Well, Iran and their allies' response may happen sometime this week and apparently they aren't talking to the US in order to negotiate how and where they will hit Israel (and Shoigu arrived in Tehran rather auspiciously), the Bangladeshi government just fell, F16s have been given to Ukraine, there are fascist riots in the UK, and Japan just had its worst stock fall since 1987 and seems to be taking several other countries/corporations with it. I don't really know where to look right now.
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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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.
what's this middle class shit, are they afraid of saying working class
This has been standard libspeak for a long time. You'll also hear a lot of talk about wanting to expand the middle class, because the American middle class is the pinnacle of everything or something.
The middle class no longer exists but nobody wants to refer to themselves as lower class so now middle class means working class and working class isn't a thing.
Also don't want people realizing that the actual classes are "working class" - somebody who sells their labor in exchange for wages and the owner class, which is people who's profit comes from making money of the surplus value of others labor.
That would lead anybody who thought about it for 2 seconds to realize how powerful the working class would be if they united.
The "middle class" definitely exists, its the Petite Bourgeosie, but people lump well-paid proletarians into the "middle class," which is vanishing.
Fair, I'd put those petite bougies in the class that's making money off the labor of others.
Any work they do actually do is just to eliminate them having to pay somebody for their labor.
Their aims align with the bourgeosie, but they themselves risk becoming proletarianized as Capital consolidates over time, which is where fascism comes in.
I've taken to mentally translating middle class to 'middle income' for this same reason.
Bernie Sanders was among the only liberals who would use the term "working class." This "middle class" shit is standard. It is the perfect term, because it is completely meaningless. Does it mean homeowners? Does it mean people with disposable income? Does it mean small business owners? Does it mean professionals like doctors and lawyers? Does it charactarize an income bracket? Is it 60k+/year? 100k+/year? 150k+/year? Is this for individuals, or households? Nobody fucking knows.
Any sentence containing this phrase can effectively be deleted from the statement. It is meaningless.
I think of it as labor aristocrats, the petty bourgeoisie, and anyone who is barely keeping their heads above water as neoliberalism destroys everything around them. The last group only believes they're in a "middle class" because the propaganda convinced them they're in it because they're not homeless.
But that's mostly a vibes based understanding of what is broadly meant when I hear it.
Middle class are families too wealthy to receive pell grants but too broke to pay for college.
Yea they are afraid of saying working class or fighting for the poor because that stinks of class war to them, and Democrats’ entire purpose is to paper over class war with other distractions and create a class collaboration. That’s why they focus so much on identity issues and “the middle class” because it’s safe and doesn’t disturb their donors.
They use "working class" when they want to appear their gritty and down-to-earth and "remind you that they are pro-labor and of-the-people". Remember that "working class" in American propaganda-speak means "blue collar" or "manual labor", not what socialists understand it to be. Hell, "labor" usually just means manual labor. You know: the only kind we're (when they're at their most magnanimous) supposed to need unions for....
They use "middle class" when they want to appear to have done great things and "lifted people out of poverty". Remember that "middle class" is supposed to be the greatest sign of "upward mobility" on Earth, and that the U.S. has the strongest one since the Paleozoic era.
I thought the new verbiage was appropriating "working people" to serve neoliberal political interests. It's been in at least two pro-Kamala ads I've seen.
HE'S A DEMOCRAT.
Just like all the other democrats.