. “Wasn’t it that taxes were state theft, the peso was excrement, and the dollar the currency that you were going to give to Argentines…?” she wrote, listing the government’s remarks on the peso and promises of dollarization.

    Caputo made another post on X, answering economist Pablo Bortz, who questioned the minister “celebrating” people having to use up their savings in U.S. dollars to pay taxes. “Since taxes are paid in pesos, if you have savings in pesos today and you dollarize them, later you will have to sell them again to pay taxes,” Caputo said. “It is very simple. You don’t need to be an economist to understand it, let alone have a PhD. Regards.”

    • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
      ·
      2 months ago

      i don't get it, don't Argentines already pay taxes in Pesos? In every country with multiple circulating currencies, you can only pay your taxes with the currencies accepted by the state. What is he talking about?

      The day prior, Caputo made another controversial statement. He said that the government plans to make the peso “a strong currency” by stopping its issuance.

      He can't really do that even if the Government stopped spending. The banks will keep giving loans to those who want it and who they consider to be 'credit-worthy'. Monetary targeting has always failed.

      if you have savings in pesos today and you dollarize them, later you will have to sell them again to pay taxes

      Is he saying he will tax existing/future stocks of Dollars directly like a wealth tax? Because taxes are usually on wages and profits and for workers, income taxes are already cut from their wages or when they pay for goods/services, they can only convert their disposable income (income after tax) to Dollars.

    • TechnoAnomie [he/him, any]
      ·
      2 months ago

      “Since taxes are paid in pesos, if you have savings in pesos today and you dollarize them, later you will have to sell them again to pay taxes. It is very simple. You don’t need to be an economist to understand it, let alone have a PhD.

      You also don't need it to understand that the only rational thing to do is store your savings in another currency that isn't collapsing and converting it back to to the one no-one wants just before obligantions payment, Jack, fees be damned. That's only nominally a currency, as even bottlecaps or tide pods are a better storage of value.