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submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

Image is of German farmers blocking the road near the Brandenburg Gate in early January 2024.


The ruling German coalition - the FDP, the SPD, and the Greens - has been in dire straits since the war in Ukraine began due to their steadfast commitment to destroying their country as much as possible in solidarity with Ukraine destroying themselves too. Scholz is deeply unpopular, with a record low approval of 20%, and his party's approval is even lower.

The German left has been entirely unable to take advantage of this situation, with Die Linke fragmenting due to split opinions on what position they should hold on Ukraine, among other issues. As a result, the major conservative party, the CDU, has gained a lot of voters over the past couple years. Most worrying, however, is the gains that the fascist party, the AfD, has made - from 10% in 2021 all the way to ~20% today. A significant chunk of the vote is likely protest votes due to the lack of an alternative, but a vote for fascists makes you a fascist nonetheless.

Recent controversies with the AfD - including an allegation that they held a secret meeting discussing a plan to mass-deport millions of migrants in an obvious parallel to Nazi meetings planning to remove all Jews from the country - has recently slightly damped approval for the AfD. This meeting generated counter-protests and condemnation from many Germans. It was later revealed that the meeting might not really have happened as alleged, but it doesn't actually matter, because the AfD's stance is being increasingly reflected by the ruling coalition, who recently introduced a bill allowing faster deportations of rejected asylum seekers and significant new powers for authorities in that regard, including potentially the criminalization of sea rescue organizations and imprisonment for aid workers.

The German government is increasingly considering banning the AfD, with their anxiety and motivation to do so rising as the AfD maintains and improves its position as Germany heads towards elections in late 2025. There are intermediate steps that could be done, such as revoking state funding, but if that doesn't work, then the party might well be banned. While I will never argue with fascist parties being banned, this probably won't fix anything, as the underlying economic and social conditions that are fueling these electoral shifts in the first place are not improving. Germany, the largest industrial power in Europe, is mired in a recession, particularly a manufacturing recession, from which there appears to be no escape. It has so far carefully shepherded its natural gas resources to keep the population as mollified as possible, but this has come at the expense of industry. In a trend starting from July 2022, manufacturing PMIs are still well below 50, reaching 45.5 in January 2024, which indicates decline. I suppose if you wanted to look on the bright side, it's better than it was in July 2023, where it was a whopping 38.8, so the rate of decline is becoming a little slower.

And this is just the domestic stuff. Germany has also famously sided with Israel to support them during the ICJ genocide case, has kowtowed to Netanyahu as they bond over being Genocide Experts, and maintains its support of Ukraine, continuing to send military gear and money to be converted to scrap metal by Russian artillery - rather than spending money on doing anything about the cost of living. In the face of a historic economic downturn, it has only more fervently stated its desire to remain militarily opposed to Russia for decades.


The Country of the Week is Germany! 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

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

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.


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[-] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 52 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Via The Cradle:

Netanyahu:

  • Submitting to Hamas’ requests will not lead to the release of prisoners, but rather to a new October 7.

  • There is no solution other than complete “victory.”

  • We did not agree to Hamas’ request regarding the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released.

  • There must be negotiations through mediators, but not in light of Hamas’ response.

  • Governance in Gaza must be handed over to those who do not raise generations to embrace terrorism.

  • We issued instructions to the army to move into the Rafah Governorate and two points in the central Gaza Strip.

I guess that means the ceasefire ain't gonna happen. Hamas has escalated its demands as it strengthens its position over Israel in Gaza militarily and Israel is unwilling to follow. I suppose that means a war against Hezbollah is now inevitable. We shall soon return to "weeks where decades happen" territory. Buckle your seatbelts!

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[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 52 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Chilean media reported on Tuesday the crash of a private helicopter piloted by former president Sebastián Piñera, who died in the plane crash, which occurred in the commune of Lago Ranco, Los Ríos Region in the southern territory.

According to initial information, the helicopter was piloted by the former head of state accompanied by three other people, took off in the middle of a rainy day affecting the area and, after a few minutes of flight, for reasons that are being investigated, lost lift and fell.

The three companions would be Piñera's relatives: a sister, his brother-in-law and a grandson. Two of them swam to the shore and a third was rescued in the lake by a boat. But the former president was unable to unbuckle his seat belt to get out of the helicopter, sources in Santiago de Chile told Clarín.

Couldn't he break the belt or cut it?

Piñera apparently did not manage to remove his seat belt and drowned. It was also reported that the Navy arrived at the place where the helicopter went down, and that it sank some 40 meters.

On the other hand, it is said that Piñera himself was in command and had a heart attack in mid-flight, which caused him to lose control of the aircraft, which ended up crashing.

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[-] micnd90@hexbear.net 52 points 9 months ago

This 2 hours history podcast by Tucker and Putin about 1000 years worth of Russian history is kinda lit NGL

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[-] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 52 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)
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[-] notceps@hexbear.net 52 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Since germany is the cotw here's something some people don't really get just how fucked it currently is:

The current ruling regime is deeply undemocratic, the SPD after decades of being junior parties to the CDU/CSU have basically become a party without politics they for the most part lean on some left-wing aesthetics they've been able to retain but they are deeply deeply unpolitical. Up next the Greens, there's more than a few that are just straight up US plants I think the most obvious one is Baerbock who used to work for a US-funded think tank so all you are left with is the FDP, who are only concerned with neoliberalism. They were able to do quite well during the elections but since are polling at 4%. So in short germanys politics are decided by the US and 4% of wannabe capitalist germans.

Germany is not a democratic country, inb4 duh, just keep that in mind whenever you see crazy stuff like farmer's protests, Reichsbürger, nazi parties polling at 20+% and any other crazy shit that'll happen it is because currently only 4% of the voter base is actually 'represented'.

Edit: In short deeply deeply unserious 'country' it should be deleted.

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[-] SexMachineStalin@hexbear.net 52 points 9 months ago

germany-cool successfully managed to make Namibia hate them even more

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[-] Rojo27@hexbear.net 52 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Saw someone claim that 10000 Hamas fighters have been killed. Has Israel even put out any statments on how many Hamas fighters they've killed? Seems like a total ass pull and I feel like wrecking this piece of shit.

Edit: Did a quick search and I saw a few places (Wikipedia, NPR) report that Israel and US intelligence claim anywhere between 5000-9000 Hamas fighters have been killed.

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[-] ziggurter@hexbear.net 51 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Onion video, 2030

Ukraine: We're loud, proud, neo-Nazis, and we celebrate it basically every day. Officially, even.

Russia: he-admit-it

U.S.: Anyone calling Ukraine fascist or pointing out all the Nazi imagery we help photograph them with are the real fascists.

Ukraine: But we're actually neo-Nazis.

Russia: he-admit-it

Global South: What the fuck am I watching?

U.S.: Ukraine is definitely not fascist.

Other Western countries: Well, that settles it then. Definitely not fascist.

Ukraine: We are, though.

U.S.: Ukraine, you're the real fascists for calling Ukraine fascist!

Ukraine: HOW DARE YOU‽‽‽

[-] ziggurter@hexbear.net 51 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Replying to @RyanGosling@hexbear.net from here in the previous thread:

Who is this Yanis person? I've seen them mentioned frequently for a long time but I never looked into him. It seems he's a Greek politiican?

Yeah, he's a Greek leftist (calls himself a Marxist and a libertarian socialist). He was the Finance Minister of Greece for a while when there was that upset by the Syriza party at the peak of its Germany-imposed "financial crisis" (the EU was forcing it to honor pretty ridiculous, austerity-imposed debts, because they love to do that with Greece).

Here's an old video of him talking about the conflict between capitalism and democracy (a TED talk LOL):

and here's a recent one where he talks about the U.S./Israeli genocide against Palestinians:

I had a good one where he talked about the U.S./Russia war in Ukraine a while ago and basically warned Ukraine not to become another Greece by joining the EU (titled "How to end the war in Ukraine with Yanis Varoufakis, Volodymyr Ishchenko and more") but it's been taken private and I unfortunately can't find an archive of it.

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[-] Torenico@hexbear.net 51 points 9 months ago
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[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 51 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Colombia's Palace of Justice, the seat of the country's Supreme Court, is surrounded by demonstrators called by the country's president, Gustavo Petro.

With the blockade, officials and judges are unable to leave. Gustavo Petro called the demonstration to put pressure on the court to elect the country's next Attorney General, from a triple list he sent out a few months ago, which is the model for electing the Attorney General in Colombia.

So far, the court has not elected one of the three nominees, which would leave the post in the hands of a nominee of the outgoing Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa. The judges had to be evacuated from the building by helicopter.

The president of the court gave a speech condemning those blocking the building, calling for accountability from Petro and respect for the separation of powers.

Lol, common Petro W

[-] CoralMarks@hexbear.net 51 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

How Frontex is driving migrants into the arms of the Libyan coast guard

Frontex monitors the area from the air; the agency is part of a system that the EU created to keep as many migrants as possible away: the EU states ended their own rescue mission years ago. Instead, the Europeans built up the Libyan coast guard, sent money and boats to Tripoli, and organized training seminars. The Libyan rescue zone has been expanded. The fact that the force is infiltrated by criminals, as EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson recently admitted in the European Parliament - is apparently of secondary importance.

But the true extent of the cooperation is far greater than previously known. This emerges from a letter from the new Frontex boss Hans Leijtens to the European Parliament, which is available to SPIEGEL and Lighthouse Reports. Since January 2021 alone, Frontex has sent "around 2,200 emails" with position data from refugee boats in distress to the Libyan rescue control center - despite the violence of the coast guard and the well-documented torture in the detention camps.

When asked, Frontex emphasized that it was only sending the position data to Tripoli “with a heavy heart.” People are aware of the conditions that rescued people are exposed to in Libya. However, Frontex is legally obliged to inform all responsible rescue control centers about maritime emergencies. International law leaves no room for maneuver at this point. Frontex's top priority is to save lives. “In cases of imminent danger, this consideration comes first.”

Oh now international law is conveniently super important again.
And always for the wrong reasons too, it's unbelievable how extremely cynical this all is.

eu-cool

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[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 51 points 9 months ago

Opposition considers going to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights against 'excesses' of the Supreme Court Allies of former president Jair Bolsonaro (Liberal Party) speak of 'implanting a "judiciary" "communist" dictatorship in Brazil' parliamentarians are consulting colleagues who also oppose the government to calculate how many members the delegation could attract.

Lol, they are really fucked. Iirc, this is a municipal election year in Brazil, Bolsonaro can't campaign publicly, he can't promote his candidates. The leader of his party is currently in prison. And even if he is released from prison, they are forbidden to communicate with each other. The high-ranking members of the Liberal Party are pretty much fucked because they can't communicate with each other and getting support from Bolsonaro could be very bad, as left-wing candidates will exploit the fact that Bolsonaro will probably be imprisoned for planning a coup.

The FBI seems to have concluded its investigation into Bolsonaro's money laundering scheme in the US and handed over its findings to the Brazilian Federal Police, I don't think Bolsonaro can even go to the US anymore, or any other country. And it could get even funnier, there is a very small chance of the Liberal Party being banned and all its seats in congress and the senate being transferred to other politicians, many of whom, even if they are conservative, will be much more favorable to Lula's social and economic reforms, as it has been proven that Bolsonaro used the party to finance the coup.

[-] CredibleBattery@hexbear.net 50 points 9 months ago

someone got a paid helicopter ride

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[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 50 points 9 months ago
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[-] plinky@hexbear.net 50 points 9 months ago

Its zaluzhover, bros

i'm going to assume that zelensky-pain discovered his connects to far right, and done the right thing blob-no-thoughts

[-] zed_proclaimer@hexbear.net 50 points 9 months ago

The attack on Rafah seems to have begun. Israel is artillery shelling the region, destroyed a mosque and struck a hospital and there are armed clashes on the edge of the area

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[-] Harajukum@hexbear.net 49 points 9 months ago

putin still refusing to speak english i see

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[-] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 49 points 9 months ago
[-] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 49 points 9 months ago

Update: The death of 17 Emirati officers in an armed attack occurred at Gordon Base in the capital, Mogadishu, which is the largest military base for the Emirati forces in Somalia. The gunmen targeted the headquarters within the base while more than 20 officers from the Emirates and their mercenaries from Western and African countries were present. The initial toll: 17 officers killed, including all the Emirati officers, among them the senior Emirati officer in Somalia, the training officer, the intelligence officer, and the logistics and equipment officer, all from the Emirates. Also killed in the attack were mercenary officers who were working for the Emirates, including Westerners and Africans:

https://twitter.com/warfareanalysis/status/1756443142117613600

https://nitter.mint.lgbt/warfareanalysis/status/1756443142117613600

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[-] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 49 points 9 months ago
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[-] Nomisslehere@hexbear.net 49 points 9 months ago

lathe-of-heaven Trump croaks in the middle of his second term and the hogs collectively go wild on July 4, 2026 as they use the 250th anniversary to "take back America".

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[-] Coolkidbozzy@hexbear.net 49 points 9 months ago

People on Everest now need to pack their poo out to base camp

This is a very normal thing for backpackers in snowy terrain where it won't decompose easily. Wild that Everest didn't require it before

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[-] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 49 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)
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[-] Kaplya@hexbear.net 48 points 9 months ago

No, I will not watch the interview. You cannot make me do it.

But did Putin say anything stupid or let some brainworms out?

[-] ziggurter@hexbear.net 50 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

did Putin say anything stupid or let some brainworms out?

Not really. I mean, he did some boring, drawly shit about the history of Russia and Ukraine and things. But IMO it was mostly just background info giving the context that he thinks people in both countries will eventually heal and get along.

A bit I found funny is that he basically insisted he's Orthodox Christian, but then refused any kind of religious explanations for anything when invited to them them by Carlson and laid out 100% secular philosophical takes in their place (here's the history, here's the economics and geopolitics, etc.). LOL.

[-] Frank@hexbear.net 50 points 9 months ago

Yeah, whatever he is, he's not an american christian fascist. Trying to understand their language is hard for americans, trying to do it across a linguistic and cultural divide would be very hard. Afaik, at least publicly, the guy has always been pretty boring and about as materialist as you'd expect from a soviet educated lib.

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[-] SexMachineStalin@hexbear.net 48 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

El Al Airlines is discontinuing flights to Dublin and Marrakech, in addition to Johannesburg. Also, Satanyahu's shit-log got caught in ocean currents and drifted into South Africa- he wrote an article on Politicsweb which is literally screaming about "beheaded babies and South Africa supports genocide".

lol

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this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
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