This year really is just gonna be us swinging from election to election, I suppose. I feel Lenin's beaming red eyes on me.
Up next on our electoral tour is Portugal. The current government - a coalition of the center-left Socialists and the center-right Social Democrats - has been mired in corruption scandals, resulting in a general election being called a mere two years after the last one. The fascist and vaguely populist Chega party has gained significant support over the last two years due to the economic hardships. Yesterday, the Social Democrats secured a narrow win of 79 seats compared to the Socialists' 77. Chega, in third place at 48, would appear to be the best candidate for a coalition, though the leader of the Social Democrats has said that they would refuse a coalition with them due to their xenophobic views. Regardless, the fascist surge is worrying, if expected.
Portugal's economy is going pretty badly even as European countries go, with little growth in productivity or investment over the last decade. The origins of this crisis date back to Portugal making the euro their national currency in the early 2000s, thus surrendering their ability to control their own currency, becoming reliant on investment from Germany and France, and suffering greatly in the 2012 European debt crisis. Unemployment and low wages spurred emigration; in 2013, the youth employment rate was about 40%; this has only come down to 25% recently and is increasing again. The government is heavily reliant on debt for public spending, with a debt-to-GDP ratio skyrocketing to over 100% in the two decades since the turn of the millennium. The capitalist sector is simply not profitable enough and hasn't been for 40 years, which is only a problem if you are a capitalist economy. For more on the Portuguese economy, check out Michael Roberts' recent analysis, from which I obtained a lot of this information.
Inside Portugal is the same story playing out across much of Europe. A failing center or center-left political party, unable to cope with the economic troubles of the last few years due to absolute obedience to neoliberal policies. A fascist party rising, but with no alternative economic plan, hoping that perhaps oppressing minorities and going after "wokeism" will make their God, The Economy, rain blessings down on them again.
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.
The Country of the Week is Portugal! 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.
Wow crazy coincidence that they decided to ban tiktok after it became overwhelmingly pro Palestine unlike other social media platforms.
Boeing whistleblower dies after "self-inflicted" wound 👁️
He was travelling to give legal interviews in his lawsuit against Boeing and was discovered in his car outside his hotel.https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/03/12/boeing-whistleblower-charleston-factory-john-barnett-dead/
Boeing whistleblower found dead
A former Boeing employee who exposed alleged safety problems at the company has been found dead.
John Barnett died from “self inflicted” injuries in a hotel car park on Saturday in South Carolina, where he had been due to testify in a lawsuit against his former employer.
The 62-year-old drew public attention to what he said were bad practices at Boeing’s factory in Charleston, where he worked for seven years as a quality control manager. He exposed alleged errors in the company’s manufacturing process, claiming that employees had deliberately fitted substandard parts to aeroplanes because of pressure to produce them quickly.
... He had been attending interviews for the case in Charleston last week, but failed to turn up for a cross-examination by his own lawyers on Saturday.
they killed the whistleblower
oh I didn't realise this was already posted
I'm keeping it up because WTF they killed the fucking whistleblower
A US Delegation just Visited Niger (selfinvited) , then annoyed , insulted and threatend the Hosts so much , that Niger now made this Non Diplomatic
Press Statement c.a. 3 minutes inand as ended cooperation with the US
Leader of Yemen's Houthis vows to attack more shipping lanes
"Our main battle is to prevent ships linked to the Israeli enemy from passing through not only the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, but also the Indian Ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope. This is a major step and we have begun to implement our operations related to it," al-Houthi said in a televised speech.
I think we should be pushing the "soviet union did not collapse, it was overthrown" button a lot more.
Of all the people I have radicalised, about half of them have later come back and said that this specific thing was a major aspect of what flipped them from being a holdout on communism. They had the brainworm that communism failed and does not work. They felt it was good on paper but had already proven to fail.
This button seems to be one of the strongest things to push on with a lot of people. We don't do it enough. We don't have enough media on it.
I know some here disagree with talking about the Soviet Union, I've seen people say that there's no point because it doesn't matter anymore and that it turns people away. But I sincerely think we really should be talking about it more. It sits in people's minds as having failed and is the thing that holds them back from exploring the left further.
I'm speaking anecdotally of course but I feel like I've personally radicalised a lot of people and I really do believe it's about half of them that this particular thing has turned. I will also say that I think this group of people have all been younger people (16-30) from american right wing families.
A week late but Carmakers Must Bring Back Buttons in Europe
Euro NCAP, the automotive safety industry body for Europe, is introducing new guidance for 2026 which means that indicators, hazard warning lights, windscreen wipers, horn, and SOS features will have to be controlled by proper switches in order for cars to be granted Euro NCAP’s coveted five star safety rating.
“The overuse of touchscreens is an industry-wide problem, with almost every vehicle-maker moving key controls onto central touchscreens, obliging drivers to take their eyes off the road and raising the risk of distraction crashes,” explained Matthew Avery, director of strategic development at Euro NCAP. “New Euro NCAP tests due in 2026 will encourage manufacturers to use separate, physical controls for basic functions in an intuitive manner, limiting eyes-off-road time and therefore promoting safer driving.”
Bazinga brains in my life called me a boomer for saying that vehicles should be required to have manual, physical controls as back ups, who's laughing now? (Probably still them because no one cares and they make more money than me but still)
Every critical function in a vehicle should be physical. I will never trust a touchscreen to behave properly during a moment of panic.
For real, I just don't see a single advantage in it being touchscreen
all American car companies know how to do is make truck bigger and make touchscreen bigger
in 10 years every car in the US will be an iPad with monster-truck wheels and a screaming toddler on top smacking the screen to make it go faster
Fuckin Chevs have screens larger than my old flatscreen at this point. IMAX ass trucks.
I believe it was Mazda? I saw recently that was already doing this since they saw distracted driving massively increases with less buttons and knobs and whatnot.
I feel like whenever my current car dies I'm going to be looked at like a weirdo because I want buttons and knobs and analog gauges.
Edit: Thought the Mazda thing was more recent. I guess it's from 2019 Why Mazda is Purging Touchscreens From its Vehicles
My current car has a screen smaller than my phone. It doesn't even have a digital speedometer. My only concerns are heated seats and bluetooth. Turns out having those minimums means cars are relatively inexpensive, because it is the bare minimum at this point.
Yeah, I have the same. I would like carplay/ android auto or whatever. But really don't need much of a screen. Just something big enough for GPS and see the current thing playing.
Otherwise yeah I could care less about most of what others consider essential. I don't even like leather seats lol.
Lmao, the Ranger i had a few years back had a cassette player. I just played my music and podcasts off of a bluetooth speaker on the dash. Now i have a phone holder that cost me ten bucks that i use for gps nav. "Convenience" for vehicles has stretched far longer than what's actually necessary.
You missed out on the classic tape to headphones jack adapter, I got so much mileage out of those
I burnt out two of those before i switched to a speaker lmao. The speakers in the Ranger were toast by that point anyways.
The Danger Ranger lived a long and rough life. Kinda want one again, but my car gets way better mileage than it.
I used have a early 00s Sentra and did the same cassette to aux thing. I thought it was a big deal when I got some head unit on clearance put in, and then and I blew out the speakers.
My car has the FM radio it was built with. I've bought a dirt cheap Bluetooth FM sender off the internet that goes in the cigarette lighter socket so now the radio is a Bluetooth speaker.
Love that both of my cars have knobs and switches for almost all controls. The thing I hate about the Mazda is that I cannot easily turn off the screen and when I do turn it off, the backlight stays on.
I heard from someone that The NY Times claims that TikTok algorithm favors anti-us content and that’s why it’s a national security threat. It really is easy to sell propaganda to people.
God this framing. It is not "genocide against civilians" it is just genocide. This is how they forever shift the goalposts.
I seriously doubt this is a case of Biden on being told. I think he genuinely doesn't give a shit what voters think and expects Democrats to fall in line in November. It explains the way his admin and camapign has been acting more so than anything else.
His "old, healthy self" was a guy who renowned terrorist Menachem Begin thought needed to chill out in terms of his support for Israel
The cowardice and apathy of the 27% is worse than the outright racist malice of the 24%
Fuck those moral cowards
Remember, a lot of people are not informed or actively misinformed. “Not sure” could mean they haven’t really heard much about it or that they’ve gotten a lot of conflicting information. Even a lot of the Noes are probably just inundated with pro-Israel propaganda and haven’t seen any of the things actually going on in Gaza.
I also think it’s a deep, personal moral failing to hear conversation dominating the news generally about whether there is or is not a genocide happening and then to simply refuse to investigate it. By god just imagining telling a Palestinian dying of hunger right now “yeah I’m not really sure what’s going on, haven’t looked too much into it either way”
Millions and millions of people who look at everything that’s happened and say no, not a genocide. Of course a portion of them have been straight up brainwashed about it, but millions haven’t, know what it is, are ok with it. More people than I could possibly fathom. It’s hard for me even imagine a thousand people in a group. But this is tens of millions
It's not like these people were not always a fixture of politics in the imperial core. People who wants to have their cake and eat it, who wants to feel like they're good people but who also want to support the status quo.
At least half of political discourse is one variant or the other of "Nobody is more opposed to [bad thing] than I, but this [textbook case of bad thing] is not real [bad thing] because [bad faith red herring]".
The word genocide means almost nothing to a large minority of them, I'd bet. It's just a word that appears on a screen.
It doesn't help when Western media calls things like a conventional war (Ukraine) or anti-terrorist jobs training programs (Xinjiang) genocide.
I think they've caused people to not think of it as mass murder of an entire people anymore, which is super helpful to the West at the moment.
They've never had to use the part of your brain that's supposed to send you into shock and rage when you realize more people than you've met in your entire life have been vaporized in Gaza.
Young adults behind Biden voters WTF?
Maybe the kids aren't okay after all.
Wish they would poll for a no fly zone and humanitarian intervention on this one, lol
seriously, why is "Destiny" even on this debate with Finkelstein. I obv don't agree with the other 'genocide defender' in the debate but he at least is a writer and knows some of the history (and Finkelstein's work)
Compare that to a fucking TWITCH STREAMER YOUTUBER.
We are absolutely witnessing the decline of Western academia. Truly incredible times
So the tik tok bill also gives the US government the authority to shut down any website it deems to be propaganda for a national security adversary. Like, it sounds like they could absolutely shut down hexbear.
Niger revokes military accord with US, junta spokesperson says
Niger's ruling military junta has revoked with immediate effect a military accord that allows military personnel and civilian staff from the U.S. Department of Defense on its soil, junta spokesperson Colonel Amadou Abdramane said on Saturday.
There were about 1,100 U.S. troops in Niger as of last year, where the U.S. military operates out of two bases including a drone base known as Air Base 201, built near Agadez in central Niger at a cost of more than $100 million.
Sounds like China won't be bailing out real estate firms:
“For real estate companies that are seriously insolvent and have lost the ability to operate, those that must go bankrupt should go bankrupt, or be restructured, in accordance with the law and market principles,” Ni Hong, Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said at a press conference Saturday.
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