Image is of Brazilian chuds storming the National Congress building in opposition to Lula winning the election, on January 8th, 2023, in their remarkably even shittier version of the January 6th events in America.


Bolsonaro, who is in the tragic category of pro-US South American leaders who are so awful and uncharismatic that even they can’t get the US to help them overthrow a democratically elected left-ish government, has recently been facing that most elusive of things in this current world order: consequences for his actions. Bolsonaro and his friends have been under investigation by the police, and his passport has now been seized, meaning he is unable to leave the country. Alongside the man himself, the leader of the Liberal Party, Valdemar Costa Neto, has been caught up in searches and investigations. Brazilian Army Colonel Bernardo Correa Neto, a former aide to Bolsonaro, was very recently arrested upon his return to Brazil from the US, as well as another colonel.

From the Hexbear South American correspondent (a position I just made up), @Redcuban1959@hexbear.net:

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.


The Country of the Week is Brazil! 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.


  • GVAGUY3 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    7 months ago

    Since Starship Troopers was in the discourse on Twitter, I’ve come to realize the film basically depicted Israel after seeing all those TikToks

    • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago

      Satire is just ineffective as a form of agiprop because it gets defeated by “this but unironically.” I don’t think the number of people who don’t get that Starship Troopers is a satire in 2024 is as high as people think. It’s just fascists going “this but unironically” at the film and trying to convince people that the film is better understood if viewed sincerely than as a satire. It’s like the opposite of how Enlightenment philosophers try to say The Prince should be read as a satirical work instead of a serious work. And this isn’t even mentioning the sequels and spinoff media and toys that sincerely portray the Terran Federation as good.

      It’s like how the original Rambo movie was actually a critique on how the US throws away their veterans and doesn’t do shit to integrate them back to civilian life. Rambo was just some dude suffering from PTSD going postal on a bunch of small cops in some podunk town. But no one really goes, “uh aktually Rambo isn’t jingoistic propaganda” because the subsequent sequels and common cultural understanding of the Rambo franchise change all that to the point where even the first film is viewed through a jingoistic lens as well.

    • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago

      Starship Troopers is framed as a propaganda film in the world in which it transpires, incorporating elements meant to show how seductive a fascistic stratocracy can be on the surface. Some think the seductive elements undermine the criticism because they were manipulated by them.

      Easily the best explanation of the whole thing. It shows how easily liberals fall for fascism, even in one of the most unsubtle satirical movie about the topic. No wonder they support Israel, liberals simply get successfully manipulated my the same elements in the film, but in real life. From IDF thirst traps, to the only democracy in the middle east, to Israelis cultivating barren land, liberals fall for it all.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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        7 months ago

        Listening to Verhoeven explain it I feel like a dummy for not getting it. Like he explains the shower scenes:all these model hot young people, naked, showering together, and not a hint of arousal or sexuality because they’re all so patriot-pilled. One woman talks about how she joined the MI to get a license to have a child. When I saw it as a kid all I thought was “boobies!” And then looking back it’s like “oh, i get it now!” Or all the high minded shit about citizenship and duty but Johnny is just a dumbass who joins up to go kill people he’s never met bc his girlfriend did. And, of course, Doogie Houser, SS