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.
JOE BIDEN: “In beer brew here... Huh ish issah use to make the brew beer here.. Issh Weer-fining... Oooooh Earth Rider... Thanks for the Great Lakes!”
Come on vote for this guy
my favorite deep cut off of Sufjan's Illinoise
Why are they letting him run again? What does the inside of the White House look like that no one can convince him it's not a good idea? Is Biden some kind of covert hard-ass who has his eunuch advisors scurrying around to avoid his wrath? Is someone else like Blinken really pulling the strings, forcing Biden to run knowing there's no way he'd maintain his position if another Democrat had the authority to replace him? Just a clique of mid-wits who don't like their odds should they be forced to take another spin 'round the revolving door?
biden does have a bad temper but i think it's mostly that the party thinks the optics of "changing horse midstream" would be bad, it would be like admitting that everyone who was calling him too old/demented was right all along. they also probably think there's no one waiting in the wings who would have significantly better odds, at least not good enough to risk getting rid of joe.
Yeah, I think it's mostly this. The Democrats have a long habit of getting caught at something and then doubling down on it as a means of "defending themselves" rather than coming clean and/or changing strategy. Russiagate has that pattern big time. And they have a loyal enough fan base and enough repetition of their shit in the media to seemingly be successful at what would otherwise be about the dumbest PR strategy in the universe.
It's not unreasonable either. If the republicans have 'criticisms' of Biden wether they are rooted in reality or not (they often are, until you get to immigration), you'll be lending them credibility if you choose to change the party lead for the election. Now or two years ago, doesn't really matter. Plus, you'd be ruining the last year of Biden's presidency.
I for one also think that insiders and bureaucrats kinda enjoy the leeway they are given when the President is only aware of reality half of the time.
Also, Biden is much worse when he's actually aware of what's going on and what he's doing. So we're getting kind of ideal Biden, who doesn't quite have the wherewithal to be as shitty as he once was and push his own brand of fascism with the ol' Biden zeal ("TAKE BACK THE STREETS", "If Israel didn't exist we'd create one", etc.). If this Biden is as bad as—and perhaps worse in many ways—Trump, that Biden would've been ten times worse.
Obummer tapped O'brandon specifically because Biden was enough of a vicious, evil racist to win over the white vote.
The harm from continuing to run their slobbering racist grandpa (and the worlds most socially awkward cop) must surely outweigh any possible harm of replacing him with a non-corpse.
They probably figure that if they can't win with Biden then winning isn't worth it. Trump wins, they get to fundraise a lot. A non liberal candidate wins as a Democrat and that's anathema to them. Another liberal candidate wins, odds are Biden would have won.
I don't think there is a they. I don't think there's a organization that can make plans and strategize. I think it's just a horde of totally self-interested skidoo dealers and heiresses, and they're just not capable of any organization at all.
Maybe he's trying to court the dutch speaker vote
If he wasn't so much of a lifelong depraved demon I would be appalled by the cynical elder abuse going on by having him run for president.
I am once again calling for literally any staffer to push these liches down the stairs.
So true Mr President sir.
What?!?! What the actual fuck? What is wrong with bugerlanders?
And they will defend this senile racist fuck and claim that he's the only one who can save them from teh GOP. It's just, like, living in America is always a constant fever dream of horror, but jesus fucking christ it's bad now.
Me after 17 beers
Is Earth Rider some sort of sequel to Kamen Rider?
Evil Fred Rogers will save us from, uhh, the thing,