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.
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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.
From Naked Capitalism about The Interview:
lmao for those who watched it, is this true?
The verdict seems to be that the Oliver Stone 4-part interview with Putin (which I did watch) blew this one out of the water (not surprised at all). Glad I dodged this one.
And for those who haven’t watched it, you MUST watch the Oliver Stone interview series. It’s that good.
I’ve only watched half so far, but yeah. Putin was talking on a different level than Carlson. Ol’ Tuck wanted to rush into the answers, while Putin was giving like 15 minutes of context. Carlson interrupts “so why didn’t you take Ukraine when you took office, if this is true?” and Putin responds “shut up, don’t rush me, I’ll get there”. Definitely looked like an amateur interview in my opinion.
I have the feeling most American talking heads don’t actually know what to do when their interviewee tells them to shut up and they can’t just cut to commercial.
While it’s possible Putin could’ve slipped in any number of “I’m going to murder you in your sleep, you slimy little toad” remarks that got diplomatically filtered out, the official translation didn’t literally include “shut up”, but was always a phrase like, “Hold on, I’m getting there…”
I watched it kind of seems like Tucker doesn’t really understand wtf Putin is talking about most of the time. Wasted potential. It’s really fascinating to see how Putin speaks though. He’s certain a bougie, but he is much more aware of geopolitics and historical context than any contemporary western head of state I’m familiar with. I don’t know for a fact that what he says is necessarily true, but I’m much more inclined to believe what he says because he can at least back it up with some kind of analysis based in, you know, reality. Stark god damn contrast to all the rabid baby brained natoid rules based order absolutist Finnish leaders I have had the misfortune of listening to.
Alright, I’m gonna watch the Oliver Stone interview next.
Assad also has a very good head on his shoulders in this respect. Watch this interview where Western Journalists just cannot parse what he’s saying because it’s too concrete and too materialist, and they’re used to absolutist idealism and catch phrases. They keep repeating the same questions he’s already answered because they literally cannot compute what he is saying to them.
https://youtu.be/45odEv_1DAY
I’ve watched about 75% of it so far and I’d have to agree. Its interesting to hear Putin speak, but Carlson is way out of his element. There is such a major contrast between Putin and Western leaders though. We are ruled by idiots, or at least the figureheads are.
LOL oh yes. Very true. Putin also insulted him at one point (best I can tell) by saying the CIA wouldn’t take Calson because it is a “serious organization” or something.
But I don’t know why folks at Naked Capitalism would actually expect any kind of quality interviewing from him. They know who they’re talking about, right?
Well there was that question about whether Putin thought supernatural forces were at work in the world
I watched about half of it before I got bored. There were 1-2 good ones, but it was mainly basic soundbites that can get replayed on Fox News to attack Democrats.
Stuff like “What would you say to Biden right now?”, “Are the sanctions undermining America’s geopolitical power?”, “Is there a risk of nuclear war if American troops enter Ukraine?”, etc
I agree completely. Tucker is an oaf and it seemed like they were talking past each other