For more on the situation in Nepal, I recommend @MelianPretext@lemmygrad.ml’s comment here.
Following a “anti-corruption” protest movement spurred by a social media ban (but with much deeper roots) in which dozens of protestors were killed by state forces, the government of KP Oli has been ousted, and an interim leader is currently in power as the country prepares for elections. Notably, events have been characterized as “Gen Z protests”, and this leader was decided (at least partially) by a Discord vote. When a non-western government rapidly falls, it’s wise to at least glance in the direction of the United States, and there are almost certainly elements of color revolution here. But, as always, it’s more complicated than simple regime change - Nepal is a deeply troubled economy even as developing countries go.
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Despite winning 75% of the seats in parliament in 2017, the various communist parties have failed to unify towards forming a common agenda and solving the problems of the people. When the nominally united communist party split in 2021, infighting and opportunism eventually brought on the rightist politicians we see today.
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The Nepalese economy is not successful. Disasters are slow to be ameliorated, education and healthcare is underfunded, and poverty is fairly rampant. There have been significant developments made by the communist parties, such as electrification programs and some poverty reduction, but it has been insufficient.
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The petty bourgeois usually come from oppressed Hindu castes, and are frustrated by the domination of upper castes, and so are inspired by India’s BJP. They essentially want a return to monarchy, under the guise of anti-corruption, and despite their relatively small numbers, are powerfully organized.
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Of the countries that aren’t tiny islands, Nepal has the highest per capita rate of work migration, due to insufficient employment in Nepal. The jobs that Nepalese citizens receive overseas range from unpleasant to unbearable in both labour and wages, and this has generated rightful suspicion that the government cares more about foreign direct investors than their own citizens overseas.
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The government of KP Oli was close to the United States, and India’s Modi has promoted the BJP in Nepal. Both countries have sought to exert influence over Nepal, though Prashad speculates that, if there is indeed a foreign mastermind at work, India is more likely to be the culprit behind these recent protests, in a gambit to use the chaos to promote/install a far right monarchist government.
I agree with Prashad that it seems unlikely that mere electoral changes will result in anything terribly productive, though whatever government emerges will inevitably hoist the banner of anti-corruption to try and legitimize themselves. We have seen the same breakdown of electoralism as a meaningful pathway to solve national problems all across the world, from the superpowers to the poorest states. Until a rupture occurs, greater surveillance, policing, and repression seems guaranteed.
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Israel's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. 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.
You can read this any day, but even then, what makes you say it?
I’m not sure what the reference is here but the FCC told Disney if they didn’t fire jimmy kimmel and cancel his show they would take away ABC’s broadcast license so Disney pulled the show. The right wing is celebrating and saying FAFO. I’m not a constitutional scholar but this would appear to be the most obvious and public violation of 1st amendment in US history.
Does ABC even use broadcast licences anymore? I would have through the need for that spectrum was practically nothing
At the same time Kimmel told a blatant lie on national television. (Shooter was MAGA). Post 9/11, I’m sure that there’s some FCC regulation to stop that. I don’t think any government (Republican or Democrat) is going to allow conspiracy theories on national TV. If liberals want to go full Alex Jones and burn all their credibility then by all means let them.
You must not watch a lot of US television lol. Fox News is genuinely insane. Alex Jones had a tv show for years too.
Isn’t that why Carlson lost his job at Fox News, and Alex Jones ended up getting sued for over a billion dollars? Carlson told a bunch of straight up lies about January 6 and the 2020 election and Fox was going to be sued to oblivion if they didn’t fire him (and ended up still getting sued for defamation by Dominion), and Jones made up blatant lies about Sandy Hook, which led to the victims families facing years of harrassment.
The thing is with these shows that say wild things across the US political spectrum, they’re very careful not to cross certain legal lines, to avoid being sued. Yes they’ll lie and talk negatively about their opponents and lie, but in a specific manner to avoid breaking laws. They’ll lie and defame, but “legally”. Is this extremely silly, yes I think so, but those are the laws apparently. And when they do cross the line, they usually have to issue some apology/retraction or face legal action. So I find it interesting that Kimmel did not go down the apology/retraction route (like say for instance some of the hosts on the View recently). Did he not want to issue a retraction or apology on air and wanted to double down, or was legal action inevitable regardless of any retraction issued? Or did ABC plan to get rid of him anyway and saw the pressure from Trump and the FCC as the perfect excuse?
We are way past that with Maddow’s hand-wringing about Russiagate and Fox News in general. Remember, the majority of crank shit from flat Earth to Scientology has their origins in the US. The US is not just not intellectual but not intellectual in a conspiratorial crank way. Less illiterate peasant and more unhinged dude with cardboard sign harassing people trying to take the bus to work because he thinks toothpaste causes brain cancer.
Yeah but that crank stuff is usually done without breaking any official law or regulation, just teetering on the line to avoid being sued. Maddow and Fox News have “sources” and avoid (barely) making statements that could legally be considered defamation. Even then they still get sued for defamation and have to issue retractions at times. With Kimmel here it looks like he directly contravened an FCC regulation and didn’t want to issue a retraction, which is why he was let go so quickly. At least that’s the “official” excuse.
The things is he didn’t really say that and only kind of implied it were maybe true in the loosest of terms.
It was like “the right is distancing themselves from the shooter, they really don’t want it to be one of them”
The joke itself was just “trump doesn’t even care he’d rather talk about his ballroom”
That’s definitely the most egregious, but not to mention that today I’ve also read articles that Trump said he would make antifa a terrorist organization, they’re going after Hasan, they’re going after PSL, Palestinian Youth, Code Pink, and a bunch of other organizations. They’re deporting Mahmoud Khalil. They really are just going batshit insane today with targeting everyone left of Trump. It’s a full court press on the first amendment. They really want to make Kirk’s death their Reichstagg fire moment.