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.
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
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.
This is a bit vibes based, so take it as you will, but it does feel like behind closed doors the US/UK etc are rattled by the progress of the ICJ case.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't think any of them actually think they'll ever have to stand in the Hague and answer for their crimes, but I think they have realised that they probably can't ratfuck the legal cases against them and that there's enough support globally for them to continue, including against specific individuals. And that is something that they can't tolerate as a propaganda loss and personal inconvienience.
They thought they could add the thinnest veneer of legal deniability as they otherwise materially and vocally supported an ongoing genocide. Like saying 'in Minecraft' but when you're already standing on a pile of bodies unloading an automatic weapon into more victims. I suspect the actual legal advice that, at least in the case of the UK has been reported to have been given but ignored for months, is perhaps finally getting through and causing some concern.
It won't stop them of course, quite the opposite. The premeditated smearing and defunding of the UNRWA if Israel lost this first ICJ case is about potentiallly liable Western politicians is about them trying to go from giving empty lip service to international law to stating that it is in fact wholly illegitimate and a tool of the percieved 'enemy' in exactly the same way Israel does.
More importantly perhaps, and a point I haven't seen made prominently or much at all, is that because the UNRWA is one of the only major independent organisations on the ground in Gaza, it's also able to provide statements and catalogue evidence of the genocide and myriad war crimes happening there. This is definely a move to try and starve Palestine into submission or extinction, but I'd argue it's also another (drastically escalated at least in terms of the US/UK political actions) to destroy evidence of their participation in genocide.
It follows a pattern Israel shutting down internet and cell communication in Gaza at the start of their assualt and seige, of deliberately targeting journalists and their families, of deliberately targeting UN/NGO buildings and staff, now blowing up empty and captured adminstrative buildings, medical centres, and universities where records and research is likely to be kept. Then you can throw in reports and video of things like stealing bodies and disrupting or destroying grave sites and cemeteries. All actions that you would undertake if you were actively trying to hide or destroy evidence of your genocide.
This attack on the UNRWA and UN, as well as ICJ and international legal system more generally, is the same thing for the political and legal sphere, taken by actors outside of Israel itself. It's a supercharged, all-in version of the months they spent trying to discredit and bury the offical Palestinian casualty data.
And again, I don't think the likes of Cameron or Sunak or Biden or Blinken or whoever actually thinks they might get tried at the Hague. But I think the reality that they can't just bluster past this has them freaked, and they'd rather accelerate going full mask-off for the sake of their ability to travel the world unimpeded and not spend the rest of their lives fending off lawsuits.
Yeah, by withdrawing funding from the UNRWA, these countries are violating the genocide convention, and have gone from being complicit to actively participating in its violation. Specifically in violation of article 2c
I totally agree. I'm speculating that the reason for them being willing to do so is because after months of unheeded legal advise and behind closed door review they know they're likely to already be on the hook legally. So now it's all or nothing time.
The number of liberals who have told me that defining genocide according to the genocide convention is bad and I shouldn't do that because people who don't accept that the genocide is genocide will not accept that the genocide is genocide is very high and I hate that.
They know they're guilty, even by their own "rules based international order". So now it's time to disregard that order.
I've never understood liberals bizarre deification of the law. Like they just do whatever evil shit they want, but they have to find a legal justification for it. Just bizarre delusion. It's like the conquistadors rulling up to, idfk, argentine, and being like "I have a legally binding document that I can steal everything and enslave everyone so that makes it okay". Just absurd.
Edit: though I guess the conquistador thing was actually about establishing property rights that enabled them to mount a legal defense if other conquistadors tried to steal the land and slaves they stole, so it's actually nothing to do with the people they declared war on and actually intra-euro property bickering, so that's actually self consistent and makese sense.
It isn't bizarre. Liberals worship power and power that serves white supremacy and privilege. The state is the apparatus that sanctifies and adjudicates that function.
They're also craven people who "go along to get along", and activists and disciplined body of radicals can push them aside and to the fringe. Their opinions circulated throughout the media, print, social, are becoming less legitimate except to those already indoctrinated and unwilling to accept other narratives.