Image is of the Te Pati Maori (Maori Party) cofounders, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. They have 6 of the 123 seats in the New Zealand parliament.
Officially confirming that the Republican primaries were a gigantic waste of time for everybody involved, Trump has massively beat everybody else in Iowa, and will very obviously be the Republican candidate for 2024. Given the abysmal state of the US economy (for everybody who isn't in the top 1-10%, which is mainly what national statistics reflect when they aren't telling blatant falsehoods), it's more plausible than ever that Trump may indeed once again become President - though I personally refuse to predict one way or another due to how volatile politics and geopolitics currently are. Project 2025 is coming, folks - either as the official Republican governance program, or as what the Democrats will do in 2026 after the midterms, stating that they have no other choice and have to reach across the aisle as they are the Adults In The Room™.
In other news...
Late last year, New Zealand voted in a new and very right-wing government, composed of the center-right National Party, the libertarian ACT Party (ACT stands for the "Association of Consumers and Taxpayers", good lord), and the fascist New Zealand First party. By what I can tell, this was the well-trodden path of "Vaguely center-left party does neoliberal austerity and causes a recession and workers fucking hated it and voted in a different party out of desperation," though the flooding and cyclones did add challenges to Chris Hipkins' short reign after Jacinda Ardern resigned.
It's worth noting that Hipkins was at least fairly China-friendly, meeting up with Xi Jinping on a five-day visit in the summer. They still do the whole "We have concerns about human rights" thing, but of all the countries of the imperial core, New Zealand is - or, perhaps, was - one of the most amicable. In 2021, China was New Zealand's single largest trading partner, with a third of exports going to China (more than Australia, the US, Japan, and South Korea combined), and they receive 22% of their imports from China too, more than any other single country.
Christopher Luxon, the new Prime Minister and sentient thumb, has said that he is exploring a closer relationship with AUKUS:
Luxon said New Zealand was interested in becoming involved in AUKUS Pillar 2: a commitment between the three partners to develop and share advanced military capabilities, including artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and hypersonics.
“We’ll work our way through that over the course of next year as we understand it more and think about what the opportunities may be for us,” Luxon said. “AUKUS is a very important element in ensuring we’ve got stability and peace in the region.”
This is not to say that Hipkins wanted nothing to do with AUKUS or Western organizations aimed generally against China - in fact, pre election, "he was open to conversations about joining Pillar II of AUKUS". But the current government is pushing down on the accelerator pedal.
The left-wing Maori party, Te Pati Maori, has stated that they want New Zealand to remain non-aligned, as joining AUKUS would erode the sovereignty of the country:
As Maori we cannot allow our sovereignty to be determined by others, whether they are in Canberra or Washington. Aotearoa should not act as Pacific spy base in the wars of imperial powers. Joining AUKUS will severely undermine our country’s sovereignty, constitution, and ability to remain nuclear free. There is too much at stake for our government to make a commitment of this magnitude without a democratic process.
In general, the party leaders of Te Pati Maori want New Zealand to be the "Switzerland of the Pacific", which is perhaps not the greatest analogy given all the problems Switzerland had and has, but we understand the intended meaning of desiring neutrality.
The Country of the Week is New Zealand! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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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.
I just don't get this whole Texas thing.
What I don't understand is why Greg Abbott doesn't just rally whatever troops are loyal to him to march on Washington and then back down at the request of a third party and go into exile and then come back and take a flight on board a small aircraft. That just seems like what any rational person would do in his situation.
People have posted it before but the transcription of the Biden rally is the most jokerfying thing I've ever read
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Genocide Joe, how many kids have you killed in Gaza?
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.)
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!...
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Israel kills two mothers every hour!
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.) Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now! (Inaudible.)
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! (Applause.)...
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Miscarriage (inaudible) —
AUDIENCE: (Applause.) Let’s go, Joe! Let’s go, Joe! Let’s go, Joe!...
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.)
AUDIENCE: Let’s go, Joe! Let’s go, Joe! Let’s go, Joe!
THE PRESIDENT: I’m sorry this is taking so long. (Applause.)...
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.) AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The liberals have reached the starship troopers phase
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/01/24/remarks-by-president-biden-at-a-campaign-event-manassas-va/
Edit: forgot to add source
The situation in Yemen is driving me fucking insane. Like why isn't "tell israel to stop" an option here? Why are liberals of the mindset that the Yemenis are not trustworthy? What the fuck?
Right after ICJ decision, western countries are stopping aid to UNRWA, pathetic.
me misplacing my keys this morning delaying me for five minutes was Putin's message to my household and I will respond accordingly and with equal scale. my agents are hiding his wallet in a particularly obscure location in his house as we speak
Today's events:
- Hamas announces the damage or destruction of 68 vehicles in the last week, as well as 50+ soldiers targeted and some drones seized.
- Attacks on Syrian and Iraqi bases continue.
- For those who wanna be tied to a missile and fired at Tel Aviv, this is a taste of the experience you'd get: Hezbollah releases the footage of a missile being fired at the Jal al-Alam IOF base, right up to a direct impact.
- Various cargo ships going through the Red Sea, with their signs saying that they have no Israeli involvement:
Show
I like the Russia>China one a lot. I know it means "going from Russia to China" but I like the mental image of a dude stating that he thinks Russia is better than China on a fucking ship indicator thingy. We need to buy a Hexbear cargo ship and put PIGPOOPBALLS FUCK ISRAEL on it.
- Show
China's 2023 solar installation exceeded the entirety of America's installations.
"We cannot remain silent. No-one can remain silent when there is an ongoing genocide and when people are denied the most basic human needs ... To stand with Palestine is to be human."
Greta Thunberg calls out Israel's genocide during a speech in Leipzig, Germany.
Based Greta, wonder if the German government will try to arrest her for this.
https://nitter.cz/QudsNen/status/1750289674197672126
It's being reported that Israel blew up their own tank with an air strike so that Israeli militants wouldn't be captured. Hannibal directive.
Show
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/1/22/israels-war-on-gaza-live-bombing-all-around-hospital-in-khan-younis
yes, yes! Purge all your intelligentsia for being able to call a spade a spade
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A quote from Francis Boyle today (the US lawyer who represented Bosnia in their genocide case):
Francis Boyle states that with States (including US and UK govs) cutting off funding to UNRWA, it is "no longer the case of these States aiding and abetting Israeli Genocide against the Palestinians in violation of Genocide Convention article 3 (e) criminalizing 'complicity' in genocide. These States are now also directly violating Genocide Convention article 2(c) by themselves: 'Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part...'"
Thinking about how the people of Yemen and Ansarallah's soldiers have just outright kicked America and it's rabid dog in the dick, while in America the Democrats principled human rights defenders, have committed to voting in genocide joe to protect themselves from Trump. Like the Yemenis endured American genocide for a decade and decided that they were going to fight about it, while American democrats cannot and will not do anything to defend themselves.
Pelosi went on CNN and called probably 70% or more of Democrat Party voters 'puppets of Putin' and said the FBI should investigate pro-Palestinian groups and their funding.
Top quality electioneering as always.
