Macron has recently called a snap parliamentary election in the aftermath of the far-right getting a large proportion of the votes in the EU elections. Why exactly he called an election at a point of profound weakness is a little beyond me. Explanations that I've seen range from "He thinks the element of surprise will benefit his party and not others," to "WW3 is about to start and he doesn't want to be leader for it," (which, like, isn't true - Macron is the President of France, not Prime Minister, he won't be unseated by this election and he has said he will not stand down regardless of result), to "He doesn't want to swim in the shit-filled Seine."
While we still have a couple weeks to go, the polling I've seen generally puts the far-right in first place with the left-wing coalition slightly behind, with Macron's party all the way back in third place. Anybody who knows anything about French politics knows that while France does actually have something of a left opposition in aggregate (in contrast to the two wings of the Capitalist Party in the UK and the US, for example), French left coalitions are profoundly unstable and this one will inevitably split - perhaps even before the voting begins - meaning they aren't nearly as useful as they otherwise could be.
Living in a France governed by far right parties would be awful, but maybe they might at least be against the carnage in Ukraine, and sue for peace with Russia? Well, possibly not, if the example of Meloni in Italy is anything to go by. It seems that the differences between the "centrist" parties and the fascist ones truly are not that great, beholden to the exact same set of capitalists regardless of which party wins, and will likely bend the knee to NATO, though they may grumble a lot. Would a left coalition be better on Russia/NATO? They have already helpfully told us that they won't (only opposing sending French troops to Ukraine but otherwise being full steam ahead), and additionally are genocidal Zionists. Western leftists have long been hampered by a dramatically faulty misunderstanding of how geopolitics works, with many seemingly believing "imperialism is when countries interact with other countries" and "democracy is when you can vote between two parties even if widely popular policies aren't at all represented by either of them, and if those popular policies are enacted but it's by a one-party state then that's authoritarian evil" and other such strange ideas, making them terminally useless on foreign issues and pretty unremarkable on domestic issues too. France is no exception.
And just to top it all off, this is coming in a period of further imperial decline for the tattered remains of the French empire, with West Africa rebelling and Kanaky (New Caledonia) deeply unhappy with recent French decisions.
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.
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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.
An overwhelming majority of Wikipedia editors have voted to ban the ADL as a source for the Palestine conflict. A ban on the ADL for anti-Semitism is expected soon as well.
It still amazes me that the general public/mainstream media just forgot about Nord Stream like nothing happened or it never even existed.
This is like undeniable proof of the invented reality of the western public consciousness.
No real investigation by journalists (apart from Hersh), western state agencies said they'll drop the case, walk away, nothing happened.
I bet that at least half of liberals never even heard the official cover story and they still think it was Putler.
Mindblowing.
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!! Breaking News !! Redditors have analyzed the body language of President Putin and General Secretary Kim and have determined that Mr. Kim is the man in the relationship.
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https://tlgrm.ru/channels/@proofzzz/22810"So, Kim, here's the story... We are going hunting with Shoigu, and uncle Lukashenko is sitting in the back. I was driving then, like I am now.
I look at the road... and see Biden running-crossing it. I veer to the left, and he goes the left. I go right, and he's to the right! We just barely missed each other! Suddenly I hear a pop from behind. And uncle Luka says to me: Vladimir Vladimirovich, if I hadn't opened the door, Biden would have gotten away!"
Looks like I'm going to be pulling another multi day crisis posting session soon when this Lebanon offensive happens.
Seen a video of a released palestinian hostage that was kept by "Israel" for some time. He's showing clear signs of torture, both physical and psychological. His eyes are wide open, he's constantly moving and he's having trouble speaking and recalling his own identity. Much love and care to these men and women.
That just makes me think about the immense psychological damage "Israel" is inflicting upon the palestinians in general and gazans in particular. Even if the bombings and shootings end tomorrow, the damage is impossible to calculate. Lots of people are fully broken inside, they've seen hell with their own eyes. You can't easily go back from that, if at all.
Death to the Genocidal Entity that is "Israel". They will answer for their crimes.
Checking the megathread every morning to see if Israel has been destroyed yet
Holy shit Hitler youth is back in Germany
This is Germany: #HitlerYouth Reloaded
Last Saturday, the neo-Nazis #JungenNationalisten held a #Solstice celebration in a small Village in Northern Saxony. Even small children were allowed to march along with torches, an #NS rune was set on fire.
https://nitter.poast.org/recherchenorth/status/1804009303482695897#m
The guy that Biden sent to "mediate" in Lebanon, Amos Hochstein, was born in Israel and literally served in the IDF lmao.
Not getting good feelings about at all about this Lebanon war talk, it has never felt this close honestly. Spoke with family in Beirut today and it just feels inevitable at this point. At same time there's like a disgusting voice inside of me that almost wants a war, my brain knows how horrible it will be for my country and its people, but the pure anger and hatred makes me blind and I just need to see Israel suffering. I believe in Hezbollah and Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, literally everything that has happened in the last 18 years has been building towards this decisive moment. I hate how conflicted this all makes me feel, Nasrallah's speech today was the closest I've felt to the point of no return since the blessed October 7th
Damn. Allegedly China Just Cured a Patient’s Diabetes for the First Time. Using stem cells.
The Guardian continues to be on their state department propaganda bullshit:
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Fucking finally! I can't believe we had to wait this long to dramatically escalate a bullshit war that should have ended two years ago.
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How could Putin do this when the west has been so reserved and cautious?
Wake up babe new Israeli polling. Highlights:
Only 40% of Israelis are confident of their victory in Gaza
2/3 of Israeli jews want an invasion of Lebanon, with 1/3 after Gaza is wrapped up and 1/3 immediately
Netanyahu remains hatedafter Gaza is wrapped up
Yeah, and after I invent a time machine and game the lottery, I'll spend my trillions on funding a hedonistic woke palace
half a century ago: after this whole business in Vietnam is wrapped up, China's next on the chopping block
2 decades ago: After Iraq and Afghanistan are wrapped up, we’ll be in position to take down Iran
What’s causing the low confidence? Israeli propsganda is pumped 24/7 and makes you think they’re just casually strolling in bombed apartments because Hamas is losing so bad that the war is boring. Are their dead fathers and brothers opening their eyes?
invasion of Lebanon? as if they don't struggle with anything that isn't exclusively bombing
Israelis: lose to Hamas, decide to pick fight with Hezbollah that is like ten times stronger
and they can't bomb Lebanon because Hezbollah specifically broke everything Israel had which could do that
France has been handing out fines for people shopping with watermelon pins on lately. Tweet
So public support for Palestine is just straight up outlawed then? Wonder if they're already handing out fines to people wearing keffiyeh yet?
I believe there has been. People have certainly been arrested or forced to remove keffiyeh in Gemrany. There's also been incidents of arrests simply for people speaking Arabic in public or having Arabic on their clothes, although these will likely eventually get thrown out for those that can find it or find legal aid / orgs to help.
Some people got assaulted or shot in the US for wearing a keffiyah
So what would happen if a large crowd of protestors also happened to be fans of extreme sports and wore cheesy athletic shirts like
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I'd guess something like what happened to the three young women with paraglider stickers on their jackets at a protest here in the UK: they'd be charged and convicted of terrorism offenses, pilloried non-stop in the media for weeks, and have their lives ruined.
Don't worry, folks. Chiran is next.
