Image is from this SCMP article.
Much of the analysis below is sourced from Michael Roberts' great website.
Japan's ruling parliamentary coalition, consisting of the LDP (purple) and it's junior coalition partner Komeito (in light pink) have lost their ruling majority. They have ruled post-war Japan for almost its entire history. The LDP is currently led by Shigeru Ishiba after Kishida stood down due to a corruption scandal, and ties to the Unification Church.
While geopolitical factors (over the cold war between the US and China, etc) may have played a role, by far the biggest reason for this result in the poor economic conditions over the past few years. Inflation has risen and real wages have fallen, with little relief for the working class via things like tax reductions. While inequality in Japan is not as extreme as in America, it is still profound, with the top 10% possessing 60% of the wealth, while the bottom 50% possess just 5%.
Shinzo Abe previously tried to boost economic performance through monetary easing and fiscal deficits, while Kishida ran on a "new capitalism" which rejected Abe's neoliberalism and promised to reduce inequality. Nothing substantial has resulted from all this, however, other than increasing corporate wealth. Innovation continues to fall, and domestic profitability is low, resulting in decreasing investment at home by Japanese corporations. Labour productivity growth has only slightly picked up since the mid-2000s and is falling again. The rate of profit has fallen by half since the 1960s, and Japan has been in a manufacturing recession - or very close to it - since late 2022. In essence: there is no choice but between stagnation or decline.
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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 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.
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.
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.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
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.
Pretty weird but apparently someone polled german journalists on which party they support and here is the breakdown by party
Germany's Green party is basically the USA party, so that checks out.
Nothing green about them except for the name (and maybe the USD they are raking in)
What is this BSW party?
it expands to "party of sarah wagnknecht" which is how you know it's a principled movement and definitely not built around the ego of a single politician
"what if multipolarity but without the woke"; they're kind of like MAGA communists but for Germany
Removed by mod
It's not a value judgement, I'm just saying they're similar in that BSW also supports anti-immigration, reactionary social politics, and is broadly nationalist, while at the same time condemning NATO/EU hypocrisy on China/war in Ukraine.
Aren't they like 3 posters in a trenchcoat?
MAGA communists are not a large scale political party by any means, they are indeed 3 posters in a trenchcoat. BSW absolutely is, in the recent state elections for Thuringia they won 10%+ of the vote and might be in the ruling coalition. They're probably the second largest "left" party (if you can consider them left), second to Die Linke (which they broke from, leftist factionalism go brrrr)
They split from Die Linke because the ruling moderate elements considered the Anti-USA/NATO/EU and the Pro-Palestine elements a hinderance for the "electability", just because they may be better on imperial core white social minorities doesnt mean Die Linke is the only hexbear approved choice.
I'm using "second to Die Linke" in terms of size only, again not a value judgement on which party anybody should support
It is an offshoot of die Linke. AFAIK their thing is being western leftists but less woke and more like the AfD.
Yeah but also Die Linke has been very unprincipled and has all but turned into a socdem collaborationist party that has capitulated on everything it once stood for in hopes of being accepted by the mainstream liberal parties (they haven't and they never will be). This includes them jumping on the anti-Russia bandwagon, and they are terrified to say anything against the Zionist entity. BSW has some undeniably reactionary positions particularly in domestic social policies, and economically they are socdems too, but they are currently the largest and in fact one of the only political voices in Germany that is vocally against the Gaza genocide, against arming "Israel", reasonably rational in regards to China, and against NATO and the EU's war in Ukraine. All that is to say they are definitely far from perfect but they have more upsides than any other party of their size. You have to remember German politics is deeply fucked, if you want to find a party that is neither socially conservative nor pro-imperialist/pro-Zionist you will have to basically use a magnifying glass because they are tiny. Only one i can think of is the DKP.
That’s cool, I support permanently dismantling Germany as a concept
Journalists go to the Gulag.
Lol they might be buffoons (especially the leadership) but this statement is beyond ridiculous.
It's not a statement it's a joke
I don't get it