Image is of a colectivo: an armed group, usually operating in impoverished areas, which act to support and defend the socialist government of Venezuela. They are often derided as vigilante terrorist groups which prop up the government, because cops are only bad when they are socialist and not murdering minorities, I suppose.
Maduro's party, the PSUV, has won the election after a staggering amount of propaganda by the opposition, who said their polls suggested they were going to win and that Maduro's loss was inevitable. The reaction across Latin America is what one would expect. Left-leaning leaders are generally respecting the results and congratulating Maduro, while those on the right and/or are US puppets (such as in semirecently-couped Peru) are calling for recounts, or even that the election was illegitimate. The US itself is also unhappy about the results. We shall soon see if their unhappiness boils over into yet another coup attempt.
Personally, I think they should have ran Guaido again.
Thank you to @Redcuban1959@hexbear.net for the election coverage here, and everything else they do in the news megathread.
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 Venezuela! 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
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.
It's so funny how the Democrats do the bare minimum of an attack campaign with this kindergarten "u guys are weird lol" angle and the Republicans immediately lose their minds
calling them bloodless skinsuit wearing fascists doesnt work because, i dunno, i guess they identify with that.
but you call them "Weird" because they're fucking freaks and they need their safe space suddenly. It's hilarious
They imagine themselves as "normal" and that they are fighting everything outside the status quo of "normality" defined by fascism.
As soon as you start pointing out they're the freaks it starts shattering the entire worldview that they've contrived for themselves as defenders of normality. They hate it. They desperately want to be "normal" and being told they're outside of normal genuinely hurts them.
I would go so far as to say it is a strategy that could force them into conforming, because that's what they want to do, conform to "normality". If you force them into the recognition that they're outside of normality and they're the freaks then you can force so much discomfort that some of them will shift their position just to feel comfort again.
I feel like this could be a good strategy for overcoming transphobia politically in the US. Like, obviously better to address the problem at the root. But I think it could be effective to make them feel abnormal - that it’s REALLY WEIRD to be so obsessed with the medical decisions made by trans kids, their parents, and their doctors. Because it really is, and I think that’s an effective message for anyone but the most right wing psychos.
It's so weird that literally everyone who has fallen down that rabbit hole has become a divorcee over it.
Before I was even a leftist, I was dating someone who was “very liberal” but over time her connections on Facebook kept pulling her towards transphobic views. Not the only reason I ended it but it was a big one (also because she was extremely bothered that I would count calories and macros - which I did because I was lifting at the time and it’s hard for me to pack on muscle, so I had to)
I mean, you saw how sensetive they got from the word "cis"
I think Twitter letting all the reactionaries back in is good for Democrats in this regard actually, by letting people see just what these little weirdos actually think. Without a civility wall to hide behind, stupid fascists who think Elon Musk will save free speech are proving over and over again why they should never be taken seriously at all.
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Still the closest thing we've had to a normal candidate in over a decade
It’s so easy to be like “you guys are weird” about them too which makes it so funny. Donald Trump is like probably going to beat out Kamala amongst the American population in the “Person I’d like to have a beer with” index, but objectively that guy is a weird freak who I genuinely can’t imagine having any kind of real conversation
Usa election never fail to make me laugh by how much of a shit show they are. What are your policies? Your ideas? Nope, you laugh awkward,you are weird. Even this is enough of a reason to not for any of these bozos